Where the fuck have I been? Well, it's more a matter of what the fuck have I been doing. Just before Thanksgiving Sylvia and I decided to get a saltwater aquarium. More on that later. We wanted to put the aquarium in our living room in this spot where we've had these cabinets that we both hated. We've been dancing around getting rid of the cabinets for 6 years now and finally had a good enough reason to do it. So I spent Thanksgiving (after making a freaking excellent feast for the 2 of us) tearing the cabinets out of the living room. I spent the next 10 days, more or less, remodeling the area, repairing drywall, replacing subfloor, painting, installing laminate flooring and trim and moving the new aquarium into its rightful place in our home. This first picture is from back when we bought the house so it still has the previous owners' stuff in it but basically it went from this:
To THIS:
Not bad, not bad. We're really happy with how it turned out. And the aquarium has been one of the coolest things ever. So far there are just "live" rocks, a few snails and 4 hermit crabs in there. But the rock comes with all kinds of little critters living on it and we see new ones just about everyday. The rock is also changing color all the time as different types of algae grow and die back. Very entertaining. Around the end of January the tank will be ready to have its first anemone and fish added to it. A few months after that we can move in starfish, shrimp, and coral. But they all need to be added little by little. I'll keep you informed of the transformation. Hopefully a little more regularly than I have been.
7 comments:
Awesome! I love acquariums, but am afraid of the upkeep, and I tend to kill animals/plants other than my cats and dogs (knock on wood). Great job on all the work.
Can't wait to see it in person.
You're so freakin' awesome.
Cool addition. I am sure your living room has a nice tranquil feel about it now. Lovely.
weinercats: In theory the upkeep of the aquarium should be relatively minimal. We plan to have a reef aquarium, meaning we'll only have a couple fish. Most of the life in the tank will be coral, starfish, shrimp, crabs, etc. We're planning on an anemone and a clownfish or two to go with it. It's my understanding that the biggest stress on a tank is fish but if you keep the number of fish low and the number of maintenance creatures high it creates a great eco-system that almost takes care of itself. In fact, the guy at our local aquarium store said in his 90 gallon tank at home he has only 2 fish. He's had them for 8 years and has never fed them. The tank produces everything they need. Pretty cool, huh?
PG: Thanks! The tank is very relaxing and there's hardly anything in it yet. We're trying to be patient so the tank matures properly. Fortunately the couple invertebrates we have now are really entertaining. We named the 3 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs Curly, Larry and Moe and the Scarlet Legged Hermit Crab is named Ichabod Pinch. I Pinch, get it? But you have to say it like the crab in that Honda Element commercial, "I Peeench"
It does look awesome. You did a fantastic job. And I'm totally enjoying the evolution of the tank.
Your remodeling looks great! I'll tell you, though, it'd look even better if you could have kept the lampshade with the plastic on it (see the "before" pic).
Too bad the previous home owners didn't throw that in the deal when you bought the house off 'em.
That and the angels on the mantle. . .
Looks like a good spot to practice your fly casting.
Believe me O'Butter, just putting our stuff in the house was an upgrade from their stuff - or at least I think so. The lace on the mantle was probably the "decorating idea" which most puzzled me, given the whole fire potential there.
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