Vacation

[CarpCharacin]

I am not sure if this option is practical for you, but it is what i would do and i have it on my list of future projects. You could design a controller based around an atmega2560 chip so you could monitor everything from anywhere with internet access. You could connect the atmega to a relay and a servo and then to a metal box with a wood corkscrew drill bit so when the servo is activated, a certain amount of food is dispensed. 2 months is a long time. I personally had a tank disaster a few years back and i wanted to leave the hobby and i am not going to go on a long vacation until i design the atmel based controller and complete the pcb. All of the aquarium controllers now are reef/saltwater oriented, so i want to design a better, open source one. If you can not build a controller, you should see if a family member or a friend could come by every few days and check on your fish. Also, 2 months without water changes is a long time. I would either build a drip system or see if your family member or friend could do a small water change. You could get one of those cheap pill reminder things and measure out food for them to feed.

 

[Frank Castle]

I personally would set the automatic feeder to feed them lightly.

Pops is absolutely right, if your room is warm where the aquarium is I would unplug the heater it will help with the evaporation. Do you have Glass lids on the aquarium?

he doesn't need the heater most likely for Jewels, period. I got mine at 66F and I have had them even cooler than that.

Slow the metabolism down too, better in the long run.....less need to eat, means he can set the feeder to every 3-4 days, but aggression is still a concern. Cichlids need baby-sitters

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I am not seeing a good outcome from leaving the tank completely unattended for two months. I certainly hop for the best but the only realistic outcome I see is a tank full of dead, or mostly dead fish.

Is there any way you can go ahead and sell them and get new fish when you get back? Or, leave them with somebody, anybody, to take partial care of them. Any care is better than no care, usually.

 

[Frank Castle]

I am not seeing a good outcome from leaving the tank completely unattended for two months. I certainly hop for the best but the only realistic outcome I see is a tank full of dead, or mostly dead fish.

Is there any way you can go ahead and sell them and get new fish when you get back? Or, leave them with somebody, anybody, to take partial care of them. Any care is better than no care, usually.

I have to agree w/ this....9 Jewels in a 29g for 2 months unattended is an accident waiting to happen

 

[SandNukka15]

2 months is a long time to leave fish even with an automatic feeder and a drip system. There are a lot of things that can go wrong especially if there is nobody stoping in every once in a while to check.

If i were you i would rehome these fish....2 months is just too long

 

[Tig Phish]

For a case of kiwis I'll babysit ur fish for u

 

[Drstrangelove]

Two months is too long for that group.

That's already assuming you have both an automated drip and an automated feeder. At best the water will foul and that's assuming no illness, injury or death. Evaporation is also assumed to be nil, which is virtually impossible.

Moreover, if just one fish dies, the whole tank will be gone.

I'd find a sitter or move the tank to a friend's house.

 

[matseski]

building a basic arduino aquarium controller is pretty easy, but if you want reliability, it gets expensive fast. At the bare minimum, with a small tank, set up a drip system and a web cam so YOU can monitor the tank and call a friend to take action if needed. I have found friends to be very unreliable for even basic tank maintenance, especially if they are not in the hobby, which I assume is your case or this would be much less of a problem.

I have left my tank (heavily planted 160g total volume) for a month and a half with just an autofeeder and DIY auto top-off solution, but there is no way I would have enjoyed my vacation if I couldn't check on it to be sure everything was looking ok. I still had to ask a friend to swing by a few times to address small problems.

 

[convict360]

if you can't get anyone to visit the tank, even once a week for you; i'd sell all the fish most likely. Tanks can easily crash in a single day, the cynical part of me would imagine a nightmare scenario of coming home to a stinking, brown filled tank full of decomposing fish :/

Best bet is to try and board them somewhere with either an lfs further out from the petsmart one, or find someone near you who has tanks and will board them for exchange of money.

 

[esoxlucius]

If you went away for 2 months and left those fish you'd have the vacation from hell. The worry would ruin your trip. Sell your stock, have a whale of a time on vacation, and start up again when you return.