Discus and vacation?

[delta5]

We take at least 1 vacation a year. Usually no more than 7 days at a time. hypothetically, if I had 5-6 3.5" or bigger Discus in a 90G with no plants. What would I need to do to make sure they'll be fine?

[John_Nicholson]

Just don't feed and they will be fine. Also try the search feature. That particular question gets asked/answered a lot.

-john

[dragon1974]

+1 On John's post.

[100fuegos]

Do what John says and everything will be fine. Just came back from a 21 day holiday with no food and no WC (actually 22 days as they got their last meal two days before departure). If anything the tanks were a little dirty but every single fish was ok. All adults.

[delta5]

Nice! Do you just do a big water change or do you do lots of small ones so the fish transitions better to clean water?

[Second Hand Pat]

Nice! Do you just do a big water change or do you do lots of small ones so the fish transitions better to clean water?

You stop feeding a one day or two before you leave and do one huge water change 24 hours (or so) after you stop feeding just before you leave.
Pat

[delta5]

You stop feeding a one day or two before you leave and do one huge water change 24 hours (or so) after you stop feeding just before you leave.
Pat

I mean when we get back from vacation. Do I do one big water change or several smaller water changes?

[pitdogg2]

good luck.
When I went away for a week I did huge daily water changes like usual and didn't feed for 2 days prior cleaned all filters floss or sponges. Came back to one very dead large Discus. Now before anybody states that i wrecked the bio by cleaning I rinsed it in tank water and I use XP3 filters with one container filled with seachem matrix and also use bio-wheels (never-rinsed) so very unlikely that the bio was affected. I do not know why but she expired and the others (in other tanks) had a bad case of discus zits. Massive water changes the night of return two days later all was better.

Good luck

[Filip]

I mean when we get back from vacation. Do I do one big water change or several smaller water changes?

This is interesting and reasonable question to me too .
I would be also hasitating to do 90% WC after 15-20 days of no WC at all .
Hope for advice from more experienced .

[rickztahone]

This is interesting and reasonable question to me too .
I would be also hasitating to do 90% WC after 15-20 days of no WC at all .
Hope for advice from more experienced .

My vacation wasn't that long but when I came, the first thing I did was drop BH cubes in the tank, 20 minutes later, regular water change.

[Filip]

My vacation wasn't that long but when I came, the first thing I did was drop BH cubes in the tank, 20 minutes later, regular water change.

i ussualy do 80-90 % WCs , but i wonder if that would be a too much of a ph shock , since i suspect that in 10 days period tank water might become much more acidic from the fish waste?
Maybe it would be better if i do 2-3 of 40 % wcs to alleviate the extreme ph chages ?

[tonytheboss1]

:bandana: Most of my vacations are 8-12 days. I've had a couple of extended (14) stays but not the norm. Stopped feeding day before & did 90% W/C before leaving. Upon return fed live black worms (lots of pushing & shoving lol) then 50% W/C followed by another several hours later. No worries, no casualties. "T"

[dragon1974]

I never had a problem doing 80/90% wc after 10/14/21 day vacations, but I have barrels for aging water. I usually do a week or 2 daily Wcing until they are back to normal eating. First night back is a 90% wc. Everyday after is 50% until back to normal. I'm also assuming you have a barrel.

[Larry Bugg]

Do the big water change. If there is a PH difference the tank water will definitely be lower and going from low to higher is not an issue. No reason to delay getting them back into really clean water.