Vacation questions

[fishiefishie]

I have 2 questions regarding a 4-day vacation I'll be taking shortly.
One is, is there a vacation feeder that will work well?
Second is, is it possible to leave the lights off while I'm gone, or to just leave the blue bulbs on? I'm thinking this would cut down on some of the evaporation.
Thanks!

[ponderingky]

If you have adult fish I wouldn't feed them at all for only 4 days. When I went on vacation for 7+ days my adult fish were only fed once (they would have been OK w/no feedings). You only have to worry about babies - your adult fish will be fine, just REALLY glad to see you when you get back. Not sure on the light question - is your tank planted? If not I wouldn't worry about lights at all. If it is planted I am sure some of the plant experts on here will be able to give you good advice.

HTH,

[Gill Roy]

Do you have coral?
How many and what kind of fish?

[Conski]

Corals will be fine with no lights for 4 days, in the ocean they go weeks with storm clouds over them with little to no light, trust me ive down one week black outs and everything was fine.

your fish will be okay as well with no food for the 4 days.

[fishiefishie]

Ok thanks. I was going to say they are just small toadstool leather and mushrooms. The fish are about half-grown clown, jawfish, blenny and goby.
I may have just the blue lights come on so they'll at least have a day/night cycle, but leave the whites off to help with evaporation.
Thanks for the help!!

[rogersb]

PC lights will not add significant evap. Evap is caused more by water movement at the surface than by a light source.

[fishiefishie]

The lights are T5's, if that makes a difference.
But since it's water movement, do you think I should turn off the skimmer while I'm gone? That's the biggest surface movement I have. I don't know if it would be worse for the fish/coral to be without the skimmer or to deal with a higher sg while I'm gone...

[rogersb]

It's 4 days. I leave my reef in my classroom for 10 days twice a year. You're making this out to be too much. Buy a $5 light timer to have them come on and go off everyday at the same time and don't worry about the evap it will be just fine.

[Conski]

^

[jayghmi]

I do believe that you want to maintain some surface movement for oxygen. Can you pay a neighbor to do top offs?

[Conski]

keep the tank as it is.. all flow and skimming the exact same. ask a trusty neighbor to do a top off at day 2 and youll be fine.. it might not even need one

[Cerianthus]

I would never ask non hobbyist to tank sit, regardless of how responsible they may be. If they are not hobbyist, they just dont know, especially reef tank. Four days is not a problems at all unless having problems now.

I would not even change any (not even water changes)the day before leaving either.

[fishiefishie]

Really? Why no water changes? I've always done a WC on my fW tanks before I leave for a while.
The tank runs great... the lights are already on a time (blues come on about 45 min before and stay on about 45 min after the whites to create a dawn/dusk effect). The only thing I'm concerned about is the evap... I add about 6qts every other day, and that has the sg at 1.028 by the time I add that.