EI Dosing what to do I'm on holiday for three weeks??

[tovtm]

I'm off to Florida for three weeks this Friday and currently am dosing my 125ltr discus tank with EI.
I am getting my dad to feed the fish while I'm away cutting down on food to once every other day so the waste dosent build up meaning he would only have to clean the tank out once while I'm on holiday rather than my normal 50% each week. should I just stop EI for three weeks or cut down?

end result I just want to make it as simple as possible for my dad so less things can go wrong but what best to do? also I use co2 with the CO2 checker being lime green so should I keep that as normal or also turn that down a bit?

 

[Matt Warner]

Hi, I would try and keep things the same as now when you are on holiday. I definitely wouldn't cut back on your EI dosing schedule. You could tell your dad to add the EI ferts for you while you are away. Just give the plants a really good pruning before you go and that way it won't be overgrown when you get back. If you wanted to make things more simple then you could consider using an all in one fertiliser such as TPN+ while you are on holiday so then the macro and trace is all added with each dose.

 

[tovtm]

cheers matt, do you agree with feeding plan once every two-three days? that way I recon he can get away with leaving the tank 10-14days before a WC. I feed the discus three times a day but just o cut down on waste think he should do this along as leaving the tank 1-14 days would be ok with dosing EI knowing that everyone says to do a 50% WC once per week

 

[plantbrain]

They make pill boxes for folks taking medications, use those and put the food for fish in one, then the food for plants in the other, if you can reduce the light down some, say from 10 hr to 8, that would be good, and/or raise the light fixture up about 10cm more.

 

[Matt Warner]

You should be fine skipping one water change I can't see that it would do any harm missing one week, just be sure to get on top of it when you get back. Also be prepared for a marathon pruning session when you get back
Feeding the fish every other day will be fine as most people over feed anyway. Your other option would be to get an automatic feeder but they can be a bit finnicky!

 

[niru]

If the fish load is not much then skipping WCs should be OK. If you have CO2 running then perhaps you might want to reduce it (slowly) so as to minimise the plant bioload increases. But FIRST reduce light intensity & timings (again slowly). This way the plant intake & growth reduces. Always follow the mantra: Light -> CO2 -> Ferts.

I had a similar case in June for 3 weeks. I started lowering things a month or more in advance, so that by the time I went for vacation, my lights were 4.5 hrs on, reflectors removed (couldnt reduce the ballast power), added some shades (mesh or likes to block light), then reduced CO2 from 180 bpm to 50 bpm, and then reduced EI dosing by 60%. I followed advice given here on UKAPS and didnt had any algae issues at all!! Of course prune the plants so that the lower sections get enough light to survive & minimise the decay.

1 week before going off, I increased the WC frequency & amount. I am happy to say that there was no fish loss, plants were doing OK (feeble a bit), but no algae issues at all. I also reduced food from 3 times a day to 1 (small amounts anyway.

Hope this helps.

-niru

 

[Westyggx]

I went away in June it a month, my mum dosed as normal, lights as normal, feeding as normal but no water changes. I came back to an algae nightmare lol. Note to self, cut down on everything in half and encourage mother to water change haha