Preparing your tank for vacation

So you are going on vacation and so you want to make sure that your aquarium is in tip-top shape before you leave. Doing maintenance prior to a vacation acts as a preventative for any unwanted aquarium disasters such as equipment failure, ammonia spikes, nitrate buildup, or algae breakouts.

Firstly, it is important to start the process of preparing your tank for your time away about 2 weeks before you intend to leave. The reason is that you don’t want to throw off your aquarium’s water chemistry or biological balance by doing too much maintenance all at once. It also gives you plenty of time to purchase filter media, supplies, an automatic feeder, and get it set up on your aquarium so your fish don’t go hungry!

To kick things off, two weeks before you leave, you will want to do a full filter cleaning. That means rinse and replace the media/cartridges as necessary, clean the inside of the filter body, then clean any and all moving parts including the impeller and shaft of the filter’s motor. If you have a canister filter, make sure to clean all the tubing and pipes as well. This will make sure that your filter will run smoothly and reliably during your time away.
If you have any powerheads or other pumps in your aquarium, clean them out thoroughly as well and inspect the impellers to make sure they are free of debris that might cause them to stop running properly.
It is also a good time to clean off your heater of any debris or algae which can prevent it from functioning at full capacity.

The following week, at least 3 days before you leave, it is time to do a nice big water change and gravel cleaning. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% to 50% of the total water volume should be changed with the use of a gravel cleaner/siphon which will remove excess waste (potential ammonia) and ensure that your nitrates are under control. Essentially your reducing the chance that your water will go foul while you are away and are unable to do anything about it!

Lastly, the day before you leave, test your water with a full range test kit that includes Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, pH, GH/KH and have a peek at your thermometer to make sure everything is well within the safe zone. If all looks good, you are ready to head off on your vacation with confidence that your fish will be comfy. If not, you at least have some time to sneak in an extra water change before you leave.

All in all, it is a pretty straight-forward process of making sure your tank is clean and running smoothly to minimize any chances of failure while you are not home that most people just don’t really think about! That and having an automatic feeder to keep those little fish fed.

Keep on tankin’

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