# Weekly maintenance Service? Is this possible?



## Jackson (Jan 13, 2013)

Hello all! 

My girlfriend wants to set up a planted aquarium at her place. She has no experience with fish nor with aquariums, but loves hanging out in my fish room. She has little spare time and travels a lot for work, so would like to pay someone to take care of it for her, (she can afford it) so she can just enjoy it. I told her I'd help her buy all the gear, set it up and get it cycled and running, but I don't want to be responsible for the weekly maintenance.

On top of that, she spends two months every winter away from home at head office.

I would be willing to "foster" the fish for the two months a year in my quarantine tank. Could we set up an auto-feeder for the other times she is out of town? 

Is this just a pipe dream? Or is there a way I can make it work for her? I'd really like her to be able to enjoy a tank at her house - her work is high stress and a planted tank is so calming, it would be good for her.

Thanks for your time.


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## blurry (May 10, 2010)

Id say just go with the auto feeder and you should be fine, maintenance every week or 2?


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

I would suggest PM'ing Bien Lim as he does this sort of maintenance work on planted tanks.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

you should do a drip system and co2 with some plant food dosing all automatic


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## spit.fire (Jan 3, 2011)

I believe Albert dao does tank maintenance could always send him a pm


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## Jackson (Jan 13, 2013)

Are there fish that are more suitable for this situation? I'd like for it to be a peaceful community tank. I'm thinking it will be 75-100 gallons, CO2 injected, heavily planted. No open top, as her cat is a bit of a fisherman. 

Should I be looking at fish that will take pellets rather than flakes? (as flakes can gum up in auto-feeders IME)

Also, would rather have weekly water changes than continuous drip. Call me old fashioned.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I think it would be a mistake to go CO2 injected and heavily planted. Those kinds of tanks need weekly pruning/maintenance to maintain flow, tweak the CO2 and plant mass, and water changes to make it work. You'd be better off going with a low light/low tech setup with a fairly good sized group of tetras so that the tank may be left for weeks at a time with little to no maintenance.


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## Jackson (Jan 13, 2013)

2wheelsx2 said:


> I think it would be a mistake to go CO2 injected and heavily planted. Those kinds of tanks need weekly pruning/maintenance to maintain flow, tweak the CO2 and plant mass, and water changes to make it work. You'd be better off going with a low light/low tech setup with a fairly good sized group of tetras so that the tank may be left for weeks at a time with little to no maintenance.


That's an excellent point. Thanks! Low tech is probably a better way to go.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

If you go with Crypts and Anubias and a central sword type plant in a 75 or 90 gallon and have the lights and heater regulated by a controller and put it a fairly good sized canister filter like a Eheim 2217 or 2075, 100 cardinal or rummy nose tetras, you'll have a beautiful tank that's quite, soothing to the eye and very low maintenance.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

If you want someone to do weekly or bi-weekly maintaince you may consider contacting Charles of Canadian aquatic. He can probably set up the tank for your girlfriend as well. Charles does this type of work full time.


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## Jackson (Jan 13, 2013)

Bringing this back.... 
We are starting to think about fish she may like. She likes colourful schooling fish, so I immediately thought Cardinals, but I'm wondering if there is something a little bigger that would eat something other than flake? I've not had a lot of success in the past using flake food in automatic feeders. Has technology improved with these? Or should we be looking for fish that can eat small pellets? (for when she goes away on business)

Maybe something with a little bit bigger mouths? Yet colourful, peaceful and schooling (or at least shoaling)


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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

Larger tetras will eat smaller "granule" type foods. Serape, Buenos Aires, Congo tetras etc.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

If you find flake food messy and it is if it's not eaten, simple solution is to don't feed too much but if you do, you have a school of corydoras at the bottom to help clean up any excess food. Alternatively, you can feed freeze-dried bloodworms which floats. Buy in bulk packages via one of the sponsors on this site or online order. 

Schools of cardinals, rummynose, corydoras, even locally bred angelfish will all flourish in your planned tank. Keep the plants low maintenance and easy to keep. Other recommended plants and ones that may have been mentioned:
-Jungle vals (will look great in your taller tank)
-sunset hygro
-anubias var.
-amazon swords
-java fern
-java moss
-brazilian pennywort
-tiger lotus
-sagittaria var.
-wisteria

Time to see Charles at Canadian Aquatics about 1000 cardinals


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## Flear (Dec 8, 2012)

might be easier to leave the tank at your place instead of having a tank at her place she doesn't want to spend the time to maintain.

sounds harsh, but what's the difference between getting a tank you don't want to look after and getting any other pet you don't want to look after.

as for flake food vs. pellet food, ... there's plenty of small & fine pellet foods out there

micropellets, or fancy guppy (even smaller), both suitable for neons.


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## 77_Bus_Girl (Dec 30, 2012)

Flear said:


> might be easier to leave the tank at your place instead of having a tank at her place she doesn't want to spend the time to maintain.
> 
> sounds harsh, but what's the difference between getting a tank you don't want to look after and getting any other pet you don't want to look after.


I think the OP explained why they wanted a tank at her place. And as much as I love my fish, it's not the same as any other pet. If you can take care of their basic needs of food and proper water conditions, you're good as gold. In fact, I bet a lot of fish would be happier to not have people walking by them and staring in all day.

Other pets like dogs require human interaction, and for as much as we have bred them to be companions to us, so do we need to be companions to them. A little neon tetra doesn't require that to thrive.


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## bbqbetta (Aug 19, 2012)

Because for some people they just want to look at the tank. If I could pay someone to do my water changes and check My parameters I would too

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