Holiday feeding and cleaning help

Hey all,

I am going away this December for almost 3 weeks (18 days). I plan on asking a couple of mates if they can check in but essentially I have to plan for the worst case scenario.

I usually perform a weekly water change to my two 90L tanks of about 50%. This will obviously not be done over my time away so I have started to slow this down somewhat by doing it every 10 days.

On to food. How long are my fish going to last if I add a holiday slow release food. I have about the same fish in each tank and the list is as such below:
-6 Corys
-1 Betta
-6 Tetra
-2 Male guppies
(Each tank has this fish, although the guppies in the second tank are female)

My usual feeding routine is a pinch of flakes/vibra bites per day. If my worst case scenario materialises and I am unable to find a mate to check in on my aquatic friends how should I minimize the risk of losses? Should I get a holiday food block and hope for the best? Longest I have left the tank is about a week

 

I will not add a holiday block of food. It will just might cause an amonia spike that will kill your fish. If you can get somebody to do a top up and 1 feeding, half way, they should be fine. Else invest in an auto top up system as fish can survive for quite some time without being fed

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Measure out your food into a container/plastic bag, one per day. This should stop them from overfeeding.

Do a water change the day before you leave, just in case.

If you really want them to do a water change, see about setting up some containers with dechlorinated water, and show the person how to get the siphon going.

If they're planted tanks, i wouldn't worry about the water change either, and minimise the feeding. Once per week should be plenty. Less food means less poop means less eventual nitrates in the tank.

 

The best would be to get someone to feed your fish and do water top-ups as needed.
Water evaporates, and topping up the tank with dechlorinated water should be fairly simple for most people.

What we have done, is to detail everything in order for our kids to be able to do basic maintenance and feedings.
They don't have to visit daily. Every 2-3 days is fine, and your livestock will appreciate the attention and feedings.

Get a 10ml syringe, available at any pharmacy or dischem.
Get 10ml pill containers, that you fill with daily food dosage for each tank. Available from PlasticLand and similar shops. https://www.storeandmore.co.za/item/container_t01p_10ml_10
Prepare the daily food for every tank in advance, and place in the pill container. It could consist of wafers, flakes or whatever you feed the livestock.
Mark the desired water level on the outside of the tank with a marker pen. It is easy to remove the mark with surgical spirits, rubbing alcohol or methylated spirits.
Print a detailed list of what to do on every visit.

Example:
1. Add 1ml of the contents of the syringe to the grey bucket.
2. Fill the bucket at the sink/bath/wherever with cold water.
3. Slowly pour water into the tank until it reaches the water level indicator.
4. Add the contents of 1 pill container per tank. DO NOT ADD ANY MORE, EVEN IF THEY LOOK HUNGRY.
5. Check that all filters are running before leaving.
6. THANK YOU.

 

Thanks for the responses everyone.

Fortunately my tanks do not suffer from too much evaporation although this is a concern I had not yet thought of. Will make sure they are filled to the top before leaving and will need to get someone to check at least once while I am away.

 

Think my Betta would eat them all in a day or two haha

Holiday blocks don't look good to me either.

 

The longest I've gone without feeding my fish was 5 days. This was before my humpback puffer. So my fish were eating any uneaten food, organisms and biofilm. When I got back they ate like normal. I just made sure to feed them more frozen foods before I left over a few days. I also threw in a few pieces of cucumber mainly for the plecos.

 

Perfect @Pezulu!!!

You have it down to the T

As for holiday blocks.... I would not risk using them

 

Agreed, holiday blocks are a gimmick and will just mess with water chemistry.

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Doing the same as PEZULU. Just put some masking tape on pill container with monday, wednesday or day of week to add to tank. Every second day feeding will be fine.

 

For feeding, get an auto feeder from Wish or Ali express, works perfectly you can setup feeding schedules daily, I am feeding 4 times a day without any issues they are not that expensive and make feeding so much better for the guys, Perhaps anyone have ideas rather than having someone doing it manually?

 

I have also seen a relatively inexpensive automated feeder at Perky Pets, but I am not sure how well they work. I would still get some friends to check in, because I would be far too nervous about the feeder failing and potentially dumping a few weeks' worth of food into the tank at once.

@AVATAR, what model feeder do you use?