The Age of Aquarium

[Gemini Cricket]

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...

[cirquelover]

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!

[Gemini Cricket]

Which totally reminds me:

1. Never tick off Ralphie.
2. Anchor tank to the wall. (Frodo likes to jump up and lean on the tank glass and bark at the fish.)

[Gn2Dlnd]

Originally Posted by cirquelover

When I was 20 my upstairs neighbor had 5-8 huge fish tanks...
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...

This would be a great scene in a Tarantino movie!

Of course, someone's decapitated head ends up in the one fishtank that doesn't get broken.

[CoasterMatt]

My computer sounds like a fish tank now, I miss my fish tanks...

[tracilicious]

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.

[Matterhorn Fan]

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.

[innerSpaceman]

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.

[Not Afraid]

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.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

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.

You could raise catfish!

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.