A Sense of Accomplishment

This weekend was certainly one of the more fun, productive and anticipated weekends in awhile.

Derick and I had made the decision to try to acquire a 75 gallon fish tank to accompany our existing 55gal, 2 - 10gals and 1 5 gal fish tank in our downstairs "sun" room. So, off to Craigslist and the fish forums we went...

I think we found a total of three 75 gallon tanks with stands that we were looking at on Craigslist. Derick contacted each right away through their reply email. We waited. And waited. and waited. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I then tried replying to the posts, thinking maybe they would see another user - and respond faster to either Derick's or my response to their sale post. Nope.

Well, fast-forward about a week to Thursday night. Derick had his friend, Paul, over to the house to talk fish tanks and CO2 filtration building projects. They also made a side-trip to Terre Quatics to look at fish and plants. Derick found out from the owner that she knew of someone who was trying to get rid of a 75gal. tank and gave Derick her number. He called her that night just to find out more about the tank and what all she was going to be selling/getting rid of. We decided to go for it, and he could pick it up the next day, Friday, after they had removed their fish and drained the tank.

When I got home from work on Friday evening, Derick was at their house, loading the tank, stand, and two large garbage bags full of fish tank paraphernalia into his truck to bring home for us to work on. We decided to keep it in his truck until Saturday, and we would tackle the project then.

Late Saturday morning, Derick and I caught his huge Pleco (algae eater) fish and brought him to Terre Quatics. We bought some plants and driftwood that we planned to place in the new tank once it was up and running. Then, it was off to the hardware store for 4 cans of black lacquer spray paint and a couple of foam brushes to touch-up and re-paint the "new" fish tank stand.

We had planned on being home and having a Lynnea and Brynn, friends from Bemidji, come over around noon to spend a little time together, let her dog, Morgan, and Tucker play together and get a bite to eat at 5-8. Brynn was also buying our Wii and our Wii games from us, and was going to be visiting Lynnea for the weekend, so it all really worked out well! That was really a lot of fun hanging out with them again - I cannot remember when I laughed so much or so hard! Oh the jokes and memories from B-town!

After they left, it was right to work on the fish tank stand and hood - repainting. After a couple of coats, it was looking very nice! The fumes, however, were a little much to handle, and we had to air-out the garage. Not something easy to do in the winter and still try to keep the garage warm enough to work in!  We managed to get it all accomplished and let it dry as we worked on the actual tank. What a lot of scrubbing! Wow! The glass tops were a train wreck, which we tried to get as clean as we could, but we may end up just replacing them when we make a little more money off our fish.

We got the stand, tank, hood and light in place and decided how we wanted to lay-out the room with that new addition. With a little more tank draining, shifting, and shifting back, we got everything to look really nice in the room! Then, we began assembling the interior of the tank - the tray for the oil dry substance that will be used to grow plants in the center of the tank, and slate panels on either side, and covered by small pea-gravel. Here was the old room set-up:

 

 

Old room set-up

Here is what the tank looked like as we were setting it up:

New tank placement

Whole tank view - oil dry and plants in the center of the tank

Close-up of the driftwood and the plants

Final room-tank set-up. Two 10's on the far left, 75 in the center, 55 on the right, and 5 on the far right on the desk.

So, to round-out our weekend of fun and productivity, we cleaned the mess in the house that the fish tank moves caused, and I made lemon poppyseed bread, cornbread muffins, garlic dip and a couple of other things for the Packer game and our friends, Laura and Bobby, who were coming over to watch the game with us. It was great getting together with them and catching up with them a little after the craziness that has been their lives the past few months. I also got to see some of their wedding planning that they have been up to and talk about some of their ideas about their invitations and program ideas and printing. Their wedding is in May, and then we have one more friend's wedding in July of this year! I like weddings. It is fun to go to them and see what other people have done for theirs, and how they all turn out. Thinking back, there are always things I would change to make ours better, but that is just the way I am sometimes.

As far as the new fish tank goes we are going to wait for the plants to take off more before we add fish. That, and we still have to create the "caves" for the fish to hide out in as well. Currently to "cycle" the tank, and create the proper bacteria for fish life, Derick caught 4 of the Sajica babies and put them in the new tank last night. It was really funny to watch them group together and explore the ginormous tank that was now their new playground.

This coming week should be a pretty quiet week otherwise. Next Saturday is the next Packer Playoff game. We may have more people over for that game as well - as it was so much fun just having Laura and Bobby over last night to watch! And come on people, this is when it all gets REALLY exciting! We're in the PLAYOFFS!!

Ok, I guess that is all for now, more later!
-L