Episode 2: Sarah and Steve Get Crabs

Here it is...the long awaited second episode in the Fish Tank Saga...Sarah and Steve Get Crabs! This weekend we decided to make the big move. Steve's bookcase was moved to the spare bedroom, my fish tank was drained and moved upstairs in the spot where the bookcase was. Steve was in charge of draining the tank.

I was in charge of organizing the bookcase. Here is a collage of my efforts. The chair is filled with some of the books taken from the bookcase. Notice the top shelf in the completed bookcase picture.

Here is a closer, panoramic view. Steve was very excited to arrange his nick knacks. ;)

For a saltwater aquarium, water quality is very important. It has to be water that has been filtered through reverse osmosis. Or in my words, it has be reverse osmosified. Steve has a reverse osmosis filter but it takes forever to get even a little bit of water out of it. So we went to Dan's and bought reverse "osmosified" water by the gallon. We bought 25 gallons of water. Then Steve poured a little bit out, I funneled the special salt into the gallon, shook it, then ladled water back into them. You can see the process in these pictures.

Then came the task of adding base rocks and gravel. Steve was the man for the job. He has so many great attributes that are necessary for such a feat. He is tall, has long arms, is strong, and of course has the drop dead gorgeous looks you need for this task. Oh, and you can't forget the requirement that you stick your tongue out while working...

After that, we threw in the long awaited crabs, poured in more water, checked the salinity (perfect by the way), and pressed the almighty switch!

Then Steve decided to add in some of our corals. We added a mushroom coral and another one that I don't know the name of. The tricky thing with coral and fish is that you have to get them used to the temperature of the water. The temperature in the new tank was about 83 degrees...a lot warmer than the big tank. So Steve set a dish with the coral in it floating in the water, then you gradually add water from the tank into the dish until they have acclimated. These pictures show that process.

The water was pretty cloudy for a while. Then it cleared out.

Some of these next pictures have the moon lights on. In the middle picture are our cute little crabs. Now you should be ashamed of yourself if you thought Steve and I were getting any other kind of crabs.

And all the while, Dammy is being herself, fat and fluffy. I especially like the fish tank stand with a tail!

Stay tuned for next week's episode, Episode 3: "We're not clownin' around, the fish are coming!"