Came Back From A 1 Week Vacation To Return To Overfed Tanks

I went to Perth for a week for a sem break vacation.
And I just got back a few hours ago thinking all is well until I see my fish tanks.

I did an emergency clean and changed the tank for my betta and an emergency water change on the other.
The first picture is the one where after I came back and the 2nd one is what it originally was.
My dad even took out the plants in it, save for a few duck weed.

3rd picture is my other tank after the water change, there doesn't seem to be anything dead but a lot of the food has melted onto the plants and substrate, I scrubbed off as much as I could on the drift wood but there's still a lot of uneaten food in there.
I only have 2 corry and a dwarf algae eater in there.

I had left the two tanks in good condition before leaving and even doing a water change and trimming the plants, would've been good after I came back to give another water change.

My dad also took out a lot of the snails, even after I messaged him stating the snail population only booms due to overfeeding.

I'm scared now that the cycle is disrupted and the access food would cause either an ammonia/nitrate spike.
I'm so stressed rn I barely had any rest on my flight back home, it's 2 am and I feel like crying.

 

Keep doing water changes and cut back feeding

 

If you have a well established cycle you should be fine. Just use you gravel vac to get out all of the uneaten food. The bacteria doesn't live in the water so doing water changes won't affect your cycle.

Next time hide the food

 

Put the plants back in. They will only help.

 

Oh boy, hopefully everything turns out ok.
Continue gravel vac and water change the next few days and maybe not feed for a few days.

Whenever I travel, my partner only feeds the fish every 4 days if the trip is more than one week. If it is only one week, the tank doesn't gets fed.

 

Get a daily pill organizer used for medications.

Next time you go out of town and someone else feeds the tank, put each day's allotment of fish food in the corresponding day of the pill organizer.




For now, frequent vacs of the gravel. Once a day if you have to.

Also, consider switching over to sand.

I find that my tank with sand is easier to clean versus my tank with gravel.

Fish waste and left over food sits on top of the sand. In the tank with gravel, it all sinks to the bottom of the gravel, making it harder to siphon out.

Good luck