Vacation Questions

[SabertoothChris]

the last week of july and first 2 weeks of august im going to be going out of town to visit family and i was wondering if my fish in my 10 gallon aquarium will be fine if i put those vacation feeders in there for their food. i am also wondering how they will fair water wise since nobody is going to be home like what can i do to make sure the ammonia level and everything stays low and what not

 

[Noahsfish]

How many and what type of fish? 2 weeks is a long time without food, but auto feeders might overfeed and kill them...if it's understudied you'll be fine water wise.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

I'm going on vacation next week for 9 days so I'm interested in what people suggest. I think I'm just leaving mine without food until I come back because I'm too worried that a feeder would over feed and make the water quality poor.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You want to get something like this:

 
And put the proper amount of food in there.  If you can get someone to feed the tank, the directions are simple: "One feeding is ONE box.  They don't need much.  They are cold-blooded!"
 
3 weeks is too long to leave them unattended in terms of food, but I don't trust the automatic feeders and the feeding blocks are next to worthless - and can foul up your water in some cases.
 
 
9 days is borderline.  Normally if I go away for a week or less, I leave them alone.  If I go away for more than a week, I have my dad come and feed them.  He's a former fishkeeper and really likes my tank.

 
 
That's what I would suggest anyway.
 
 
 
 
 
Oh, and hide the extra food.  That way no one can be "helpful" and help your fish.

 

[SabertoothChris]

ive got the food deal covered i was just wondering about water issues ive actually got 2 10 gallon tanks one with ghost shrimp a dwarf gourami and 3 dalmatian molly and then the other tank has 3 gold gourami since they are still small until i get them a bigger tank. but ya food is taken care of im just concerned because nobody can clean the tank while im gone meaning its going to be about 2 weeks of waste water basically

 

[zoopkamol]

Vacations are a pain for us fish lovers.
What i do on 1 week+ vacations is..
Do a HUGE water change 75%-80% day before leaving
Get brother to come feed premeasured food. And dose premeasured dated ferts.
Leave checklist of small checks ..temp, drop checker color, filter still running
Brother has own tank so he knows basics
Upon arival home do a regular water change asap then repeat water change in 2 days then back to regular schedule

 

[SabertoothChris]

ok thanks

 

[Arcticfox1977]

This was also my concern. Hate to steal your thread but its on topic. We are going away for a week in July and our tank is NOT cycled. We don't have anyone we could trust to come into our home never mind looking after fish.
At the moment, I can go 2 days without a WC. So I'm thinking my ammonia levels will be through the roof when we get back. Is there anything you guys can suggest?

 

[Blondielovesfish]

This was also my concern. Hate to steal your thread but its on topic. We are going away for a week in July and our tank is NOT cycled. We don't have anyone we could trust to come into our home never mind looking after fish.
At the moment, I can go 2 days without a WC. So I'm thinking my ammonia levels will be through the roof when we get back. Is there anything you guys can suggest?

 
Could you maybe use some of that Ammo Block stuff? I'm not completely sure of how it works but it may last long enough for it to be alright? 

 

[Noahsfish]

The ammonia block doesn't really work, and I've seen people say it lasts 24 hours tops. I wouldn't keep dalmation mollies in a 10, in fact I wouldn't keep mine in a 20.

 

[the_lock_man]

Chris

Do a very large water change immediately before you go (90%) and do another immediately upon your return. The nitrate shouldn't build up that much in 2weeks.

Arcticfox, you do have problems I'm afraid. Really all you can do is the above and hope for the best. At least your holiday is only a week. The downside is your bioload, mollies aren't really suitable for a 10G.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Arcticfox, you could use zeolite in your filter.  This would absorb the ammonia.  Upside - the zeolite should be able to handle anything the fish dish out.  The downside is that it will likely starve your bacteria.
 
If you decide to do zeolite, make sure its the LAST thing that the water hits before reentering the tank. That way the bacteria you do have will be sustained as best as possible.

 

[Arcticfox1977]

Chris
Do a very large water change immediately before you go (90%) and do another immediately upon your return. The nitrate shouldn't build up that much in 2weeks.
Arcticfox, you do have problems I'm afraid. Really all you can do is the above and hope for the best. At least your holiday is only a week. The downside is your bioload, mollies aren't really suitable for a 10G.

I don't have a 10g tank. 95l I have.

 

[SabertoothChris]

Chris

Do a very large water change immediately before you go (90%) and do another immediately upon your return. The nitrate shouldn't build up that much in 2weeks.

Arcticfox, you do have problems I'm afraid. Really all you can do is the above and hope for the best. At least your holiday is only a week. The downside is your bioload, mollies aren't really suitable for a 10G.

thanks ya i will do that im also going to show my mom how to change the water just in case. im kinda sad cuz one of my female dalmatian mollies died last night and i dont know what caused it but it looked like it had been freeze dried or something because it was very stiff when i noticed it in the tank

 

[the_lock_man]

 

Chris
Do a very large water change immediately before you go (90%) and do another immediately upon your return. The nitrate shouldn't build up that much in 2weeks.
Arcticfox, you do have problems I'm afraid. Really all you can do is the above and hope for the best. At least your holiday is only a week. The downside is your bioload, mollies aren't really suitable for a 10G.

I don't have a 10g tank. 95l I have.
 

 
Apologies, getting confused between the two of you. *facepalm*