Aquarium! (Stay Tuned, part 2)

I've been thinking about starting a fish tank for a few years and happened to mention this to a friend of mine. She, having a nearly complete zoo herself, suggested that saltwater fish were a lot of fun and asked what I was waiting for and so I started looking around for what it'd cost, etc.

Knowing that salt water tanks are harder than fresh water thanks, and that fresh water tanks are harder than the goldfish we had when I was a kid, I figured doing some quick learning might be a good idea. With that in mind, I bought several books on the subject, did a lot of reading, and started looking at various websites and for-sale listings.

That first book is fairly short, mostly focused on the setup and care of saltwater tanks. It has a smallish section on some of the more common and popular species of fish and invertebrates. It mostly ignores plant life. The second book is much longer and covers a very broad range of marine life. Both books are just full of pictures, which is cool.

I found a for-sale posting from a college kid who was about to graduate and was preparing to move. He had a nice smallish tank (30 gallons) and some nice looking fish (see below). After a few emails and some serious thinking on my part, I told him I would be interested in taking the entire tank over if he was interested and willing to help me move it. To get an idea of the effort involved, salt water weighs about 8.5 pounds per gallon. The rocks are obviously even heavier. So, figure about 300 pounds for the tank and everything in it. He also had a stand for it to sit on. On May 8th he and I moved it to my house.

Pictures:

Tonight I setup a webcam for the tank. If you want the userid and password, send me mail. I don't have sufficient bandwidth to just make it open to the public, sorry.

I think I have my work cut out for me. Fairly frequent algea removal, water testing, water changing, etc. Also, I need to setup a maintenance log so that I can keep track of important events and upcoming larger maintenance needs.

It's been just over 2 weeks now, and I'm happy to say that other than faster algea growth than I think is 'normal', the fish, shrimp, snails, hermit crabs, and starfish are all doing well.

Posted by braddr at May 24, 2005 12:37 AM