Vacation despite aquarium?

Now the vacation season is approaching again with big steps ... not only the Easter vacation is pending for some, also the Whitsun and summer vacations are no longer far. Time to think about what to do with the aquarium during this time!

Vacation food for the tank inhabitants

If you are only away for a few days to a maximum of two weeks, the animals will usually manage without any additional food at all. Brown autumn leaves or alternatively sea almond tree leaves should then of course be available as permanent food in the aquarium. It is advisable to put the leaves into the aquarium a few days before departure, so that sufficient biofilms can already form on them, which the shrimp will then graze on. If you want to be absolutely sure that your pets are not lacking anything or if your invertebrate tanks are very heavily populated, simply place an appropriate amount of AlgaePlates in the aquarium. They will provide your animals with everything they need for two weeks. Our Crustarock with spinach also contains not only the necessary minerals, but also green food for seven days, which the animals really have to work hard for. Both products hardly pollute the water - which is important if you have to bridge the period of absence without water changes.

Basin care before the vacation

Two days before departure, clean the filter properly - please wash out the filter materials only and do not make them completely new. Please use only cold water for washing out, do not boil it! One day before you leave, you should do a big water change of about 50%. You can add some EasyLife Liquid Filter Medium (Shoplink) or Black Water Powder (Shoplink) to the water. These products bind pollutants and form a buffer that will continue to have an effect for a few days. When you are back, a large water change is also due. This will definitely keep you on the safe side, as you will expel pollutants that may have accumulated anyway over the time you were away.

Organize an "aquarium sitter"?

If you have a pet sitter who will water the plants and take care of the other pets while you are away, you can of course ask him or her to take care of the aquarium. In any case, it's good to check the filter daily to make sure it's still running smoothly. A note with emergency procedures or a phone number of an experienced aquarium enthusiast to call in case of an emergency will give peace of mind to pet sitters who are not familiar with aquariums.

Fish in the aquarium?

If fish are in the aquarium, moderate feeding should be done even during the vacation season to avoid the invertebrates in the tank having to serve as a source of live food. We recommend to portion the food in advance - there are fish that show some acting talent when someone who does not know their way around feeds them, and they constantly hang "half-starved" on the glass. Especially inexperienced vacation caretakers then tend to feed way too much, which would have fatal effects on the water quality! If you don't want your pet sitter to change the water, you should keep in mind that every - even sparse - feeding also means water pollution, and take this into account with the amount of food. It will not harm the fish if they are fed only every other day, for example.

Prepare vacation feeding!

For pre-portioning, daily medicine portioners with sliding lids from the pharmacy, for example, are wonderfully suitable. Here you can beautifully prepare the daily feed portion, and it can then be fed easily and conveniently. The yellow insides of surprise eggs are of course just as suitable as small Tupperware or film cans - anything that closes well and can be labeled if necessary is suitable.

If several tanks are to be supplied, a separate box should be prepared for each tank and, if necessary, provided with a colored adhesive dot. The same color then identifies the corresponding aquarium.

Heat in summer

Especially in summer many shrimps have to fight with too high water temperatures. Especially bee shrimp, tiger shrimp, bumblebee shrimp and other shrimp from rather cool, oxygen-rich waters do not like the heat at all. There are now aquarium fans that can be controlled by a sensor-based controller and that only kick on when the water temperature exceeds a preset value. In this case, your pet sitter should occasionally top up the water, which has evaporated. For this purpose, it is best to provide a canister of osmosis water - if you were to refill with tap water, you would drive the hardness up because the minerals in the water would not evaporate with it. If you don't have an animal sitter, there are nifty do-it-yourself systems where a float turns a pump on and off that supplies the aquarium with osmosis water ... or you can simply mount the filter so that it can't run dry under any circumstances, and hope that it will do without refilling.

Shrimp from the Old Lakes on Sulawesi, which require a high temperature, of course do not need a fan. Here, however, the pet sitter should check not only the filter but also the heater for smooth operation.

So with a little preparation, the most beautiful time of the year does not have to be the most exciting time of the year, even for an ambitious breeder, and you can enjoy your vacation without worries.