leaving on vacation question.

[Eagle_Eye]

Question for those vacation gowers!!

I knwo that there is auto-feeders out there that help alot.

Here is my question.

If you have a 1 week vacation and you need to leave.
What to do?

I do have some plants in the tank.
I usually have a lights turned on for about 12 to 14 houres a day.

Is it best just for 1 week to keep the lights turned on or turn off the lights for 1 week and hope that the plants don't kill off?

[ambushman2j]

your safest bet would be to buy a timer and run the lights on that, but if you had to choose on or off I would go with ON..off will likely kill your plants, on the only thing that will happen is you will get bad algae, and your fish may lose their minds

[BigDaddy]

Healthy plants can go a week without light.  Anyone who has green water and has had to do a black out can attest to that.  The plants recover from the blackout.  The algae doesn't.

If you leave your lights on the whole time, you are guaranteed to have algae, and then you may end up having to do a black out to get rid of it anyway.

P.S.  A timer costs less than 10 dollars and will solve your plant lighting problem.  It also makes for one less thing to have to worry about when it comes to caring for your tank.

[Poustic]

If you're buying timers for your lights, I really like these ones from Canadian Tire that I got for $9 on sale a few weeks ago.  They are digital, perfectly quiet, and keep time and programming during power outages (or during aquarium maintenance if you unplug your stuff) without any batteries to replace.  My two cents, anyway.   :idea:

[Nelson]

I concur. I travel quite a bit, occasionaly for extended periods, and my light timer and ProQuatics Auto Feeder have done the job for me with no surprises upon my return.

[Stevie]

Nelson:  

Where did you get the ProQuatics auto feeder?  I just checked Big Al's online and didn't see it listed.  We're leaving for 2 weeks holiday in the summer and  I need something to feed my fish!  Will this feeder work over a two week period?

[Nelson]

I bought mine at PetSmart I believe.  It's a very reliable gizmo that dispenses food manually or by programing it to feed automatically up to twice daily.  You can also regulate the amount dispensed.  "Volitan" posted one for sale on the OVAS Classified Ads site on 14 April.  There's also a link in the add to the supplier.  There's no indication that it was sold.  Check it out.

[Eagle_Eye]

Well i'm happy i did ask cause i do see some other vacation gowers!!

Looks like me's gona go for digital timer for sure!!
Freind of mine shall lend me his auto-feeder while gone on vacation...

Now kinda courious to know a little more about algea issues?
What are the 1st signs? green water? Smokey water?
Heavy film on glass? Not enough pleco's?

thanks for the info!! yet i presume i should have created a new thread reguarding algea lol

sry mod.

[Stevie]

Thanks for the tip, but Volitan has sold the item!  I guess I need to find a neighbour or check them out at Petsmart.

[ambushman2j]

green will just take over everything, I have never had green water myself, but I have had algae take over my tank sometimes I am too tired to bother turning out the lights or when they were at my old address I was just not there to do it..basically the glass was completely covered, the rocks, everything..the water was ok however..but once you have algae problems it's tough to get rid of, I however didn't have plecos