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If I had a 220 Gallon Aquarium, I would stock....

On my way to getting my dream aquarium...

122K views 1K replies 53 participants last post by  djembekah 
#1 ·
We have a 20, 35, and 2 x 55 gallon tanks. Today we took the plunge and put a 6 foot, 125 gallon tank with stand on layaway. It will be our last tank.



It'll take a couple of months for me to pay off the tank, stand, heaters, filter, etc which gives me plenty of time to figure out what kind of substrate I want, whether or not I am finally going to try live plants, and what kind of fish to keep. Actually, i'm not even sure what kind of filter to get yet.

Our current tanks are very colorful and artificial looking (think Vegas, tacky but entertaining) as you can see in these pictures:





I'm thinking I would like the new tank to look more natural. We're going to use it as a room divider in our basement so it will be visible from both sides of the tank, we won't be using a background. So far I'm leaning toward some Balas, Barbs, and Loaches, if the tank is big enough.

Can't wait to get the sucker home and set up! Going to be a long couple of months. My 3 year wedding anniversary is July 18 and I'm hoping to have it then, as this is my anniversary gift.
 
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#1,007 ·
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Santa visited everybody!

Boxer, how is that bent fish?

I had another Bala die. No idea what happened to this one. The other two died when the ick was visible in the tank. None of the fish were acting sick this time, that I noticed. I checked the carcass and didn't see any signs that the Chinese Algae Eaters were munching on him. Could he have been weakened by the ick over a month ago, and just died now?

The next time I go to LFS, I'm bringing the CAEs back, if I can catch them. Another snow storm here today, our second in a week. We are buried now, so I won't be going to LFS until next week sometime.

We made a resolution for 2013, NO NEW TANKS OR TERRARIUMS!! This Christmas was tight because we blow so much at LFS. Charlie made out great, but Jodie and I didn't exchange gifts. Too bad we didn't have the cash, she was going to get me a master test kit, FINALLY, lol.
 
#1,008 ·
Well it was a crazy rush driving twice from Uxbridge to Barrie, and down into Toronto. An hour here and back and another hour there and back... oh, and then boxing day we did it all again. crabby, tired, grumble, grrrrrr. Oh sorry was that part out loud?

Well I got to Big Al's. Their big sale inventory did not come in in time... so I paid for a Turtle dock only for their stock to arrive 3 hours after I left. Grrrr another hour's drive back will be required to go get it. I told them to hold it till I came back to town for something else. I'm not wasting my sale savings on a tank of gas to go get the stupid thing. Nubbin's dock is still hanging on and they sell for $29 here in town but I got one for $22 less 20%.
And Dad was so tired he did not write the Christmas cheques, (he's 85 god love him) he's allowed to be tired, so no new tank for me unless I put up 25% and put one on layaway before the sale ends. I still managed to spend about $120 bucks on the dock, and large containers of turtle food, plant food, fish food, 3 good sized Amazon Swords for $21 less 20%, and 2 Anacharus. Everything was 20% off. Got 3 more Corys so now have 3 green and 3 or 4 Albino. They are all the same breed anyway, those 2. And I got a weighted silk plant for Nubbins tank. whew.
I'm sorry, I'm crabby today. No left overs either since we didn't do any of the cooking. :-( That's the part that really really sucks when you go visiting for Christmas... no left overs, no turkey sandwiches. :-(
 
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#1,009 ·
I have to correct myself... not an hour there and back.... it's an hour each way and with the snow storm last night it was almost 2 to get home one way. We have about 6 to 8 inches.
I hope you guys had a wonderful day with "the boy". What treasures did you find on Kijiji for him?
 
#1,011 ·
I hate driving in bad weather. I didn't mind when I was younger but now I hate it. Especially with Charlie in the car, and I don't go anywhere without him.

Kijiji was awesome this year! He saw a pic of a remote controlled spider man, and thank God we got it ($20) because for a month he went around telling everyone (even strangers) that we wanted a Spider Man Remote Control Robot.

They sell a new one in stores, but it climbs the walls and is for older kids. This one is from a few years ago, from the SpiderMan 3 movie, and it is better suited to kids his age. He brings it to bed with him.

He also got a big basketball, football, golf, etc ESPN sports centre, and those people gave us a train table for free that was going to the Salvation Army, and he loved that. He got a couple of racetracks. We bought one new because it was 55% off at Canadian Tire. We also got mickey mouse, calliou, and monster truck stuff from kijiji, and some Cars (McQueen, Mater) R/C cars (2 for $15), and an art easel.

If he gets older and decided he wants new toys in the box from the store, we're screwed. He would have had two or three toys if we bought them all new, but he got a ton of stuff.

I might as well show you:



It's kinda long, (it's really long, for the grandparents), but you can flip through until the end. You can tell all the stuff we got from kijiji, as it's in the wrong boxes. So funny, he unwraps a plain box and says "Oh Wow" before he knows what's in it. Haha. After talking about the Spiderman toy for a month, he forgot about it in all the excitement Christmas day. We worked it so he opened that last, as otherwise he wouldn't have opened anything else.

They had a "shopping day at school" where they bought stuff for dimes, and wrapped them for family members, so Jodie and I each had a gift to unwrap. He hid mine in the kitchen cupboard and Jodie's behind the couch. I got a boat wall decoration and she got hand cream. He told me I was getting a boat a hundred times. I'm shocked he didn't tell Jodie about the cream. He loves hand cream. He covers himself in it.

It was a great Christmas.

I hear ya on the leftovers, I would miss them if I didn't have any. We're making turkey pot pie and turkey soup with the leftovers. I am also a big turkey sandwich guy.

Edit: Oh, and we got him a Buzz Lightyear costume from Kijiji and he just happened to open it second and he wore it all day. So cute!
 
#1,010 ·
Bah, sorry to hear about all the driving. Was the weather ok?

Sounds like you got a lot of cool stuff. I love swords, but they're the only plants my water/lights don't seem to grow well.

Christmas cheques from my mom basically made Christmas for us. Every year she sends 3, one for each of us, and every year we use them all for Charlie.

He insists "It's still Christmas". I think he is scared he'll have to go back to school and not be able to play with his toys all day. He doesn't understand he is off for two weeks.

We might go to our LFS to say hi this weekend, but we have NO money to spend. Charlie outgrew his ski boots and skis this year, and lessons aren't cheap, so we'll have to take it easy at the LFS for at least a month. Since 3 Balas have now died, hopefully I'll have enough money to replace them. Can't understand why that one died today.
 
#1,012 ·
I have to add, a giant snowplow just went by, and Charlie is in the window (naked, of course, sigh) freaking out like it is the most exciting thing he has ever seen.

I wish I could get that excited about dirty winter. The very first day it snowed (just a little) he wanted to go sledding and skiing, lol. Last Christmas he got an inflatable McQueen sled that he still has, and we have a small hill three doors down from us. Probably do that tomorrow. Today we just made the crappy snowman.

Stop screaming Charlie! God. Jodie is at work. Must be nice.
 
#1,013 ·
Awww.. thank you for sharing your video with us. My 21 year old son sat on the couch beside me and we watched him open every item. Have to say he panicked a bit when he saw all the balls on the big game wrapped separately!! lol. We enjoyed guessing what each item was as it came out of the wrapping. My son loves kids so it didn't surprise me one bit that he sat with me and watched the entire video. Charlie is SO polite!!
Enjoy my dear!! They grow up way too fast!
 
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#1,014 ·
I like how he would say "Thank you Santa Claus" to the camera. He assumes Santa is going to see the video, lol.

Yesterday he made me watch that video half a dozen times. He misses my parents, they live in Florida six months of the year, and he doesn't understand why we can't go see them, so I had to watch our Canada Day video of them between showings of the Christmas video.

He had a blast and we had a very good Christmas.

Holy batteries. Between the camera and the toys, it's crazy how many batteries we installed.

Last year our tree was where the Rainbowfish tank is. Before we got the tree Charlie kept saying it was going "behind the fish tank" which I assume means he expected us to move the tank.

Right now he is insisting on wearing my jeans, which is just ridiculous.
 
#1,015 ·
Haha your jeans. I'm lay in bed posting as I can't sleep and I just got massive evils off my Mrs for laughing at that. She was asleep as its 4.30am. Oops :)

That video is awesome, I skipped a bunch, it's long and it's late, but I'll watch the full length tomorrow, but all I could think was OMG I WANT A BUZZ LIGHTYEAR CHILD!!! Haha. I also thought get your tattoo legs out of the cute video. Ha!!!

But seriously, I love that you post stuff like that up it's really nice to see.
 
#1,016 ·
I'll have to put a pic of him in my jeans and shirt later. Hilarious. Looks like a clown.

Happy to say I went to the fish store to drop off some Christmas chocolates and cookies (better late than never) and I managed to not spend any money!

Sucks, because they have balas, and I need 3, and I'm going to need some new pellet food soon, and everything is 20% off right now. But Charlie had to grow out of his skis and boots, and lessons start Jan 22 (not paid for yet) so it is tight tight.

It was busy in the LFS! Wow, everyone was buying accessories for their new tanks, and getting their water tested, and by the sounds of it, finding out they can't add fish yet, lol.

They had Chinese High Fin Sharks (or something like that) there today, and they were awesome. Unfortunately they don't fit into my tank, personality and temperature conflicts. Lame!

They also had a ton of plants for a change. Hopefully they get more in when we have some cash in a few weeks, looking forward to planting the Rainbow tank and the 20 gallon.
 
#1,018 · (Edited)
Playing with the camera again. Some pics of the Rainbowfish tank:














and the 20 gallon...This little guy is one of two guppies that survived from the fry stage by hiding in the little cracks in the driftwood:



They're almost impossible to get pics of because the won't back away from the glass most of the time.
 
#1,021 · (Edited)
Off topic (other than it's still Christmas), for those of you that watched some of my Christmas video, I realized tonight I never uploaded our 2010 Christmas morning video to youtube. I actually forgot we made one. So I uploaded it tonight.

Charlie has grown so much! And he was SO slow at unwrapping gifts. Also, not talking at all. (Making lots of noise, though, lol). I forgot how much he jumped around!
Also, the walls in our basement aren't even finished in this one. Too bad I never showed where the 220 ended up in this video, there wasn't even a wall there back then, it was just open to the laundry room. We bought almost all his toys used that year, I think, all from two different people.



This was last year:



You can actually see the Batman toy from 2011 in the 2012 video, he still loves it. The Tonka dump truck from 2010 is still one of his favorites. We have to bring it with us everytime we go camping. And there is no room in the car.
 
#1,022 ·
Bent fish is fine watched your video on youtube one day before it was posted on here we bought a 3d smart tv on boxing day busy installing it and buying a new bracket for it then went out and bought a 3d blue ray player no big als this boxing week spent too much on electronics plus we have a puppy for a week 2 for a few days busy with 5 dogs here so didn't get any more dennisons barbs plus the weather has been not so great snowing again today yesterday was nice so we went shopping again I had some gift certificates it was a zoo my husband was at future shop at 6am on Boxing day to grab the tv

but bent fish is still active eating I used to have a guppy in that tank that hasn't been seen for a long time my daughter asked where it was and I think it disappeared around the time the dennison barbs went in that tank. can't remember when I last saw it
 
#1,023 · (Edited)
Merry Christmas Boxer!

Glad to hear bent fish is fine, other than being bent, lol.

Congrats on a 3D TV! I just watched Dredd and I hear it is amazing in 3D (ultra violent, I'm not recommending it unless you grew up on the comic like I did, or love slow motion blood splatter. Or Karl Urban, he's awesome. But he's Dredd, so you only see his chin). We bought a projector and a 120" screen a few years ago, right before 3D really got big, and there's no way we could go back to watching a small TV. (Mainly because we have a 10 ft diagonal screen fixed to the wall) So I am patiently waiting for this projector to die so that Jodie will let me get a 3D one. That would be amazing. I've never even seen a 3D movie in theatres (other than Jaws 3D in crappy anaglyph red/blue when I was a kid), I have seen exactly two movies in the theatre since Charlie was born, Puss in Boots and Wreck It Ralph, and Charlie will not wear 3D glasses for more than 5 minutes, so we went to the 2D showings.

I tried one of those 3D TV displays at Futureshop and it blew my mind. You can see so many scenes in newer movies that were obviously filmed with 3D in mind, I am jealous.

I didn't even check for dennisons when I was at the LFS because I really need to not spend money right now. Boxing week is irritating, all those great deals, right after blowing all our money on Christmas. And right before rent is due.

Your husband is a brave man for going to an electronics store at 6am on boxing day. Have you watched any 3D movies yet?

Do you know if you got active or passive 3D? Let me know how it looks!

Missing fish are frustrating. Are they dead, are they alive? Some of my tanks have so many hiding spots, it's impossible to tell. I have a big hollow cichlid stone, and every time I can't find a fish, I assume he is in there dead (I can't help but fear the worst). The thing is big with two little holes, so it is impossible to know for sure.

Edit: I just watched the video of the bent fish again. Was he like that ever since you got him home?
 
#1,025 · (Edited)
He's so funny, he LOVES watching himself. He woke up at 7:30 this morning, I had only been asleep a few hours. Jodie was still at work, so I desperately wanted to sleep some more. Sometimes he comes and gets into bed with me and I put on movies for him and go back to sleep, but some days, like today, he just wants to go downstairs (where if I fall asleep on the couch he will get into endless trouble) so I told him I had a new Christmas movie of HIM to watch. He LOVES watching himself to the extent that he is probably a narcissist. I made a playlist of the three Christmas videos from 2012 to 2012, plus his Christmas concerts and stuff, and he watched it and left me alone until Jodie got home at 9am. Once she gets home, he gets ultra excited and goes nuts, so we have to come downstairs so Jodie can sleep.

I love that 2010 video. He was so cute.

So now our dilemma is, once skiing is all paid for, do we spend on planting the tanks, and maybe new fish, or do we set up that terrarium? There's a half a dozen outlets roughed in, in our basement, I am thinking of asking our landlord if he can hook one up to the juice. Otherwise I don't know where to put the thing. Might be too cold down there anyway. The terrarium is more Jodie's thing, I like fish. I'm not really into pets with legs (or snakes, either, bad enough I had to pick up a rope fish). I dread having to clean the poop. Hopefully Jodie will look after the damn thing.

Still not sure if she wants a frog or gecko, which I think are the only things that can go in an 18x18x18 environment. I am leaning towards gecko.
 
#1,026 ·
Anybody in Canada or the colder States ever notice faster evaporation in the winter? I don't know if it's because the furnace is going or what, but I find my tanks are evaporating faster the last month or so.

I don't know squat about evaporation, it's been decades since I was in a science class.
 
#1,027 ·
Totally!! The air is much drier in the winter... that is why we have Humidifiers on our furnaces in the winter, and de-humidifiers in the summer. Those of us with fish tanks will notice huge drops in water levels quickly.... remember that concentrates the minerals and we need to step up the water changes to dilute it.
If your house was incredibly dry you will notice cracked hands and trouble with the inside of your nose, sore and bleeding. Most of us with fish tanks don't experience it as bad.
 
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#1,028 ·
That's really weird..... I always have cracked hands..... but looking at them now, and thinking about it, I'm sure your right and mine have been much better this last month since having the tanks......
 
#1,029 ·
MORE water changes? Yet another reason to hate Canadian winter. I already long for the spring, now I'm even more impatient. When we were out in the snow with Charlie the other day, Jodie started counting the days until spring.

Last March we were skiing in T Shirts. I doubt we'll be so lucky this year.

Jodie is SUCH a weirdo. While I was typing this the phone rang, I had left it upstairs where she is sleeping after working all night. I get up there, and she answered it and is doing a bloody survey, on a Saturday morning, after they just woke her up. I never do those bloody things, regardless of circumstances.

With the exception of polling during an election. I'm all over that.
 
#1,033 ·
Ottawa gets way more snow then us we get the end of the georgian bay lake effects but ottawa gets more then us we are 1 hour from Toronto

We got the passive 3d I just wanted the smart tv at first but always wanted 3d too when I found out that they had both in one well I had to have one I don't think our living room can handle anything larger then a 55 inch, we have a larger one in our rec room but I never go down there thats the one our kids game on and its just a tv this tv came with a wireless keyboard so I can watch tv and read this forrum lol
 
#1,038 ·
Ok, got some pics of the Hillstream Loach on the glass. I have yet to get a good pic from the other side, but this angle will do for now. Kinda creepy looking.







Also, got a couple of decent pics of the small bristlenose in the rainbowfish tank. I love the white on the tip of his tail. That's how I spot him when he's completely on the driftwood.







I can't get a decent photo of the big one in the 220 because he sits in a groove in the huge piece of driftwood and completely blends in. If you look, you can see him with the naked eye, because he is a little more jagged than the wood, but the camera doesn't pick him up at all. He is 100% camouflaged.

If I had hideous colored substrate in the 220 I would get the occasional shot of him. He blends into the black substrate too.
 
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