Three and a half years ago, life as I knew it suddenly changed. No, I’m not talking about my marriage ending. I’m talking about what happened just prior to that.
I went downstairs early one morning to start my day with a workout. Stopping to feed the fish, I immediately realized something was wrong with my 52 gallon aquarium. I quickly forgot about my workout as the panic set in. I moved my two cichlids to another aquarium and set to work draining the tank.
I’ve re-sealed aquariums before – several times. This shouldn’t have been *that* big a deal in my life. Circumstances set in and… well… the elephant in the room for the past few years has been my empty 52 gallon aquarium. Did I want it back up and running? OF COURSE! Circumstances. Those darn life circumstances always get in the way.
A little over a year ago, I was determined to finally fix this thing! I wanted to do it *right* so I taped it all up and got to work. This was my first time working with tape and it was a good learning experience. As soon as I took the tape off, I realized the seal would fail. Needless to say, I was not happy. I finally worked up the nerve to try again a YEAR LATER.
My taping job was BEAUTIFUL! It also was quite strategic. I taped it in a manner that allowed me to start sealing at one end of the tank, peeling off the tape as I went along.
It took me another week or two to work up the nerve to actually put WATER in the aquarium. I think I held my breath the whole time. So far so good…
The aquarium sat that way for a MONTH before I finally felt confident enough to move on to the next step.
I found a good deal on gravel at Petco. Suddenly this was finally looking like an AQUARIUM again!
Did that last? No. It wasn’t for the reasons you think though. I had a vision and I was determined to make it happen.
Ah, so peaceful! Isn’t it great I knew right where I could go to find what I needed? I didn’t know *exactly* what I needed, but I knew I would know when I saw it. It ended up being a very successful day.
I drained the aquarium, pulled all the gravel out, and posted it on Facebook Marketplace. By the end of the day I had sold the gravel for what I paid. No loss there. I got to work rinsing the pool filter sand I had since purchased. I had spent a lot of time in the previous days washing and disinfecting the rocks I so carefully picked out. Now it was time to put together my vision!
I am thrilled with how this project is coming along. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I still have some work to do before I can get my fish, but I am SO CLOSE to finally having my favorite aquarium back up and running. This project has been a long time in the making and is finally becoming reality.
Here are closer pics of each of the rock structures:
