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This is a question that we often get when people see our tanks and how much time we put into them.
The honest answer is that we just sort of fell in head first and made a big splash.
But honestly, here's the whole story.
Once upon a time (oh about 7 or so years ago), it was a dark stormy night, and two very bored college students had exhausted all of their time-wasting options. It seemed that they'd finally have to crack open a book and (gasp) study. But then out of the blue one of the kids (theres still great debate as to which one it really was) opened their mouth and the words 'fish tank' spewed out. At first the suggestion was deemed horrid by both, since we'd both had tanks as children and had known the pain of flushing guppies. But, being creative (and just a little twisted) we looked upon our childhood failures as a sort of challenge to overcome. Together we could do it right. We could pull it off. We could avoid studying for another night.
And so off we went in seach of the coveted complete ten gallon setup. You know the variety - cheap tank, cheap filter, cheap lights, fish of questionable origin - all for the low, low price of $99.99 (thats what we get for living in a small town and not knowing what we should have been looking for). But nonetheless, we were happy with our tiny little tank. So we marched back off to our home with a bag of atrociously colored gravel, a corner filter, some plastic plants, an ugly little treasur chest / bubble thing, and Larry, Moe, and Curly our new friends.
It was the beginning of the end. Or the end of the beginning, depending on how you look at it.
Anyway, after about six weeks, the novelty had worn off. We were going to get serious. So we marched back to the fish store with Larry and Moe in tow (Curly didn't make it). We bought a real filter, real plants, some natural colored gravel to cover that blue stuff we once thought would look really cool, and some new friends that wouldn't spend every waking hour moving gravel from one side of the tank to another.
This 10g tank lasted about six months. It was gorgeous. The plants flourished, the fish were happy, the water stayed crystal clear, the algae never took over - the tank was just too flippin' small. So we marched out and got ourselves a 20g tank. That was our first mistake. We should have known. Before long at all (it seemed like only days) the 20g was just too small, so we stepped it up to a 29g. At the same time time, we noticed these yucky plastic rivertank things were making their way into all the stores, including our local hangouts. Well, we knew from our first encounter with the plastic plants that they were to be avoided at all costs. Besides, with the few available rivertank kits, you end up with a tank that is essentially identical to everybody else that has forked over some (too much) cash for the same thing. We thought we could do better. And besides, it is much more fun and educational to make something yourself instead of just buying it off the shelf. So for our anniversary that year, after pulling the old 10g out of the closet and setting up a nice little beach, some underwater caves and a really snazzy waterfall, we rescued a pair of newts from a rather yucky tank at the ma and pa pet store we had been frequenting. I don't know what we were thinking. Of course 10g just wasn't going to do for long - we should have learned our lesson by that time, but instead, the paludarium made its way into a 15g. Not long after that, the paludarium was moved into the 29g and the freshwater setup made its way into a snazzy 55g.
Our small home was full of tanks. The sound of running water contributed to a nice tranquil feeling in the house as well as a number of interesting dreams of being Aquaman, schooling with the fish in an effort to thwart evil villians threatening humanity.
In less than a year, we had ammased a number of tanks, had as many as 8 tanks up and running at once, won a local planted tank contest, and had a damn good time. In the last few years, we've eased back down to only two tanks - a 55g freshwater setup that is heavily planted and full of extremely healthy plants and a very happy school of cloud mountain minnows, and a 29g paludarium that houses a variety of plants, fish and amphibians. Of course, we'd have more set up if we had the room and are still designing a home that will have as a centerpiece a 300+g planted tank and either a 300g paludarium or a room with a sunken pond as the centerpiece (or both).
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Original content ©1998-99 Amy and Phillip Pittman.
Last updated 25 January, 1999