This Weekend's Adventures

You want to know how a pretty typical weekend in Mer's fishland goes? Well, I'll tell you about this weekend. I may not do this same stuff EVERY weekend, but it was certanly nothing out of the ordinary.

Well you've probably already read about the heater catastrophy. So my 48-gallon corner tank (link to post) is currently completely empty. Now the reason why I got this tank in the first place was to set up a salt water tank. I have felt too overwhelmed to tackle the task until recently, and let's not mention the fact that salt water fish cost so much more than freshwater, so I did not want to risk such huge losses if something went wrong. I guess I finally feel educated enough to begin the process of learning the rest as I go, so (back to the beginning of this paragraph), this was my chance to get back to my original intent. I didn't feel like I had the time or mental capacity to really do it when I first set up the tank (due to going on vacation, doing tons of chores, and all that to prep then unpacking, and etc when I came back, lol). And I had a batch of aging juvies that needed a place to live so I tossed them in and decided to deal with it later. Now that I've pulled the males and lost the females, and don't have any other fish who will be needing it anytime soon (my 20 gallon tank is dedicated to this purpose, it was just full at the time), I now have NO EXCUSE to do this. :) :) :)

So now that this explanation is over with, back to the original intent of this paragraph!

On Saturdays we (we = me and Pete) usually go out for lunch, to the pet store for about 6 dozen crickets for our reptiles and frogs, to Wal Mart supercenter for groceries, Costco gas station for gas, and whatever else we need to do that week. This may include fish/pet stores, Blockbuster, Costco for other bulk goods, and who knows what else. So yeah, we have a heck of a busy Saturday outing. :> It's not ALL so bad though, since he works at home and this is his only day out of the house, hee hee. Only if we have tons of stuff to bring back in the house. :P

(Oh sorry, I went into another explanation there. Gee, I guess a Fish blog was just the kind of blog I've been holding out for.) I went to do the usual, and went by a fish store. I was going to get a new pleco for the 48-gallon tank, since of course the last one was boiled. I was going to I guess just wait and move some batch of juvies or another into the tank, but like I said had noone to put there. Well I got there, got the guy to catch the pleco I wanted, and stopped and thought, what in the heck am I doing? I don't need freshwater fish in this tank. I need SALT! I engaged one of the shop keepers in some conversation about a few things I still needed to know after my pre-research I've been doing on setting up the tank, options on what I could do with a tank this size, and I decided to go for it.

(Here we go, back to the point. :>) I bought the salt, the substrate, and a new filter (Penguin 280) (oh gee, if only I could have waited a few days I could have gotten it online cheaper. >E It was $12 cheaper where I bought it than the chain store, at least). Am going to wait on a new heater since our living room usually stays at 75+ degrees anyway! I'm going to get these contents in there tonight hopefully, let it settle for a few days, and go back for some damselfish for cycling the tank. Am going to do a partial fishless cycle, adding some ammonia and bacteria to the tank, but will also use the fish. Hoping this will help speed things up some. Oh, and a... uh, what do you call that thing? Salt-o-meter. Yeah, that's it. Hydrometer, oh yeah.

So what the heck amd I doing, sitting here typing! I'm going to go start adding salt! :D!!!