Holidays and water changes - advice please!

[Mariachi]

Hi All,

I am about to go away for 16 days and I was wondering if my 2ft tank
will be ok during this time without a water change. I set the tank up
about 4 months ago. I have:

1 X 2.5" Crayfish
4 X mollies
7 X 0.5" Baby Mollies.

My friend has agree to keep my 4 grown mollys in her tank while I'm
away and i've bought a automatic feeder for the crayfish and baby
mollys. I am planning of having the feeder go off just once day since
the crayfish sometimes ignores his food for several days at a time (the
babies will eat some of it).

Anyway my ammonia and nitrite levels have been 0 for quite a while now
I have not suffered any fish deaths except those caused by the
crayfish. My Nitrate levels were around 40-60ppm last week so I did a
couple of water changes to bring it down to 10-20ppm.

So I'm after some expert advice on if my water will need changing while
I'm away, I usually do a water change every 5-8 days. My friend who is
looking after the mollys has agreed to do 1 water change for me but she
can be really usless and I can imagine her forgetting to turn the
filter back on or not putting the conditioner in the water or just
forgetting to come change the water altogether...so I think i'd be less
worried if she didn't touch my tank at all if possible.

Thanks in advance!!

[Mariachi]

> I'd say so. I rarely do changes, usually just top-up. But then
> I have plants to remove nitrate and carbon in the filter to remove
> DOCs. As long as the tank is stable I really don't think it's a
> problem.

How long exactly til a tank is "stable" is 4 months enough? I do have
some plants in the tank...nothing extensive though.

> To be honest I would leave the fish as they are (less traumatic, less
> chance of getting disease etc) and by preference I don't use automatic
> feeders, I get a friend to pop in and feed every 2-3 days while I'm
> away. Is it possible your friend could do that? I suppose with the
> babies you want to feed every day, so I guess it's the auto-feeder option.
> The only thing I would say about that is do test it before you go,
> to make sure it works and doesn't drop too much and pollute the water.
>

unfortunatly I cant use the auto feeder with both the fish and the
crayfish as I have a divider to prevent the fish from getting clawed to
death..the babies grew up on the crayfish side and i think he's already
killed off all the dumb ones eariler on so they are ok. Also the feeder
only drops the crayfish food 75% of the time (the feeder's holes are
about the same size as the fish) but always drops some crushed up flake
food for the fish so there shouldn't be problems with over feeding.


> >My friend who is
> >looking after the mollys has agreed to do 1 water change for me but she
> >can be really usless
>
I might just get her to come by and check up on them so I know how they
are all and if the power goes out to check the filter.

[Steve]

Mariachi wrote:

>
> unfortunatly I cant use the auto feeder with both the fish and the
> crayfish as I have a divider to prevent the fish from getting clawed to
> death..the babies grew up on the crayfish side and i think he's already
> killed off all the dumb ones eariler on so they are ok. Also the feeder
> only drops the crayfish food 75% of the time (the feeder's holes are
> about the same size as the fish) but always drops some crushed up flake
> food for the fish so there shouldn't be problems with over feeding.
>
>
>
>>>My friend who is
>>>looking after the mollys has agreed to do 1 water change for me but she
>>>can be really usless
>>
> I might just get her to come by and check up on them so I know how they
> are all and if the power goes out to check the filter.
>

I've many times left the aquariums in the care of neighbourhood
teenagers who also feed our cats, bring in the mail etc. What I've
mostly done, is package up little paper twists of food for different
aquariums. In your situation I'd have a jar of food twists for the fish,
and another for the crayfish.

As to water changes, I do them approximately every two weeks. Therefore
a 2-3 week holiday without water changes is no problem for the fish.

Steve

[Richard Sexton]

In article . com>,
Mariachi > wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>I am about to go away for 16 days and I was wondering if my 2ft tank
>will be ok during this time without a water change. I set the tank up
>about 4 months ago. I have:
>
>1 X 2.5" Crayfish
>4 X mollies
>7 X 0.5" Baby Mollies.


They'll be fine IF nobody feeds them while you're gone. If you have somebody
feed them I promise you'll come back to a mess. Even experiences aquarists
kill othrer experiencmes aquarists fish when they try holiday feeding them
and I've neevr heard of a tank of fish starving to death in 2 week. it takes
months, ask me how I know.

They'll be fine. Honest. jsut go away and relax and have a good time and
don't worry about them. They'll live off microscopic bugs in ther water
and they won't even look thin when you get back.

I had a colony of killies once, about 12, in a 20 gal tank with a lot
of plants. I didn't feed it for 2 years, ever, they lived and bred off
the plants through at least 3 generations. The light finally failed,
the plant died and they were gone 3 mos later.

Two weeks? Bah! Fuggedaboutit.

--
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[Gill Passman]

Richard Sexton wrote:
> In article . com>,
> Mariachi > wrote:
>
>>Hi All,
>>
>>I am about to go away for 16 days and I was wondering if my 2ft tank
>>will be ok during this time without a water change. I set the tank up
>>about 4 months ago. I have:
>>
>>1 X 2.5" Crayfish
>>4 X mollies
>>7 X 0.5" Baby Mollies.
>
>
>
> They'll be fine IF nobody feeds them while you're gone. If you have somebody
> feed them I promise you'll come back to a mess. Even experiences aquarists
> kill othrer experiencmes aquarists fish when they try holiday feeding them
> and I've neevr heard of a tank of fish starving to death in 2 week. it takes
> months, ask me how I know.
>
> They'll be fine. Honest. jsut go away and relax and have a good time and
> don't worry about them. They'll live off microscopic bugs in ther water
> and they won't even look thin when you get back.
>
> I had a colony of killies once, about 12, in a 20 gal tank with a lot
> of plants. I didn't feed it for 2 years, ever, they lived and bred off
> the plants through at least 3 generations. The light finally failed,
> the plant died and they were gone 3 mos later.
>
> Two weeks? Bah! Fuggedaboutit.
>

So far, I've had two major tank disasters - both occured while I was on
holiday and the fish were being looked after by another fishkeeper and a
zoologist (they were also feeding the mammals left behind) - The first
disaster was a pump failing which didn't get spotted. The second was
pure over feeding - one tank completely wiped out and the other 6 had
high nitrite readings (good job we were only gone for 5 days)...

So I'm sort of inclined to be with Richard here with the proviso that 2
weeks could be a long time for smaller fish - maybe have them fed every
3 days or so.

Gill

[Koi-lo]

"Gill Passman" > wrote in message
.. .
> So I'm sort of inclined to be with Richard here with the proviso that 2
> weeks could be a long time for smaller fish - maybe have them fed every 3
> days or so.
=======================
Leaving measured *PRE PACKAGED* food for the person to drop into each tank.
Don't trust anyone to know the correct amount per tank.
--

Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/s/h/shastadaisy
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[Mariachi]

Hey guys thanks for all your input. I've deicded no one is touching my
tank and just using the Auto feeder to feed a very small amount once a
day so everything should be ok!

[Koi-lo]

"Diorite" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Koi-lo" > wrote:
>
>> "Gill Passman" > wrote in message
>> .. .
>> > So I'm sort of inclined to be with Richard here with the proviso that 2
>> > weeks could be a long time for smaller fish - maybe have them fed every
>> > 3
>> > days or so.
>> =======================
>> Leaving measured *PRE PACKAGED* food for the person to drop into each
>> tank.
>> Don't trust anyone to know the correct amount per tank.
>
> Just a thought that I haven't actually tried (I have an auto-feeder for
> vacations) is using inexpensive pill organizers to hold pre measured
> feedings.
>
> Just don't confuse algae tabs for medication!
========================
Now there's an excellent idea! I have a few spares in the draw.......
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/s/h/shastadaisy
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[Richard Sexton]

>So I'm sort of inclined to be with Richard here with the proviso that 2
>weeks could be a long time for smaller fish - maybe have them fed every
>3 days or so.


Balls. Leme look back for a second over the past years, hmm, yeah
EVER time somebdy else fed my fish, they died in numbers ranging
from "eh" to "OH MY GOD". I dunno where Oleg got a spray can of
brine shrimp but I swore he emptied one into my tanks in 1989.

EVERY tme I just ignored them on vacation they ALL lived and
were utterly fine and the water never looked more clear.

I'm just sayin...

--
Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home page: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net