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Hello,
Do Vacation Feeders affect water quality and Can they Kill fish? What are the downsides. Wil they last for only two fish in a tank for the 14-day ones? Thanks.

Chris

They are mostly made out of plaster and other crap, and they tend to make tanks cloudy.

It is best to avoid them altogether and just get an automatic feeder if you're going to be gone for more than a couple weeks.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

They are made out of a calcium compound so that they dissolve from the ph of the water and release little bits of food. Problem is if you have low ph water they will often raise the ph while dissolving. If you have high ph water they will not dissolve. Alot of fish never find the food bits because it just sits at the bottom. Don't expect most tetras and other mid-top swimmers to check them out. There is a high chance the feeders will either mess with the ph or not get eaten and rot causing poor water quality. Most people come back to find a fish or 2 or all of them dead from the vacation feeders. They do work great though for feeding applesnails because they will also eat the white calcium part and I went through a pack of those a week feeding all my snails. I would never suggest adding them to a tank with a ph below 7.2 even for a very short while but then if you have applesnails they need a high ph anyway.