going out of town...

[HoCkEyGmC]

im going to canada for a week and i have some shrimp, hermits, and a snail in one tank(28gal) and just some hermits in another(3 gal) and im looking for (preferrably some type of algea or plant) something that will eat up some nitrates and ppossibly feed some of my stuff for the week that ill be in canada(preferrably some type of algea or plant).
i heard that if i just put in some caulerpa algea that it will do just that, is this true? what else could i use?
Thanks!!!

 

[melosu58]

The only problem is that calerpa will over run your tank if you dont keep it pruned back. It will also go sexual and turn your water white. I have it in my fuge but I keep it pruned and keep lights on 24/7.

 

[newfound77951]

I'm not sure you need to do anything. Most of the critters you have are scavengers and will probably be able to find some morsels in the rocks during your absence. With no feeding they are not going to produce a lot of waste and you have a pretty light bioload anyway. Macro can be a real pain and your critters would likely not eat it anyway. The one thing I would worry about is topping off the tanks with fresh water to keep the salinity stable. Is it possible for you to have someone stop by maybe once during the week to top off the tanks and maybe feed the critters? (If you set aside the amount of food needed it helps to prevent well-intentioned overfeeding)

 

[HoCkEyGmC]

ill try to convince someone to do it but yeah thanks for changing my mind! i dont get a whole lot of evaporation because of the hood i have on the tank but ill see if someone will top it off if the water lvls are low.