Some Setup Pics...

In case you're having trouble imagining what this shenanigan looks like at this point, here are some fun visual aids for your ocular stimulation:

D's 120-gallon Oceanic, still completely empty...

...and taking up a good chunk of my living room (not that I'm complaining).

The soon to be mantis tank, on day one of it's cycling process. I took this pic about an hour or so after getting it up and running so the water was pretty cloudy with all the sediment floating around in it. It looks tons better now...

Looks tiny, right?! And don't worry, that jug o' water is getting moved. And those wires are getting cleaned up and hidden. GOSH, so much to do!

Some glamor shots:

Slightly better (although oddly colored) look at the tank with the stupid little doo-dads I added. Dale hates them. He made fun of me at PetsMart when I bought them. I don't care. Whose tank has water in it? Yeah that's what I thought...

OH and yes, that is a lounge chair on the left. An awesome, awesome lounge chair. Roommate Mary says she's pretty sure that the mantis won't ever sit in it, but our mantis is going to be exceptionally cool, so you never know. Plus he can break it to pieces and build a den out of it if he wants to.

And there's Luella, the tank goddess. Looking sexy.

Rufus the robo-kitty is staying with us until January. He attempted to use his super sonic laser beam eyes to zap me as I set up the tank, but then he remembered that this isn't a comic book (even though it sometimes seems like one) and returned to normal terminator kitty status.

Dale suggested that my excitement about putting the extra nick-nacks (sp?) in the tank might put me on par with an 8-year-old, per the book he's reading about fish tanks. I would like to point out that he obtained that information from none other than a book titled Saltwater Aquariums for Dummies. I'll let you sort that one out on your own.

Day One (Or is it?)

Hi there!

So we've finally decided to take the plunge, so to speak. D has been talking about getting in to the aquarium hobby for years but the undertaking just seemed so huge that we were a little overwhelmed just figuring out where to start. We finally managed to get past that a week ago, when we went with D's parents (who have a nice 150-gallon freshwater tank) to River City Aquatics and found a pretty awesome 120-gallon tank with a nice stand and canopy on consignment. SOLD.

So now we've got a tank. Now what? The people at RCA have been super helpful, and D's joined the Austin Reef Club to make some contact with people who know what they're doing and have been brand new at this before. We have a long way to go just to get the big tank ready for water. We're moving a little bit at a time, paycheck to paycheck. But hey, at least we're moving!

At some point, I decided that aquariums look like fun. I'm not big on the delicate, intricate work involved with a big multi-species ecosystem like D's. I've decided to get a mantis shrimp. Lucky for me, they require significantly less space than a full-blown reef tank like D's will eventually be. So we wandered back to River City Aquatics today and found a pretty sweet deal on a 20 gallon setup that includes pretty much everything but water. Luckily, RCA can supply me with the water, too. :-P

So, as of today, we have one empty 120 gallon tank chillin in our living room and on the other side of the living room there's a 20 gallon future mantis habitat that is on day one of its cycling process. According to the guys at RCA, the tank should only need about a week before our mantis can actually take up residence. Cool! So in the battle of Dale's tank vs. Mere's tank, I'm winning. Because my tank actually has water in it. YEAH!