Sunday, February 20, 2011

Tales from the Tank #9

To Boldly Go ....

After six months, fifty-two days, thirty-seven minutes and thirty-two seconds, he found it.  Had to have it so badly he ventured into the unknow world of yes....EMAIL. After scouring pages and pages of items on craigslist he finally found the fish tank of his dreams...for a price he was willing to pay.  I wasn't home to reply to the email so this man, who is now addicted to acquiring fish tanks, did it all on his own.  Boldly entering into that unknow abyss call the INTERNET.

He hates to email, he hates to text, but this fish tank was calling his name.  So he opened up his g-mail account and created his own email reply to the ad.  It said, "if you still have the fish tank, I'm interested. I don't email well, so call my cell'.  When I got home at 5pm, he said, "I think I did it right, but come check it".  He did an awesome job, but was worried it didn't go through, so he sent it again.  I checked it and told him "yes honey, the email sent, you did a good job".  Two hours later he said, "Should I send another? What if it didn't really go through?"

I replied "Terry, not everyone comes home from work and relaxes in front of craigslist.  Give the guy a chance to get home and eat dinner and look at his replies".  Finally at 8:30 he got the call.  They still had the tank, but Terry's was the first response - so it's his if he still wanted it.  So, after a few minutes all I heard was "Yippee, Wooo Hoo!!".  I'm getting the tank and everything goes with it for a mere $75.00".

Wow.

Then it was "Don't make any plans for Saturday - we're going to pick it up - fish and all at 9am".  All I could say was "You better see if Jared can come and help".

After that, the investigation was on.  What's the best way to move a tank, how much of the water should we keep, do we know anything about these new fish....yadda yadda yadda.  So we borrowed seven 5 gallon buckets and bought two new ones (for the fish), made arrangements for Jared to help (bribed him with breakfast and gas (the kind you use in a car - LOL).

So at 9am we show up to get our "new tank". (Although unlike a brand new tank that you have to "dirty up", this one was already to go.  We just had to move it - UGH.)  So 35 gallons of water later, we are again the proud owners of a 55 gallon tank which is now at home in our "office", and contains 3 silver dollars (not monetary kind) about 5 inches wide, four red tetras, one red and black tiger barb and a large pleco who has become very very lazy about eating algae and cleaning up his environment. Humm..... 

The tank also came with some interesting rocks and a piece of driftwood  (OH NO - not driftwood you say?) But YES! it sinks!! it's also smaller and weighs less than the slate it's attached to. Go figure.

We hadn't quite finished setting it up when Kathi and Joel came to see it, but when Terry mentioned he didn't like the mirror on the back, Joel whips out his handy pocket knife and they pull the tank away from the wall, and before I could say...don't cut yourself - they had the mirror off the back.

We of course needed more air hose and a pump because we had to put a bubble curtain in the back, and then we needed a background, and of course more plants (I like plants).  Oh and isn't that bridge cool - plus it's on sale, and ohhhh look at that purple plant - it's 50% off and would look great under the ultra violet light when it's on at night.  Basically, another $75.00 or so later, we were up and running and the fish were back in their "home" hiding behind the new plants and did NOT want to come out an play.

So since the large pleco is lazy - we moved Hoover into the 55 gallon tank to see if (a) he can help and (b) grow and (c) so the Gold fish leave him alone (they won't let him eat an algae tablet on his own).

Wait....how did the heater fall off the back?  Ut oh....so Terry takes it out of the tank and says...can you wipe this off and it's OUCH...that thing is hot and then he puts it back in the water and CRACK SNAPLE POP  - the heater cracks, I see electricity and it shorts out. It was still plugged in.

Apparently you can't remove the heater from the tank unless it's cooled off and you definately can't put it back in the water once it's out (and not cooled off).

So....Happy 50th Birthday to my wonderful husband....happy fishing and may you never crack another heater.

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