I had a fish-sitter for 3 days.. please help

[TOURKID]

Well, I had to go away for 3 days.. and I made a 4 page list on directions

made rations of food for each day... everything i could possibly cover.... along with 'if ANYTHING looks weird, cal me right away'


well.. i came home... and cried.....

heres what i saw

the tank had evaporated more than 5 gallons of water

the skimmer was skimming REALLY dry

there is/was brown algea on the back glass of the tank... so bad that it was weaving togeather and stretched to almost the middle of the tank

and the weirdest.. this brown algea was covering the entire inside of the skimmer

kenya tree frag was fallen over and dead... and after i was home a snail died

nitrates nitrites and amonia read 0

salinity 2.31 (yeah.. lots of evaporation)

ph looked ok. its a color test and hard to tell.. but it was about normal

well, i lowered the salinity pretty fast, and scraped off the algea and everything that wasent already dead looks alright...

my questions.... this algea... what did it? salinity? ph? overfeeding? not enough skimming?

Its coming back already and its freaking me out. it looks like what i hear 'hair algea' maybe. but im hoping someone has a picture of it? want to determine what kind it is to nail the problem


I feel like i can never leave my house agian :(

[dous]

were your lights on the whole time you were away? are they on auto timer?

[EricBrian]

So you didn't leave the tank with a fellow reefer? :(

I hope all recovers well. And, how fast did you lower the salinity? Too fast, I've read here on RC, isn't too good either.

[Infern0]

Sounds like too much lights in combination with overfeeding and quite possible the sitter trying to compensate for the water loss with tap water.

Be very varefull when trying to bring your tank back to a stable situation. Although this happened rapidly, fixing it rapidly can be just as bad. Most people don't suggest changing salinity more than .5 per day...which understandibly wouldn't work in your situation. Just to keep in mind, do several PARTIAL water changes with good RO/DI (LFS if you don't have an RO/DI unit) as well as minimal lighting. I'd say 6 hours a day.

[Sk8r]

Ok, make changes back to normal slowly, just as if you were acclimating everything in reverse. Get some good well-balanced water, and start squirting it in as if this were one big (bad) bag, from the lfs...I'd say about a cupful every 15 minutes, after draining off about the same amount. That will not greatly help your salinity. I'd add a cupful of good freshwater about ever other 15 minutes, and over all try to pull it back into synch. All that's died, has died. YOu can't help that. The one thing you don't want to do is stress what's already adapted to these hellish conditions.
Strangle your tanksitter later. Right now everything is the tank. When you've gotten things up to normal, then you can do the water changes.

Note: my first vacation away from the tank, I did a last minute adjustment and forgot to plulg in the autotopoff: my tank did the same thing. SLow adjustment up is your salvation..

[andycook]

Four pages of instructions is too much for a non-reefer.

If I leave for 7 days or less my instructions are to add 1 bucket of water every other day. Nothing more.

[TOURKID]

yep. lights were on auto timer

nope. dont know another reefer.. kinda learning on my own.. and i have a dog that doesent allow strangers.. period

Andy... Im considering somthing like this. I have to leave agian in 2 weeks, for 7 days... maybe feed every 3 days.. and Im hoping to teach him to use the refractometer so he knows what water to add.... so he'll just have to empty skimmer, fix evaporation and alot less feeding.

I cant strangle the sitter unfortunatly, hes my boyfriends brother and the only one that can get in the house with the dogs.... hes just one of those people that just dont get it. cant catch on. he had freshwater himself.. but needless to say it dident workout for him

so i ran all tests that i have avalible and did a water change yesterday and today. my skimmer will not stop acting uyp. fills with clear water constantly and now its doing microbubbles. really irritating. babysitting the skimmer today

alk was high along with ph... (i had him adding buffer and calcium and i took away all the other measuring spoons so he couldent screw it up.. but....

calcium.. 450. higher than usual for my tank

salinity i took back down to 1.26
nitrate, trite, ammonia still zero...
phos.. 0

thats all i have tests for. i want to pick up an iodine test and a new calcium test.

everything thats still alive looks fairly normal. snails are lil slow...

algea is coming back. i added 8 more snails yesterday.. but id rather control it thru fixing the problem.

high alk cause brown algea?

man, i really dont want to leave agian. any advice on miniumum requirments for a 5 day leave?

can the tank be ok with no cal/alk adjustments? the skimmer will have to be emptied regardless.. and water added....

[tkeracer619]

so you have 2 weeks to get an ro/di unit and hook it up with auto top off. The lights are on a timer so your good there. Take the human out of the error factor and you will be good to go away often.

Just have him come over to feed however often you feel. Also don't leave instructions.... instruct. Get him to come over before you leave a couple times so he can get the hang of things.

Honestly he neglected your tank for 3 days and this is what happens. Most novices are so scared they are going to mess your stuff up that they will be extra carefull. Not to mention get there own time staring at the tank. I am leaning to the idea that it will be much worse off the next time you come back if you leave him to take care of top off.

You sound like your the type that will benefit more than $ wise on an ro unit. If your on the go then the last thing you need to worry about is top off.

good luck.

[TOURKID]

Well, Right now Im buying 15 gallons of r/o water about every week. 5 gallons for my weekly change, and between a qt tank I have going and topping off I use about all of it.

Moneys not a huge issue. Im home 24/7 in the winter and travel ALOT in the summer.
can I make an auto top off with a 5 gallon bucket? or do I have to buy the unit, set it up etc?

I think hes really careful, but at the same time completely unobservant. He said he dident even notice the algea..... :(

I did have him come over and watch me feed them and empty the skimmer and what not... I like the top off idea ALOT. But with a skimmer pulling out the salt, JUST fresh water would end up lowering the salinity to much right?

Any links/threads etc about an auto top off?

guess i shouldent have him try to feed the anemone then hu? *rolling eyes*

so what if i had him concentrate purely on the water and skimmer... hes gotta be able to get that at least.... Im having a battle in my head right now. It seems like a week is to long to let everything go. can i add calcium and buffer to the fresh water so they'll get some when its topped off?

[bjonesjr1]

someone should start a company called 911 REEFER

[bjonesjr1]

for those unexpected leaves of absence...

[Randall_James]

3 days should require if anything at all of a tank sitter and that is fresh water topoff. There is nothing that will not survive that time without food.

[TOURKID]

i dont think he had a problem with feeding

he had a problem visually seeing. looking for auto top off options now