My brother bought a tank service company and that—to my wife’s horror—rekindled my interest in keeping fish. The last tank I had was a 235 freshwater with an escape artist 2.5 foot arowana.
Aside: I highly recommend arowanas if you like skittish fish that are capable of snatching birds out of the air in the wild and have no problem taking long flappy strolls on new carpet.
I started off this time with a used Biocube that was terrific for six months until I tried mounting a Radion and probably cranked the mount too tight on the back leading to a huge leak. I saved most of the coral, but the fish stress led to an outbreak of every murderous marine bacteria and virus known to fish and man.
Before that six months in, I knew I wanted a larger tank so I began to measure out potential sizes.
I have an old house, so I called an electrician and put in some new circuits and GFI outlets. Then a great handyman sheetrocked the wall. I set up a mixing station on the other side.
Now, let’s talk about the mystifying experience of buying a Waterbox, which I now call “Laterbox,” or maybe “What Box?” … you get the idea.
I put my order in the middle of October, before the Blue Friday sale orders could come in. The dealer told me the expected ship was two weeks. That stretched to a November 11 arrival.
Fine, but it didn’t happen. Waterbox said there weren’t enough parts to complete the order. The next date set was “before December.” That came and went, too. Waterbox blamed the surge of Blue Friday orders, but that shouldn’t have affected me.
At least WB compensated me somewhat by sending a t-shirt and one of their huge algae scrapers. They also gave me a refund on a control box when the metal screw holes caved in because I torqued the screws pretty hard. They could have rejected the claim but, maybe because of the hassles I went though, they didn’t.
The tank finally arrived the first week of January in great condition EXCEPT there were missing plumbing parts. So I’m just cycling the display while I wait to connect the sump.
More to follow.
Aside: I highly recommend arowanas if you like skittish fish that are capable of snatching birds out of the air in the wild and have no problem taking long flappy strolls on new carpet.
I started off this time with a used Biocube that was terrific for six months until I tried mounting a Radion and probably cranked the mount too tight on the back leading to a huge leak. I saved most of the coral, but the fish stress led to an outbreak of every murderous marine bacteria and virus known to fish and man.
Before that six months in, I knew I wanted a larger tank so I began to measure out potential sizes.
I have an old house, so I called an electrician and put in some new circuits and GFI outlets. Then a great handyman sheetrocked the wall. I set up a mixing station on the other side.
Now, let’s talk about the mystifying experience of buying a Waterbox, which I now call “Laterbox,” or maybe “What Box?” … you get the idea.
I put my order in the middle of October, before the Blue Friday sale orders could come in. The dealer told me the expected ship was two weeks. That stretched to a November 11 arrival.
Fine, but it didn’t happen. Waterbox said there weren’t enough parts to complete the order. The next date set was “before December.” That came and went, too. Waterbox blamed the surge of Blue Friday orders, but that shouldn’t have affected me.
At least WB compensated me somewhat by sending a t-shirt and one of their huge algae scrapers. They also gave me a refund on a control box when the metal screw holes caved in because I torqued the screws pretty hard. They could have rejected the claim but, maybe because of the hassles I went though, they didn’t.
The tank finally arrived the first week of January in great condition EXCEPT there were missing plumbing parts. So I’m just cycling the display while I wait to connect the sump.
More to follow.
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