# General > AquaTalk >  About to enlist for NS soon

## tatguy

Hi i am about to be enlisted for NS ( national service for those who do not know).
And suggestions or advice if i want to keep my CRS alive during this period?
I already prepared feeding timetables for my parents to follow but they are not very sure how to maintain the water quality etc.

Or is decommissioning my tank a better choice? the CRS population has just started to boom and decommissioning it seems like such a waste.

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## eviltrain

dont have to decom la. as long as your setup is simple enough that nothing will go wrong.

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## tatguy

Haha my setup very simple but my parents tend to mess up. I went for fishing trip for 1 week and when i came back the tank was full of food and algae...

Oh and those with experience with NS, is the weekly break enough to provide bare minimum care for a 2 feet CRS tank with about 150-200 shrimps with growing population

For now my routine is almost bi-daily interchanging between dosing minerals,gradivas,bioplus,feeding and cleaning

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## AlexHcp

Welcome to NS... Haha if weekly you are disciplined enough, there sure aren't any problem to maintain the tank, but do remember that there might be days you don't book out, or if you might be too tired ( trust me on this) and also your first 2 weekends you will be " confined" ... So it's all up to you. As a hobbyist I won't encourage you to decomm, perhaps try to lessen the minerals usage etc, and basically just teach your parents the basic food feeding scheldue and how to do water change. Or you can write it down for them to remember, or better still, label your items to state which days to use the items. Life will be easier after your Bmt and when you are in unit, you will have more (unless you unlucky) time to care for your shrimps...

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## Shaihulud

Ask them to feed minimally or not at all, shrimps can take not feeding for a month in my experience. may wish to throw in some dead leaves for food. Put the lighting on a timer.

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## tatguy

@alexhcp: Guess that is what i can do for now. only can hope nothing goes wrong for the first 2 weeks at least. Its just as people who do not know much about fish and shrimps, my parents tend to keep feeding until the fish and shrimps look "full" to them

@shaihulud: haha my shrimps are quite weird they hunt each other for food only after 2-3 days of not feeding. maybe because i always make sure there is nothing leftover to rot in my tank. My lights are already on timer. Guess all i can do now is hope that my parents follow my timetable

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## AlexHcp

Haha tell me which company you posted to for BMT I see any friend ask them go easy on you and try not to keep you back during weekends hahaha...

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## hardric

Pack the food in small packets with the dates clearly listed. Feed small amounts only.

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## tatguy

I am not going for BMT , I going for physical training because i missed napfa so i guess i have no company yet.

Currently i am just using those medicine boxes with dates to feed because i myself am quite forgetful also haha

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## vannel

Physical Training Phase (PTP) is an extension of the usual BMT programme. You will still be assigned to a company, but, I doubt you will know which company till enlistment date.

Anyway, I would reckon decomm is better. Having to trouble others to help take care of your tank for long periods of time is probably not ideal unless they are already in the hobby. Otherwise, everyone ends up suffering, which defeats the purpose of having this hobby in the first place.

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## AlexHcp

True True... somehow agreed with what Bro Vannel said...

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## Ecalyte

Don't bother decomming your tank. If your tank is matured enough with enough biofilm and plants, then your CRS will be fine without food for the week that you're in the army. You just need to be very vigilant that when you're back during the weekend you do your water changes, your dosing and feeding.

If I were you, I wouldn't bother your parents with a feeding regime. Your CRS are quite self sufficient when it comes to food.. they will find food that are not visible to our naked eye.

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## sqwerc

If want to feed suggest you go buy one of those pill boxes labelled Monday to Sunday and portion the food for your parents. All they need to do is open the lid and drop in whatever is inside for that particualr day - easy ans hassle free for them. When you bookout refill for them!

Water change you need to find the time to do it own your own i guess. Good luck with NS! It isn't so bad actually.. When you start working it is a deeper hole hahaha!

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## tatguy

I think i shall start asking them to try take care of my tank while I am still around to see how it goes then. If it does not work out well then most probably i would have to find other means or simply decom my tank for the time being

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## Navanod

Feeding is a small issue. Get a good auto feeder (means a more expensive one like Resun or Eheim, that'll prevent the food from getting moist and moldy/clog up the feeder) that can dispense fine pellet food like Hikari shrimp cuisine.
Just check once a week that there's food left and that the remaining food are not moldy (even a good autofeeder cannot prevent the food from going bad if you put too much in the holder and it cannot finish after more than a month).
Fine tune the feeder to dispense just a small amount each day, you can always feed the good stuff on weekends. Maybe your parents can just help to feed 1 stick of algae wafer a day or something like that.

For water parameters and waterchange, thats up to how much testing you're doing and how stable your tank is. If water is stable and your filtration is good, you might get away with no water change for weeks.

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## tatguy

Hmm the way i feed currently is tie the food to a string then remove it after about 4-7hrs of use.

I completely seal up my tank due to cooking at home so i do not much water change. at most only once per months or once per 1.5 months

hahaha i completely trust my plants to clean my water.

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## reiner09

hi bro tatguy,
I also had that difficulty you are facing now when i was wearing green(awhile ago before i orded). Actually it is alright not to feed them for a week,there are still algae and micro organisms for them to feed on. just make sure that at least a certain amount( depending on your population and tank size) of bioplus is fed in the mid-week,they should survive.
or you can get alot of moss for them to pluck on..they won't starve..

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## tatguy

haha then i think mine should be fine as long as i get my parents to toss in half a spoon of bioplus once every 2 days. i already have quite alot of plants

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## BFG

Decom your setup, lesser worries for you while at camp. Accident might happen and there is no one at home who knows how to rectify the situation. I will give you an example. Suppose there is a leak during the night and the water somehow touches an electrical outlet and the water spread to the floor. Your parent might stepped on this water and get injured. Will you be ready to face the guilt seeing that you caused them to get injured?

The hobby is not a priority for you at this junction. You can take it up again later when you complete your NS stint. You could save up some funds during your ns period and plan for a good setup.


Hope this helps!

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## tatguy

Hmm hear you say like that I stress already. Actually electric problem is no issue to me i very "kiasu" i sealed all my plugs with silicone just in case water contacts, dipped the entire socket in water before for 1 day with electric on to test :Grin: .

i only scared the leaking part etc, for now i asked my family to try taking care of my tank already still got 1month plus more to see if they can handle it.

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## 1112

i am not sure if you can find some kind of nutrition tablets for CRS. 

last time when i was away for 2 weeks holiday, i put these tablests that desolved in the tanks and the fishes could stay without food.

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## Navanod

Thode tablets are not very popular with shrimps and fouls the water if the tank volume is not very large. Risky for CRS imho

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## tatguy

Haha i am aware of the water fouling problem that is why i prefer if someone take care of my shrimp for me.

Anyway so far so good i think they should survive during my NS period.

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