Sharing my pre holiday Preparation for my tanks...

Filtration

1. 2 weeks prior to my departure, I clean/maintain my cannister filter, ensuring the impeller is clean and flow rate functioning efficiently.

2. I add charcoal/nitrazorb or purigen to the cannister and/or sump as a precautionary step - insurance policy. I deliberately don't do it the day before, just in case I break the impeller, shaft...etc, and prefer to ensure the filtration is absolutely perfect, as this is perhaps the most critical part of their survival whilst away.

Water Quality

1. 1 week prior to departure, I do a complete WP test to ensure PH, GH, KH TDS and nitrates are at the level it should be, and would deliberately reduce TDS by about 10% to the "normal" level, as the TDS would naturally rise over the period.

2. 3 days Before departure, I'll do a 15-20% water change, remineralise the water, add mineral powder etc.... to ensure the water is in absolute perfect condition.

3. The day before departure, I'll do a 10% WC, to compensate for the heavy feeding over the past few days.

Food

1. 2 weeks prior to departure, I will feed more high protein, fibre and fat food in their diets i.e. frozen blood worms, brine shrimp, blanched spinach/kale ..... whilst I'm away, the feeding regime would be powder food and pallets.

2. 2 weeks prior to departure, I will soak, then put some fresh IAL into all my tanks.

3. 2 days prior to departure, I will soak some dried mulberry leaves, and on the day of departure, i will place them into each tank.

4. 2 days before my departure, I will ensure my shrimps are all fed well, and that they are not scampering/rushing for food.

Feeding Routine

1. I'm fortunate that I have a person to feed and watch over my tanks whilst away. The feeding schedule would describe each tank, and clearly define how much to feed i.e. 2 pallets for tank 1, 1 for tank 3 .. etc, or 20 ml of powder food (mix in water) ..etc

2. Depends on my confidence of the person, I will do a daily feeding schedule, otherwise an alternative day schedule.

3. Depending on length/time away, the shrimps would be OK, without a feeding routine for up to a week, even 2 weeks BUT, due to the number of berried shrimps and shrimplets, I would prefer a daily feed.

Other

1. I also leave instructions to check on water levels and a lookout for dead shrimps. Each tank has a waterline mark to confirm level to top ups..etc. I have double the qty/volume of RO water I guesstimate that is required whilst away.

2. I leave two emergency contacts, just in case the person finds a massacre.

3. Depending on season, check to ensure heaters or chillers are all functioning correctly.

I'll post my feeding schedule when I return on hols, as I haven't got it on me. Have done this routine over the past 2-3 years and have been extremely comfortable with it.

Trust this helps .....

The feeding schedule would describe each tank' date=' and clearly define how much to feed i.e. 2 pallets for tank 1.[/quote']

Awesome write, very helpful info as always! :encouragement: Just one question though, is that a bit too much food or have you got some massive shrimp like Alvin? Hahaha

Thanks BB that is an excellent schedule. I usually travel quite a bit- luckily not this first year with shrimp- and I'm often away for 6-8 weeks. I think you mentioned the daily tablet boxes you can get from the chemist or cheap shops and I will be getting one for each tank with the right amount of food so my son can come a couple of times a week and feed and top up water.

For the water top ups do you recommend straight RO or a diluted salty shrimp solution. My next trip will be 2 weeks in January so water evaporation will be an issue. Normally I use straight RO for evaporation but if I'm away for longer periods that would dilute the water quite a bit.

Awesome write' date=' very helpful info as always! :encouragement: Just one question though, is that a bit too much food or have you got some massive shrimp like Alvin? Hahaha [/quote']

I regulate the feeding routine with shrimp no.'s. The 20ml of powdered food is pre mix with water, so will equate to approx. 2 pinches of powder food per 45 lt tank. My shrimp to water ratio is approx 2 shrimps per litre.....some of my heavier stock tanks are 3-4 shrimps per litre... I have a number of nano tanks.

Nice write up BB, it will help lots of people who haven't left their shrimps alone. :congratulatory:

Is the powdered food your own mix or a pre-packaged type?

Is the powdered food your own mix or a pre-packaged type?

Mostly commercial powdered food (combo of Benibachi, Mosura, etc...) and organic powders like bee pollen..etc. I tend to mix 2-3 products per feed to cover all basis...

I've just made up a batch of equal parts of powdered Barley Grass, Nettle leaf Powder and ground up Bee Pollen. You should have seen the wife's reaction when she asked what I was doing with her mortar and pestle and I said "oh, just making some shrimp food". She thought I was grinding up something toxic. lol

I'm still waiting on some powdered Spirulina and Kale to arrive so I can add equal parts of that to the mix as well.

I have no idea on how much of this to feed the shrimp, but I am going to use the little spoon that comes with Biozyme and use a similar dosage (1/3 spoon per 100L).

I did a test feed of just the current mix in my cull tank and they all seemed pretty happy to graze on it.

2 pallets for tank 1

Nice BB but I think you missed what I was getting at, "2 pallets" of food is a lot, lol

LOL, they must make a big splash when they drop in the tanks.

Marcus, with the mixed powdered food.. do you premix it or does the person watching over your tank mix it then feed it? i just find that when you mix powdered food it tends to go off even in the fridge. kinda like milk.

For the water top ups do you recommend straight RO or a diluted salty shrimp solution. My next trip will be 2 weeks in January so water evaporation will be an issue. Normally I use straight RO for evaporation but if I'm away for longer periods that would dilute the water quite a bit.

For the top ups you should use RO water only as the minerals in the water do not evaporate but remain in the tank. So you are not diluting the water, even if you do this over a longer period of time.

For water changes it's different. For that you should always use a pre mixed salty shrimp solution.

That's a great schedule, Marcus. Too bad that I didn't read it BEFORE I went on holidays. :( Lucky everything went well anyway.

But next time I will stick to that plan.

+1 what Garnelchen said. Even with water changes, I sometime don't reminerlaise the water, as I'm always fighting against keeping my TDS Down.

Marcus, with the mixed powdered food.. do you premix it or does the person watching over your tank mix it then feed it? i just find that when you mix powdered food it tends to go off even in the fridge. kinda like milk.

Sorry Robert, just realised I missed this post. My premix is all dry.... I mark a container with the water level, and the dry food is mixed in with the water, on feeding. I will post my schedule etc later on today.

BB, what is the safest brand to buy bloodworms in your opinion. Would hiraki be best to avoid bacteria in frozen food?

I've only used hikari. Great quality, never had any issues. When defrosted, it looks fresh, doesn't smell andnot bloody. Also use their spirilina fed brine shrimp.

Going to try it this weekend. Thx for your reply BB

+1 what Garnelchen said. Even with water changes' date=' I sometime don't reminerlaise the water, as I'm always fighting against keeping my TDS Down.

[/quote']

Oh, you're right Marcus. I never considered that.

Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense: Everything we put in our tanks (food, supplements e.g.) will remain in there in one form or another slowly raising the TDS over time.

Thought I'd resurrect this thread, and hopefully give those heading away a checklist/reminder of the preparation we can do.

Thanks for giving that a bump. Although im not on hols I think its well worth a read. Some really great info. Cheers

Fingers crossed my shrimp are ok.

Thankfully I was in the middle of moving some tanks so all my shrimp are sitting in a chilled system. Gave them some mulberry leaves to last a couple of days and then IAL if they get hungry after that.

Great write up, will follow this post for sure if i plan on traveling

Great advice. Thanks for bumping this thread, hadn't seen it before.