Tanks in office buildings

[morganatlanta]

For the last few years I've been renting a single office from an office suites company. It looks like I'm going to be moving out to my own space in the same building with a lease directly through the building management company. The big upside to this (aside from paying less for more space) is that I can now have a tank in my office!! Just think of the productivity gains I'll get from the calming effect of gazing at my fishy friends all day!!

Anyway... I'm seeing some challenges. First is limited access to water. There's a bathroom on the floor about 50 feet away, so any water in or out of the tank is going to have to be gotten from a cheap faucet, carried, and not spilled. Second, temperature will be an issue. The building is not really climate controlled on the weekends. The ambient temp could be anywhere from 60 to 85+. Third is that the tank will be left every weekend, so if something goes bad, it will be Monday AM before I see it.

Does anyone else have a tank in an office building? How have you dealt with these challenges, and what others have you run into?

 

[rbredding]

you'll not get more work done.. you'll get LESS work done because you'll be messing with the tank...

I'm just sayin'..

 

[ebojo]

^ agreed. But I say go for it!!

 

[morganatlanta]

Yeah, I was kinda being sarcastic...

 

[rbredding]

I know people that have had tanks in their office (one guy even had one in his CUBICLE...)
it was part of what got me into the hobby..


I couldnt handle it... i'd be too distracted..

but if you can.. go for it.. it's always a nice conversation piece (if you have visitors to your office, that is.. )

 

[texhorns98]

Three things I find wrong here:

Tap water in your tank is not a good thing

85+ degrees will kill most anything eventually, so you'll need a chiller

Not being there over the weekend happens to all of us at some point, but EVERY weekend is asking for trouble, IMO.

 

[rbredding]

tap water is overcome by bringing in his own water mixed properly from home (bringing in his own topoff water also)

chiller.. yeah.. you'll need one of those

if he keeps it low maintenance.. it shouldn't be an issue.. I wouldn't have a REEF.. but a FOWLR tank would be just fine (or even fish and softy tank)...

especially if it is NOT an all in one.. so you can set the lights to a timer and have a HOB filter.. skimmer would be a nice addition, but again, not necessary..

 

[jead85]

if you were going to do it, i would go simple, maybe mostly fowlr or a few zoas or something. but going to complex will likely end in disaster, and definitly a chiller

 

[rbredding]

just curious... how can an OFFICE building be left with ambient temperatures that vary by 20*...

it should have a fully functional HVAC system (by code)...

is it just left off over the weekend?

 

[morganatlanta]

Yes, it is just left off over the weekends, so in the winter it can drop to the low 60s, and if you are on the south/west side on the building in the summer the offices get get well into the 80s.

 

[rkh]

I've had a few experiences with doing this. I had a 12G Aquapod on my desk for nearly 2 years - no issues. Brought the water from home, with water changes every Friday. Office stayed a constant temp.

One night I got a call from a coworker that the janitorial crew found a large puddle under my desk (it wasn't there at 5:30 when I left.) I came in, could not find the leak (though the water level was down an inch), so I broke the system down and brought everything home. Never did find a leak.

I set the tank back up in my wife's office. All went well for 12-18 months until we moved. It was the last thing to move, but the landlord cut the power to the building before we could move it. Came to get it two days after move and water was 42 degrees. Only thing living was a couple of atapsia.

We negotiated with the landlord in the new office to allow a tank - the original lease forbid this. Temperature is computer-controlled, with interior temps allowed to vary between 60 and 80 during non-business hours. So far, no issues as the temp doesn't really vary all that much anyway.

Good luck with your setup!

 

[cr500_af]

I've often wondered about the tanks in schools because of this. In our county, the HVAC units are controlled centrally from the county office. On the weekends, they are either off except when freezing is expected, or set with BIG tolerance for temp swings. When I used to help my mother move her stuff out of her class after the school year, the rooms were HOT... like 85-90 hot.

 

[spike]

My wife had a 3 gallon pico in here office for over 2 years and never a problem. No algae, no cyno, nothing. Man was I jealous. I think the secret was that EVERY Monday morning we filled a gallon jug 3/4 full of saltwater and she did a water change. She had a cleaner shrimp, CUC, emerald goby, and a small clown. Along with green button polyps, hammer coral, and frogspawn, and some polyps. No feeding on weekends did not matter, and when she had vacation coworkers came in and fed Flash, and Emmy.

 

[pamelahaley]

My mom is an executive assistant who gets stuck taking care of her boss's 60 gal. He's out of town all the time and doesn't educate himself on aquatic cohabitation. It's been a disaster. Worst after 3 day weekends. I saw the tank once and it was just hair algae everywhere. I remember a sob story of a $30 shrimp being eaten by a grouper (suprised?). Also, my mom just feeds them too much. She's just come to visit and killed my fish. It took me awhile to learn in the hobby. Yes, of course the fish look hungry. They're fish.

 

[johnqx4]

I have a similar situation and here is what I discovered. This is assuming you aren't putting in a large tank and handling it professionally. OK in rrder for it not to cause too many problems (water etc...) you need to go nano. I would opt for 10 or smaller gallons. I went three. I figured a single gallon of saltwater from home and filtered tap from work would be fine. WRONG

Our temps vary as well, but not that much. obviously cold can be handled with a heater and our building never seemed to get higher than the high seventies. However, evaporation killed me. sucked the tank dry (maybe 20%) over three day weekends. ANd if you get sick or travel, chances are you office "friends" will dutifully kill every thing for you :yes:

After a year... I went fresh.... got a little shrimp and plocostomus that have been there a while. It can loose half its water and everything still lives (got a live plant or two in there as well).

Sorry for the FW cop out, but sometimes, you have to work with what you have, and it is better than no tank or a dead tank.

jg

 

[linda lee]

If you have a lot off foot traffic in your office and if you can afford it, I'd say go mid- to large-size and use a service. You might get a discount on the service contract if you display their company name near the tank. Check out other office buildings, restaurants, hospital lobbies, etc., in your area to see if there are any systems set up and find out who they use.

 

[texhorns98]

Linda Lee;654949 wrote: If you have a lot off foot traffic in your office and if you can afford it, I'd say go mid- to large-size and use a service. You might get a discount on the service contract if you display their company name near the tank. Check out other office buildings, restaurants, hospital lobbies, etc., in your area to see if there are any systems set up and find out who they use.

Maybe you could get the other tenants to chip in $$3-5 a month to have a nice tank to look at. Just make sure you can see it from YOUR desk!