My new Aquarium

I had been a freshwater fish enthusiast since I was in the eighth grade - say about 14 or so. I lived in Broward County Florida and in the next apartment complex over was a man who worked as the "middleman" for a pet importer. He had all sorts of exotic animals in his apartment. And a "fish farm." He gave me a small aquarium filled with live bearing fish and a huge Plecostomus. Nearly from that time forward I wasn't very far from a fish tank.

This continued until I moved back to Florida in 2004. At that time I had a 40 gallon tank and immediately set it up and put in some nice fish. Including a fresh water butterfly fish. Within a week they were all dead. Seems the water (well) here bit the big one. So I sort of lost interest and ended up selling the tank and everything I had.

So about two months ago we replaced our water softener and got "perfect water" (at least if you believe the hype). So I started to think about fish again. And one day in Petco I got lost watching the saltwater fish. Now like most people I had heard what a pain they were to set up and maintain but hey, what the heck, let me take a lok and see what I could find out. Well for me that is tantamount to a decision.

The first thing I learned was that I had to have something that isn't high in my repertoire - patience. So after deciding that this was a done deal I rushed out and got a 55 gallon tank and sat on it.

The plan at the time was to build a stand but after debating it and doing a more than honest assessment of my carpentry skills we ended up buying a metal stand for a 55 gallon tank. This is what they looked like set up.