I am 62 years old, and have been involved with fish keeping since I was 12. I started with a 10 gallon aquarium like many others but because I liked it so much, I quickly expanded my operation, against my mother's wishes, but with my father's blessing and support.
I bought a 17 gallon aquarium and put it on an end table, then put the 10 gallon tank below. We filled them both with the usual blend of tropical fish available at a store we quickly became fond of: black mollies, swordtails, catfish, blue gouramis, fire mouth, angels, and so forth. He even bought a tank full of piranhas and we couldn't resist. So we moved all the fish up to the 17 gallon, and bought two piranhas for the ten gallon tank.
Shortly thereafter, my big piranha ate the smaller piranha, and I bought a 26 gallon aquarium with a black metal stand, and put the 17 gallon tank on the shelf below, putting the lone piranha in the 17 gallon, then went crazy buying lots more fish to fill the 26 gallon.
As the fish grew larger, I got a hankering to go bigger with my aquariums AND fish. The fish store had larger fish, MONSTER FISH, fish that I wanted to add to my collection, but knew I couldn't until I had a tank big enough to accommodate them.
I became comfortable with my piranha. I could reach in and clean the glass with a razor blade with him watching and he never made a move to take a snack off my hand or arm. But when we moved back to SLC, Utah, all my fish and both aquariums had to go.
I restarted my aquarium hobby with a 55 gallon aquarium and stand because the supplier gave them to me at cost. Again we filled it with with usual available tropical fish, but added a Plecostomus, which I loved, because he (I always name my Plecos: Festus) grew so fast. Soon, I had an 18" fish in my 55 gallon aquarium and felt awful about how cramped he must be.
Thirteen years ago, I decided I wanted to dig a pond in my backyard, and got a friend to help. After ten minutes, my helpful friend said: "Ahhh, this ground is too hard." and just like that, he was off; but he let me use his wheelbarrow. I set a goal (age 49) of filling 2 wheelbarrows per day to get my pond done. It would be a circle 13 feet across and three feet deep. That equals 3,000 gallons. It took nearly a year of digging, but it was finally done.
We loved it. We loved to just sit and enjoy the experience. The pond attracted all kinds of critters. A blue heron with a 7' wingspan, 4 different types of dragon flies, a deer, hummingbirds that would hover near a cloud of gnats then dart in and pick them off one at a time, and finally it attracted an unwanted visitor of some type. A rat, or a vole. It dug down along the liner, then chewed through the 45 mil EPDM roofing liner, and my pond would be out of commission a month later.
The hole was 2 feet down on the west side and the pond lost 6"-9" of water daily and we soon realized we HAD to drain the pond and give the fish away (see photos). We had more than 100 feeder goldfish, most of them were fully grown, but we had lots of babies too. The 7 koi we had for so long were killed one night during a power outage we slept through and by the time I got out there, 7 koi, ranging from 15" up to 24" in length were all dead. The goldfish were able to survive by breathing air.
Now, I have no fish. I feel lost. In 2007 I became disabled and unable to work any longer from one of our local police departments. I worked as a civilian in the Crime Lab as the #1 AFIS technician (Automated Fingerprint Identification System), entering fingerprints into the computer to find their identification for the detectives on the case. I was also a latent fingerprint examiner and in between all that, I was on call and would respond to crime scenes for photos and latent fingerprint processing. It wasn't a job to me because I loved every minute of it. I was lucky. But I haven't been able to work since 2007. I really miss it, but would love to have an aquarium to take my mind off my pain. I am in pain all the time, 24 hours a day. I am always looking for things to take my mind off the fact that my entire body hurts from head to toe.
About a month ago, I saw an ad in a local TV classifieds section for a 230 gallon aquarium. They wanted $100 OBO for it. I offered them $75 and she took it. It leaks, and they had a new one coming because they couldn't find the leak in the old one and were tired of looking and tired of the hassle. I bought it because I knew build a stand for it and I could find the leak (I have experience with both).
That finally brings us up to speed. I am now the proud owner of an empty 3,000 pond, and a 230 gallon aquarium that leaks. My plan is to build a stand, then go at finding the leak. Once that is behind me, I can decide what to fill my aquarium with.
I want to go big this time. Salt water is too expensive for me, so I want to stay with fresh water, but fill it with big fish. I want Festus back to start with, but the rest is up for debate. I want it to look good cosmetically but also want it to look good and unique when I fill it with fish. No run of the mill tank. What are my choices? I've seen some mighty fine aquariums filled with some mighty big fish. I have nothing right now except the aquarium. I need to research filtration, pumps, heaters, a sump (???) and so forth. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I feel like I've never had any tropical fish before in my life because I've been doing a pond and that's all for the past 13 years. So hit me. I'm ready for all you experts to tell me where to go and what to do. Hitman962
I bought a 17 gallon aquarium and put it on an end table, then put the 10 gallon tank below. We filled them both with the usual blend of tropical fish available at a store we quickly became fond of: black mollies, swordtails, catfish, blue gouramis, fire mouth, angels, and so forth. He even bought a tank full of piranhas and we couldn't resist. So we moved all the fish up to the 17 gallon, and bought two piranhas for the ten gallon tank.
Shortly thereafter, my big piranha ate the smaller piranha, and I bought a 26 gallon aquarium with a black metal stand, and put the 17 gallon tank on the shelf below, putting the lone piranha in the 17 gallon, then went crazy buying lots more fish to fill the 26 gallon.
As the fish grew larger, I got a hankering to go bigger with my aquariums AND fish. The fish store had larger fish, MONSTER FISH, fish that I wanted to add to my collection, but knew I couldn't until I had a tank big enough to accommodate them.
I became comfortable with my piranha. I could reach in and clean the glass with a razor blade with him watching and he never made a move to take a snack off my hand or arm. But when we moved back to SLC, Utah, all my fish and both aquariums had to go.
I restarted my aquarium hobby with a 55 gallon aquarium and stand because the supplier gave them to me at cost. Again we filled it with with usual available tropical fish, but added a Plecostomus, which I loved, because he (I always name my Plecos: Festus) grew so fast. Soon, I had an 18" fish in my 55 gallon aquarium and felt awful about how cramped he must be.
Thirteen years ago, I decided I wanted to dig a pond in my backyard, and got a friend to help. After ten minutes, my helpful friend said: "Ahhh, this ground is too hard." and just like that, he was off; but he let me use his wheelbarrow. I set a goal (age 49) of filling 2 wheelbarrows per day to get my pond done. It would be a circle 13 feet across and three feet deep. That equals 3,000 gallons. It took nearly a year of digging, but it was finally done.
We loved it. We loved to just sit and enjoy the experience. The pond attracted all kinds of critters. A blue heron with a 7' wingspan, 4 different types of dragon flies, a deer, hummingbirds that would hover near a cloud of gnats then dart in and pick them off one at a time, and finally it attracted an unwanted visitor of some type. A rat, or a vole. It dug down along the liner, then chewed through the 45 mil EPDM roofing liner, and my pond would be out of commission a month later.
The hole was 2 feet down on the west side and the pond lost 6"-9" of water daily and we soon realized we HAD to drain the pond and give the fish away (see photos). We had more than 100 feeder goldfish, most of them were fully grown, but we had lots of babies too. The 7 koi we had for so long were killed one night during a power outage we slept through and by the time I got out there, 7 koi, ranging from 15" up to 24" in length were all dead. The goldfish were able to survive by breathing air.
Now, I have no fish. I feel lost. In 2007 I became disabled and unable to work any longer from one of our local police departments. I worked as a civilian in the Crime Lab as the #1 AFIS technician (Automated Fingerprint Identification System), entering fingerprints into the computer to find their identification for the detectives on the case. I was also a latent fingerprint examiner and in between all that, I was on call and would respond to crime scenes for photos and latent fingerprint processing. It wasn't a job to me because I loved every minute of it. I was lucky. But I haven't been able to work since 2007. I really miss it, but would love to have an aquarium to take my mind off my pain. I am in pain all the time, 24 hours a day. I am always looking for things to take my mind off the fact that my entire body hurts from head to toe.
About a month ago, I saw an ad in a local TV classifieds section for a 230 gallon aquarium. They wanted $100 OBO for it. I offered them $75 and she took it. It leaks, and they had a new one coming because they couldn't find the leak in the old one and were tired of looking and tired of the hassle. I bought it because I knew build a stand for it and I could find the leak (I have experience with both).
That finally brings us up to speed. I am now the proud owner of an empty 3,000 pond, and a 230 gallon aquarium that leaks. My plan is to build a stand, then go at finding the leak. Once that is behind me, I can decide what to fill my aquarium with.
I want to go big this time. Salt water is too expensive for me, so I want to stay with fresh water, but fill it with big fish. I want Festus back to start with, but the rest is up for debate. I want it to look good cosmetically but also want it to look good and unique when I fill it with fish. No run of the mill tank. What are my choices? I've seen some mighty fine aquariums filled with some mighty big fish. I have nothing right now except the aquarium. I need to research filtration, pumps, heaters, a sump (???) and so forth. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I feel like I've never had any tropical fish before in my life because I've been doing a pond and that's all for the past 13 years. So hit me. I'm ready for all you experts to tell me where to go and what to do. Hitman962
