Saying goodbye to my aquarium

Great video. Inspirational to see someone love their fish tank so much!!! The way you shot those videos, and kept at it each and everyday, you can tell you deeply cared for them! Good luck in college and hope to see you get back into fish!
 
crystal / fire reds / zebra otos should be a simple setup and as long that you keep ph at 7 or just a bit under...the crystals should be fine
what are you taking in college anyway?
 
Take the long view. It's really hard when you're 17-18, and a year looks big. But it'll work through. You'll love college and soon be able to go mad with tanks.

We don't have so much of that going away to study and living in a dorm thing here. I got a cheap apartment and a part time job, and did my University part time in the evenings. Through a good run of rough flats and rooms, I kept my 20 gallon running, carting it from place to place. Once you've gotten your degree and hopefully gotten a decent job, you can start up properly. All though those lean years for fishkeeping, I always found a little time to read what the library had about fish (I was studying history and education). I even found a sub library halfway between my two part time jobs that had decades of aquarium magazines to read. One job finished at 4 and the other started at 7, and I was downtown anyway...
The idea of aquariums was really on the back burner, because I was into what I was learning both in and out of school. But by the time I was 28, I was back up to 3 tanks, and enjoying aquariums as one of many good things going on.

I don't think you're memorializing the tank. You're reflecting a stage. It's like an annual killifish egg - temporarily still and buried in a dried up waterhole, but set to hatch and thrive when the rains come again. High School can be awful, and you don't seem to like where you live, so I guess part of moving on to what you want needs a temporary sacrifice.
 
@Ellie Potts

Cheer up Ellie, you are young. I know it is hard to have to give up all your fish and tanks, but it is only for a few years and you can restart in the hobby and have many more great years.

I am turning 75 this year and am starting my second year on a two year path to giving up all my tanks because I can no longer keep up with them. I started in the hobby late and made up for it my ramping up my tank count fast. After almost 3 years it was 14. At the peak in summers it was more like 28. I have had some of my fish for 15 or more years.

Trust me when I tell you giving it all up for good is a lot harder than knowing I could go back to it in a a few years, When I was in college I lived in dorms for the first 3 semesters (1.5 years). And from then on I lived off campus. So you may find in a year or two you do the same and then you can retank sooner than you thought.

One other idea you might try if possible. If there is local fish or pet store with a fish department that needs part time help and you are willing to work for poor pay, you can still spend time working with fish and talking fish to folks.

BTW, even after I am down to one or no tanks, I plan to continue posting on fish sites and attending my fish club meetings. I may have to give up keeping fish, but I do not have to quit talking and writing about them. ;)

edited fo typos and spelling
 
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Nice video. Triple red apistogrammas! I know you will miss the tanks but when you set back up after you graduate and have time, you'll know what you want and how to do it!
 
I hope things will work out just fine for you with setting up a smaller tank. So, you don't have to say goodbye to the hobby itself.
 
@Ellie Potts
You have your priorities in the right place. Schooling is more important right now so that you can better afford the hobby and other things in life in the future. Sounds like you have a plan for your life and my bet is you will be very successful.
 
There have been times in the past when I had gotten rid of or lost all of my equipment and still I came back to the hobby. You will never cease to be an aquarist. It’s in your blood and there is nothing you can do about that.
If its in my blood, I hope I dont get a disease 🤪😂
 

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