Marc and Bonnie's Fish Diary

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April 24, 2004

Our yellow tang dies. :( We have one more water change to do before we can put the fish back in the display tank, which we should be able to do soon.

March 17, 2004

We finally catch the angel and the tang the old fashioned way, and all 4 fish are now in the quarantine tank (tub). They have PVC pipes to swim through and hide in, and the clownfish has his pot, which he takes to happily.

March 16, 2004

Clownfish goes into the quarantine tank, since he's easy to catch. I devise a trap to catch the angel and tang, but have no luck.

March 15, 2004

The ich is back, and worse this time. The puffer has the worst of it, and the angel has some. The tang and clown are clear for the moment, but they're going to get quarantined anyways. We buy a 23-gallon rubbermaid container to serve as a quarantine tank. Puffer goes in first, as he's the only one I can catch.

March 6, 2004

The third chromis disappears. The puffer looks full and happy.

I move the yellow tang into the display tank early, because the quarantine tank water for some reason starts getting toxic. The puffer looks at the tang with interest, until the tang starts moving towards the puffer, at which point the puffer backs off. The tang is clearly the boss in this relationship.

March 5, 2004

Two of the chromis disappear, presumably down the mouth of the puffer.

March 4, 2004

I transfer the three chromis to the display tank.

We purchase a small yellow tang from Aquarium Concepts in Hayward, and it goes in the quarantine tank.

March 3, 2004

Nemo 1: February 6, 2004 - March 3, 2004. :(

We pick up some macro algae with a bunch of sand stars and other critters in it. It goes in the main tank, but I wish we had room for a refugium because the algae doesn't look the prettiest.

March 1, 2004

I buy three green chromis from Aquatic Variations in Mountain View. They go in the quarantine tank.

February 29, 2004

I visit Aquatic Gallery in Milpitas, which is a really nice looking store. Their display tanks are HUGE, and pretty awesome looking. Lots of fish, and tons of corals. I walk out with 10 snails and 10 hermit crabs, and an extra 5 hermit crabs and a bunch of macro algae, because the lady behind the counter packed someone else's order into mine. I don't realize this until after I get home, and I call the store owner, who tells me to just go ahead and keep it.

I tried to get a shot of the flame angel, and this is the best I have so far. No name for the angel yet, it's a hermaphrodite. Maybe we'll call it Pat.

Flame Angel

February 27, 2004

Our 30 pounds of live rock from liverocks.com shipped overnight arrives, and Marc preps them and puts them in the tank.

February 26, 2004

We add another 20 pounds of sand to the tank, which just about finishes off our sand bed.

February 24, 2004

I move the puffer back to the display tank, after testing the water in the quarantine tank (and noticing that the puffer seems listless). The levels are uncomfortably high, so I make the decision to move him back. His spots seem pretty much gone, but he still had a couple days of treatment left, but I don't want to risk killing him. Keeping fingers crossed that the tank can handle it.

February 21, 2004

Puffer is still in quarantine, and being medicated daily. Spots seem to be fading, which is a good sign. He's still eating like a pig. I took two videos of him, the first is him swimming like a nut, and the second is him taking a shrimp from my hand. Video 1 and Video 2

We also pick up a flame angel from Connie's, which seems to enjoy swimming in and around the live rocks.

February 19, 2004

Came home and noticed a few white spots on the puffer. :( I moved him to the quarantine tank, and dosed it with Rid Ich. He seems to be okay, looks to be in good spirits. Keeping my fingers crossed that he pulls through okay.

February 18, 2004

Here's a new video of the Nemos swimming around. It might make you dizzy, these guys swim fast. ;)

I also took a couple videos of our puffer just hanging out. He doesn't do much here - I'll have to try to take another one when he's eating. Video 1 and Video 2.

Quarantine Tank

Hello!

February 17, 2004

I set up our new quarantine tank. It's basically my old 10-gallon tank, with a Penguin Mini Bio-wheel filter and a heater. I put in my old shipwreck decoration from my freshwater setup, so the fish will have a place to hide. It's not pretty, but it's cheap and should get the job done.

February 16, 2004

We find a small porcupine puffer at Mermaid Aquarium in Fremont. He's about 3" long, with a funny face. He chases one of the Nemos for a second, but otherwise leaves them alone. We feed him some frozen krill, which he seems to enjoy. He's still a bit shy, and puffs up at the sight of the dog or one of us. We need help naming him, so make suggestions!

"Aren't I cute?"

February 15, 2004

We wake up early, and scoop out the crushed coral in the tank (and remove 50 pounds of live rock in the process). Bring it to Connie's, and bring home 40 pounds of live sand. We dump it in the tank, replace the live rock, and it settles out in a few hours. The Nemos seem to take this all in stride.

February 12, 2004

We go to Connie's Tropical Fish and ask them if we can exchange our crushed coral for some reef sand, since we decided that we would prefer to have sand in our tank (for aesthetic and practical reasons). Even though our crushed coral is wet and we've used it a week, they agree to it! Very cool of them - so we're bringing it back on Saturday.

Both the Nemos are using the clay pot now, and taking to it quite well.

"What're you lookin' at?"

Snug as a bug in a rug

I took a short video of them tonight, swimming around their little pot. :)

February 8, 2004

We buy 20 more pounds of live rock. Only 20 more to go, thank goodness. The tank is starting to look pretty nice. Nemo 1 and Nemo 2 are still alive, and eating. Next on the project list are setting up a quarantine tank, and deciding whether to build or buy a canopy.

Nemo 2

February 6, 2004

Woohoo! My bacteria arrives! I add it to the tank, and we go to Mermaid Aquarium in Fremont to purchase a pair of clownfish. I dub them Nemo 1 and Nemo 2. We cross our fingers and hope they live.

February 5, 2004

I buy two Maxi-Jet 600 pumps for the tank at Aquatic Variations in Mountain View, and totally over pay. I found some on Petsmart.com for like half the price, so I'm going to try to return the two I bought. We also buy a blue background for the tank, which makes it look a lot nicer.

February 4, 2004

More live rock! This time we bought 20 pounds of it, a few nice pieces. The general rule of thumb for live rock is a pound per gallon, which means we need about 70 pounds. Since this stuff is sooo expensive, it'll likely be some time before we get there. 30 pounds right now covers the bottom of our tank decently - another 20 pounds should probably nicely tide us over for a while.

No bacteria in the mail, which was a real bummer. :( I was looking forward to buying some fish! I think we'll start out with a mated pair of clown fish, which should be entertaining. We joked that we were going to set up our tank just like in Finding Nemo, which actually might not be too bad, as the fish were all really nice looking. No starfish though, since the Pufferfish I plan to get would likely eat it.

February 2, 2004

After work, I go to the fish store and buy 10 pounds of live rock for $50. Then I head over to Home Depot to get a bucket, and some plumber's tape. Head home, and as I'm making dinner, I start working on setting up the wet/dry filter for the tank. The wet/dry is basically a unit that sits in the cabinet underneath the tank and uses a pump and siphon action to pump water out and back into the tank. Setting it the pieces took a little time, but it was mostly straightforward. What was not easy was getting the water flow right. There were a number of times where I thought I was going to flood the room, but I eventually got it figured out. It took me HOURS though, especially since the tubing they gave me was just a little too small to fit over the nozzle of the pump I had. I was going to kill that thing.

The unit under the cabinet.

The unit on the back of the tank
(also: Stubby's head peeking through)

The thing is also kind of loud. The unit on the back of the tank is totally open, so you can hear the water being sucked down into the tube. It's not so bad with the TV and stuff on, but just by itself it's a bit annoying. I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet, but I threw a towel over it, and it seemed to buffer the noise. I turned on the tank heater, put the two pieces of live rock in the bottom, and turn on the tank light.

February 1, 2004

Marc and I get up bright and early to move the stand and tank into place before he leaves for the airport. We discover that the filter we had bought is too big to hang on the back of the tank, due to this slab of glass that lies across the middle of the top of the tank (presumably for reinforcement). This leaves only 11 inches on each side of the tank to hang stuff off the back, and the filter is much, much larger than that.

That afternoon I return to Connie's, and tell them our predicament. Our other option is to purchase a wet/dry filter, which would go under the cabinet and require a lot less space on the aquarium itself, but is unfortunately much more expensive. $140 dollars more. I return the filter for store credit, but am uncertain about spending that much more money. I go home to think about it, and to wait to talk it over with Marc.

We decide that we can return our protein skimmer, which cost $140, and get the wet/dry filter. We wouldn't need the protein skimmer for another month, so we wouldn't have to shell out all that money this month. I go back to the store, and this time get to talk to Matt, who tells me that another option would be this other filter that would only cost us $20 more (and I wouldn't have to exchange the protein skimmer). Unfortunately, it wouldn't be as good as the wet/dry filter. Marc and I decide not to skimp, and I exchange the protein skimmer to get the additional store credit to buy the wet/dry filter. We can probably get a protein skimmer used for pretty cheap later on.

After the Super Bowl, I drag (with Kenny and Leslie's help) the hose in through the window and begin filling up the tank. I add a bag and a half of salt. I watch the salt dissolve. I hope we can add fish soon, because the salt is boring.

January 31, 2004

Come home from skiing, and I sand the first coat, and apply the second coat of stain. I apply it on a little think in some places and it drips a bit, but otherwise it turns out nicely. I'll have to go to Home Depot to get some really fine grain sandpaper to sand the final coat.

January 30, 2004

I beging to sand and stain the stand for the fish tank to match the rest of our wood furniture. The first coat comes along nicely, despite having to fight cat hairs that are floating around.

January 29, 2004

We make up our minds, and decide to go ahead and buy the tank and stand. Matt sets us up with everything we need to get our saltwater aquarium going. This includes big bags of salt, some crushed coral/gravel, a filter, a protein skimmer, heater, salinity meter, and test kits. We walk out $600 poorer.

January 27, 2004

After looking around different Petsmarts and Petcos in Dublin for both a new aquarium and my hamster, we decide to go check out the Petco in Castro Valley to see if they have a better selection of stuff. We miss our exit on 580 and end up having to take the next exit. Marc turns the wrong way after we get off the exit to check something out, and we happen to pass by Connie's Tropical Fish. Figuring this was fate, we stop to check it out, and find a 70-gallon tank that would fit pretty nicely in our house (our original plan was to get a 30-ish gallon tank). Matt, one of the workers there, tells us that he can set us up with what we need, for a good price. We decide to think about it.

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