Dilemma Over Large Fish Tank

[dave_m13]

Hi All

Well I am having a little dilemma over what to do with my large fish tank.

I am now back in Belgium on a contract but have decided that I would like to bring out the family, at least until Sept anyway, this will be when my little girl will start school.

So if they do come over, I could be away from my house for a while. At the moment I am travelling back and forth at the weekends, so no problems with cleaning tank whilst I am doing this. At the very least they will be over during the holidays, the half term holidays will not be a problem. The issue is when they come over for the summer holidays, that is going to be 6-8 weeks away from UK or if we decide that they will come over and not worry about nursery then it will be even longer.

If they are going to stay for longer periods I do not want to be having to travel back to the UK every so often just to clean tank.
So this is now my dilemma:

Do I sell all the fish and just set up again after September. (Will be travelling back and forth weekly again)
Do I try and find a company that will do the Tank Maintenance for me? Or would that be risky as we would not be there to supervise?
Do I travel back every 2-4 week even though it would not be cost effective as the only reason would be to clean fish.

Please let me know what everyones thoughts are and what you would do.

The small tank I will be taking back out to belgium, I successfully brought it back over a month ago without losses.

Many Thanks
David Martin

 

[Bloo]

Have you contacted your lfs and see if they have a staff member (like a Saturday helper) who'd be willing to do tank maintenance for you (at a fee) on a weekly basis? I know mine said that they would if I ever had the need.

No one else you possibly know who can do a water change every couple of weeks and just feed very sparingly whilst you are away for a couple of months?
I take it you have an external filter? perhaps hook up another "just in case" one fails. So your filter shouldn't need cleaning for a few months.
(Edit: I see you already have two filters running which is fine then).
My mom did this for me when I was away for a whole year once and did a basic monthly water change. The tank was a little neglected on my return (algae etc) but absolutely zero death!

 

[seffieuk]

Is there a fish club near you, maybe someone from there would pop in for you for a nominal amount

Try asking on here - we are a nice bunch you know

Good luck

 

[Darkstar]

Is there someone on here who lives in your area that you would trust to look after your tank?

 

[Bloo]

Try asking on here - we are a nice bunch you know

Exactly - another thought

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah in all honesty you can't leave the tank 6-8 weeks without anyone doing anything on it, you can set up automatic feeders, extra filtration etc but in that time it's going to need a water change, and the batteries on the feeder would die and it'd run out of food.

however i'm sure you can get a friend/neighbour/lfs employee or someone in to do the basics a few times much cheaper than you flying back and forth or getting a tank maintenance company in. if you're struggling to find someone try pet sitters or if there's any kids advertising themselves as dog walkers near you, i'm sure someone would need the cash bad enough to pop in twice a week. you can set things up so they can't really make mistakes, get a pill dosing box and portion out the food so it's clear how much to add. put the correct amount of dechlor for a water change into little tubs/bottles so they've just got to put that in the tank and run the hose into it.

if you gave it a really good gravel vac before you go it can go 6-8 weeks without it without doing too much harm, just keep some water getting changed to keep the nitrates down and it should be fine.

 

[mlawson]

I think you could leave it for 6-8 weeks without maintenance, aslong as it's not heavily stocked and you have good filtration. You will need someone to come and feed them in this time however.

 

[dave_m13]

Have you contacted your lfs and see if they have a staff member (like a Saturday helper) who'd be willing to do tank maintenance for you (at a fee) on a weekly basis? I know mine said that they would if I ever had the need.

No one else you possibly know who can do a water change every couple of weeks and just feed very sparingly whilst you are away for a couple of months?
I take it you have an external filter? perhaps hook up another "just in case" one fails. So your filter shouldn't need cleaning for a few months.
(Edit: I see you already have two filters running which is fine then).
My mom did this for me when I was away for a whole year once and did a basic monthly water change. The tank was a little neglected on my return (algae etc) but absolutely zero death!

Many Thanks for all your replies

No not tried the lfs, might be worth a go, there are quite a few in my area.

I have 3 filters on this tank, so the filtering should be fine, the feeding will be fine as well as I can also get my mother to pop in every 2-3 days to feed and check on house in general.

Hmm I am not sure she could do what I do when cleaning the tank out, I syphon tank water into black dustbin and pick-up/drag it out of the house, pretty heavy, usually syphon 2 bins worth of water, works out about 100-120 litres as I normally have to fill back 10 times with 10 litre buckets. I use half RO water and half tap to fill up the tank, this would be an issue as well. Its a pretty large tank she would not be able to reach to put a bucket of water in, I struggle and I'm 6ft.

I think that I would prefer lfs employee or Tank maintenance company to do the cleaning, I do not know anyone that would do what I do its a pain, the worst part about keeping fish. Maybe at least with a Tank maintenance company I may have guarantees if something went wrong, I know that I may have to pay a bit more but I think I would feel better knowing that.

Many Thanks
David

 

[dave_m13]

I think you could leave it for 6-8 weeks without maintenance, aslong as it's not heavily stocked and you have good filtration. You will need someone to come and feed them in this time however.

It does have very good filtration but it is also heavily stocked, food is fine. I usually have to do a water change at least every 2 weeks.
I have noticed that since i removed hornwort from my tank that the nitrates are going up a lot quicker during each period of water change. Just made the tank look ugly and took over unless I cut back.

 

[mlawson]

In that case I think maintenance is necessary while you're away or nitrates could build up to very high levels.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Maybe at least with a Tank maintenance company I may have guarantees if something went wrong, I know that I may have to pay a bit more but I think I would feel better knowing that.

Many Thanks
David

obviously that's your descision and i can definatley see your logic, just a little trick to make big water changes easier, not nescessarily just for your mum to be able to do them but for you too.

get a hose pipe and a powerhead, attach the powerhead to one end and put it in your tank, other end of the hose can go out the window/door down the loo/sink, wherever is easiest depending on your house and where the tank is. switch the powerhead on and it'll just pump the water out. then hook the hose up to your tap and pump new water in, if you add dechlor to the tank before you turn the hose on and run the hose fairly slowly to minimise the temp drop shock you'll find it's dead easy. and while the tanks draining you can just siphon up the mess into small buckets, get a nice slow siphon (thin tube) and you can do all your vaccing with just a few buckets of water while the powerhead does all the work and sucks loads of water out.

 

[dave_m13]

Maybe at least with a Tank maintenance company I may have guarantees if something went wrong, I know that I may have to pay a bit more but I think I would feel better knowing that.

Many Thanks
David

obviously that's your descision and i can definatley see your logic, just a little trick to make big water changes easier, not nescessarily just for your mum to be able to do them but for you too.

get a hose pipe and a powerhead, attach the powerhead to one end and put it in your tank, other end of the hose can go out the window/door down the loo/sink, wherever is easiest depending on your house and where the tank is. switch the powerhead on and it'll just pump the water out. then hook the hose up to your tap and pump new water in, if you add dechlor to the tank before you turn the hose on and run the hose fairly slowly to minimise the temp drop shock you'll find it's dead easy. and while the tanks draining you can just siphon up the mess into small buckets, get a nice slow siphon (thin tube) and you can do all your vaccing with just a few buckets of water while the powerhead does all the work and sucks loads of water out.

Many Thanks, thats a great idea, its a pain in the, to empty the tank not to mention time consuming. I actually have a spare powerhead lying around somewhere.

Ok quick question, this is fine when filling up with tap water but I add RO as well, maybe what I could do is add RO and tap water to bin then reverse your idea and add water back into tank. I think my mum could do that, I think I will give it a go first, she would not be able to syphon rubbish from bottom though.

Thanks again great idea.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah you could pump from the bin back up to the tank with a powerhead as long as it's strong enough.

 

[Bloo]

To be honest, it sounds like you are in desperate need of a Python! My life is bliss since I got one and I think it's the best invention since the wheel. I honestly love it

 

[seffieuk]

hi Bloo, where did you manage to get the python from, iv'e been looking for ages?