A Week Away

[wei0204]

I will be leaving to my hometown soon for about a week time. I am wondering what shall I do to keep my planted tank "alright".

My worries are,

1) Will the fishes and shrimps in it alright for a week without feeding.
2) Will the plants be alright without WC, fertilizing.

My major concern is still the fish as they are relying on the fish food to survive.

 

[excaliborg]

I unfortunately have had to leave my tank for just over two weeks in the past without any food or maintainance. On return one fish had died (no trace of the body) and all my cherry shrimp had also died. The photo period was reduced to around 3 hours however so there was no algae issues, and the plants seemed fine (with an exception of the glosso, but mostly it had been eaten!)

 

[tinat]

y dont u leave one of them food block things out ? that lasts a week .

 

[Daz CPFC]

y dont u leave one of them food block things out ? that lasts a week .

Ive heard that these are not to good and make the water quality poor due to something in them. May not be true just something ive heard every now and then.

If your only away for a week cant you do a water change the day you leave if you leaving in late afternoon or the day before? Unless you do more regular water changes due to E.I. etc.

Reducing the photo period may also help to stop any algae build up while your away and not dosing ferts/doign water changes as you do.

Hope you enjoy your holiday and you tanks fine when you get back

 

[14gtr14]

Fish should be fine for a week, so should your shrimp.

As excaliborg said, cut your photo period down.

On your ferts, how 'gruelling' is the routine? If it's just ferts every few days etc then your plants'll be ok too...they should be fine anyway.

 

[JamesC]

I've had to leave my tank many times over the years for 1 or 2 weeks break. This is what I do now so I return to happy tank.

Big prune
Light is cut back to 1.5wpg keeping the same light period
Large water change done as near to departure date as possible
Do a double dose of ferts just before leaving.
Knock CO2 back a bit so it's running at about two thirds
Fish are fed once a day with an auto feeder
If going away for two weeks I get someone to come in after one week and dose pre measured double dose of ferts and top up with RO water.
Large water change on return.

Works a treat for me.

James

 

[wei0204]

Thank you guys for the advice, at least I roughly know what to do before I left for holidays.