After a couple of really hectic weeks, I'm in the latter half of a 4 day weekend. Lots of things that had been put off, some enjoyable, some not so much are getting crossed off of the invisible list in the back of my brain.

I've spent time with family, had breakfast with my good friend Aaron (something we're going to be doing more often), cleaned dangerously under-tended areas of my house (the health department should have intervened in my bathroom), played poker with good friends, and did some chilling out with the 2 fuzzy monks watching movies like Buckaroo Bonzai and Ghostbusters.

One of the enjoyable things I've been putting at the bottom of my priorities was filling the 75 gallon tank in the home theater. I had Aaron help me move it in and level it *months* ago and even filled it and got all of the equipment up and running and then just left it sit dry and empty for far too long. After doing the hydroponic project, I had a renewed taste for doing more of the hands-on stuff for a bit and grabbed all of the technical bits and set it up during the week, leaving it ready for fish yesterday.

I headed to World of Fish and picked up the first batch of livestock which are now swimming around in the new tank:

• 4 Yellow Labs
• 2 Red Zebra
• 1 common pleco
• 2 clown pleco's

I'd post pics of mine specifically, but the tank's cloudy with bacterial bloom (just like it should be with added bio-load). I'm already digging this group of fish. They're colorful and active (the cichlids) and suitably strange looking (the plecos) to make for an interesting tank going forward. I'm not 100% on what I'm going to be adding next.

I'm deliberately leaving the house painting project alone this weekend (though the rain is making that more of an academic distinction). I'll get back on the ladder next weekend.

A while back, when I was looking for graphics tools to do animation as well as visualizing my new aquarium stand, etc., I ran across SketchUp, which looked great. It was a 3D tool for building models and rendering them with shadows, etc. For things like architecture, it looked like a great tool. I got all excited until I saw the price tag: $500.

Then, a few weeks ago, Google announced that they bought the company that makes it. I sat in anticipation for what they were going to do with it until this morning, when I ran across a link pointing to the new free version of the tool. They stripped out some of the "pro" functionality like exporting, etc., but overall, the bits that would be fun to learn and play with are still there.

Check out Google Sketchup

The aquarium is moved and the new filtration set up. Dang, a couple of those fish were nearly impossible to catch. The same fish was last all 3 times I had to move them: once to the holding tank, once to a moving bucket and once into the tank at the new location. What impressed me most is that this fish who evaded to the very end all 3 times is the "disabled" fish of that tank.

I inherited him when a friend shut his tank down. My friend doesn't know how or when it happened exactly, but this little cory catfish doesn't have any fins. For a tail, he's just got the muscular stump. That little catfish was able to swim faster and better than the rest. Downright inspirational.

Now for a quick rest before moving on to all of the other crap I need to do tonight.

Photo: Peter Burgess

I seem to be treading mud or quicksand trying to keep afloat right now. Lots of stuff going on and getting in the way of, well, this site and my personal projects. I've heard it said on multiple occasions that a feeling of control is what most of is are after, and I'm no different. I try to make the distinction between stuff I can control and stuff I can't (so I don't get too worked up or let the latter affect my happiness), but bad, controllable events don't spread themselves out and they sometimes bunch up like they are this week.

1. daylight savings time sucks. If the October time change is a high holy day on my personal calendar, the April one is an accursed smear worthy of being blocked out. Even with my newly deep understanding of sleep cycles, it is still taking me WAY too long to adjust yet again.
2. Second, our wonderful power grid managed to fail. In the middle of a perfectly calm night, during a season when most people aren't running A/C *or* heat very much.
3. Well, April 15 isn't that far away, but the completion of my taxes is.
4. Yesterday, I noticed that the water level in my aquarium dropped more quickly than it should have due to evaporation. The entire inside of the cabinet was wet when I opened it. As far as I can tell, my canister filter (Fluval 204) is leaking. I spent last night tearing it apart to see if I could figure out why and failed. I need to pick a replacement filter because I can't figure it out.

   In addition, because I don't know how much water has leaked out over how much time, I don't know if it's ruined the carpet, etc. underneath. So, I also get to move the whole setup in order to see underneath.

   Of course, there is an upside as I think I'm going to use this opportunity to move the 20 gallon to my office and make room for the 75 gallon in the theater.

5. In a few days, it'll all even out and I'll have moved on. Heck, the IRS will probably get their check on time and everything.

Photo: Anna

A few weeks back, I wrote Part 1 of an "Aquarium 101". This continues the series and helps you set up the equipment you bought as well as start adding fish and taking care of them.

I Bought It, Now What?

When you get your big pile of equipment home (and, since you didn't buy a kit, that's likely not going to happen on the same day, so pile it up somewhere until it's all there), first set up your stand.

Make sure it's put together correctly. Unlike a lot of furniture assembly, we'll be putting lots of weight on it and 55 gallons of water. A missed screw is going to result in a lot of water crashing into whatever room you put this thing into. So, if you aren't terribly handy, get some help putting the stand together. Make sure you put the stand nearby a supply of electricity. You're likely going to want 4-5 outlets before you're done. However, you do not want to have a powerstrip on the floor.

Electrical Safety

As with almost everything in fishkeeping, siphons can mess with safety. If water manages to get on your cords, a power strip on the floor is going to be right at the bottom of the cord for the water to siphon right down into. You ALWAYS want the actual plug to be higher than the lowest point on the cord. This is called the "drip" loop. As water runs down the cord, it will hit the bottom of the loop and drip to the floor instead of going right into the plug.

There are wall-style powerstrips that go right over the 2 socket outlets in your house that work great for setting a safe environment that will avoid any crispy fish or crispy fishkeepers.
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