First and foremost, welcome! As for running a stove, I daresay you know more than you let on.....that much experience is invaluable, especially to folks who are just starting....how to run the stove during a warmer day, etc....you know all this, many don't. Now this thread, I hate it. I was an aquarium nut for years.....first fish at 5, aquariums since then...then I had 4 kids, and didn't have time for proper maintenance...at the time I had a reef tank, took several hours per weekend of work to maintain, time I just didn't have...so, I shut her down...a 125g, a 550, a 70, and several 20's sit in my basement....waiting. I did the saltwater thing...beautiful, but too much work. My next endeavor might be a planted unit with CO2 injection (have all the stuff from my reef days!), but, the time thing still kills me. When I come here and see the units you folks have set up, it starts to give me "the bug" again, so far, Ive been successful in resisting..........
Thanks for the welcomes! I know what you mean Lousyweather! I went through something similar minus 4 kids and 2 barely hanging in there aquariums. I made the mistake of checking out that forum we were talking about, Aquaria Central, and that bug got me GOOD! A 125 and a 550 sitting empty!? Good job resisting! If you are handy (or had money to throw at it) you could easily start a semi automated planted aquarium, especially considering you probably have a fair bit of equipment you could utilize. If you wanted to start a thread over at AC I'd be over joyed to help you! I love DIY stuff. I'm so jealous of these beautiful BIG aquariums in this thread! I can't have anything over a 75 in this house cause it is 140 years old and the main beam is busted. And I will probably never move so I'll probably never have anything bigger than a 75. Although one day I'd love to build an out building fishroom.
easily rectified, My! get a couple 2x10's, spike them together, and get some adjustable teleposts to carry the additional weight! Broken main beams are pretty common....some folks just put a support either side fo the break...you can jack it up, but often this can cause more issues than they solve...beam probs broke years ago.....
I suppose it is more than broken.... decades ago my uncle drilled a 6" hole through the main beam to run some plumbing. MANY years went by before anything was done. It now has a multitude of jacks around it and is sistered as well. We did attempt to jack it up once but it was terrifying! lol The whole house slants so badly now that I am just too scared to put too many gallons in the house. I'm down to 180 gallons total spread around the house. That's about 1500lbs of just water, never mind substrate, rocks and the glass itself. I was easily over 2k at one point. I've never done that math before.
ahh...opps! that "550" is a typo...its a 55....sorry. I type poorly. Am now a member of that forum....geez...God help me
Definatly look into shipping laws/lic etc. Could be both alot of fun and a money maker at the same time.
I hope you remember to post some pics of your stay for those of us that need them! They don't all need to be of water, remember!
Doubting it will pan out....But, WWW heard of a large tank from a restaurant in town, that would be way too much fun! Meanwhile I took the plunge on a bunch of tetras for the 55 gal that should be here later this week.
So I stopped by and visited with that man today. ~~~sounds like he wants to keep the really big aquariums, but WWW and I will visit his home in the next couple weekends, a 40H+ hex would fit here better than a sprawling 55.