The story all starts when I was 2 and a half. When my little brother was born my paretns gave me a fish tank to keep me occupied. I fell in love with fish. I have kept from ever since then and have studied them in school so much that I have a bachlors degree in vertebrate zoology and a geology masters degree where I studies fossil sharks.
For the most part I have kept fresh water tanks. I tried marine tanks when I was little but my family didn't have the money to do more than a 20 gallon with an undergravel filter. which at the time 25 years ago was high tech for a small tank. I have kept al sorts of fresh water fish from natives to tropical, to planted tanks to breeding soft water south american cichlids to hard water africans. 7 years ago they remodeled the petsmart near where I live. my brother worked there and was able to snag one of thier huge tanks when they remodeled. my mother looked at this tank and said to him that isn't coming in to my house. so I got it. the large tank on the system is 180 gallons and there were two top tanks on the system totalling 50 gallongs and a
sump that holds up to 75 gallons. I moved last summer and the stand self destructed so when I rebuilt the system I kept the big tank and the sum. it is filled with lake malawi cichlids. I curently have tons of babies that have been bred in my tank swimming around the rock work. I have a 65 gallon tank as well that I have had for geez I have absoultly no idea now how long I have had it, got to be 15 years. In its current incarnation it has nicaraguan cichlids and some sanctoperca, with tetras and other small dither fish.
having the huge tank and the small "65" gallon tank I have been really happy for a long time. 6 months ago my mom lost her large albino channel cat fish in her 125 gallong tank (another of the tanks that followed my brother home from petsmart). When geoff worked at petsmart people would come in and say know any one who wants a tank $50, we got alot of tanks that way. In helping her figure out what to put in the tank and how to revamp it I have been able to vicariously been living through her. A couple weeks ago she dug the 80 gallon out of storage and set it up. I have been helpign her set it up. in this process I have gotten the work fish tank envy. My husband is not big on the fish tanks, especially since we have a 180 tank in the living room. I had to talk him in to letting me have a new tank.
So on monday I went to the pet store and purchased my first tank in years. it is a 44 gallon that I am going to turn in to a reef tank. It is 24X18X24. I have a deep sand bed and 40lbs of base rock and water in the tank. and everything is running. I am going to put a micron filter on it for a couple hours tonnight just to clear the water. I am going to let the tank run till this weekend and then add some live sand and some
live rock. But I might wait on the
live rock till the lights arive. I am puting 4
t5 bulbs on it and will add a 250watt
metal halide light when I start to add corals. but I am not planning on adding the corals for 9-12 months. I am planning on adding 2-3 fish in about 3 months. My husband asked me why are you setting the tank up if you arn't going to put fish in it till june. It is so hard to be patient.
I will get some pictures up on my web page in the next couple days.
http://homepage.mac.com/stripepike/
you can also see pictures of my africans on there. I will probally also get some pictures of my nics up there too.
Sally
