Going away for 3 days

[MitcherNeaf]

It is my wife and I's 1st year aniversery this sunday and we are going up to Canada for a 3 days, should be fun, but I am a bit worried about my tank. It is currently cycling with fish in it and is still in the ammonia stages, im having alittle trouble keeping the ammonia down to .25 with daily water changes and am worried in 3 days the ammonia is going to be really high. I will have my father in law come over to let the dog out and feed the bunny and can get him to feed them on the 2nd day and tahts it, but he never took care of his fish tank so knows nothing, and i think asking him to do a water change is alittle much. So is there any suggestions on what to do. Maybe 2 50% water changes on the day before and maybe fit one in on sunday right before we leave? Or is there something i can drop in the tank that wont hurt the fish too much or my cycle but will keep the ammonia down.
Thanks
Mitch

 

[Guest]

well, i am facing the same situation, only i am going to be gone 6 days and am in the nitrite part of my cycle.

My plan:

Have my neighbor 5x dose prime to keep nitrites down mid week 1 time
Dump a bunch of zeolite in my filters before I go to keep the ammonia down.
Do 80-90% H2O changes as close to the time I leave as possible, with gravel vacs and remove as much debris as i can.
Do immediate 80-90% H2O changes when I get home.

At one point in time, i had a 10 gal tank that was filtered that I was trying to use to breed bacteria. I ended up tearing it apart to use as a fish nursury when my molly Cho had her fry, and again used it as a qt. Unfortunately, i didn't save any media, and got another 2 tanks. Now i am mid cycle. I have put some media from other tanks in, but they are still showing nitrites.


I'd rather give them a fighting chance and have to start cycling all over again when I get home and can monitor them than have them all die.


EDIT: see these threads I have about my plans for some ideas. they aren't ideal, but might work. I am looking for more feedback, so they might be some you want to watch

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=84980

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=85018

 

[Fishyfanatic]

The water change schedule looks good. Do not have your father in law feed the fish at all while you are gone. They will be perfectly fine going without food for a few days. There isn't anything that you can put into the tank to keep the ammonia down unless you want him to dose with Prime. If you would like for him to do get a few little containers (I use baby medicine syringes) and fill them to the appropriate amounts and tell him one per day. Any other chemical that claims to remove ammonia will cause the cycle to stall and may even starve the bacteria of the ammonia and cause it to die. HTH.

 

[MitcherNeaf]

yea sounds good, ill go with the water changes and tell him not to touch the fish cause it will do them more harm than any good, the balas are good at scavenging for food anyway so theyw ill be fine.

thanks alot
Mitch