Zack
Thu, 23rd Oct 2014, 01:38 AM
So after chatting with a few reefers on here, I've heard a ton of really crazy stories that actually had super happy endings and I'm curious to find out what crazy thing you guys did that actually worked?
So, here's mine and it requires a bit of background story.
In 2011, I was a sophomore at Texas State University, living in one of the apartment style dorms on campus. During the year, the dorms would be closed in December for the semester break, and during the summer. Spring break and Thanksgiving were optional provided your RA was ok with it. In this case, my tank would only need to be moved twice a year for two years which wasn't terrible. Then, came the worst news ever. My RA got news that the dorm itself would be undergoing maintenance and that all the dorms would be locked (we had electronic keys) so that the construction could go unimpeded by students. It was Tuesday, and I had a choice to make. I could take the tank down, move it to San Antonio for the week, then move it back. I could Take it to San Antonio, and rely on my parents to do my maintenance (dosing, twice weekly water change, top offs daily by hand) but that sounded terrible. Or I could roll the dice and try to leave the tank alone by itself. After consulting with Allan, I decided that my fish would need to be fed, so the first order of business would be getting an auto feeder. A trip to petsmart (no local LFS up here) got me and Eheim feeder. Easy enough to install and it worked like a charm. Now onto the big problem, top offs. I would not have time to order a proper setup so I had two options: One, not top off the tank at all and buy some glass to lower evaporation. But since school got out by 5PM Tuesday, it wouldn't be until the following Monday I would be allowed back into the dorm. My next option would be to add a ton of freshwater and hope things evened out but I immediately realized that was a horrible idea. Then it hit me. My tank had a pretty consistent rate of top offs. Something like two gatorade bottles a day (the fat ones) one in the morning and one in the evening. And I had a pump. So I went to walmart and got a digital timer with two on/off cycles a day. I then got a bucket, filled it with RODI and made several loops in the tubing up to the tank and plugged in my pump. I manually started the timer and watched it. In about a minute and a half, one gatorade bottle was full after head pressure and the loops! I then tested my salinity, which at this time was 1.027. I decided I would shoot for two minute ATO twice daily and lowered the level in my tank a few inches to compensate for the extra water. I also added a fan to increase evaporation so that it would prevent an over fill and increase my evaporation and salinity. I duck taped the crap out of the tubing and tested it out for one day. Everything seemed to work and I took the leap of faith. I put a big sign on my door saying, "DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING ON THE AQUARIUM" as my RA said maintenance would be testing smoke alarms etc..
Monday morning, I drove up to school super nervous, opened the door, and BAM! Everything was snug as a bug.
And that's how I made a ghetto ATO that could have totally nuked my tank..
What's your story?
So, here's mine and it requires a bit of background story.
In 2011, I was a sophomore at Texas State University, living in one of the apartment style dorms on campus. During the year, the dorms would be closed in December for the semester break, and during the summer. Spring break and Thanksgiving were optional provided your RA was ok with it. In this case, my tank would only need to be moved twice a year for two years which wasn't terrible. Then, came the worst news ever. My RA got news that the dorm itself would be undergoing maintenance and that all the dorms would be locked (we had electronic keys) so that the construction could go unimpeded by students. It was Tuesday, and I had a choice to make. I could take the tank down, move it to San Antonio for the week, then move it back. I could Take it to San Antonio, and rely on my parents to do my maintenance (dosing, twice weekly water change, top offs daily by hand) but that sounded terrible. Or I could roll the dice and try to leave the tank alone by itself. After consulting with Allan, I decided that my fish would need to be fed, so the first order of business would be getting an auto feeder. A trip to petsmart (no local LFS up here) got me and Eheim feeder. Easy enough to install and it worked like a charm. Now onto the big problem, top offs. I would not have time to order a proper setup so I had two options: One, not top off the tank at all and buy some glass to lower evaporation. But since school got out by 5PM Tuesday, it wouldn't be until the following Monday I would be allowed back into the dorm. My next option would be to add a ton of freshwater and hope things evened out but I immediately realized that was a horrible idea. Then it hit me. My tank had a pretty consistent rate of top offs. Something like two gatorade bottles a day (the fat ones) one in the morning and one in the evening. And I had a pump. So I went to walmart and got a digital timer with two on/off cycles a day. I then got a bucket, filled it with RODI and made several loops in the tubing up to the tank and plugged in my pump. I manually started the timer and watched it. In about a minute and a half, one gatorade bottle was full after head pressure and the loops! I then tested my salinity, which at this time was 1.027. I decided I would shoot for two minute ATO twice daily and lowered the level in my tank a few inches to compensate for the extra water. I also added a fan to increase evaporation so that it would prevent an over fill and increase my evaporation and salinity. I duck taped the crap out of the tubing and tested it out for one day. Everything seemed to work and I took the leap of faith. I put a big sign on my door saying, "DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING ON THE AQUARIUM" as my RA said maintenance would be testing smoke alarms etc..
Monday morning, I drove up to school super nervous, opened the door, and BAM! Everything was snug as a bug.
And that's how I made a ghetto ATO that could have totally nuked my tank..
What's your story?