What To Do With Aquarium While On 3 Week Vacation

HI everyone,

I am going away for 3 weeks at the end of July and am just wonderin how to manage my tank so all the fish don't die while I am gone. I live about an hour away from my friends and have one who can come and check in on things once maybe twice a week. I am just wondering since she does not keep fish if it would be ok for her to just replace a little water each time she comes over? Like maybe a few litres? I don't want to ask her to use the gravel vac as it would be a much bigger job and she really doesn't know what she is doing. I have a 60 litre tank with a betta and some tetra in. Tank is up and running about a year and haven't had any health issues in the last 6 months or so. Would that be enough to keep the water fresh enough for them? Can I do anything in the run up to my holiday to make things better while I'm away? Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

So feeding won't be a problem, since the fish will survive 3 weeks with only 1-2x feeding per week.

The water part would be a problem. Personally I would do a 50% water change the second week instead. I suggest to make things easier, write a list of things to do on a post it or paper and put it on the tank or next to it. Show your friend where the paper is. It will also be best to show your friend how to do a water change. Doing a 50% would require to unplug the filter and heater.

 

If I was not a fish keeper I would not want to be responsible for your tank. I would come in feed it and add water if needed. Expecting them to do the water change while your out is a lot for them to do especially when they don't know what they are doing. Honestly I think there's too much risk on him/her to do it, especially when they don't know what to do.

I would change the water a few days or the day before you leave and leave the feeding to your friend. If the water gets low just ask them to add some water.

It's hard to ask a friend to do all the work when the work itself seems intimidating already.

 

Take the tank to your friends house.

 

3 week with no water change is risky, I suggest just teaching your friend and if your friend is comfortable with it that will be a plus

 

Thanks for the replies. Would one larger water change be enough? I think I wouldn't feel as bad asking her to do a 50% once rather than more smaller ones...If I clean it the day I am leaving and the day I come back and she does it once in between would that be ok? I am not going for another 2 months yet so I will have time to show her how to do it. I just hate asking too much of people when she is already doing me a favour coming over to feed them and check on the house.

 

As long as there is no other problem yes cleaning it before you leave and then doing a 50% WC the second week would be best!

 

Set up a new tank at your friend's house. She can babysit your fish while you are gone while learning to run a tank. When you get back, reclaim your fish, buy her one and everyone's happy. Then she doesn't have to drive a two hour round trip twice a week plus fish care time. And you leave her with something she can enjoy and now knows how to operate.

Just thoughts...

 

If their feeding is reduced so will the bio-load in the tank, meaning the water changes are less urgent. If was just the betta, I'd say you could even push 3 weeks without a water change at all so long as you have good kh level in your water to keep the ph in check. With the tetras I'm not so sure. I'd ask your friend what they are most comfortable with, and offer some kind of compensation if the plan you end up going with is a complicated one. Even if it's just paying for a dinner out, or a nice souvenir from where ever you're heading.

 

3 weeks should be fine on a mature tank as long as it's lightly fed. You can buy packs of disposable plastic containers for a few bucks and just put maybe half to 1/3 of what you normally feed into each one for her to feed every day. More if it's every second day etc.

This way there's no guessing about the amount to feed and you can be sure they're not being overfed and it will keep the water clean.

 

I heard of someone doing this before but I have no idea how it turned out. They removed 30% of the tank water before leaving town. Then the person watching their tank added clean water back into the tank so effectively a 30% waterchange was done.

 

I heard of someone doing this before but I have no idea how it turned out. They removed 30% of the tank water before leaving town. Then the person watching their tank added clean water back into the tank so effectively a 30% waterchange was done.

Since the water was still removed before they left, that's really the same as doing the change and also filling it back up, isn't it?