here little fish, little fish, little fish!

Watching fish in your home aquarium is supposed to be relaxing...

...setting up your home aquarium is decidedly NOT relaxing!

The photo above was taken mid-staining project, (I was staining it darker.)  The aquarium & stand is a hand-me-down from my mom.  The only problem being the wood tone was wrong.  All wrong!  So, once the floor & molding were installed and the aquarium was moved into place,* I got to staining.  

As you can see, the tank was once used to house candles and ping pong balls.  And, for a night, my cell phone.  Because my friends are "hilarious."

*The "correct" way to stain something is to take it outside or into a garage/basement/work area, put on top of a drop cloth or newspaper, and stain all surfaces.  To hell with "correct," this sucker is HEAVY!  It was moved once, and that will be all!

Post-staining transformation!  With water!!!  The edges of the actual tank, (still oak-finished,) are a plastic material that I fear cannot be painted.  But, I plan on looking into this to see if there's any products that would stick... anyone have any suggestions or experience?  

So, over the course of months, we started filling with plants and rocks and things.  Funny story: it takes A LOT of freakin "plants and things" to fill a 125gal tank!  Another story: photographing a fish tank can be challenging, what with the reflection & glare & all.

I used field stones from... um... out in a field.  Scrubbed & soaked in boiling water many times over before putting in the (empty) tank.  I started feeding the tank for a few weeks, which gets things groovy & the nitrate cycle going.  By "feeding," I mean throwing in a few flakes every day, (but not too much!  Don't want to overload the tank.)

This is how it looked when we put in 6 Zebra Danios, to kinda test the waters & keep things going.  Since I am a horrible person & a failure at blogging, there's been tons of changes to the set up & stocking of the tank.  More plants & rocks; more fish.  Will update soon....*

*Yeah right.