How infrequently can you dose on vacation???

[duganderson]

I'm curious, if your going on vacation for 1-2 weeks and you dose Alk and calcium 2-part by hand for a low dosing need 28 g. tank (mostly softies with 2 lps and one sps), do you still need to dose daily OR can you get by doubling your daily dose every 2 days, tripling your dose every 3 days, 4 x for 4 days, etc.?

OR

Would you just dose the normal daily amount every 3-4 days since it is only a 1-2 week period?

Suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

[disc1]

It would depend on daily consumption. How much alkalinity does it need in a day. If it is a small amount then yeah you might be able to stretch it out. If it is high demand then that might be too big of a swing.

[rayjay]

IMO, you also need to top off with water to replace evaporation each day.

[bertoni]

That depends on what animals are in the tank. Stony corals are touchier than soft corals, for example.

[rovster]

Like above it depends on demand. I have a 14gal with lots of SPS and LPS, and my Alk crashes if no dosing. When going out of town, I'll raise my alk a bit, then have someone dose for me every other day (I don't expect someone to come to my house every day!). Anyway, last time I left town for a week, when I came back, my alk was at 4 (usually around 8) and thats with half dosing! With your coral load, you could probably get away without it thought.

FWIW, my corals did not suffer much when I came back from vacation. My acros polyp extension decreased, but they were still OK. I upped my dosing 50% for the next week, and I was back to "normal" within a week or 2. As long as things happen gradually in both directions, you should suffer minimal side effects.

[galoot]

Why not add it to your top off water? Figure what you need a day and the amount of water that goes into the tank daily. Get the ratio right, and you're money

[duganderson]

That is a good plan for most of the year for me.

In the summer, however, when we tend to be gone the most, I run a evaporation fan for cooling with an ATO. The water tends to evaporate really fast but somewhat inconsistently based on how hot it is so determining the correct amount would be a very rough estimate.

[emerald crab]

Peristaltic pumps and timers are really worth the money. I go out of town quite often, usually a week at a time and I don't worry about dosing at all. I know that my tank gets one Ca, Alk dose every hour and one dose of vodka every two hours.