Use an oral medicine syringe to dispense fish tank chemicals

Another super-smart hack from Tracy Hengst:

We have a million of those oral medicine-dosing syringes around our house. You know the kind... they come with infant meds, the kind you get from your pharmacy, etc. Although we use them for playing doctor, I feel bad just throwing them away.

So the other day when I was trying to painstakingly measure out the "chlorine reducer" drops for our fish tank, I had an aha moment. I pulled out one of the droppers and, wouldn't you know it, it took me 2 seconds to measure it out - compared to several minutes using the built-in cover/cup included with the chlorine reducer bottle. To make even easier, I've taken a permant marker to indicate my fish drop fill-line. So, there you go, I managed to gain back 1 1/2 minutes of my busy life :)

I would love to hear ideas from other folks about what they do with their old oral syringes.

So? How have you reused those oral syringes?

Related: Serve lunchbox condiments in a medicine syringe

Comments

[Jenni]

As summer is coming in the distant future, I thought I would add that we like to use these as awesome water gun types. Fill up a bucket of water so that you can easily just pull and shoot. It let's of a great long stream depending on how hard you push.

It's also great in motor development for the little ones.

[Rachel]

Alton Brown taught me that these work great to measure extracts when baking. I handed out some of my extras to my mom and brother so they could benefit too.

[Leanne Waldal]

We use them as bath toys along with empty dishsoap bottles (the kind with squirt top) and our daughter loves squirting water -particularly if she's having a bath with a friend.

[ikate]

We use ours to dispense honey for coughs. Way less chance for a sticky mess then a spoon, easy to trasnsport to the kids room in the middle of the night, the toddler can easily and cleanly get some honey to quiet the cough. And a dip in some hot water then some soap and it's easily cleaned.

[Karl Bielefeldt]

They're also great for measuring water for the water quality tests for your tank.

Just a side note, it makes me extremely nervous to associate medical devices as toys with my kids. If I can get them to hesitate for even half a minute before playing with something potentially dangerous, I feel that's an extra layer of protection in addition to our normal precautions.

I also don't want to let my own guard down. If I ever see my kids playing with a syringe, I don't risk wrongly assuming it's a benign one that we allocated as a toy.

[jesser]

We use them to dispense hydrogen peroxide for a craft we call "Cheater's TieDye" http://jesser.org/crafts.php?cid=9
It is a fun, less messy way to do "tie dye" with kids.

[Tracy]

What a great idea for liquid cooking measurements !! This would definitely make it easier for my daughter's to help out (and make less mess at the same time).

[Kate]

After running them through the dishwasher, I use them to get the juices out of a pan of cooked meat while leaving the fat (which rises to the top) behind.

[Jen]

Painting projects. Little cups of paint, squirt-- new art!

I do love the idea of using them as mini liquid measures. And, of COURSE, AB was the one who thought of it!

[cagey]

I also use those syringes to give my baby tarantula water. No kidding!