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Old 31-05-2003, 04:44 PM
SlimFlem
 
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Default 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.


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Old 01-06-2003, 12:20 AM
Cichlidiot
 
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Default 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).
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Old 01-06-2003, 02:56 AM
LeighMo
 
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Default 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/
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Old 01-06-2003, 04:56 AM
SlimFlem
 
Posts: n/a
Default 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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