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The Age of Aquarium
When I was a kid, I grew up tending a freshwater aquarium. I used to love creating an environment for the fish and making new scenery for them etc. For the last couple of years I started up my hobby again. I had 2 tanks in Monterey that did pretty well.
Currently, I have a 20 gallon tank that I have guppies in. It is too small, so I decided to upgrade to a larger tank. I scored a 55 gallon tank on Craigslist for $30. But, and I knew this going into it, it leaks. There is a small leak at one of the corners. My friend Roddy is a marine engineer. He advised me to redo the entire seal on the inside. He's helping me remove the seal and is going to help me reseal it. We couldn't work on it much this weekend because of the rain. So, I hope to get to it this week. When it's all done, I'm going to stock livebearers in it. Most likely guppies and maybe a few mollies. I also have some Cory catfish at the bottom which are great at eating up excess food. I took a look at another board that specializes in home aquariums and found that there are some pretty die hard aquarists out there. Some people have two or three 200 gallon tanks in their houses! I also looked at a photo gallery of one person who built an entire room for his tanks. Anyway, I thought I'd share. It's a pretty fun project so far. The tank is going to take up some prome real estate in our dining room, but it's going to look so awesome when I'm done.  I hope you won't mind me blogging this process out here on LoT... :) |
I think fish can be a lot of fun. I used to have a cool fishtank and had quite a few zebra fish and some little day glow fish, sorry don't remember their name. Now I have cats and the fish wouldn't be allowed to live!
Watching a fish tank can be very soothing for the soul. Plus it's fun to think up ways to redesign or redecorate, if you will. When I was 20 my upstairs neighbor had 5-8 huge fish tanks, some were fresh water and some were saltwater. He said the saltwater tanks were harder to maintain for temperature and salt ratio or something. They were really neat to look at though. Sitting in his living room was like visiting a big aquarium, it was great! One evening his girlfriend went into a rage for some reason. All I could hear from my apartment was a lot of stomping and loud noises. Soon though water started pouring from my ceiling. I knew instantly what had happened and grabbed my old fish tank and any buckets or bowls I could find and raced upstairs. He was running frantically around his apartment screaming for help. Luckily we saved most of them but that cost him a fortune to replace all the tanks. Sadly for me when I got down to my apartment I realized that most of my wedding items had been destroyed. I was heartbroken also, until my husband left me a year or so later. Then I was happy I had less to throw away! I look forward to updates on your new aquarium! I like pictures too! |
Which totally reminds me:
1. Never tick off Ralphie. :D 2. Anchor tank to the wall. (Frodo likes to jump up and lean on the tank glass and bark at the fish.) :) |
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Of course, someone's decapitated head ends up in the one fishtank that doesn't get broken. |
My computer sounds like a fish tank now, I miss my fish tanks...
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We have a 50 gallon tank that I got from my dad (that he got when I was 10) that has a very large Jack Dempsey Cichlid, a snowflake eel, and a bunch of feeder fish. We can't put pretty fish in there because Herman (the cichlid) will eat them. We never ever see the eel, but the goldfish are steadily disappearing, so we assume he's alive. When Herman dies we'll make it more of a hobby and get some pretty fish.
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I have an aquarium screensaver on my computer, too, and I've spent a lot of time watching the screensavers on the Finding Nemo DVD, but it's not the same as the real thing.
GC, please post photos. |
Aww, now I miss my fishtank. We had it between rooms, so to speak, so you could look through it at people.
It was fun, but ultimately I found fresh-water fish far less interesting than their salt water brethren. Alas, salt-water aquariuming is a far more lofty and difficult a pursuit ... which I never mastered. One incident of coming home to underwater apocalypse ... the carrion-strewn, sea floor battlefield of some unimagined war of the fishes ... was enough to put me off aquariumization forever. |
I'd have another salt water aquarium in an instant if I didn't already have enough living things to care for. I miss Puffer.
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I will post photos once I start working on it again sometime this week. Roddy's workshop is in his basement and is really damp right now. I have a aquarium stand to paint and the sealant to put in. If it's too moist, nothing will set right and may take longer too. I love salt water aquariums, but after working at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I realized that they are a tremendous amount of work. I'll stick to freshwater for now, the fish are less colorful, but I love guppies... so purty. Ralphie scored me some ph testing strips. The water in my little tank is in need of a little adjustment. |
I think you need to find a way to presurize your aquarium so you can keep some creatures from Ralphie's next dive.
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"I've never seen so many electric jellyfish in my life!" "Those are Brazilian Man-o-wars." "So they are, Klaus, edit that last part." |
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"Don't shoot him, he's an unpaid intern!" |
Yes, pictures please as the work progresses.
I never got further than goldfish at my office. We had a naming contest and after the first goldfish killed the other, it was obvious, I needed to change the names. OJ and Ronald Goldfish. OJ lived a long frickin time, too, over 3 years in that bowl. Was toying with a betta, but not at home, Tango would have that for snack an have water all over the place, too. |
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Now I want a Moon Jellies tank. How cool would that be to have in your livingroom?
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Might pricey though, maybe the private jet you send out to pickup scaeagles can pick one up for you. |
Better save my pennies. That would be a VERY cool thing to have.
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My dad is into freshwater tanks. He'd been a hobbyist as a kid and picked it up again when I was 15. He's had all kinds of fish and various other immersive creatures over the years since then.
Salt fish may be prettier but fresh have plenty of interesting personalities. You can have aloof plecostemous, majestic angel fish, bullying tiger barbs, slinking eels, tiny-not-so-smart frogs, cranky crabs, or guppies that love to have sex all day long, just to name a few. |
One of my guppies gave birth to 4 fry yesterday. They do bang a lot. Totally.
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I used to have some of these
 I suppose that is where my facination with sharks began |
You can keep this one in your bathtub
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Imagine our fish food bill...
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Bala sharks are great. They look like they would be aggressive, but actually they are very calm as long as they are in schools. I had several in Monterey. One disappeared though. Weirdest thing. I checked everywhere, inside and outside of the tank and nothing. Disappeared.
Red Tailed Sharks, on the other hand, are really aggressive. They're pretty but sometimes can be mean. Especially if there are two in a tank. Very territorial. |
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I don't know why, but fish scare me. I avoid aquariums. At the dental office where Erica used to work they have an aquarium and I had to not look at it. The koi that Tramspotter has are going to jump out of their pond and eat me or something. The koi at the DLH skeeve me. The photo that I posted of baby Sharky! is creeping me out. I think it's the scales because sharks, whales, dolphins and other sea life don't bother me. |
I hate crabs.
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As for the other kind of crabs, don't know about them. :D |
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My son and I say that all the time! lol
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I completed sealing the aquarium on Sunday. I used a silicone sealant that needs to cure for 7 days. I could test it before the 7 day deadline, but I was advised to let it cure for as long as possible before adding water to test it.
I took pictures on Sunday and have yet to download them. They aren't exciting yet... :D I also sanded and painted my stand and brought it home to display a 20 gallon tank I already have. I need to find a way to secure the stand to the wall. I noticed that when I walk near it, it does wobble a little. I'd hate for a 55 gallon tank of water to fall. If you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate them. The stand is wrought iron and has no holes drilled into the legs at all for me to screw in a brace. Other stands that I have had in the past did... |
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:) |
There must be brackets that would loop around the wrought iron. Something like a U-shaped thingie with wings to screw into the wall.
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 This is the tank that I resealed. The can is not a product placement. It's for scale. I like the Green Stamps sign that Roddy has in his basement. He discovered it there when he moved in. So cool. :)  This is the rust-ola stand. I sanded it and painted it a Jules Verne bronze color.  Close up of ugly old color.  Foxgloves in Roddy's garden.  More flowahs. :) |
LOVE THE GREEN STAMP SIGN.
Gotta take my caps lock off. ;) |
That's a big tank! You should be able to have a lot of fun with it, I can't wait to see the pictures when it's complete.
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One of my guppies gave birth to 4 babies last night. Luckily, I have a lot of hiding places for them. :)
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Love the green stamps sign, too! |
Grandpapa?!
:faints: :D |
By the way, funny story about this thread title.
When my sister was like 2 years old, we would listen to my tape of 'Hair'. She used to sing, 'This is the dawning of the age of aquarium...' So funny, so cute... (Yesterday was her birthday. 24 years old. Wow.) :) |
I thought my 55 gal tank was big!
Man Builds 50,000 gallon fish tank in his house There are pictures, too. He be crazy, y'all. :eek: |
Speechless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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My dad went through a hardcore fish phase. We had at least 5 tanks going, including two 175 gallon tanks.
I'm sure if he could have gotten his hands on a 55,000 gallon tank, he would have. And I would have been lucky enough to clean it. |
 So, I did a leak test this morning by placing the tank on some dry newspapers. I let it sit for a couple of hours and no leaks! Yeehaw! :)  Close up of test.  Installing the tank inside the house. These two pics are before Ralphie secured the tank and stand to the wall. You know, just in case...   Tank installed with water added... I started the cycling process by introducing some ornaments and fake-o plants to the tank. The gravel is also from a matured tank that will help the process. After a couple of weeks, the tank should be ready to house some fish... :)  Frodo as I was working outside. This is his favorite mud spot to sit in. I have no idea why he likes it, but he does... :D He just got a bath, too... |
That's one mightty funny looking dog-fish. ;)
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The leak test you did for your tank is much like what I did for my computer's cooling system, my new flow meter/level indicator looks like it belongs in an aquarium setup :)
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:mad:
Grrr. Cycling a tank is the most annoying experience ever. A lot of sit and wait... then test the water...then sit and wait for a couple of days... test the water.... etc. I haven't even been able to put fishies in yet. Once the ammonia and nitrite levels are at 0.00 and an acceptable level of nitrates are present in the water, then I can put fish in. Until then, I am like an unbaptized child. I'm in limbo. :D |
Okay, how pissed am I?
Very. My tank just sprung a leak and flooded our apt. Back to sqaure one, kids. Fu Ck! :mad: Brad smash!!!!! |
OH NO! :eek:
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OMG! I'm so sorry.
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I just transferred everything to an older, smaller tank. Everything's dry now. It appears that I didn't made the seal thick enough in one small area. So, now I have to take off the seal from the entire tank and start over. Bleh.
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A blown seal is a happy seal... no wait
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I was wondering how your fishies were doing. I've been breeding virtual fish of my own on Fish Tycoon. It's fairly lame.
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Right now here's my fish count:
6 adult guppies (4 female, 2 male) 2 guppy fry (I lost one today) 4 Cory Cats 1 Black Pleco 1 Rubber Lipped Pleco 4 snails 1 Angelfish named "Wanda" They are doing fine. They are a bit squished now, but they're doing okay. :) |
Greenfin Stickfish: 3
Spined Spotanus: 2 Greenfin Spotanus: 6 (They're sparkly magic fish!) Orange Spotanus: 1 Twinfin Shark: 1 Too young to tell yet: 3 But yours are, I'm guessing, far more rewarding than my video fish. ;) |
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:D |
True. But your fish are still better. Will you reseal the tank soon?
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I say new tank... :) |
I say new tank. You deserve it. And won't somebody please think of the fishies!
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One more vote for new tank.
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MF & NA... tanks. I mean, thanks. :D
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I say you splurge for a little sunken pirate ship, too.
Or better, a model of the Nautilus with divers harvesting "food" from the bottom of the tank. Do they make that? Because they totally should. |
They totally should. If they did, I'd get it. :)
I found out that it's only $100 for a new glass 55 gallon tank. I don't need all the other stuff, like a hood and light etc. I have all that... |
If they made the Nautilus and divers, WE'D have an aquarium. That would be very cool.
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Surely somewhere there's a nautilus toy that could go in a fishtank. Are fishtank decorations made out of special "don't poison the fishies" plastic, or is it all the same?
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I've got a Sponge Bob pineapple house and jellyfish in my tank. A 20 gallon tank with one lonley beta fish in it.
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A friend at work has a 60 gallon tank with skeletal arms and hands reaching out through the gravel at the bottom; he also has a smaller tank in the chest of a mannequin (that looks like it's in great pain)
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Coaster Matt has the most interesting friends. I'm glad to be one of them even though I'm not quite as interesting as the rest.
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As far as I know, there have not been any officially liscensed Disney Nautilus model kits, and the fan-made garage kits have all been very pricey. This is the coolest sci-fi movie vehicle ever, and it has been sorely under-represented in merchandising for many decades. |
Chris has a faux-Lego model that he got at TDS. It's pretty cool, but not appropriate for an aquarium.
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I've decided to buy a new tank. Tomorrow. Brand new. So new, in fact, that I expect animated sparkle stars to flash indiscriminately all over it. Each flash is to be accompanied by a 'ting' sound effect.
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Ting!
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Ting! GC brings home the new aquarium. It sparkles and shines. I will be working on it this week between work and play performances. Ting! Oh yeah!
Pretty good price, too. $99.00 at PetCo. Ting! It was supposed to have been $109, but an incorrect price tag was on it. They gave me the cheaper, incorrect price. Boo ya! Ting! |
I can get ya a sound effect box with a ting! sound on it, if you'd like
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New tank is up and running. Before and after the play last night I set it up. The fishies are happy in their new digs. I found out I do not need to cycle it because the gravel and everything I added to the tank already had the necessary bacteria attached. I did water tests and all is well. :) I tried taking pictures the other day and just stink at them. I need an East Coast Darkbeer to come over and take pictures of it... |
Here's my finished aquarium. These aren't the best photos, but oh well...
I'll add some actual pictures of fish when I can figure out how to take them... :D  So, I went with an ancient ruins theme. I got the Buddha head from an antiques show that Ralphie and I went to in Brimfield, MA. The jug at the left was a Ralphie find at PetSmart.  You can kind of see my guppies at the right side of the picture.  Here's a pretty okay shot of Wanda (the angel fish). ;)  I created the wall in the center out of slate tiles. I broke them with a hammer and built a retaining wall in the center of the tank. There is a raised gravel terrace in the center of the wall. I tried to take a photo of it but it was very blurry. I made the background of the tank black so the colors of the fish would pop out. It looks better in person. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. Tank dwellers: 1 Angel fish - Wanda 1 Pleco (Black) 1 Rubber Lipped Pleco (Grey) 6 Fancy Guppies (2 Males, 4 Females) 1 guppy fry (lost another one) 4 Cory Cats 4 Snails :) |
That is a really nice looking setup, kind of reminds me of my computer.
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Very cool. That wall rocks (hah!), love the little arch in it.
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Very pretty!
How many fish can live together in that giant tank? You might need more fish. |
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:) |
I've heard angelfish can be mean. My brother used to get those for the fish in his tank, but he only had one that lived for very long. It was kindof fat and had short fins. It was probably eating the other angelfish in the night.
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What a bully that Wanda is... Hmmmm... |
Oh, I hope I didn't give Wanda any ideas.
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One of my mamma guppies just gave birth to 12 fry.
I just separated her from her kids so she wouldn't eat them. :) 12? "Listen, sister, I'm running out of room here..." :D |
Wanda disappeared.
Seriously. I don't have the foggiest idea what happened. I searched all the hiding places and even dug up some of the gravel. Wanda is MIA. It's sort of a blessing in disguise, but it's very strange. We noticed she was gone on Friday and thought maybe she'd turn up later in the day. Nope. Gone. I have a couple of theories. 1. She died for some reason and the guppies and catfish consumed her. 2. She jumped out of the tank and a furry four-legged Frodo ate her. 3. Ralphie murdered her. But I checked the freezer, no frozen fish. So that's out. 4. Kevin Kline came over to my house an ate her. 5. I flushed her in my sleep. Very, very strange. |
:(
Wanda, RIP wherever you are |
Oh, poor Wanda.
Are your other fish fatter than they were before? |
Don't be sad for Wanda, she's a part of the cycle of life. Seeing as how she was mean to the others, be glad. Getting a fish out of a tank can be a very messy business indeed.
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Great. Now I'm singing "Circle of Life" complete with hand motions.
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My aquarium guru, Dustysage, and I discussed getting some neon tetras to add to the tank. So I put 5 in yesterday. They're schooling. It's so cool looking.
:) |
I love those! I hope you can manage to get a picture...
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He-he was lying naked on the broken stones...and this you won't believe! Nobody, nobody, nobody could believe it! It looked as if-as if they had devoured him!...As if they'd torn or cut parts of him away with their hands, or with knives, or those jagged tin cans they made music with. As if they'd torn bits of him away in strips!
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Seriously creepy movie. |
I think it's the whining of Taylor that made that scene particularly eerie. Then there's that scream.
Liz Taylor... the most famous fag hag of all time. :D |
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Poor Monty. |
You realize my "punk rock moniker" was taken from this film? There are still people I see who refer to me as "Dementia Praecox".
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NA said cox.
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Yup, and that just about describes to tto a T. ;)
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