College Advice

[goalieman392]

Well, i will be attending the Savannah College of Art and Design this Fall, and they have a limit of 10 gallons on any aquarium. Ive had my false perc pair for almost 2 years now, and would like to take them with me. I am looking for advice how i should rig everything up.. the tank is to be sumpless as that would exceed the 10 gal limit, and i dont know if i should put a skimmer or that kind of stuff on the tank. I want to keep LPS, softies and zoas, so what kind of lighting would i need? Should i just run powerheads, or closed loop? Are there any tips or tricks when it comes to keeping a sumpless tank that is that small? thanks in advance for all of your help

[McCrary]

Try to sneak in a 15 gallon tank, they may not notice that its going to be a little taller. I would use T5 lighting and go skimmerless with a small heater. Weekly 2-3 gallon water changes should be fine as long as you don't overfeed too much. Powerheads would be a good choice, check with your RA and see if he/she would be upset if you strecthed the limit to 20 gallons. Some rules aren't too strictly enforced and anything under 20 gallons won't strain the floor.

[Tang Salad]

Hmmmm... I think if you explained it nicely, then a 10g tank with a 10g sump is still just a 10g tank. The sump could be inside a stand.

[cbeitel]

A large canister filter will make a big impact on your total system volume. Some hold over 2g. I have a Fluval 204 on a 10g and it holds over 1g.

[adimal]

my friend has a 10 gallon in his dorm: 80 watt power compacts, bak pak skimmer, power filter, powerhead. zoos, softies, lps, anemone, clown, water params fine

[nsreefer]

20 highs look quite small.... hide a 10 gallon sump in the stand and you'd have some decent volume there.

[goalieman392]

thanks for the feedback everyone, yeah ill have to see how flexible they are about volume, but what yall are talkin about seems like what i wanna do.

[useskaforevil]

savannah? you'll go nuts from the pressure alone let alone having to worry about a reef tank :) good job though.

[CeeGee]

If you were smart you would find another field to go into. There isn't very much money in art and the computer (while a wonderful tool) has taken it to an all new low. No matter what the school tells you illustration is all but dead. Very few make a living from it these days.

Good luck on your tank.

[bakestarr]

i run 96w PCs, no skimmer, no sump, no fuge, 15 lbs LR, 1" sand, and all of my parameters are perfect. i also have a small heater, maxi-jet 400 powerhead, and the HOB filter to run carbon.

[goalieman392]

well actually, im going for Visual Effects and computer animation... and i know there is money in it becaues for the last two years ive been making commercials for local companies at $500 a pop ( takes about 7 days, about 1-2 hours a day to finish) and have already done about 45 minutes worth of VFX work on a local movie that i got paid pretty handsomely for. Traditional art seems to be declining though.

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9936501#post9936501 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TurboSnail8898
Try to sneak in a 15 gallon tank, they may not notice that its going to be a little taller. I would use T5 lighting and go skimmerless with a small heater. Weekly 2-3 gallon water changes should be fine as long as you don't overfeed too much. Powerheads would be a good choice, check with your RA and see if he/she would be upset if you strecthed the limit to 20 gallons. Some rules aren't too strictly enforced and anything under 20 gallons won't strain the floor.

It is my oppinion (and some disagree) that smaller tanks need skimmers more than larger tanks do. Water changes will never get you down where you want to be.

I'd also suggest a 10g, with a 10g sump. Build yourself a little piece of furniture. Get a decent external skimmer (NW110/Aquaeuro 65 for $90), and run a couple of T5s.

[MaGNuS042]

get yourself a biocube, they will never know its 14 or 24 gallons. the non-traditional shape will throw them off.
BTW my best friend just graduated SCAD. be careful down there. he was mugged at gunpoint 3 times.

[goalieman392]

thanks for everyones suggestions, the biocube is lookin pretty good right now, and hopefully they will be lax on the size.

Magnus, im gonna go to the atlanta campus i think, so hopefully it wont be as bad as savannah. I think Savannah has like the highest crime rate in the state, and ATL has a little more police presence. Not to mention my cousin is a K9 officer and on SWAT and patrols Scad's campus regularly heh

[CeeGee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9939959#post9939959 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by goalieman392
well actually, im going for Visual Effects and computer animation... and i know there is money in it becaues for the last two years ive been making commercials for local companies at $500 a pop ( takes about 7 days, about 1-2 hours a day to finish) and have already done about 45 minutes worth of VFX work on a local movie that i got paid pretty handsomely for. Traditional art seems to be declining though.

Glad to see you have done a little research. I hope it pays off for you.

[Fuegofish777]

Im a freshman in college, and i was glad to find out that RA's tend to be pretty lax on some rules, especially the pet ones. as long as its not disturbing your roomates/ neighbors, its really not a big deal. I had the same 10g limit but my RA never had a prob with my 12g nanocube, and i assure you I could have easily slipped a 20g without anyone blinking. No one just goes around and inspects the tanks, or rooms for that matter. I dont have the tnak anymore, but i mean I have a 2 sugar gliders in here and my RA just thinks they're cool....let alone does he care if they are allowed. Good Luck, my advice is to make sure it is absolutely leak proof, or as much as can be. they get upset if 10g dumps on the floor...

[useskaforevil]

if your goign to live in atlanta why nto just skip the tank and get a membership to the georgia aquarium? :) and art won't get you money, but my g/f is a graphic design major at kent state and even in Ohio they make 35k to start, so as logn as you;re cool with selling out you should be fine.

[victor_c3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9943656#post9943656 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fuegofish777
Im a freshman in college, and i was glad to find out that RA's tend to be pretty lax on some rules, especially the pet ones. as long as its not disturbing your roomates/ neighbors, its really not a big deal. I had the same 10g limit but my RA never had a prob with my 12g nanocube, and i assure you I could have easily slipped a 20g without anyone blinking. No one just goes around and inspects the tanks, or rooms for that matter. I dont have the tnak anymore, but i mean I have a 2 sugar gliders in here and my RA just thinks they're cool....let alone does he care if they are allowed. Good Luck, my advice is to make sure it is absolutely leak proof, or as much as can be. they get upset if 10g dumps on the floor...


based on my college experience, this is definitely true. Its not as if they go around and inspect all college students' rooms at random. The only way they'll find out that you have an aquarium that is more than 10 gallons is if it breaks and makes a HUGE mess.

just show up to your school and see how your RA's attitude is for a few weeks and then bring whatever sized aquarium you think you can get away with. Most of the time RAs are just students trying to get a little bit of a break on their room and board.

I don't know what this has to do with anything, but we used to get the huge garbage cans (30-50 gallon size), fill them with water, lean them on an unsuspecting peron's door, knock, run, and laugh as their room got flooded.

[corals b 4 bills]

What about running about 50 feet of PVC for a closed loop around the room could bump up the water volume a bit:D

[mxpx4318]

here at NCSU when i was a freshman on campus, I ended up w/ a 20g tank on a stand, a 10g tank on my desk and a 10g under the bed (Q/T tank), so 40g of water, w/ a 10g limit. RA never thought twice about it. If your RA is a stickler for rules though, usually it's a 10g limit per person, so if you've got a roommate and he/she isn't bringing a tank, add another 10g to your system and that's 10g for you and 10g for him/her, that's how I justified my 20g on move in day, then I found that my RA didn't care, so just kept adding, hell my suitemate had a 55g set up in his dorm.

Phillip

[thecichlidpleco]

If Beer can be snuck into dorms then so can something bigger than a 10g

[McCrary]

Rich- I totally agree with your above statement, but this is a situation where it might be better to go wihtout one. It would seem that because of how quickly smaller tanks water quality can degrade it would make sense to use a skimmer as a precaution. A single dead fish could quickly pollute a small tank. But my thinking was that with a skimmerless tank it would avoid the use of a sump, which is a good thing when in a dorm. Skimmers can be loud, smell and externals can pour gallons of water onto the floor. If it was me I would want a simple system that would only require a weekly water change as maintenance and if a 20 gallon tank gets a 3 gallon water change every week, more than half the water would be exchanged every month.

[Ki4msb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9940291#post9940291 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MaGNuS042
get yourself a biocube, they will never know its 14 or 24 gallons. the non-traditional shape will throw them off.
BTW my best friend just graduated SCAD. be careful down there. he was mugged at gunpoint 3 times.

Bio cube is 14 & 29, not 24

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9944130#post9944130 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by victor_c3
based on my college experience, this is definitely true. Its not as if they go around and inspect all college students' rooms at random. The only way they'll find out that you have an aquarium that is more than 10 gallons is if it breaks and makes a HUGE mess.

just show up to your school and see how your RA's attitude is for a few weeks and then bring whatever sized aquarium you think you can get away with. Most of the time RAs are just students trying to get a little bit of a break on their room and board.

I don't know what this has to do with anything, but we used to get the huge garbage cans (30-50 gallon size), fill them with water, lean them on an unsuspecting peron's door, knock, run, and laugh as their room got flooded.


I Think it really depends on the school. I agree with the idea of going for the first couple weeks and feeling things out, so to say.

At BU, anything bigger than 10g would have gotten you thrown out of housing pretty quickly. The RAs were ridiculous.

[areze]

this is a question you really need to ask your roomate. especially if your going pot luck.

if your lucky enough to have your own room, carry on. but otherwise, atleast a bit north at UGA, the dorm rooms are pretty small, and something as space consuming(and heat generating) as a fish tank would have been a huge no no(though 10gallons was allowed according to the rules).

I tried a 10g in my bedroom of my apartment sophmore year. no dice. I didnt have time or interest in it when I was at college, more important things to do.

[ratherbefishin]

I just graduated from Carolina and I had a 20H in my dorm, even though the limit was 10 gallons. I also believe the rule stated that you could only have freshwater aquariums, not marine. Then again, I was an RA so there was really no one that could say anything to me about my tank. But like others have stated before, your general layperson is not going to know how large your tank is and you could have a 15 or 20L/H and no one would be wiser.

As for the 55 in the dorm room over at State, I'd love to see how that worked out spatially.
GO HEELS