KelliMorton
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi! I stumbled upon this site while searching for some insight into our aquarium online and it seemed like a great resource to be a part of! A little history about my aquarium adventures. Several years ago (about 8 to be exact) a friend of ours gave us a 29 gallon aquarium (the long rectangle kind)with everything already in it (fish, gravel, some water, filter, etc) she had had it set up in their home but no longer felt they had room for it. We gladly took it for our son who has multiple severe medical problems to enjoy while he's homebound. For years it was wonderful (though we went through our share of sick fish due to Walmart at least 4 times managing to sell us at least one sick fish who then wiped out our entire tank in a few days). Other than that, it was great 
One day my husband bought two Pacu's (sp?) from Walmart (our tank only had a couple of fish in it at this point, including my nearly foot long Pleco!) The Pacu's were fine, for a couple of months. Then they WIPED OUT THE TANK (Walmart said they WOULDN"T!) They even killed my Pleco We kept the Pacu's briefly afterward (they got HUGE) then the aquarium heater went out and they froze while we were away. At that point we were doing some renovations to our home to make it more handicapped accessible (my son was almost 5) so we took the aquarium down. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago My son is now 9 and has since been diagnosed with Autism, and we also got a diagnosis of a neuro degenerative disease. We homeschool him and decided that an aquarium would be a wonderful way for him to learn about Eco Systems (plus watching the fish relaxes him and me!). We went to set up our 29 gallon aquarium and discovered that NOTHING worked anymore lol. Filter, heater, pump, etc....plus the aquarium stand was broken. Called for prices and discovered that PetSmart had an awesome deal on a 36 gallon bowfront Aqueon Tank with everything we needed to get started. We made an aquarium stand out of a solid oak night stand (trust me, this thing is STRONG) and there we go! We set it up on a Wednesday (including the two small fir like plants we got to go in it) and let it start cycling (we also added Water Conditioner, Start Right and Aquarium Salt) like they told us to, and let it run for 24 hours. We called them the next evening to see if we could add fish, and they said yes. Off we went that Thursday to get our fish. We got 2 Mickey Mouse Fish, 1 ghost catfish, a Pleco, and 3 sunburst mollies and a male Betta. We came home, got them acclimated, and added them. They did great! On Sunday we went back to get a couple more Dalmatian Mollies, and 3 guppies, and 2 snails. That was well over 2 weeks ago. We just lost our first fish in this new tank yesterday. While researching that was when I found this site. I look forward to getting insight and learning all about what ya'll have to teach me! Kelli
One day my husband bought two Pacu's (sp?) from Walmart (our tank only had a couple of fish in it at this point, including my nearly foot long Pleco!) The Pacu's were fine, for a couple of months. Then they WIPED OUT THE TANK (Walmart said they WOULDN"T!) They even killed my Pleco We kept the Pacu's briefly afterward (they got HUGE) then the aquarium heater went out and they froze while we were away. At that point we were doing some renovations to our home to make it more handicapped accessible (my son was almost 5) so we took the aquarium down. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago My son is now 9 and has since been diagnosed with Autism, and we also got a diagnosis of a neuro degenerative disease. We homeschool him and decided that an aquarium would be a wonderful way for him to learn about Eco Systems (plus watching the fish relaxes him and me!). We went to set up our 29 gallon aquarium and discovered that NOTHING worked anymore lol. Filter, heater, pump, etc....plus the aquarium stand was broken. Called for prices and discovered that PetSmart had an awesome deal on a 36 gallon bowfront Aqueon Tank with everything we needed to get started. We made an aquarium stand out of a solid oak night stand (trust me, this thing is STRONG) and there we go! We set it up on a Wednesday (including the two small fir like plants we got to go in it) and let it start cycling (we also added Water Conditioner, Start Right and Aquarium Salt) like they told us to, and let it run for 24 hours. We called them the next evening to see if we could add fish, and they said yes. Off we went that Thursday to get our fish. We got 2 Mickey Mouse Fish, 1 ghost catfish, a Pleco, and 3 sunburst mollies and a male Betta. We came home, got them acclimated, and added them. They did great! On Sunday we went back to get a couple more Dalmatian Mollies, and 3 guppies, and 2 snails. That was well over 2 weeks ago. We just lost our first fish in this new tank yesterday. While researching that was when I found this site. I look forward to getting insight and learning all about what ya'll have to teach me! Kelli
