My Aquarium Spiel.

I'm still having troubles with sleeping. Tonight the problem seems to be getting to bed, as I laid down to rest nearly two hours ago and have since gotten back up again to occupy my time. John's still awake so I suppose that's comforting. Of course, he's watching some sort of documentary that seems to be a million hours long and vegging out on fruit . . . I went to the market yesterday and stocked up on everything good that they had in store.

Along with finally getting out to go grocery shopping, I also accomplished a lot more yesterday than I have in the past months. Nearly two months ago, I got this great . . . and by great I mean GREAT . . . deal on a this resale aquarium . . . I wasn't actually looking to invest in a new tank set-up but the deal was too good to pass up. So anyways, I bought this tank, 175 gallons complete with pumps, filters, heaters, everything. It's been sitting somewhere between my kitchen and living room ever since I bought it, because I didn't have the time to invest in the set-up and didn't want to think about what to begin to put in it . . . I didn't want to think.

As an aquarist, I've been through a lot . . . a lot of tanks, a lot of fish, a lot of set-ups, and a lot of strip-downs. I wanted to try something moderately low maintenance, but also something that would suit the tank, because 175 gallons . . . well that's a lot of tank. I have a 200 gallon already and I know that its a lot to handle. On my whim yesterday, I decided to set-up everything.

I went with a brackish river set-up. It's something different for me, because I haven't had a brackish tank in forever, and when I did it was a mangrove swamp. I planted most of the tank pretty heavily . . . because I aesthetically like a lot of greenery . . . but I also left a good portion of open swimming space . . . I also put in lots of driftwood and natural rocks.

I must say that the end result is quite stunning, and it really brings the room together with such a big centerpiece being there. I ended up placing it up on the main wall that runs along the living room. My other four tanks aren't in out in the open, like my 200 gallon and 55 gallon are in the bedroom and the two smaller tanks, a 10 and a 30 gallon, are in the supposed dining area; so I thought it would be a nice switch to have one in the open.

I'm going to start a trial stocking period sometime next week. I'm just going to pick up a couple Sailfin Mollies and give it a go. In a couple more weeks, I'll finish stocking the tank entirely, with some gobies, chromides . . . and if I get up enough spunk to give go with puffers, I'll put a couple of those in there.

Well, the movie's over and I think John's pulling in for the night, so I think that I will try to do the same. Toodles.