Prolonged leave of tank

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Jack Dempsey
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Jun 13, 2023
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Hello all. I have to leave for six weeks in mid October for a family emergency. I can teach someone to feed my shrimp but I'm concerned about getting someone to to Water changes properly and regularly. I change water every two weeks. Iv never used de nitrate before. If I through some in the tank added some Indian almond leaves. Had someone feed every two days. And do a water change once would that work?
 

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Jack Dempsey
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Jun 13, 2023
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I think I'll through in some almond leaves, prepare a bucket of dechlorinated water before I leave and have some one change it at three weeks.

Of I throw in three leaves that should be enough? Eh.
 
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tlindsey

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throw in three leaves that should be enough?
It depends on how many shrimp and how fast the almond leaves break down.
I personally used oak leaves which took over 6 weeks to break down. My tap water ph out of the tap around 7.8 .
 

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Jack Dempsey
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Jun 13, 2023
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Zoo med makes nano banquet blocks for shrimp. I have a larger pleco block I crunched it up I put a small piece in once in a while to help them get some minerals. Maybe I'll add three large leaves and add a nano block once in a while. It's hard to mess that up. You just drop it in the tank
 

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Jack Dempsey
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Jun 13, 2023
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If I had to guess I'd say around 25 shrimp. Sometimes I don't think I have that many but then I clean the tank and there's a lot more. Maybe 30. Half are juvenile
 

krichardson

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Ah, the dilemma of going away and leaving one's fish to the care of others.I have had a few bad experiences over the years even after carefully going over care instructions for my fish so my bit of advice would be to have your helpers involved and bothering with the tanks as little as possible,so I would agree with a very light feeding and water change schedule.
 
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Jack Dempsey
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Jun 13, 2023
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My plan is to keep nitrates as low as possible up untill I go. Prepare fresh water in 5 gallon buckets before I go. The tank doesn't have a heater, it sits at room temp. So the new water will temp match the tank dechlorinated and ready to go. I'm gone for 6 weeks. So one water change at three weeks. Ill Throw a bunch of indian almond leaves. Pre prep food to feed every three days. I think it would be hard to mess that up
 

jjohnwm

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Pre-measured, pre-packaged food is essential. I would never trust anybody to feed my tanks in my absence. And that's with fish; for shrimp it's impossible to find somebody who won't overfeed. And for 6 weeks, with the kind of stocking being discussed here, I wouldn't even do water changes. The idea of an inexperienced, know-nothing caretaker doing a water change for me...frightens me almost as much as the notion of an experienced know-it-all who doesn't do things my way doing a water change for me.

My shrimp swarm like locusts onto dead leaves whenever new ones are added. Just plain ordinary oak, maple or grape leaves; in your case I'd have the caretaker drop a few in every few days or every week. Maybe add some top-up water from the bucket if evaporation is an issue. You should be fine.
 
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Jack Dempsey
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Jun 13, 2023
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If any one wants to way in here. I dropped 4 extra large Indian almond leaves into my tank. I rinsed a couple and boiled a couple so they will break down at different rates. Iv been feeding my shrimp a variety of foods but for simplicity sake while I'm away I'm only going to have my tank sitter feed two. A shrimp pellet and bacterAE

I was thinking of feeding them 4 times a week. Rotation schedule bacterAE, skip a day, pellets, skip a day, bacterAE, skip a day, pellets.

Does that sound like enough?
 
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