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|
 |
| ...not
just for a few weeks or months but much,
much longer. I was becoming addicted. |
| Before
long I bought another tank. And another.
By 1983, I maintained a 125g FO showtank,
a 60g 'aggressive', another 60g
(deepwater) and a 20g species tank that contained
an outrageously colored frogfish named Michigan.
But as fascinating as this little menagerie
was to behold, the work it took to properly
maintain it would soon become overwhelming.
Just changing the water, which had to be
done in 5g buckets back then, literally took
all weekend. Then there was walking it to
the tank…five miles uphill in the snow,
barefoot and……sorry…. Anyway,
not surprisingly, my social life was zero.
Even my landlord was having more fun than
me and HE was married! I knew I had to do
something. So I moved. |
The
guys at Tis were really helpful in taking
back the fish and helping me donate all
of my tanks. And when I bought my house,
one of the first things I did was have
them design, build and install a SINGLE
but large(300g) showtank for my living
room. It was tremendous and made my life
a lot easier. They even put a 125g mixing
tank in my utility room, so changing water
became simply a matter of connecting and
disconnecting hoses! Life became good again. |
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|
It
was then when something happened that would
forever change the course I was following
in regards to the hobby. In early '86,
George Smit wrote a series of articles
in Freshwater And Marine Aquarium magazine
about something he called the European
Minireef System, in which he claimed a
hobbies could keep a variety of invertebrates
and even some real corals successfully
in a home aquarium. Well, hell, I had a
home aquarium! And I certainly enjoyed
the few inverts (Feather Dusters, Anemones,
Feather Dusters) I had been able to keep
alive…for a while. So after some
time and of course, more reading, I finally
decided to give it a go. I never looked
back. |
| Well
just once, to finally buy a dog. |
| At
this point, I only have one image of that
tank on this website which is really a shame
because for it's time, it was really
an awesome display. |
By
the time I tore it down in '95 (it
had been up about 8 years) it was packed;
a few LPS ("How come I could keep 'Elegance' alive
back then?") but mainly leathers,
including a HUGE three 'headed' Sarcophyton
that had to be cut into pieces just to
get it out of the tank. The reason I had
to tear it down, by the way, was because
I was moving back East... |
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