leaving my fish for a while, any tips? opinions on Tetra EasyBalance?

[dreamangelfish]

hey,
i'll be leaving my fish for 4 weeks and i don't know if they will be alright without a water change for that long.
the longest they have gone with the same water is two weeks, and for good reason i have never let them go longer. i have everything else sorted with a timed light and an automatic feeder.

i have come across some 'EasyBalance' solution by Tetra on amazon which apparently reduces the amount of water changes needed by stabilising PH, KH and Phosphate for up to 6 months- is this safe? has anyone used this? does it work?
the reviews are all positive, but i'm not sure if anyone has actually left their fish for this long without keeping an eye on them.

the thing is, i'm not too keen about someone coming over to check on my fish due to covid and all. i'm also quite sceptical about someone cleaning my tank as i'm not sure that they'll do it properly, seeing as i don't think i know someone who's experienced with fish maintenance. i'm pretty sure i wouldn't mind them visiting once a week to pour in a bit of the solution though.

do i have any other options apart from this? will my fish be fine with any maintenance for four weeks at all?

sorry for the long message; i hope i can get some help on this

 

[Autumnsky]

Is there someone who would be willing to feed the fish?

I use the weekly / monthly pill holder containers and put food in each one.

Much less food than they would get if I fed them myself. Basically a minimum of food to keep them alive. With instructions to not give them more/ double or triple food if you miss a day or 3. Although not ideal better than over feeding and polluting the tank.

No clue about the additive.

My advice for the filter would be rinse well but very gently in dechlorinated water. If you can do that a week or so ahead. Less things at the last minute the better so you can make sure everything is running stable before you go.

A couple water changes before hand, depending how many weeks or days ahead you have, think how you could incrementally change the water to be almost all new water, but slowly so the fish aren't shocked by any changes.

Then if you do gravel vac'ing do hale or 1/3rds good clean one section for 3 weeks before. Or if you're leaving soon then just vac the most on the dirtier spots where the poop accumulates and where the food drops in the most.

The idea is to do the cleaning in stages and not disrupt a good source of BB. You want to do any cleaning not in a rough way, as to not remove the BB. Clean the tank stuff but not remove them!

Hoping that makes some sense.

 

[Autumnsky]

I just noticed the auto feeder part. Just change it to a minimal amount of food for them.

And having someone check on them might be good.

Using gallons of distilled water to refill evaporation would be a good idea if someone looks in on them.

Also do not really trim any plants or at least only minimally as the plants remove ammonia.