My salt water aquarium saga

We have had fish tanks since I remember. First we started out with a small 20 gallon fresh water tank with gold fish. My mother in law got herself a little pond, so I gave her the fish for the pond and they grew HUGE!!!!



So, since my goldfish were gone, my husband wanted something more aggressive. We got some oscars and fed them small goldfish.....wow.....how my heart broke seeing the little things being eaten, but I guess thats the cycle of life....I also feel bad when I see the little white mice in the pet stores waiting to be snake food....



I forgot what happened to the Oscars....all I remember is that next we set up a salt water tank. Oh, damn, the difference!!!! The salt water tanks looked wayyyy better and it was way easier to clean and maintain! There was no more so frequent water changes, no more dull look!


It does take patience when you first set up a salt water tank. You need to check your salt levels, Ph level, amonia levels.....then you have to let it cycle for about 2 weeks. Only then can you add some fish - and you cant add right away that Yellow Tang or Shark or whatever....you add fish that help with more cyclening - damsels! They are cute though...we usually get the blue ones with yellow tales and they look so cute under that neon light we got :-)


I have had some sad stories :-(


We got a baby snowflake eel just to find it dead on the floor the next morning.

We got a puffer fish and somehow it was dieing and we had to flush it down the toilet bowl, because when they die - they release poison and they can ruin the whole tank - sand, water, rocks - everything!


We had a Lion Fish and it died...why? Because we were putting way too many guppies in the salt water tank and them, as fresh water fish, screwed up something in the water.


And then it was our beloved sharks turn - we got a Leaopard Shark - the most beautiful creature I have ever seen. It was fine until our friend asked us to keep his 3 foot long Green Morray Eel that looked so creepy and scary! We were suppose to keep it only for few days, but the dang thing stayed with us for couple years! It started taking chunks out of our shark - killing it slowly. One day we found our beloved shark on the carpet. I think it jumped out of the tank on purpose...what else could have happened?


So, now after 3 years of not having the tank set up, we did it again. We cycled it, left the damsels there for another few weeks, bought live rock and coral started growing on it....its so beautiful!

AND, the other day my husband brough home the amazing lion fish! Now this time, I am feeding it one guppie at a time, I dont want nothing to go wrong! The damsels are pretty stressed out and I think that they might die from it.


Ok, so....sharing few pix from the new set up, hope you like'em.