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First of all, let me begin by saying that there have been countless and countless stories posted on the threads about fish casualties and ruined tanks because of taking a vacation. I myself encountered a near tank disaster when I left my planted tank alone for only four days.
I propose this thread for those of you who have experience dealing with this particular problem. I'm very limited in my knowledge regarding how to properly address this issue and I defer to the experts on this topic to post suggestions and advice.
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Here is what I have learned:
- Before travel, conduct at least a 20% water change, or what would otherwise be your weekly water change. Make sure to bring the water level in the aquarium to the top.
- If traveling for less than a week, do not add "vacation feeders" into the aquarium as they will become infested with algae by the time you return. Especially when you are dosing fertilizers and have HO lighting systems.
-When anticipating traveling for more than 4 days, slightly increase the amount of fertilizers you put into the aquarium on the last day before travel. This way, you are not overloading the water column, but at the same time you are not going to cause your daily regiment to be too out-of-whack by the time you return.
-Don't do anything extreme! Planted tanks are about constants. Don't do something that will disrupt any of the "constants" of your tank.
By all means, nothing of what I have said above is absolutely true. This is what I have seen works for my particular tank. Just trying to help out the community of planted tanks out there!
Please comment below!
