New Gal

[mamalovebug75]

I met a young man named Craig today at a pet store. He suggested this site. I am a proud owner of a 150 gal and a 100 gal fresh water tanks. I have had tanks all my live; I am 35. For the first time ever about a year ago I had fish start reproducing in my 150 gallon. It was the biggest I had owned. From 5 cichlids, I in the end had about 40 to 50 die when my pump over heated and got the water up to 110 degrees. After that, I begin to research what had went wrong, and starting again. Today I stocked my 150 with 10 babies. Here's hoping.

During my purchase, I met Craig (do not know user name), who told me about his site. I look forward to all the information I may learn, ideas I can get and maybe help a few beginners myself. My daughter is 12 and homeschooled. This started out as a science project for her two years ago, and has turned into a hobby for both her and I.

[Geral]

Welcome to the box :)

Btw we love pictures lol

[mistahoo]

Welcome to the box! Sorry for your loss. Hopefully you've learned how to prevent it. If not, I'm sure everyone here wouldn't mind helping. Any pics of these large tanks? What are the livestock? What pet store did you go to?

[HERM]

Welcome

[justdoit]

Glad toy jumped in!! Welcome

[Jozle]

Welcome! We're all willing to help (Hopefully a majority of us) if you need anything. I'm the nano guy if you ever want to get into that.

[nano reef heaven]

Re: New Gal

Welcome

*Sent from my little corner of the reef. Nano nano!*

[mamalovebug75]

K I will try to figure out how to post pictures here as I am new. I have learned. It is actually quite an intersting story, but will take a while to type up, but to sum it up, my husband works as a swimming pool equipment tech. When a friend gave me the 150, I being on very limited income, he decided to see about hooking up pool filtering equipent up to it. Worked great for about 2 years. Pump and filter in the closet on the back side of the wall where the tank was located, and one night I didn't think to turn the pump off. Previously it had been hooked up to an automatic timer, but we had a power surge and had not reset the timers yet. During the night, being in the closet, no room for heat to get to far from the pump it got hotter and hotter, heating the water sirculating through it until at 4 am my daughter runs in the bedroom crying the fish are all dying. Time I was able to cool the water down, the majority of the fish I had babied for over 2 years and watched mature and reproduce her passed. I was fortunate enough to have 5 Plecostomos and 1 blue grommie survive. I cried for days over that tank of fish. I took my tanks down and gave up. Then I got this bright idea to move the pump outside and just run longer pipes. In the mean time I had acquired a cheap 100 gallon tank and someone gave me a smaller pump and sand filter. I am now in the process of running the plumbing for it. I have ran this pump and tank for hours on end and watched the temps, set a temp sensor shut off on it and placed sensors for that temp in both filter and tank. I will never looks my fisheys to heat again. Yes my lesson was learned at a very valuable cost. This picture is of my kitty Nina watching our new fish. She says, "this tank will do quite nice my dear." LOL

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[Jozle]

That is really hardcore stuff. Especially when it looks like it is mostly DIY.

[mamalovebug75]

Sorry, I forgot to answer the question of the stock. I have the surviving 5 Plecostomos and 1 blue grommie from my original set up both 2 yrs old, a 13 in Plecostomos and 12 in catfish, 10 acei cichlids and 3 albino rainbow shark. I had never seen the sharks before today, but in my previous tank I had 2 rainbow sharks and these to me are much prettier, but same aggression levels, cares and all.

[Ogrodii]

Welcome!!!

[troy tucker]

Welcome to the Box!

[johnnymisty]

Welcome to the box!!!!!! Did you meet craig at a petsmart? If so he was a good guy and not sure if he got on the site yet or not

[ScorpiosWife]

Welcome to the box!

[mnemenoi]

Welcome aboard!!!