Betta Fish: Automating my betta’s tank before going away for 2 weeks

I recently went on a 2 week holiday and I left my betta at home in his tank with an automatic food dispenser. It was successful, and I just wanted to talk about all the steps I took.

Tank details: 11 gallon densely planted community tank which houses my betta Berry, small schools of CPDs, Pygmy cories and some red cherry shrimp.

Disclaimers: It’s a well established tank that’s been running for 4 years and isn’t prone to a lot of chemical swings.
My betta Berry is also peaceful and has never exhibited a tendency to jump.

If I was going only for a week, I’d likely not have used a food dispenser. But since it was for longer, I had to use it.

This is the checklist of things I did before leaving-
1. 50% water change the day before leaving and tested all parameters to make sure they were in order. Added some liquid ferts.
2. Swapped out my Bluetooth aquarium light for a basic one in case of power cuts. Automated this using a timer switch.
3. Dialled back the CO2 by around 30%
4. It’s warm where I live right now and the temp is 25 degrees C during the day, and can go to 21-22ish at night. So I automated my heater to only turn on for a few hours at night. However, a temperature based cutoff might make more sense for a heater.
5. My tank has a tight fitting lid as you can see in the pictures. I made a makeshift mesh for the hold where the food gets dropped so that my betta doesn’t jump out from there.
6. I use a mixture of different kinds of food for all the different fish, some floating and some sinking. I made a homogenous powder using a bit of each kind of food and put it all into the auto feeder. The powder is so that no larger particles can jam up the opening of the feeder. I calibrated the opening to the required amount and tested it for a week before leaving home.
Since my betta has to compete with my other fish for the food, I figured he may not get the chance to gobble everything up himself.
7. Made sure to put fresh batteries into the auto feeder the day before leaving.
8. Removed all the floating duckweed so that the food doesn’t settle on it.

I don’t have any friends nearby who could check up on him or whom I could trust and give him to, so I had to take this risk.

Came back yesterday to find everything was fine and Berry was doing great. No casualties amongst my other fish, as well.

There was some algae buildup and my cabomba has gone crazy, I guess because of changes to the light.

Tested the tank water and all the parameters were also fine. The nitrate level was actually lesser than when I left, which the cabomba likely used up.

I am very relieved 🙂

P.s: I’m not claiming to be an expert or recommending anyone else to do the exact same thing.
This is what worked for me, and just thought of posting in case it helps anyone else 🙂
I am open to learning and if there are better ways of doing this, please let me know.

These pictures are from yesterday when I came back.