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Aquarium set up

I got a "river tank" from my brother and sister-in-law when they moved to NY. I love it! (Thank you thank you thank you!) It's the most beautiful fish tank I've seen, with fish swimming up waterfalls and plants helping filter the water, and lots of other neat features.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to set it up yet. I'm not sure exactly what happens to me when I look at all the pieces, but my heart rate goes up, I start sweating and forgetting what I just read... You'd think I could handle something like this, seeing as I got my PhD in mathematics, but there are pumps and enzymes and stress coats, and 10 easy steps to set it up... It shouldn't be so hard. Not only that, but I have had a black thumb and therefore don't have any of the houseplants I need to take cuttings from.

Probably my hesitation stems from unhealthy perfectionism and I should just jump right in! On the other hand, I don't want it to die a horrible messy death and require me to clean up a big mess because I failed to read the directions for the aquarium hood. Hmm.

As usual, the internet comes to the rescue:
http://www.rivertank.com
This shows a much bigger one than I have, but it gives you the idea. When I get mine set up, I'll post some pictures =)

Wish me luck!

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David Christian said…
The nice thing about the tank is: if you let it go south, you can fix it in about an hour of emptying the water and then putting clean water in.

The big thing to watch out for is when the fish die (which hopefully won't happen for a while). It's easy to let yourself not get new fish, which then saps your motivation to pay attention to it.
June 27, 2007 at 9:30 PM
mathmom said…
Hi David!

I think that my kids will be keenly aware of any death in the tank. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing =) but I hope they'll insist on having some more fish put in.
June 28, 2007 at 10:37 PM
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