College People

killafins

Active Member
If you bring your tanks to college, how do u work it out with winter vacation when u get sent home? I mean... how do u deal with the fish and feeding them and such.
I"m in a huge dilemma... so uhh... if ur a college student and have tanks... how do u make do with such, like going home on weekends and so on and so forth...
 

stumpdog

Member
If you live in the dorms I don't know how it could work. Isn't your break around a month or so? They totally close the dorms down don't they? If you are living in a dorm it may not be an option. If you have an apartment have a friend come over and do maintenance. Sorry
Jeremy
 

bdhough

Active Member
try and find a lfs to baby sit them for a while. They may charge you a weekly fee. My lfs does that. Possibly invest in a 10 gallon tank and take them home? As far as weekends go fish can generally go a week without eating if they are well fed as it is. If you stay gone longer than that then worry. Automatic feeders tend to over feed from what i've heard.
 

killafins

Active Member
THe college i go to have no dorms... they have apartments but the problem is all my roomies may be leaving for winter break. that's why i'm so curious how people bring tanks to school and deal with this...
What do u mean overfeed??? is there a way to set it to a certain amount? Has anyone ever used them?
 

bdhough

Active Member
i've heard mixed reviews and having never used one could not tell you really. The ones i've seen feed twice a day. Without experimenting with one i don't know though.
 

dacia

Active Member
When I was in college, I knew some people that had tanks in their rooms. They did as was suggested and gave the fish to a LFS to babysit for a little bit. I think it was very inexpensive, especially if you give them food to feed your fish rather than ask them to feed them with their own stuff. If you leave your filter and powerheads going the whole time you are gone, then things should be fine for when you are ready to put the fish back in.
I was told not to use automatic feeders since they don't feed your fish the same amounts as you normally would...and with no person to watch it, you never know what could happen. It is a good idea if someone could really get it to work.
 

sleasia

Active Member
I have had a double tank system for three years which I have just converted to two saltwaters instead of one goldfish and one saltwater. I have used all types of automatic feeders...they do not work well simply because they are meant to administer dry flake food or pellets. because they sit over a partially open area of the tank lid, moisture tends to get to them and gum up the dry food in such a way that it does not usually after a day or so dop out of the feeder and into the tanks properly. some are made with a place to attach an air hose to try and eleviate this gumming up dilemma, but in general they do not work so well. Goldfish are no problem since they and tropical fish have weekend feeder blocks which slowly dissolve and release food. Which brings up the need (all you rocket scientists and pet store guys) to simply invent something of this nature for saltwater fish!!!. your best bet is to get a janitor or someone with access to the dorms to come in once every other day and throw, a pre measured, pre packaged amount of food into the tank for you...put it in little tupperwares or into film containers or something so no one doing it for you makes the mistake of overfeeding.....
 
Ok everyone has been talking about feeding but what about water top off. I mean I lose almost agallon a day. In my 55 if you skip topoff one day it seems like a huge amount to bring it back up and if a smaller tank then the salinity spike would be worse. I guess you could rig a float switch system for topoff though. Just another thing to throw out there.
Rich
 

sleasia

Active Member
Again it would be safest to mark your usual water level on the tank with some tape, prepare a large vessel of treated ph correct water without salt and instruct someone to check the tank periodically while you are away and add the prepared water to the tank until the water level reaches the mark (tape) on the tank....If you add treated freshwater without saline, once added to the dehydrated concentrated saltwater in the tank, it should dilute it and bring the tank water to the proper salinity. Remember salt does not evaporate, only the water it is mixed with...When you return then you will need to do water changes with saltwater to bring down the nitrates....for a week or so of absence this would work, but if you are gone for months it probably will not....Being in the medical profession, the other possibility which comes to mind would be to titrate water into the tank using some similar set up as an Intravenous line, where fluid is titrated slowly from a vessel (using gravity so the vessel must hang somewhere above the top of the tank) down through tubing and dripped into the tank. drip rates can be controlled with a turn screw thing the tubing slides through. In hospitals we can even hook this up to a machine which very precisely regulates the flow (because after all people to the rest of the world are more important than fish.).(hint hint for fish rocket scientists, another useful invention to make affordable for us)You would have to test a system like this before your leaving and be sure it works. Many online places have such set ups available. If you know a nurse or doctor they can easily pick one up for you from hospital supply rooms
 

the claw

Active Member
When I lived in the dorms, I took my fish home with me on winter break. The whole tank. What a pain in the butt, but I liked having my fish and it was a great conversation starter at the college. When I went to apartments I got a bigger tank, and just had to stay a little closer to "home". and.....I agree, water top-off was more of a problem to me than feeding.
 

jeo

Member
It is possible to set up top off systems. I don't know exactly how but if you wanted to I know it could be done. I have seen them mostly uses for nanos, but I'm sure you could use the same idea on a larger scale. I am also going to college this fall and am going to have to leave my tank home with my parents :eek: I have thought about starting up a nano that would be small enough to take home over winter break, but I think I am going to worry about adjusting to college life at this point, plus I can still visit my tank at home.
 

the claw

Active Member
It's probably best to leave your best stuff at home anyways. I remember walking into my room as a friend was dumping beer into my tank. :eek:
It didn't seem to bother the fish, but he almost died.:D
 

dacia

Active Member
It didn't seem to bother the fish, but he almost died. :D
If my "friend" would ever do that to my fish tank, I don't believe I would have a friend anymore. :mad:
 

sleasia

Active Member
Yes...dumping a beer into a saltwater tank would definately end a friendship, possibly also any remaining traces of the genetic lineage of such an idiot.....
another note on replenishing evaporation....You would really need to estimate it....mark with tape the top of your usual water level ...then mark again where it evaporates down to in say 3 or 4 days....then refill your tank with prepared water, measuring as close as possible how much you put back in. Then you have an estimate...say 3-4 litres dissapears in 3-4 days....Then you can rig up your titration to drip in this much over that period of time....The problem is the evaporation may vary depending on the weather, the air conditioning, light coming in the window etc. So ultimately there will be problems with the whole set up.....more later shelley
 

jeo

Member
you actually wouldn't have to do that. I have heard of people setting up top off systems that work automatically. You can buy a probe for I think $50 that will turn on a pump in the top off water container when the water in your tank or sump reaches a certain level and then turn it back off when the water reaches a higher level from being filled up.
 

the claw

Active Member
Can't you use a mechanism sort of like in the tank of your toilet at home, using a float. If know one knows what I'm talking about, take a field trip into the bathroom and check it out.
 

bbreaux1

Member
i did a water top off for my 55gallon that i found plans on for online i lost the link but i need to find it again ill post it if i fing it. it is just a float switch from grainger, a relay from radio shack, and a piece of extension cord. i think it costed like 20-30$ to make and then i had it turn on a airpump to pressurise a gas tank filled with water to fill the tank. it has worked pretty good only had it empty the gas tank a few tiems when a snail stayed on the switch but i think there is a gaurd you can put on it that would probibly stp this. i only had it on a 2 gallon tank so the water didnt make the salinity change much. and im in college away from homei just leave my tank here and put the food in a pill tray with the days marked and have my mom or dad add whatever liquids i usually add then put it in the tank
 

gibbus

Member
I am a college student. I live at home so i dont have to deal with what to do with the tank during vacations.
 
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