Improvising

[CandiBug2]

Since it's too expensive for me to have a saltwater tank, which I am pretty bummed about, I kept with the spirit on my freshwater tank. I couldn't find a background that I really liked. I wanted a solid blue or black, but my LFS didn't have one wide enough to fit my tank. After some thinking, I decided to try wrapping paper. So I went to the store and had picked up some dark blue wrapping paper when I noticed "Finding Nemo" wrapping paper. I purchased that instead. Needless to say, I am loving my new background. Plus, now I can change it pretty cheaply whenever I want to. Anyway, I spent all day yesterday getting things set up. I was able to bring my hose right through my window to fill the tank up, instead of trudging through the house with a million buckets. I think I may add some more plants, but for now I'm happy. I can't stop looking at it and there aren't even fish in there yet! I'm so excited about this new hobby!


Candi

 

[SnakeIce]

welcome to to the hobbie... I am envious, sounds like you have a large tank... read up and take things slowly, the first month or two have the greatest possibilities of problems happening...

since you don't have fish yet you should consider using pure nonscented detergent free amonia to get your tank ready for inhabitation by fish... if you have any questions about this you can ask on here or search for fishless cycling here on the forums.. I believe there is a sticky post about that

 

[Tonje]

Hello Candi!
No need to be sorry that you couldn't buy a saltwater tank! Freshwater fish are every bit as interesting! Some of them will breed in the tank (which is unusual with saltwater fish), and they all have their special behavior and personalities.
I use a piece of thick black paper as a background, but blue would certainly work too.
I don't like anything maritime in my tank, like pirate's ships or mermaids or Nemo-wrapping, I don't think it looks natural.
But that's just a case of personal taste , the fish don't mind either way.
Good luck with your new fish tank!

 

[MrGoodbytes]

I think it's a good idea to start with freshwater anyways. To me, it just seems like things can get a lot more expensive if things go wrong, which happens often, even with freshwater.
I think there's a part of fishkeeping you can't read about; it's something that grows on you progressively. Lol I guess I just described experience, but it sounds better that way.

Graeme