I get up this morning after a blissful four hours of sleep to our two dogs taking my spot in the bed. We no longer have a television in the living room while we are making the transition of the two tanks so Chris and the dogs came back into the bedroom after the munchkins went off to school to watch the one in there. The dogs of course look at this as a treat because they are never allowed in the bed. I look at this as a complete invasion of my space...guess it's time to get up. Fabulous. Why did I give up coffee?
I go lay on the couch. Why not? I don't seem to have a bed...I find myself staring at what I have now deemed "The Monster." My mind wanders back to nearly eight years ago when Chris first brought up having an aquarium. He wanted a simple 55 gallon with an eel. That's it folks! Really. He mentioned a feather duster and possibly getting a few pieces of live rock to make it look interesting as well as some fish. I wanted to know what live rock was. So, I looked it up. Wow! I couldn't believe what I found. I mean c'mon! You guys know what is here on the internet?! I was astounded and I asked him if we could get a few corals and mushrooms too. I really wanted a coral reef like I saw in the pictures. Of course, he did too but eight years ago, who knew! When it really boils down to it, this hobby, all the money spent, and all my bitching about it...it's all my friggin' fault! When Kynan offered us first dibs on these tanks it was ME who said why not...me! And I can assure you that it will be me bitching about this tank a month down the road about him always staring into it and talking about it. When it boils down to it though, seeing him happy is what makes me happy. I do love the beauty that it adds to our home. I do love talking about it and I do know more about it than I let on. I love it, probably not as much as he does but, I do.
So, this weekend started off nicely. We went over to a fellow reefers home to give her some of our unwanted corals and check out her tanks. Very cool stuff. We come home and of course Chris goes over to his laptop and checks his Reef Central account which seems to be his latest and greatest obsession and looks at me. His face is quite solemn and he says "Oh no...your not going to believe this." I just look at him. He says, "Kyle is getting out." He goes on to read the post that says something about losing the passion and so on. I actually tear up. Kyle's tank was the most amazing tank I had seen a few years back when we had first joined C.T.A.R.S (Connecticut Area Reef Society) and I couldn't take my eyes off of it when we visited for the first time. Chris and I sit in awe for a short time in our living room. Then he starts to go over the thread again. He missed a post, a very important post that has his name on it...it says that Chis from Plainfield has first dibs on the 240 tank. What?! Huh?! We are in complete shock again. We sit for a few minutes and ponder over this idea...could we fit a bigger tank into this tiny apartment? Not a 240 but maybe, just maybe the 210...
The next day we find ourselves over at Kyle's house with my daughter and her new 'friend' Dan. She's nearly 16 and he's going to be 18 in less than two weeks so I can't possibly leave the two of them alone at my house! Although Kyle's tank has suffered some downfall's because of some pain-in-the-ass fish hitting his lights and unfortunately bleaching some of his colonies, his tanks are still gorgeous and even Emily and Dan oohh and aahh over them when they walk into the house. We stay for quite a while and leave after writing a few checks and purchasing the 210, a couple of corals, fish and some equipment knowing there will be more to purchase before this is over.
The next morning we actually go out with the owner of Fin & Feather, John, another wonderful man. Believe it or not, this was not a tank trip, it was a gardening thing. Chris and John are both into lilies and the three of us went to a meeting about them. As soon as we walked through the door Chris received a text from Kyle that his floor was covered with live rock and coral and if we wanted, he could use some help at the house. I asked Emily when her 'friend' was coming because we needed to get back over to to Kyle's. She was a little pissed but, such is life :) We headed back over and walked into what smelled like low-tide. For the next couple of hours Kyle, Chris and Kyle's son cleaned up, and fragged what was left of everyone picking through his tanks. Throughout the day his son had somehow convinced him to keep his 240 and Chris and I were extremely happy at this notion. I really wish I had pictures of this day because it was really awesome!
As you know, Monday we reinforced the floor. Tuesday we spent yet another evening at Kyle's, this time the tank followed us home however. Another big thank you has to go out to Kyle and his son Kyle. All the hard work taking all the coral, fish, and sand and live rock out of the tank and then taking the tank out of the wall and then the house and then bringing it to our house could not have been as easily done without all of your help. We really do appreciate everything!! It couldn't have been easy watching it leave as I know I actually had a heavy heart watching the wall coming down myself knowing what beauty lied there just days before. I hope that Kyle knows and understands that we feel honored that he thought of us first when he decided to pull out and we will always think of this tank as his :)
Some of these pictures are a bit blurry...this is because I didn't want to keep snapping pictures and pissing this guys off by hitting them with the flash every time so I turned it off and upped the ISO on the camera as much as I could. I'm not going for photographer of the year here, just trying to document the build :D
 |
| Draining the water... |
 |
| My daughter saw this picture and thought Kyle was in the tank...he's not, just on the other side lol!! |
 |
| Scooping out all the sand. There was about 35 gallons! |
 |
| Cutting out a piece of the wall... |
 |
| Men and their tools... |
 |
| The wall needed to come down to get the tank out...the picture looks blurry but this is actually dust. |
 |
| This was actually a big debate because the tank had to keep being lifted because the pipes had to be left into the overflows (Chris later found out they didn't). This is Chris giving his current position on what they should do with the tank removal. |
 |
| Chris cutting off more pipe to gain more clearance. |
 |
| Finally... |
 |
| Tank sitting on it's side on our patio awaiting it's future for the next day... |
Of course I can't tell you that future until the next blog ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment