Water while out of town

[halo_demo]

Hi everyone. I have a question. I am going to be out of town for 6 days and I was wondering what I could do to cut down or eliminate WC during this time.. I mean, will the discus be ok if there is no wc during this time, should I instruct my housesitter to feed less/ not at all? I might be able to get someone to do WC if absolutely necessary, but the person doing it would have no idea how to do it, and I would worry.

[DiscusKev]

First, fast them for a day or two. Then upon leaving, do a huge water change, a minimum of 50% is required.

You'll be fine for 6 days, healthy discus can go off food for 1 month (this is adult discus). Juveniles will be fine for 8 days (including fasting period).

If someone can help on the WC, then great :)

Good luck and have fun.

[Elite Aquaria]

I would just skip the water changes for those days if you do not have anyone to do them. Have them feed a clean food source like Frozen Blood worms. This should keep the tank relatively clean during your absence. Also as stated above do a large water change the day before you leave.

[korbi_doc]

I've left my fish for 2 wks with no W/Cs...a huge one, 60% before leaving & again on return, & my friend feeds Hikari FBWs as Dan suggested...they did fine, even the juvies do ok with this, although my autofeeder does help for them too.....JMO

Dottie

[halo_demo]

Thanks. I typically do 50% WC so the day before I leave I'll do a 75% and only tell them feed frozen Bloodworms. Thanks everyone

[j_li8]

Like everyone said large WC day before you leave. If you absolutely have to feed then clean food and i would say only once a day just to help keep the water as clean as possible. Even if they don't get fed, they will survive w/o food during your vacation. Just make sure you give them another large WC when you get back.

[Eddie]

What your kH and gH like?

[RockRiverfish]

If the house sitter will be feeding, then I would recommend pre-measuring the amount of food to be fed each day. I place one days feeding in a small cup to eliminate any quess work. There have been many horror stories of house sitters emptying a large can of food into the tank over a week's time.

[halo_demo]

Eddie.. I do not know the KH or GH, but I'm sure I can find out.. the watter in Lubbock as a general rule speaking from a non aquarium standpoint is pretty hard. I can verify tomorrow morning and let you know.

RockRiverfish, I was thinking of placing them on a temporary "diet" of one FBW cube per day to eliminate the risk of leftovers.. I dunno if this would be acceptable.. suggestions are welcome.. the WC are officially out of the question so now that's cleared up.. I will be leaving Mon Morning, so I plan on doing a 75% WC that day... Question.. how much water can be changed without disturbing the biological filtration? My tank is scarsely planted with about a 1in layer of pool filter sand substrate.

[mjs020294]

Do a 50-60% WC before you leave. Get an automatic fish feeder that does four feeds a day.


BTW - they would be perfectly fine without a WC for two or three weeks.

[Eddie]

Sounds good, hard water with decent KH is ideal. Nitrification reduces kH in an aquarium and if yours is low or zero, you run the risk of a PH crash.

You can change 100% of the water without affecting the bio-filter, if the water is dechlorinated/conditioned.

What age are your fish? If they are sub-adults or adults, I wouldn't feed them at all. ;)

Eddie