View Full Version : SCI:Pleasing your spouse/cohabitants
mogurnda
04-26-2005, 10:41 AM
Whether it's roommates, spouses, kids, or whatnot, there always seem to be issues that can crop up about the tank. Unsightly piles of wires, smelly skimmers, noisy overflows can all bug the non-aquarists in the house.
What kinds of conflcts have you had, and how did you fix them?
OrionGirl
04-26-2005, 10:53 AM
Heck, I'm one of the aquariasts and this still bugs me: Water drips on the floor! I know it's next to impossible to work in a tank without some water hitting the floor, but it needs to be cleaned up!
Next--and this would be my hubby's complaint against me--I leave tubs of old change water lying around. I use the water for my house plants and outside container gardens, and the tub will just sit partially full in front of the tank for days...
mogurnda
04-26-2005, 10:56 AM
One problem I discovered when I got a really good skimmer was that it collected a lot of stinky skimmate. My wife was complaining "the living room smells like a fish store."
Then I found out you can get rid of a lot of the stink by putting about 1/2 tsp of kalk in the collection cup. I guess it inhibits bacterial growth, but however it works, the room smells a lot better.
trips
04-26-2005, 11:01 AM
My wife doesn't much appreciate me working in the kitchen. Put it this way, the first time I dumped old change water into the kitchen sink will be the last time I do it. Other than that she loves being able to enjoy the benefits of the hobby without having to get physical with it so I have a pretty long leash.
DansMarineTank
04-26-2005, 11:08 AM
Algea on glass. the girlfirend hates it, but in the same breath she has a pheobia of Snails!!! so i get to do a great deal of scraping, she hates the noise the skimmer makes and she hated my old lionfish stating he was ugly. She hates me using the kitchen and storing frozen fish food in the freezer. The list goes on
She hates how much i spend on the Tank
She hates the skimmer and the pipes "makes it look like an experiment"
lastly she hates that i pay the tank more attention than her..... (blame me anyone???)
mogurnda
04-26-2005, 11:19 AM
lastly she hates that i pay the tank more attention than her..... (blame me anyone???) :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
I was just lucky my wife loves the oddball denizens. When she first saw fanworms, she was completely awed. My favorite moment was when we were picking some stuff up in the LFS and she saw a coco worm, and really wanted it. I only had an overstuffed 20, so there was no room. Her response was "Well, I guess you need a bigger tank." How could I argue?
One gets a lot of slack when the S.O. enjoys the tank.
OrionGirl
04-26-2005, 11:28 AM
:) Yep--my hubby and I could easily go overboard on tanks, since we both enjoy them.
Oooh...Another that's probably pretty specific to our situation...We have a large FW agriculture sprayer tankof filtered water that I use for changes on the FW tanks and he uses for topoff on the SW tanks...We both get cranky when the other forgets to refill it. ;)
My wife can’t stand the Lawnmower; luckily it set up shop in the back of the tank almost totally out of site, it took me almost a week to find his hole. I also brought home a spotted cardinal that she didn’t like but after watching it for a wile she was mesmerized, she made me go get another one. You never know!
Oliver
04-27-2005, 7:01 AM
My parents and simbling love the aquarium. They are often in my room and looking at it. My mum has frequent complaints howerver, "don't drip water on the carpet", "it smells like fsih", "don't use kitchen tools for the aquarium, and the most frequent, "do not use the kitchen for your aquarium".
mogurnda
04-27-2005, 10:35 AM
For several months, I had the powerstrips, cords and ballasts all kind of piled up. Looked like this:
http://www.aquaticphotos.com/data/thumbnails/20/box1_3865.jpg (http://www.aquaticphotos.com/data/media/20/box1_3865.jpg)
My wife quietly hated it. A good female friend took me aside and said "You know, Dave, women really hate stuff like that."
So I found a wooden box at an importer, and drilled some holes in the back for cords.
http://www.aquaticphotos.com/data/thumbnails/20/box2_3870.jpg (http://www.aquaticphotos.com/data/media/20/box2_3870.jpg)
All the stuff went inside (don't do this with magnetic ballasts!).
http://www.aquaticphotos.com/data/thumbnails/20/box3_3871.jpg (http://www.aquaticphotos.com/data/media/20/box3_3871.jpg)
And domestic life became one notch more tranquil.
http://www.aquaticphotos.com/data/thumbnails/20/box4_3873.jpg (http://www.aquaticphotos.com/data/media/20/box4_3873.jpg)
OrionGirl
04-27-2005, 10:53 AM
Here's one that I have a good solution for: Clean towels in my house all have an assigned function. Ie, some are bath towels, some are hand towels, some are dog towels. Cleaning up aquarium spills used to involve grabbing whatever towel was handy, with the result that dog towels were sometimes in short supply--not good! I shopped warehouse stores for a while, finding thirds and returned towels that were nice and absorbent but had snags, and now have a large supply of fish towels, on their own designated shelf. No more worries about dog towels being grabbed for cleaning up a fish spill!
And yes, I know how anal this makes me. :(
mogurnda
04-27-2005, 10:59 AM
We make the dog wash his own towels these days. Not like he has a lot to do during the day.
MonoSebaelover
04-27-2005, 10:59 AM
My roomates don't like my fish selection. So I go for the oddities that spend little time in view but there are still quite a few in full view. I think they are used to seeing the huge beautiful Angels, Tangs, Triggers, etc. The tank currently contains a Teira Batfish, 2 Mono Sebaes, 2 Melanopus Clowns, Neon Pseudo (the one fish with color according to my roomates :) ), Engineer Goby, PJ Cardinal, and a Marine Betta. They aren't thrilled with the lack of colors. That is the only problem I have had :). My parents always complained about having too many tanks back in the day when I had I think around 10 tanks. Now I have one up here and one down there, so they don't complain anymore!
Pterois2004
04-27-2005, 11:46 AM
Do I have a list of complaints! LOL Quotes are hubby remarks.
"OMG! You've ruined the floor". It was a poor turbo snail stuck in overflow tube. Now there's an eggcrate cover.
Hubby thinks the FO tank with the dwarf fuzzy is boring. "He just hangs out in his cave". Yes, but he's beautiful when he comes out to feed.
"All your corals are brown." They're tannish with colorful tips.
"I want to see more fish swimming." Ok hunny, but we'll need a bigger tank. :)
Well, we haven't moved in yet, but Eric (brother) and I have 14 feet of fish tank between the two of us. Our other roomie is somewhat overwhelmed (irritated?) at the idea of all that in one room, but that's the bargain for her hosting Mary Kay parties... :) I'm excited to get it out of my current room (I fish-watch instead of study).
mogurnda
05-03-2005, 11:04 AM
Well, we haven't moved in yet, but Eric (brother) and I have 14 feet of fish tank between the two of us. Our other roomie is somewhat overwhelmed (irritated?) at the idea of all that in one room, but that's the bargain for her hosting Mary Kay parties... :) I'm excited to get it out of my current room (I fish-watch instead of study).
Are you evicting the fish or the cosmetics?
Sarah
05-03-2005, 12:29 PM
They're going to have to learn how to share the living room. Unless of course, she wants to move the tanks each time she has guests ;)
Lol, the biggest complaint at my house is that on a fairly regular occasion my tanks seem to reproduce. Yep, I've told them on a number of occasions that it has to be asexual reproduction because they don't have to be exposed to another tank at all for it to happen. As a matter of fact I think my 100 gal might be expecting now funny that the baby is going to look just like the 250 I saw at the lfs the other day.
You guys wouldn't know any way to solve that problem would you ;)
My wife does not object to the tanks - how could she? I had over a dozen when we married, she knew what she was getting into - even in that dim pre-Python era.
I am the one who obects to noise. For me, tanks should be like Victorian children, seen and not heard. I am a bit more tolerant in the tank room, but not much.
Herself only complains if there is algae visible on the glass. She doesn't evem say anything about all the stored inactive tanks and gear. She knows better, they might get set up again...
The Hellhound drank from the system overflow sump routinely. The effct of that on the filters I never determined.
We have people towels, kitchen towels, dog towels, and tank towels as well. Doesn't everyone? Sounds reasonable to me. ;)
Hmm, from reading all these posts it really looks like s.w. tanks are quite fertile. Yup. rtt I think you're right every one has seperate towels and don't forget the dedicated s.w. shop vac!
Well I have lernt not do do water changes and maintenance when my other half is home cause he moans at every drip that hits the floor expecting me to instantly clean it up, and generally grumbling. If I do it when hes out he doesnt even know its been done.
Generally he loves the tanks as he likes to show off telling people about them like they are his, calling everything by the wrong name!
Other complaints are the amount of electricity Im using and how every weekend is spent ferrying me around the county to different LFS's and spending ages there without even nesasarily buying anything!