Prep For Going Away....

[Shelster]

Ok I add easycarbo to my 180 litre tank alongside micro and macro ferts.

Last time I went away it was only to be for a week but ended up three and my tank had algae upon my return. I had cut the photoperiod right down.

This time I will be away for a week, my hubby will be here but he has so much to do, I'm not going to add to his list ferts and carbon for my tank

What would be the minimum amount my tank lights could stay on for to keep my plants alive but keep algae at bay?

I also have moonlight LEDs but they don't need to be on (not sure whether algae grow with these anyway?)

SLIM sorted the initial dosages for me, but I see he hasn't been online for a while so hoping you guys can help me out?

Thanks for reading

 

[Maehlice]

Keep the lights like they are and set up a fert/carbon drip.
 
Imagine an IV drip at a hospital:

1. Go to a hardware store and buy an adjustable drip irrigation emitter (similar to this one I use for dripping in my aquarium).
2. Empty and clean a 2L bottle.  Drill a ~4mm hole in the bottom of it and stick the irrigation dripper into that hole.  Drill another tiny hole in the cap for air intake (or just leave the cap off).
3. Put 1 week worth of ferts/carbon into the bottle then fill the rest with fresh water.
   
   (NOTE:  One drop is about 0.05 mL, so there are 40k drops in 2L.  40000 drops / 7 days / 24 hours / 60 minutes = 3.968 drops per minute.  If you suspect your drops might be more or less than this, feel free to calculate their volume and redo the math on the drop rate.)
    
4. Hang the bottle above the tank and adjust the dripper so it releases 4 drops per minute.
5. Go on vacation.

With this, your hubby would need only eyeball it for 60 seconds each day to ensure it is still dripping properly.

 

[Shelster]

Great idea!

The link isn't working, but I may well have a giving set out in the garage somewhere I can use to give it all a try.

Thank you.

 

[peegee617]

This is too late for Shelster, but I thought I would post the DIY drip system that I have set up for my upcoming ten days away.  I give credit to Maehlice since he gave me the idea of a drip feed, but I have yet to test it properly - that'll happen this week before I go away. If any of y'all have suggestions or comments I'd like to hear them.
 
I bought a single gang valve from my lfs, attached a length of airline tubing to the inlet long enough to reach to the bottom of a 2l bottle, and another piece long enough to reach from the outlet to the tank when in position, and then strapped the valve to my bottle. This system doesn't require anything to be drilled, just relies on a gravity syphon.  I calculated that for my tank (29 gal)  two liters of solution at a drip rate of 2.5 drips/min would last ten days. However, in practice that's a pretty slow drip and I think a faster rate would be less likely to stop for whatever random reason these things choose, so I'm thinking of diluting the fertilizer solution further and upping the drip rate to something in the order of 6/min. That equates to 4.3 litres of solution, so I'll use a one gallon container and it'll just run out a little early.
 
Here's a picture of my proposed set up (have yet to buy a gallon jug so this is the 2l test rig)
 
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