Holiday Dosing, how much to frontload

[LightingBamboozled]

My tank is C250L, has a 10hr Photoperiod and I dose Nitrates, Phosphates, Potassium and Micros manually daily (some as powder some as liquid. I'm about to go away for 10 days, which is the longest trip I've gone on since getting the tank balanced.

I'm fine for making sure the fish don't starve but I don't really know what to do with fertiliser. Do I front load the whole 10 days worth of ferts? That seems ridiculous. Do I reduce photoperiod and frontload 50%? What strategies do people use whilst leaving tanks?

 

[Heelllooo]

It's hard to know what would be the best practice for you because all tank are different.
Are you running CO2 ? Do you have floating or emersed growing plant ? Are you dosing EI or a more lean approach ?

But I can share my experience. This summer I've been gone for nearly a month and I had a relative come once a week to dose the fert that I prepared in small bottle beforehand.
He dosed 2/3 of what I dose normally in total weekly and didn't do any water change neither topped the evaporation.
The tank was low tech, full of floating plants, half EI dosage and a good cleanup crew.
And I was happy with the result minimum algae growth, plant were ok except for the pogostemon helperi which nearly totally melted ( but it could be due to the lack of light ).

 

[LightingBamboozled]

I do run CO2, I dose reasonably lean as far as I'm aware. Mostly stem plants and runners with about 1/4 the tank covered in Frogbit. I've taken the stems back a bit this week to reduce the chance of them growing out of the tank whilst I'm away.

Current plan is reduce photoperiod to 6 hours and CO2 injection time accordingly and frontload 5 days worth of fertiliser. I was debating turning off one of my lightbulbs and just running the pink bulb (reduces stress in the fish but I don't want to under light too much)

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Current plan is reduce photoperiod to 6 hours and CO2 injection time accordingly and frontload 5 days worth of fertiliser. I was debating turning off one of my lightbulbs and just running the pink bulb (reduces stress in the fish but I don't want to under light too much)

That sounds a plan, but I'd leave both lights on. If anything <"really unexpected"> <"went really wrong"> it won't limit plant growth and will give you a bit of <"wriggle room">.

cheers Darrel

 

[Miniandy]

I had a period of 3 and a half weeks away this summer and had a similar quandary.

I run Co2, EI and the tank is heavily planted and has a cover of around 1/3rd with floating plants.

I front loaded a week and a dose (I dose 3x a week) and came back to a heavily overgrown tank with very little algea after 3 weeks.

I hope that helps give an example

 

[Heelllooo]

That sounds a plan, but I'd leave both lights on.

Yes I agree.
The floating plants are soon gonna do the job of reducing the light.

And on a lighter touch, a small advice : when I have no control over something I try to expect the worse I can, so I'm never disappointed even if it's just a little better than the worse that could happen

 

[Qwedfg]

I think you will be fine front loading macros….that’s what I do normally. I add my macros to my water change container and then do my water change … my water change container usually lasts me about 3 weeks then I refill it and add more macro ferts.