Vacation & fish care

[Vik]

I have a 60 gallon tank that I setup a couple months ago. Its not stocked much at all- currently houses a Betta and 2 Cardinal tetras & 5 nerite snails) along with a bunch of plants(root and column feeders). For filtration I have multiple foam filters(keeping so I can quick start other tanks) & a fluval fx4. For lighting I have a programmed fluval plant 3.0.Also, the water parameters are great <10ppm nitrates.

 The situation- I'm out of the country for a month and a half(some r&r and some remote work). Thing is I don't have anyone reliable to take care of my tank while I'm out.

Automations - I have done some automation for the plants with the Jebao DP4 which I'm planning to dose easy green with. Additionally in thinking of setting up the autodoser to also "top of water" from a 20gal tote. 

Questions- while I can try to setup an autofeeder for the fish I'm hesitant to take a chance and end up overfeeding the fish(which is what usually happens). I'm thinking of maybe donating the tetras to families close by. As for the Betta, I'm wondering if there are options other than relying on friends(who have 0 experience with fish). Any body know if aquarium shops would be willing to house the Betta until I return(for a small payment of course)? any other options that I can try?

Assuming I find alternate housing for the Betta, do I have to worry about anything else for the plants if I have the autodoser and the fluval 3.0 setup. Do I need to worry about feeding the bacteria in the tank? If so what options do I have to"feed" the bacteria (I hate auto feeders).

 

Please help!

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Vik

[Patrick_G]

Nice looking scape, great use of wood and rock. 
I think I’d just take the fish to a local shop and I like your idea to use the doser to top off the tank. The light will be fine unless the power goes off. In that case the Fluval lights need to be reset via the app. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/8/2022 at 7:49 PM, Vik said:

Questions- while I can try to setup an autocross for the fish in hesitant to take a chance and end up overfeeding the fish(which is what usually happens). I'm thinking of maybe donating the tetras to families close by. As for the Betta, I'm wondering if there are options other than relying on friends(who have 0 experience with fish). Any body know if aquarium shops would be willing to house the Betta(for a small payment of course) any other options that I can try?

Assuming I find alternate housing for the Betta, do I have to worry about anything else for the plants if I have the autodoser and the fluval 3.0 setup. Do I need to worry about feeding the bacteria in the tank? If so what options can I think of(I hate auto feeders).

It would be awesome if a shop cared for the fish for you.  Definitely the "best option".

As mentioned, if there's any power issues, you'll end up having light issues.  This points towards two things I'd do.

1.  Have a APC power backup for the light just in case you specifically need it.  Because it's converting from AC to DC to AC you won't have hours and hours and hours of time for the light to run off of the battery, but it might be just enough to get through something that could ruin the tank.
2.  Have a wifi camera on the tank and someone who can go in and adjust something if you really need it in an emergency.  Call it peace of mind, but you can get a camera for $100 or so and have it be a pretty good tool.  Eufy has some decently high quality cameras that should work.  I have not used them, but that is the one we were looking at with a decent enough resolution for the house.

I would have something drop food in once a week at least just to feed the bacteria. It's not too big of a deal, but this goes back to having someone local vs. automation. If you have the autofeeder setup to run once a week there's a lot less of a risk of something devastating the tank.  Of course, run it for a few days / weeks prior to the trip so you're ok with it's operation.

[Vik]

Patrick - thank you for the kind words. This is truly my first attempt at scaping a tank; prior to this I used to have a smaller tank with very limited plants. Your so looks gorgeous as well; means a lot to get your positive feedback.

Thanks for the heads-up about the lights in case of a power cut. Given that I'll be away from home, if there some other way to turn e lights back to program mode in case of a power cut?

[Vik]

On 7/9/2022 at 1:11 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

It would be awesome if a shop cared for the fish for you.  Definitely the "best option".

As mentioned, if there's any power issues, you'll end up having light issues.  This points towards two things I'd do.

1.  Have a APC power backup for the light just in case you specifically need it.  Because it's converting from AC to DC to AC you won't have hours and hours and hours of time for the light to run off of the battery, but it might be just enough to get through something that could ruin the tank.
2.  Have a wifi camera on the tank and someone who can go in and adjust something if you really need it in an emergency.  Call it peace of mind, but you can get a camera for $100 or so and have it be a pretty good tool.  Eufy has some decently high quality cameras that should work.  I have not used them, but that is the one we were looking at with a decent enough resolution for the house.

I would have something drop food in once a week at least just to feed the bacteria. It's not too big of a deal, but this goes back to having someone local vs. automation. If you have the autofeeder setup to run once a week there's a lot less of a risk of something devastating the tank.  Of course, run it for a few days / weeks prior to the trip so you're ok with it's operation.

Great advise on the autofeeder on once/twice per week setting. I forgot to mention, but I do have a camera set to just the tank. I got the kasa which is similar to the Eufy; is cheap and works with my smart home system. I'll look into a apc, sounds like a good idea although power cuts are very rare where I live.

Am I right to assume that even power goes off and comes back up in a few minutes, the fluval 3 needs to be manually/via app be setup to the programming mode?

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/8/2022 at 10:19 PM, Vik said:

Great advise on the autofeeder on once/twice per week setting. I forgot to mention, but I do have a camera set to just the tank. I got the kasa which is similar to the Eufy; is cheap and works with my smart home system. I'll look into a apc, sounds like a good idea although power cuts are very rare where I live.

Am I right to assume that even power goes off and comes back up in a few minutes, the fluval 3 needs to be manually/via app be setup to the programming mode?

It would revert to factory defaults. You'd need to basically re-connect / re-pair it with your phone.  That's if you have it on a custom profile via the app.

If you don't have one, get one of the kasa smart plugs, if all heck breaks loose, you can at the very least schedule it manually via your phone with the kasa app.

 

 

Quote

 

How will the light run after a sudden power failure?

If in Manual mode, the light will continue to operate as it was before powering down. If in Auto mode, once powered back on, the light will run starting from 00:00 and will require connection to a mobile device with the app to have its clock reset to the current time. If you are not present after a power failure, we recommend having someone with the app connect to your light unit and re-establish the correct time.

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[ccc24]

On 7/8/2022 at 9:49 PM, Vik said:

for the Betta, I'm wondering if there are options other than relying on friends(who have 0 experience with fish). Any body know if aquarium shops would be willing to house the Betta until I return(for a small payment of course)? any other options that I can try?

Somewhat related (since bettas can go into small aquariums/are more easily transportable)…

If there are any exotic vets in your area - you may give their offices a call. Many of them offer boarding services for exotics of all kinds. While I’ve never boarded a fish, this is what we would do with our bird and you would see a myriad of animals there to board as well. It was a mini zoo of sorts, in their back area. 
Even if they can’t board the fish, they may have staff who are willing to take the fish home and privately sit the fish for you, for the time needed.