Emergency Lighting Question

[Thorn]

Due to an unexpected death in the family, my husband and I are about to leave our aquarium unattended until Friday evening. We have a moderately-planted 29 gallon aquarium with a pair of Boesemani rainbowfish, nine neon tetras, and four pepper cories. We do not have an aquarium timer or anyone who can come check on the aquarium from Wednesday at 6:00 am until we return Friday evening. Would it be safer for me to leave the aquarium lights on or off while we're away? I just added the cories Sunday, so I'm more apprehensive about leaving them than usual. I've been doing 25% partial water changes each day, and my water parameters have been good. (0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrites, 5-10 ppm nitrates) I'm about to test again, so I may update this post in a minute.

Thanks for your time,

Heather

[Spinner_01]

I would leave them off - some of my fish get irritable with too much light.

[rwspear76]

You can get timers very inexpensivly at wal mart or any place like that

[msjinkzd]

First off, sorry for your loss. Secondly, I think that your plants and fish will be ok without light for a couple of days.

[grannylvsfish]

I am sorry about your loss :( how about a 5.00 timer from walmart ? do these work, they sure work on my lights when i go on vacation :)

[Thorn]

Yep. Same parameters. I should also add that the aquarium was established in 2004--it's not new.

[Thorn]

Thank you all very much. I will buy a timer as soon as we get back (but unfortunately we won't have time to get one before we leave.)

[southpaw]

They should be fine...fish can go for a week without a feeding...The plants should be fine too

[NeonFlux]

Sorry to hear your loss. I hope everything goes okay

[root81]

I agree with everyone else, there will be no problem for a few days. Without food, the shorter days will probably be easier on the fish anyway. They would in effect be less active (unless there are nocturnal fish), so lower metabolism, less energy expended.

I would do a water change just before leaving and one when I get back just to be on the safe side.

[wataugachicken]

if there is a window near the tank, i would leave the curtain/blinds open on that window so the tank can get a little light.

[Thorn]

I got back home late Friday and had no fish or plant deaths. (I did the partial water change, too.)

Thanks everyone!

[Mgamer20o0]

i ship plants all over the country. didnt give it a 2nd thought about it being a problem.

glad your fish and plants are ok.