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14/09/2005 Entry: "Goodbye and thanks for all the fish"
The fish tank has become an increasingly curious object for little Aaron, his favourite hobby seems to be to smack both hands onto the front glass of the tank with some force like its a barrier that must be breached before wondering round the side to tug at all the lovely wires and inlet/outlet tubes from the external power filter. Up till now the thing that has been worrying me the most is 'what if he manages to detach the inlet or outlet tube to the filter', the filter cycles 900 litres of water an hour...my tank holds about 200 litres of water, if you do the math you realise that if my worst fears come to life the filter will empty that tank onto the living room floor in less that 15 minutes.
So today Aaron goes through his usual routine of harassing the tank and it's occupants and as i tell him to stop it and move him away i notice that he has detached the outlet tube from the spraybar...not a problem as it's all inside the tank...so i take the lid off to reattach the spray bar when i notice that the glass bracing bar that runs along the centre of the tank from front to rear has snapped in two.
What this means basically that the ONLY thing keeping that 200 litres of water in the tank is the glass sealant/adhesive used to attach the sides of the glass together..there is absolutely no strength left in the tank and the sides were bowing.
I have just removed half the tank water to relieve the pressure on the top of the tank and i need to now figure out what to do next...getting rid of the tank is a given but do i replace it or not, if i do replace it do i stick with freshwater or do i try my hand at marine...and can i bloody well afford to go the marine route.
Replies: 6 Comments
My dad kept marine fish for a couple of years but eventually sold them all as it was too expensive. The main thing is the lighting. He had two mercury vapour spotlights above the tank and they used huge amounts of electricity up.
Needs a crap load more work to look after as well doesn't it if I remember rightly with the cleaning and water PH levels etc.
Looks awesome compared to normal fish but needs a lot of work and money!
Posted by Matt @ 11:35 AM GMT 14/09/2005
It's actually getting cheaper all the time, with the lighting you can now get T5 fluorescent tubes which are high intensity tubes for the fraction of the cost of Mercury/halogen units.
A fish only environment with a few low maintenance soft corals is quite easy and cheap to look after..but yes, still more expensive than sticking with a fresh water setup.
Posted by Mark @ 11:46 AM GMT 14/09/2005
Oh yeah. If you DO go for marine we still have the two mercury vapour lights. Can do you a good deal on them 
Posted by Matt @ 12:01 PM GMT 14/09/2005
sorry to hear about the tank dude, i love having mine in the living room now, makes it a much more relaxing environment. what about getting a smaller tank and putting it up out of the way?
Posted by lee @ 12:31 PM GMT 14/09/2005
I'd stick with fresh water if I were you matey. Granted your experience with marine is excellent, but with Aaron getting bigger every day and another little 'un on the way, it wont be long before two curious children are dipping hands into the drink, and with marine fish being the suseptable things they are, you could loose a whole tank-full once the first few items get posted into it!
Posted by Chris @ 03:36 PM GMT 14/09/2005
Just get some salt water and have some friendly Cod or maybe some ill tempered sea bass 
Posted by waller @ 10:51 PM GMT 23/09/2005
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