Travel Advice

[Joseph38]

I am going out of the country and will be away from my tank for 23 days and was wondering if I need to worry about going that long without a pwc and how much i should decrease the hours of the light being on to reduce algae growth.

I usually do a 20% pwc every week and am worried that 23 days will be too stressful on my nearly fully stocked tank. My fish usually get fed twice a day but will only be fed once a day by my roommate while I'm gone to minimize the waste. He doesn't know anything about fish so I would be too worried trying to have him attempt a pwc. If I do a 50% pwc and change one of the two filters the day I leave will they be okay till I come back? Also what is the maximum amount of hours I can comfortably keep the tank light off for the time I'm gone? The details of my tank are below:

29 Gallon

5 Platy's
1 Adult Molly and 1 baby
1 Dwarf Gourami
4 Serpae Tetras
4 Emerald Cory Catfish
1 Oto
3 Ghost Shrimp

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[NigelK8485]

Do you have plants that need the light? You could leave the light off the entire time if not, though it'd probably be best to turn it on some, maybe a couple of hours.

I wouldn't have your roommate feeding every day, cut it back to like once every two days or so. I'm about to leave the country for six weeks and I'm having my fish get fed two or three times a week. They'll be okay.

Is your roommate really so incapable of doing a partial water change? Just show him how to do it, don't worry about teaching him how to vacuum or scrub the walls but to just start a siphon and drain the tank a little bit and throw in dechlorinated water shouldn't be too hard. Either way though, you should be fine if you do a 50-60% water change and clean the filters the day before or the day that you leave. If you have a hang on back filter maybe buy some pothos to stick in it or purchase some hornwort, riccia, any floating plant to help suck up any excess nitrates that may accumulate.


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