Will it be safe...

B

bishop_gideon

New member
I'm going on a trip this weekend... actually leaving friday afternoon... I'm going to have my wife feed my fish friday at about 5:30pm... then next time they get fed will be sunday at 8:00 - 9:00pm...

think that's ok? I usally feed them twice a day... so they'll end up missing 3 feedings... I'd hate to do it, but I don't think I have any choice... everyone in my family is going with me and everyone else is away on 4th of July trips... soooo... looks like the fish go on a diet this weekend...
 
You should be fine. I have not fed for up to 4 days with out a problem. I have gone a week with freshwater fish with no problems.

Thanks

Tom
 
I've gone a week without feeding. They'll find something natural to eat in there, algae and pods. I once stopped feeding my tank when I had a huge hair algae break out. Some one from a different website told me the fish would eat the hair algae if I stopped feeding them. Cruel as that sounded it is very true, my pair of black/white percula were taking big chunks of the algae and chowing down. I decided to feed them after I seen that and took all the rocks out and scrubbed them.

Your fish will be fine if they missed a few meals.

By the way, my fish never turned skinny when I forced them to fast. Which lead me to believe they had been snacking on the hair algae (or something) a while before I actually seen them eat it.

Don't try this at home because I don't want hate mail if your fish die of starvation. I might have just gotten lucky.:D
 
Feeding 3x/day, seems a bit excessive. 1x/day is fine for most small, fast-moving fish. Larger fish can be fed every 2-3 days, giant fish 1-2x/week. How are your nitrates? Always skip at least 1 day/week for fasting. Fat fish aren't necessarily healthy fish. Can lead to liver disease & shorter lifespans. I have smaller fish & still feed every other day.
 
I drop in small pellets for the smaller more active fish. and I feed my larger fish everyother day. After a few bad experiences with others feeding my tank I willl only have the lfs store owner come over and do it for me or they just dont eat until I get Home. But you have to have enought live rock to support your fish. Do you have a Predator tank. If you do then I would feed on your normal schedule. If its a reef then you should be more than fine.
 
When I go on a week's vacation I have my lil ole lady neighbor drop in preameasured Dixie cups w/food, every 3 days. I have another friend that goes around & checks for dead fish & tops off my SW tanks 2x/wk. She never found a dead fish but my Hubby froze a banjo catfish that always looks dead. He was so proud that he found him, before he fouled the tank. I didn't have the heart to tell him, it was really a live fish...
 
I've left freshwater 10 days w/no feeding. Same with SW. The only thing I worry about when leaving reef for extended period is top-off. Like G13 said, they'll find something to eat...!
 
PP: In past used resevoir w/ float switch to do it as needed automatically. Those newer JBJ ATO's look kinda cool. Anyone used one?
 
Ive never had any problems with my top off. Such a relief to not have to replace 3 gallons of water everyday. You just dont want to use a float valve in your sump. You want to use float switches with a solenoid valve (normaly closed) to control the water level. Any pictures or sources for parts let me know
 
I dont use a gravity fed system as others do I have the RO out connected to the solenoid valve. The output of that goes to the sump.

This is the Part Number from McMaster Carr. 7877K2 its on page 420 of their catalog and the price is 19.62

The float switches I used are these

http://www.aquahub.com/store/ifloatfloatswitch.html

I used two in my setup @ 6.49 each. then get the Mold-A-Holder to mount to you sump.

You could also buy one of their kist they have and get an aqualifter pump to transfer for the storage container to the sump.


Ill get pictures later.

Aaron
 
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