I thought I'd post this because I remembered a couple of weeks ago that someone created a thread asking whether their tanks could go without maintenance for a month or so while they were away.
I just got back home yesterday from being gone for a month, and I had my 10 year old daughter feeding my fish once a day while I was gone (I pay her 1$ a day, so she LOVES it when I have to go out of town!). I did clean the tank and service the filter the day that I left, but since then, no WC's, no Prime, no testing... nothing. All they got while I was gone was food and the occasional algae wafer for my BN pleco whenever she remembered. I came home to find a tank that was dirty, but functioning. I didn't see my juvenille BN at first, and I thought the worst, but he came out this morning looking like he has grown a little bit. The tank probably just looked more "natural" than anything, with plenty of dead leaves on the plants and stuck to my powerhead and filter intakes, and at least 2 plants demolished. All of the fish were fine.
The biggest thing was the BBA. I knew I still had it in the tank, but I have had it under control for a while now. I guess with a month with no WC's allowed it to prosper a little. It wasn't really bad, though, just a little more than before.
I did a 50% WC today, and also installed my upgraded lighting (Solarmax 2 x 39w T5HO with one 10,000K and one 6700k bulb and Blue LED moonlights) that I got from eBay while I was gone. There was a pretty good amount of mulm under the gravel, but honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. I also cleaned all of the new BBA off, and dosed with Excel and Prime. Everything looks good so far. I also removed a few of my bigger pieces of driftwood that I'll probably look to sell or trade on AC soon. I want to make more room in my tank for plants. I'll post some pics soon.
I tested the tank before the WC and here were the readings.
pH- 7.5
Ammonia-.25
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-20
Ammonia-bet. 40-80
For those who may have followed one of my earlier threads, I had "old tank syndrome" and had been battling that for a couple of months before I left. Needless to say, I was a little nervous because my tank hadn't completely stabilized. My pH used to be close to 6.0, but lately it has been holding at above 7.0 and the Nitrites at 0 tells me that the cycle that started before I left has finished.
So, anyway, the point is that you won't necessarily come home to a tank full of belly-up, algae covered fish corpses if you leave your tank for a month, as long as you manage the amount of food that the fish are fed while you are gone and service it well before you leave. :woot:
I just got back home yesterday from being gone for a month, and I had my 10 year old daughter feeding my fish once a day while I was gone (I pay her 1$ a day, so she LOVES it when I have to go out of town!). I did clean the tank and service the filter the day that I left, but since then, no WC's, no Prime, no testing... nothing. All they got while I was gone was food and the occasional algae wafer for my BN pleco whenever she remembered. I came home to find a tank that was dirty, but functioning. I didn't see my juvenille BN at first, and I thought the worst, but he came out this morning looking like he has grown a little bit. The tank probably just looked more "natural" than anything, with plenty of dead leaves on the plants and stuck to my powerhead and filter intakes, and at least 2 plants demolished. All of the fish were fine.
The biggest thing was the BBA. I knew I still had it in the tank, but I have had it under control for a while now. I guess with a month with no WC's allowed it to prosper a little. It wasn't really bad, though, just a little more than before.
I did a 50% WC today, and also installed my upgraded lighting (Solarmax 2 x 39w T5HO with one 10,000K and one 6700k bulb and Blue LED moonlights) that I got from eBay while I was gone. There was a pretty good amount of mulm under the gravel, but honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. I also cleaned all of the new BBA off, and dosed with Excel and Prime. Everything looks good so far. I also removed a few of my bigger pieces of driftwood that I'll probably look to sell or trade on AC soon. I want to make more room in my tank for plants. I'll post some pics soon.
I tested the tank before the WC and here were the readings.
pH- 7.5
Ammonia-.25
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-20
Ammonia-bet. 40-80
For those who may have followed one of my earlier threads, I had "old tank syndrome" and had been battling that for a couple of months before I left. Needless to say, I was a little nervous because my tank hadn't completely stabilized. My pH used to be close to 6.0, but lately it has been holding at above 7.0 and the Nitrites at 0 tells me that the cycle that started before I left has finished.
So, anyway, the point is that you won't necessarily come home to a tank full of belly-up, algae covered fish corpses if you leave your tank for a month, as long as you manage the amount of food that the fish are fed while you are gone and service it well before you leave. :woot:
