Vacation ?

[edgeguy]

It's that time of year for vacations :sun:and I need some advice.

I will be gone for 12 days. I have a 92 gallon tank with 8 juvenile discus 2 catfish and a pleco. I will do about a 80% water change the day before I leave.

Should I have someone come over and feed (thats all they would do - no water changes)?

Leave lights off?:idea:

What other things do I need to do? :gossip:

[henryD]

What size are your juvies..?

This is what I have done in the past....

Dial down the thermometer. I set mine down to 82 or so. Had lights turned off. Did a couple of big water changes before the trip. Have water ready when I come back for an immediate water change. Cleaned out the filters and wiped everything down.

On the occasion that someone could do feedings I had them feed once a day. Usually with some non polluting food like Bloodworms. I had cut up a sheet into cubes. This way I am not asking that person to judge how much to feed (or overfeed). If you are going to use dry food I would consider buying a vitiamin/medicine containers. This way you can measure exactly how much food is fed. It also makes it easier on the person doing the feeding because all the have to do is open the container and dump.

12 day is a long time but you should be ok. I have gone 2 weeks and they have been fine.

Henry

PS....I noticed you had catfish and plecos. I don't have these in my tanks so not sure how they would react. I have heard sometimes that they eat slime off of discus. If the person watching the tanks could pay attention on it that would be good. I think the best thing is maybe get them seperated to another tank. Not sure. Maybe someone who had experience with them could comment.

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: As usual, Henry is right on! That's what I did when I left'm for 12 days, except for the temp change, left mine alone. I did use the little salad dressing plastic cups for pellets; cubed bloodworms are easy for anyone, 1cube,2 cubes etc. My lights are on a timer, just kept'm on for less time, like 11am-4pm. All tanks were marked with signs for the am't feed, & I did ask them to check tank temperatures. For my juveniles' tank, I put on an auto feeder. One precaution if you use one, put it on early so you can be sure the am't is correct. I am using one now daily for 4 feedings for my 5 month old babies, then only have to add Hbws & cbws to make 6 feedings. When I am away this weekend for 3 days, they'll still have 4 feedings, JMO Dottie ;D

[edgeguy]

Alright. I have found someone to do the feedings (no water change). I was thinking of having her come over 3 or 4 times and feed cube bloodworms. Everyday seems like too much since no water changes will be performed (ie I want them fed to keep them healthly but I don't want to push too much waste into the system). The discus are around 3". My filtration is very good in that I have a canister filter setup that could easily handle a 150 gallon tank.

I am not worried about the pleco and catfish they can survive it is the discus I wonder about