Help! Going out of town. Do I need a light timer?

[AMAYEU]

Hello fellow reefers,

Booked a last minute trip and leaving tomorrow evening. The light timer was on my checklist, but....never got one.

Will my tank be alright for 4 days straight without any light. I can leave the blinds open but the tank is on the other side of the room.

I have the following:
12 gallon nano
Stock compacts white and blue

2 clowns
2 blue hermits
3 cerith snails (spelling?)
2 nassirus snails (spelling?)
1 peppermint shrimp
frogspawn
blue mushroom
AOG zoa
Blue tubbs zoa
Green dragon eye zoa
Red skirt zoa
unidentified generic rusty zoa
xenia

I believe I can pick up one of those cheap 15 dollar socket timers, but at the same don't want my house burned down. :sad2:

Please help.

Thanks a million

[ticklesworth]

Buy the timer. You have a lot of money invested in the tank, and your corals rely on photosynthesis to survive. Its worth the fifteen dollars. I use one and my house has yet to burn down.

[thebkramer]

IMO make sure you go with one that will shut off if anything bad happens, like a leak for instance.

[travis32]

Actually I bought a $7.00 mechanical timer the cheaper one didn't come with grounding (umm that bad LOL). I bought the $7.00 one with grounding, You can set it in increments of 15 minutes. so 12 hours on and 12 hours off or whatever you want down to every 15 minutes.

Was cheap, easy to setup. I use it to shut off my ATO and turn my ATO on only when I'm home. It's a backup in case the float switches fail, or my ATO bucket of water runs out, it doesn't burn the pump motor out etc. So far, It's worked like a charm every day.

I don't see why a timer would burn your house down.

[thebkramer]

If there is a short, or water gets in, sparks start flying and a fire starts.
Been there done that!

[terri_ann]

Timer definitely. If you are afraid of a possible fire maybe have someone checkin on the tank to see that everything is fine and working...it would only take a few minutes. Maybe a neighbor or family member...small gift for him/her when you return like a frag or bottle of wine ;-)

[mcoomer]

I wouldn't worry about it at this point. Four days isn't the end of the world. Think of it as strong weather system with overcast skies. Your tank will be fine. I would be more concerned with evaporation in a small tank like yours. Do you have a top off system?

Mike

[AMAYEU]

Thank you for eveyone's post. OMG, the amount of responses! I will get a time at the hardware store on break tomorrow, and test it tomorrow night. And make sure all my cords are prepared if a leak were to occur. Inviting the niece and nephew over tomorrow to see my new NEMO and NEMA. Ha. Crash course to mom and dad on how a tank works.

As for the top offs, I have the built in hood and there is not evaporation. I only have to top off with one 18 oz bottle of water in one week. Well, I'll just do a 10% water change before I leave. Thanks for reminding.

Many thanks and kindest regards to all.