Holidays And Ei

[RickT]

I am about to go away for a week and wanted some advice about how best to ensure my tank doesn't suffer too much. I have a 30g heavily planted tank and am using EI, dosing my tank accordingly each day (5ppm KNO3 & 1ppm K2SO4 on alternate days plus trace 2ml alternate days). I have high lighting (4w/G for 10hrs) and co2 at 30ppm. My question is...do I just go the week without dosing and leave the tank as it is or should I reduce the lighting time/co2 for the week I am away. At the moment I am winning the battle against a hair algae outbreak due to increased dosing of macro nutrients. Obviously the last thing I want is to not dose nutrients for the week and come back to an algae nightmare! What do you all do when you take your hols??? Any advice on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Rick

 

[RadaR]

Lowering the light level will decrease the rate at which the plants grow and uptake nutrients so you wont need to dose EI. Lower the lighting to 1WPG. Leave the CO2 be though, and dose trace before you go.
I am a little confused that an over dose of macro will cause hair algae. It really shouldnt, if anything it's down to a lack of nutrients (trace and nitrate).
How are you testing for CO2 and how is it being diffused into the tank?

 

[RickT]

Lowering the light level will decrease the rate at which the plants grow and uptake nutrients so you wont need to dose EI. Lower the lighting to 1WPG. Leave the CO2 be though, and dose trace before you go.
I am a little confused that an over dose of macro will cause hair algae. It really shouldnt, if anything it's down to a lack of nutrients (trace and nitrate).
How are you testing for CO2 and how is it being diffused into the tank?

Cheers RadaR....sorry should clarify that hair algae was due to under dosing nutrients and now that I have upped the macronutrients it is on the decline.

Co2 is being diffued into the intake of my filter and I am measuring using KH and PH tests

Rick

 

[JamesC]

I reduce the lighting to about 1.5wpg and double dose the 2 days before I leave. Cut the CO2 back by about a third. This is important or you may suffocate the fish. Reasons are 1) with reduced growth plants are using less so CO2 levels will be slightly higher and 2) there will be lower levels of O2 in the water due to slower O2 production from the plants. Lower O2 levels are more the problem for fish than higher CO2 levels. A water change before the 2 day double dose is also a good idea.

For the 2 years I've been dosing EI this is the method I now use from trial and error when I've gone away. For a two week break I get someone to come in and add some pre-prepared doses after one week.

James

 

[George Farmer]

Personally I'd run 4 hour photoperiods with half light and half/third CO2 for the week.

 

[RickT]

Thanks for the replies - that's really helpful. On the basis of your advice, I think that I will reduce the light intensity and photoperiod by half and reduce CO2 as well as a water change and double dosing of ferts before I go. Will let you know how successful this is.
Cheers
Rick