Girlfriend Vs Reef Tank

[mutantbigman2000]

As anybody who has read my thread will aware, i have a 30g reef tank as my bedside table.

It has never been popular with the other half. when i set it up i said "well we'll give it a few months and see how it is then."

Well about 4 months down the line it looks like i am losing the "adam has the best bedside table ever" competition.

Now my options are

A. dismantle tank, keep freshwater tank downstairs.

B. dismantle freshwater tank, move marine tank downstairs.

C. dismantle freshwater tank. Convert fw tank to marine, transfer marine to new tank.

D. kick her out?

Now option 4 is a bit difficult because she is having our 2nd child, oh and she does the washing. only joking dear

Option c is my favourite. as much as i like my freshwater set up i can't let marines go now i have taken the plunge.
The tank downstairs is a trigon 190. this gives me 20g more of volume.

My main concern is lighting. at the mo my halide is supported by arcadia legs. these will not fit on a trigon because of its shape.
I could fill the hood of the trigon with t5 pc's but heat will be an issue.

I know that if i go down a t5 route from having halides then i will always consider it a compromised option and will regret it.

How difficult is it to attatch pendants? are they as unsightly as they sound?

Another concern i have is many years ago i think my ex wife treated the tank because we had a white spot breakout.
will this contain the copper that my inverts will not tolerate? any way i can test for this or is there another way of cleaning the tank to ensure all traces have gone?

 

[CageUK]

E. Get rid of both tanks, buy a 6ft tank, Glue a glass panel divider halfway across the tank and have a combined FW and SW tank. It would probably be the first in history as well!

Sorted

 

[flash22]

F. Give as much attention and TLC to her as you give your tanks. tropical jealousy Ftl

 

[shelaghfishface]

LMAO @ option D !! no!!

why dosent she like it? would have thought it would be very soothing...maybe she wants it on her side?

 

[mutantbigman2000]

LMAO @ option D !! no!!

why dosent she like it? would have thought it would be very soothing...maybe she wants it on her side?

Noisy? lights? Unhygenic?

You name it its been mentioned.

 

[smegforbrains]

D

 

[SharonCC]

Make her a deal that she can't resist, and keep it where it is....Nonhygenic?That's a stretch!!!!

 

[seffieuk]

Oh no, what you going to do Bigman?

I must admit that having a tank buzzing away all night might be a tad annoying if you are a light sleeper so,

Plan A turn the childrens room into a fish room and have the children sleep in with you ...........................

plan B put the girlfriend in with children and have a whole room to yourself ..........just invite her in on occassion

plan c buy her a big diamond ring and then every time she moans, say ' well I don't moan about that ring that cost me a fortune'

plan d take the tank downstairs and make her feel guilty for ever but of course keep both tanks

plan e get the kids to fall in love with tank - their hobby as well as yours, then you can buy them a tank for their bedroom as well



Seffie x

 

[mutantbigman2000]

our 2 year old loves the tank and says good night to memo, jim jam and bzzz everynight. (thats the clown, pyjama wrasse and skunk shrimp to you and me.)

 

[kj23502]

Well....lets see. I'm a woman and I recently came into mts. My arguement for more tanks was that my hubby has his gun room with all his reloading and trapping equipment too. Now, It's my turn as I really didn't have a hobby other than the kids and house for awhile. Does your wife have a hobby (even shopping counts) that she does frequently or whenever she can? Compare your hobby to that and mention that she'd be bummed if she was really limited and that's how you feel. I take it that you take very good care of your tanks? It's not like they are filthy to where you can't see anything in them b/c of algae. Plus, it's an awesome learning tool for your children. They can learn how things work together to keep the tank environment clean and in check similar to real ocean life. Plus, as they get older they can help with it a bit and that teaches responsibility for other living things. That even though we are top "dog" in nature we can't just do whatever the hell we want b/c things will fall apart. It's a good lesson for them.

p.s. I wonder if she is a little jealous? I miss my hubby sometimes when he's down in his gun room for a few hours. I'll occassionally go down and give him a kiss He probably gets tired of it (ok probably not). I never moan about it though. That's his thing and what he enjoys. Plus, we have 3 kids and we have to have some of "our individual time" to undwind. It sort of destresses us to sit back and watch the inhabitants. (Unless for us, our tank is crashing or something...then not so stress relieving.) I can even walk into a lfs and stare the fish for an hour+ observing each fish. My hubby thinks I'm nuts and doesn't like to go w/me b/c he gets bored

But now when you two wake up in the morning and if the first thing you do is look at and observe your tank then she probably feels second to the tank. I don't know if you do or not, but I'm just stating it. Give her attention first, do something nice for her occassionally and if it is tank jealousy then that should go away as she feels like your #1 again. I'm thinking it may affect her more now that she's prego too??? I was a little more self conscience when I was preggo.

Just a few thoughts for you from a woman's point of view. Good Luck

 

[mutantbigman2000]

ok. thanks kj. Its not that she doesn't like the idea of the tank or its inhabitants.

I originally planned on a smaller nano but a 30g tank came up at too good a price to miss.

It was bigger than i imagined too but being the fish keeper that only opened up new possibilties rather than being an obstacle.

I may end up with a small planted cube on my bedside, or something similar.

If i shut down my freshwater tank i will miss my blue crayfish. i've had him since he was about 3" long and now he is about 7", great character. My rainbow fish are all starting to really show their adult markings also.

 

[kj23502]

Wow. Hard decisions ahead. As I stated earlier. Good Luck Maybe she'll be more open to more tanks in the future

 

[mutantbigman2000]

right to get back on track i asked a lot of questions regarding a trigon 190 and converting to marine.

Any answers to these questions?

 

[CageUK]

Can't answer too much on the halides (I just have a nano with T5s) but I would imagine setting up a pendant would be down to your personal DIY skills.

The principles seem straight forward enough. You need hooks in the ceiling capable of taking the weight of the chain, the hood and the lights/ballasts etc. which would probably mean you either have to fix into the ceiling joists or create wooden spars between the joists and fix to those. You would need a power feed from the ceiling tracking down one of the chains and a quick means of isolating the supply. You would then need to construct the pendant itself as either a frame work or semi box construction.

Whether GF will be happy with the amount of light pollution this gives out is another matter. My other half, as much as she was happy to have a marine (and may relent to a bigger tank later on) really doesn't like the open type tops especially in the front room trying to watch tv etc.

Re: the treatments in the tank. I honestly don't think this would be a problem as long as the tank is cleaned out thoroughly and dried. You could maybe try cleaning with a baby steriliser such as Miltons which is a safe way of cleaning stuff like this. I use it to clean out the black mould from my camel back water bottle tube (although I doubt it would neutralise copper).

A lot of people convert their freshwater tanks to marine, and just about all of these have used copper treatments at sometime I would guess. If you are still concerned then buy some polyfilter which tackles copper and other heavy metals in water. By the time the tank is ready for corals it should be completely safe but I don't think you'll have a problem anyway.

I would wait for a second opinion though

 

[kuruptedseed]

Nano's over hoes! Just kidding...