How Long Can A Tank Go Without Water Changes Before All Goes South?

[TheShrimpGirl]

I am going on a trip to stay the Summer with a friend of mine. It is a big opportunity and will open up a bit f income for me. Sadly my fish and shrimp can't come.

I will be gone for one or two months this summer and I won't be able to do the water changes. My family is willing to feed the fish/shrimp for me, but they don't want to deal with the water.

They will be adding water as it evaporates from the tank, about 10-15% per week. Would this count toward it or no? If not how long until my tank gets stale?

 

[FishFanatic04]

How big is the tank? Changing even 10% of the water a week is really fast. 10% in my 75g only takes me about 15 mins. I can do a 65% in 30mins. So if they are willing to give you about 5 mins for a smaller tank, then maybe you could show them how easy is is. Even every 2 weeks is better then not at all.

 

[TheShrimpGirl]

How big is the tank? Changing even 10% of the water a week is really fast. 10% in my 75g only takes me about 15 mins. I can do a 65% in 30mins. So if they are willing to give you about 5 mins for a smaller tank, then maybe you could show them how easy is is. Even every 2 weeks is better then not at all.

It's a10 gal, so it takes about 5 minutes to change the water. I had a hard time convincing them to even feed them, which takes 2 seconds.

 

[Primous]

Tanks don't get "stale" as you put it. What you're really looking for is the nitrite count. If that level (nitrate) gets too high then your water will need to be changed regardless or the fish will suffer. If your nitrates remain low (which in this case is under 50ppm) then you're good money

The best way to gauge this would be to test your nitrates just before your weekly water change.

 

[FishFanatic04]

I have 2 10g tanks. You could literally scoop out 2 glasses of water and it would take out no less then 5%. Then putting in 2 glasses with dechlorinator is just as easy. and fast! less then 2 minutes of effort. Its better then nothing and there's no need to gravel vac or whatever until you get back. You can do a heavy clean when you are home. A ten gallon with no water changes for up to 2 months makes me nervous. I would think that all the reasons for weekly water changes {pheromones, minerals, nitrates...etc..} would just become more concentrated quickly in a smaller tank.

If they are willing to "top up" the tank with dechlorinated water which you said above, then taking out a tiny bit would only be a slight bit of extra time.

 

[Tizer]

if they can top up the evaporated water, it will be enough, however, you need to leave strict instructions on how to feed the fish and examples of how much to feed would be ideal.

 

[cms091]

Adding some plants would help with the nitrates as well. tetra do a treatment called easy balance which would help too. But your family would need to dose it each week.

I broke my leg a few years ago and couldn't change water for 16 weeks. My husband did it a couple of times for me (after much persuasion) and the tank was fine. I did use easy balance and cut back on the feeding a bit.

Cathy

 

[CezzaXV]

I've always thought about setting up something like this. Get some airline tubing as a siphon and put a peg or something at the end so that it drips water out very slowly, into a bucket or something. They can top it up when the water gets too low, then empty the bucket when it's getting full. Ideally you'd set it up so that it took days before the bucket got anywhere close to being full.

The fish won't need feeding every day, so you can easily cut it back to every two or three days without any problems. It'll also help with keeping the nitrates lower. You can get things to hold pills for a week - 7 days with 4 compartments for each day, so 28 compartments in total. Fill with correct portions of food. If you're gone for two months, this works out to one feed every 2 days.

EDIT: If you look at the link in my sig, I made a DIY water changer using a powerhead. Might be too much to ask them to go to all that, but you could leave the powerhead connected up in your tank while you're gone and have it on a timer so it comes on for a few minutes every so many days to drain some water out, then they just need to top it up. The advantage of this system is that it works uphill, meaning you can easily siphon it out of a window, even if the window is above tank level.

 

[Mikaila31]

The issue with just topping off evaporated water is your water hardness is going to increase. How much depends on your tap.

 

[Squidward]

There are also resins available that you can put in your filter that will convert Nitrates to Nitrogen and will then gas out of the tank.

Also seem to remember reading somewhere that there are products that contain denitrifying bacteria which will do a similar thing.

I have never used them so I don't know much about either.
But perhaps someone on the forum has, or maybe even your lfs.

 

[TheShrimpGirl]

My tank is very heavily planted. I have parrots feather, dwarf lilies, 3 types of moss, and another plant I can't name.

The water here is quite soft and once blended with the tank water it changes very little in the tank. Weekly nitrates and nitrites rise very little due to all the plants.

My tank is also not overcrowded, which helps.

 

[Tizer]

Nitrites shouldn't be rising at all, because of the filter