Recently in Aquarium Category
In the ongoing quest to find a functional heater that meets my needs, I replaced my 100 watt Top Fin Submersible Heater with a Rena Cal top Light Excel Heater, also 100 watts. The former was just not cutting it. It couldn't heat the tank at all. Even set on high the tank stayed down at about 61ยบ Fahrenheit. Judging by the blinking light and the tingling I felt when putting my hand in the tank, I made the leap that there was probably a short. Given Rena's reputation, I made my choice and stuck with it.
Today I checked out the local aquarium store. It's got the best selection of salt water stuff that I've seen, but I have to say I was significantly less than impressed by the fresh water selection. Chain pet stores seem to have better. I was especially dismayed when I saw oscars - huge and almost full size - in what looked like 5 gallon tanks. They didn't even have space to do a 360 turn. Poor fish. I doubt I'll frequent that store unless I suddenly decide to go salt water. Even then, probably not.
Thus far the heater's doing alright. We'll see how it holds up over the next few days.
As it was with most sysadmins, for years my biggest hobby has been messing around with unix systems. When that became a real career for me the hobby lost its luster and I started craving something else. I've found it in fish keeping. Although I'm not too far along in the hobby yet, I'm finding it very rewarding to read about and take care of and aquarium. I'm learning a lot, and feeling like I can be somewhat creative with it while still having some set of rules and guidelines to follow.
At the suggestion of one of my readers, I'm going to start discussing stuff here. Some of it will make sense and some won't. I'm open to advice here. I'd like to learn.