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I have been fishless cycling a new 12g tank over the past two weeks and everything seems to be going well. I am entering into the last phases of the fishless cycling process.

I have recently found out that I have to go out of town in a couple of weeks and there will be no one around to watch over my tank so I wasn't planning on stocking the tank until I get back.

My question is, how can I maintain the bacteria level in my tank for the next 4 weeks or so until I get back, especially while I'm gone for 10 days?

4 weeks huh? Well that's a bit long to ask someone to come over and feed bacteria .

What are your water readings for ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte right now?

If you're close enough to the end of the cycle you might be able to have it stocked with a few hardy fish by the time you have to go away. In which case asking someone to help fishsit the tank isn't quite as hard to do.

^_^
[hr width='40%']"There’s an emptiness inside her. And she’d do anything to fill it in.
And though it’s red blood bleeding from her now. It's more like cold blue ice in her heart.
She feels like kicking out all the windows. And setting fire to this life."

What I meant to say is that I will be leaving in three weeks, so I can take care of my pet bacteria until then. So, I only need to maintain bacteria levels for 10 days while I'm gone.

I was thinking about getting some hardy fish, but since it's a new tank I would just worry about them while I'm gone.

I'm wondering how long it would be before all bacteria starts to die off if they have no source of nutrients. Could I just take the ammonia up to say .5 before I leave and that would last for the 10 days?

Current readings:
Ammonia - .5 (and falling)
Nitrite - >3.3 (spiked)
Nitrate - 20

Last edited by renoharps at 02-Mar-2005 16:34