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#1
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plants after a week of being gone... and next is 2 weeks, need advice
[long post]
Well, my first week away from my planted tank went MUCH better than I expected. Before I left, I took LeighMo's advice and did a larger water change than usual, using my new Python, and dosed a little heavier on the PMDD. When I got back, all my plants have almost doubled their size!!! It's crazy. My Crypts have really grown, some of them almost to the top of the tank and my Sags and Vals have exploded in height, new runners, etc. I also refreshed my CO2 bottles before I left. Everything looks great. The only thing is that I had some very fine looking, very "mossy" very green looking algea grow on a few rocks, but nothing drastic at all. Could that be due to the fact that I dosed more heavily on the PMDD before I left? But I think the Ottos's and the Whiptail like it cuz there are little mouth marks all in the little patches that did start to grow. I did about a 40% water change when I got back, refreshed my CO2 bottles, fed the fish some brine shrimp and cleaned the front and side glass of the usual algea that accumulates there...nothing major....just typical. My evaporation level was about 2 1/2 inches...enough for my surface skimmer on the Magnum to suck air. Now, in a few days I will be away from my tank for *2* weeks. This I am worried about. I have a neighbor I am going to ask to feed the fish a few times during the 2 weeks and to top the tank off for me after about a week. I also think I will unplug the Magnum 350 while I'm gone so I don't have the air sucking problem. Acutally, if I put my other half of the glass tops back on, that should help with the evaporation problem some. How should I dose PMDD for a 2 week absence? Should I dose extra the few days leading up to my departure or extra on the day before or what? And what about the CO2 bottles, is there something I can do to keep them producing for 2 weeks? I currently use 2 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspon of baking soda, and just under 1/2 teaspon of yeast per bottle. I have 2 2 liter bottles injecting into my Ehiem. Is there any danger of any other harmful gas being produced and put into the tank after CO2 production slows or the yeast runs out of sugar to eat? My fish seemed to be ok after no food for a week, but the big Angelfish and Clown Loaches seemed like they might have been just a little "slower" than normal until I fed them. Maybe that was just in my head. I am thinking the Clowns can eat snails that come out at night and from their digging in the gravel to sustain them. The tetras and danios I am not really concerned about. My only real concern is the 2 large Angelfish, 6 Clown Loaches, and 2 Rainbows. What suggestions does anyone have? Would a automatic flake food feeder cause problems as far as algea is concerned? I know this is a long post, but thanks for reading. |
#2
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plants after a week of being gone... and next is 2 weeks, need advice
SlimFlem wrote:
snip Now, in a few days I will be away from my tank for *2* weeks. This I am worried about. I have a neighbor I am going to ask to feed the fish a few times during the 2 weeks and to top the tank off for me after about a week. I also think I will unplug the Magnum 350 while I'm gone so I don't have the air sucking problem. Acutally, if I put my other half of the glass tops back on, that should help with the evaporation problem some. How should I dose PMDD for a 2 week absence? Should I dose extra the few days leading up to my departure or extra on the day before or what? And what about the CO2 bottles, is there something I can do to keep them producing for 2 weeks? I currently use 2 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspon of baking soda, and just under 1/2 teaspon of yeast per bottle. I have 2 2 liter bottles injecting into my Ehiem. Is there any danger of any other harmful gas being produced and put into the tank after CO2 production slows or the yeast runs out of sugar to eat? My fish seemed to be ok after no food for a week, but the big Angelfish and Clown Loaches seemed like they might have been just a little "slower" than normal until I fed them. Maybe that was just in my head. I am thinking the Clowns can eat snails that come out at night and from their digging in the gravel to sustain them. The tetras and danios I am not really concerned about. My only real concern is the 2 large Angelfish, 6 Clown Loaches, and 2 Rainbows. What suggestions does anyone have? Would a automatic flake food feeder cause problems as far as algea is concerned? A question... How knowledgeable is this neighbor about fish? If the neighbor is a novice, you might be asking too much with topping off the tank. You'd also have to worry about the "kill 'em with kindness" syndrome novices seem to have (too much food). If the neighbor knows their way around a fish tank, then what about mixing up the "dry ingredients" for the CO2 recipe in two spare bottles and asking the neighbor to fill them to a mark with water and switch them with the old bottles after a week? If the neighbor knows a lot, you could probably also have him/her dose your PMDD a few times while you're gone. If you ask them all this though, be sure to offer some sort of compensation and of course write all the instructions down and post it somewhere obvious (like the wall by the tank), heh. Another alternative for feeding at least is an automatic feeder. There's also automatic dosers for things like adding plant nutrients, but that wouldn't work if your PMDD mix needs to stay refridgerated (I've never had large enough tanks to try PMDD, so I don't know if it needs to be kept refridgerated). My sugar and yeast CO2 mixes can go for 2-3 weeks fine, although the output does decrease as time wears on. If I'm gone (or very ill) and don't catch it when it fizzles out, there doesn't seem to be anything toxic enough produced to negatively affect the fish, although I don't inject into a filter and injecting into a filter causes a whole other set of issues to worry about. This is on both my high dose and low dose CO2 tanks... never had a fish loss from a stale CO2 batch (as I discovered after being so sick for several weeks where just feeding the fish every day was a challenge). |
#3
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plants after a week of being gone... and next is 2 weeks, need advice
I'm with Cichlidiot. Unless your neighbor is an experience fishkeeper, you're
better off leaving the tank unfed. I leave my tanks unfed for two weeks a couple of times a year, and never have a problem. No losses -- the fish don't even look any thinner when I get back. (Though the algae and snail populations take a hit.) And I've kept angelfish in the past, and currently have clown loaches and rainbows. It's entirely natural for fish to go a couple of weeks without food. They will not starve. IME, they won't even lose any weight. I wouldn't worry about PMDD, either. The plants may be a little pale when you get back, but they'll recover very quickly. Some people turn off half the lights over their tanks and turn off the CO2 while they're away, to slow down the plant growth, but I don't bother. I leave lights and CO2 running. I just got back from a two-week vacation this week, and the tanks were fine. Some of the new Marsilea leaves had come in yellow instead of green (iron deficiency, probably), but it was hardly noticeable. Leigh http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/ |
#4
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plants after a week of being gone... and next is 2 weeks, need advice
Thanks for the info guys. Here's what I have decided to do:
For water top offs, I am going to have some gallon jugs (about 10 or 15 to be safe) with water ready to go for topping off. I'll put a piece of black tape on the front of the tank so when the evap level reaches the tape, my neighbor will know to use the top off water. This will prevent my surface skimmer from sucking air into my canister. For feeding, I'm going to use some ziplock bags and put one cube of frozen brine and some with frozen bloodworms and label them 1, 2,3, etc for feeding every few days. As far as PMDD, I'll just not worry about that; dosing a little extra before I leave like last time. My CO2 is DIY and I wouldn't feel comfortable asking my neighbor to mix it and hook it back up, so I'll probably just stop that for the 2 weeks. I just put in a number of Florish tabs about 2 weeks ago, so that will help counter the lack of PMDD going in the tank. Your suggestion about reducing the light levels for the vacation period is a good one and I will do that to slow the plant growth. I'll also post instructions on the wall next to the tank. I have very large APC power units supplying power which will last about 8 - 10 hours, so I shouldn't have to worry about power failures. I have put new floss and filter sleeves in the Magnum so that should be fine for 2 weeks. I'll do another large water change before I leave. I'm hoping the 3 Otto's, 1 Whiptail, and 1 Farowella will keep algea in check while I'm gone. Wish me luck and thanks for the tips. "LeighMo" wrote in message ... I'm with Cichlidiot. Unless your neighbor is an experience fishkeeper, you're better off leaving the tank unfed. I leave my tanks unfed for two weeks a couple of times a year, and never have a problem. No losses -- the fish don't even look any thinner when I get back. (Though the algae and snail populations take a hit.) And I've kept angelfish in the past, and currently have clown loaches and rainbows. It's entirely natural for fish to go a couple of weeks without food. They will not starve. IME, they won't even lose any weight. I wouldn't worry about PMDD, either. The plants may be a little pale when you get back, but they'll recover very quickly. Some people turn off half the lights over their tanks and turn off the CO2 while they're away, to slow down the plant growth, but I don't bother. I leave lights and CO2 running. I just got back from a two-week vacation this week, and the tanks were fine. Some of the new Marsilea leaves had come in yellow instead of green (iron deficiency, probably), but it was hardly noticeable. Leigh http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/ |
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