Poll: Has a tank sitter crashed your tank?

[corbett_n]

Give examples of ways tank sitters have crashed your tank. This might help people be prepared to leave their tanks in the hands of a sitter.

[jasonrp104]

Nope. I fill up my ATO, set out daily rations of food, and make sure they tell me anything that happens. Heater failure is the only real risk for me but I put a thermometer up in the DT when I'm away and keep a brand new heater handy. All they would have to do is unplug the old and put in the new.

When they check the tank: Feed, check temp, check waterline in sump

[KafudaFish]

No. My FIL is my sitter and I leave very detailed instructions for him. They are typed out. The ATO can go for 2 weeks without a refill plus I have additional water made up just in case.

He knows how much to feed as well and knows less is better than too much.

As a back up I have the number of an experienced reefer who lives just a few minutes from my house. If anything bad happened I would get a phone call followed by him getting one too.

He built the stand, canopy and wired my lights so he has some knowledge of the system even though he has never kept fish in his life.

[JeF4y]

Between a well setup controller, adding a 5 gallon ATO jug and giving CRYSTAL CLEAR instructions on everything else, I've never had a problem.

[gdsmith56]

Back in my freshwater days I had a 220 with a dozen Frontosa's - two males, ten females. Our experienced petsitter, who had cared for our "zoo" many times, had someone different ( a newbie ??) feed our pets one morning. Since these were BIG fish, I had a box (think cereal box size) of flake food that we fed from. The sitter swears she didn't do it but a WHOLE box of food magically disappeared, flakes were all over the surface and gravel, and all twelve Fronts were dead.

A horrible mess to clean up!

[rbnice1]

Yup....

My ATO has a smaller reserve so if the float valve failed it wouldnt nuke anything.

While we were on vacation the tank sitter noticed the top off containter was low but didnt notice the sump was way to high. Turned on the RO unit and let it on for 2 days while my float valve was broke. Flooded the basement and nuked the tank. Got home 4 days later to water everywhere and a salinity of 1.008

[bashcraft]

I have never used a sitter. My tank is completely self sustaining except for feeding, and fish can go a long time without being fed. The longest I've left it was 11 days.

[lordofthereef]

I think one of the best expenditures on my list is a controller that is plugged into the internet. If there are params out of whack, it tells me. At least this way I can give the sitter a call and ask him/her to check a few things for me. Of course that doesn't tell you everything, but I think one of the more common issues is probably flooding and salinity issues.

[ChadTheSpike]

Originally Posted by jasonrp104

Nope. I fill up my ATO, set out daily rations of food, and make sure they tell me anything that happens. Heater failure is the only real risk for me but I put a thermometer up in the DT when I'm away and keep a brand new heater handy. All they would have to do is unplug the old and put in the new.

When they check the tank: Feed, check temp, check waterline in sump

This is what I do as well and I have never had an issue. I use my doggy walking service to check on my tank when needed (not the biggest experts around, but they are trainable, follow directions, and show up reliably).

My basic instructions look like this:

Do: feed, add, etc.

Check: sump level, temp, count fish etc.

Call if: temp >x

[brascal1]

I'm like gdsmith56 - back in my Cichlid days I had a 150gal tank crashed as the sitter borrowed something from under the tank and flipped the switch on the power bar by accident - he was nice enough to call me 2 days later and let me know he was hauling the fish out.

My salt water tank is self sustaining and I plan on having it internet controlled before the next vaca! ;-)

[TP123]

It wasn't a SW tank, but I had my roommate feed my fish while I was away for about a week. Wrote out instructions that basically said "feed one wafer once a day" w/ contact info. Showed exactly what to do. Told him "if you miss a day, don't worry just skip it."

The water was brown and there must have been 30 algae wafers & 1000 snails. What he did, I have no idea.

Now, if someone else is watching the tank I get the little ~4 oz. bathroom cups and measure out one day's feeding in each with the day written on the side, and hide everything else.

[zoohoot]

Originally Posted by lordofthereef

I think one of the best expenditures on my list is a controller that is plugged into the internet...

This is high on my priority list for the tank I am planning/building. What controller do you use?

Sorry to derail the thread.