Lorenzo's Fish Tank

Well, I suppose it’s about time I started up a blog of some sort for my lovely fish tank I hope to have set up (eventually).  I’m dedicating this blog to documenting my processes, thoughts, and struggles to getting a small freshwater tank up and running, just in time to break it down and take it home at the end of the school year.. but I’m not terribly concerned about that at the moment.  I’m already behind, as I’ve already cleaned and moved the tank from when I originally bought it.. but starting late is better starting never. If you’re reading this.. I would say I’ll try to keep you entertained.. but to be perfectly honest I’m not good at that cheeky humor stuff, and quite frankly this blog is about me starting up an aquarium.. not much to it. So bravo if you even make it 3 posts into this thing.. :/ lol

To start off, on July 3, 2010, my family and I traveled back up from Cocoa Beach, Fl, where we take our annual family vacation each summer.  Towards the end of the trip, we met up with a lady, Ms. Solona, who I had previously talked with after seeing a craigslist post she had made.  Solona was selling 3 nanocube tanks for $150: two 12-gal tanks and a 24-gal tank.  Since normally one of the 12-gal was $100 new in the store.. I quickly worked out the arrangement to meet up with her to buy them. Anyways, back to the first part of the story, I met up with her, trunk loaded down already with all of our vacation bags.. and somehow we managed to squeeze 3 tanks, a tank stand, and a box of saltwater supplies in the back 2 rows of the car (granted my sister and I had to hold a few things in our laps.. but at this point there was only 1.5 hrs of the car ride left).  I’m still not sure why Solona sold me the tanks so cheap.. or why she offered to wait 3 days to hold them for me, as I’m sure people were crawling all over that deal.. although her craigslist post led me to believe she was a teacher of some sort, and perhaps these were just her classroom projects she had just outgrown, who knows.

Here is a model of the tank I’m planning on keeping:

http://www.amazon.com/JBJ-Transworld-Aquatics-NANO-DELUXE/dp/B000RFPR5Q

Excellent deal I got, right?

So do I really need 3 nanocube tanks? Of course not.  My plan is to sell off the 2 smaller tanks on craigslist (I haven’t posted yet because someone just posted a 12g for sale at a better deal than I’m selling mine for.. so I’m going to wait a few weeks for his offer to sell, then I’ll post mine when there’s no competition ;-) and make my money back.. yay for free fish aquariums!

I spent the past month..ish cleaning the 24g tank. I should mention that as I start this blog, I have decided to call the tank Monstro, and henceforth this is what I shall refer to it as.  So I’ve been cleaning Monstro for a few weeks now.  When I first received him, the walls were covered in algae/coral deposits, as I believe it had been an established salt water tank when it was under Solona’s possession.  Monstro’s sides are made of acrylic, and thus scratch very easily, so I was not able to scratch the residue off in the traditional manner.  I ended up having to soak it in a 30-40% white vinegar solution for a few days before the residue softened up enough for me to rub it off with a washcloth (victory!)

As of now, the tank has been rinsed and cleaned out, I’ve collected many pieces of driftwood I like from various places I’ve found myself, such as St.Simons/ Jekyll Island, clippings from an interesting bush outside the Business building on the other side of my college campus (it was dying anyways.. grounds crew will probably come by any day and replace it with something else), and off pathways when I take walks (rarely.. but it happens).

As of now, here are some tanks I am pulling inspiration from, as I am still in the process of laying out an official plan for how I want it to look:

Yea I know they look different.. But I like the tree and cave from the second pic, and am trying to figure out a way to put it in an environment similar to the 1st tank without making Monstro weigh a bajillion pounds (as the tank will have to be moved eventually… looking forward to that day o.O )

Goals: 1) Finally lay down a set design/layout for Monstro; 2) Have completed list of flora/fauna species to be included; 3) find last few pieces of driftwood I want (currently looking cave/arched shape wood pieces

Concerns: 1) Making myself set enough time aside to DO this, afraid that with Wedding plans, med-school interviews, school, and a few other things I’ve gotten myself into, that I will push this thing to the back of my to-do list :/ ; 2) Setting higher expectations for myself than I can achieve; and 3) where to get my fish.. shipping these things AND getting them still alive looks like it’s going to be freakin expensive -_-

Current websites I am stalking: aquabid.com (wishful thinking..); aquariacentral.com

Well that’s all I got for my first post. Will hopefully start updating this thing regularly, and hopefully someone out there is mildly excited enough to watch the process of this tank establish itself ^_^