So I come home from work one day and my wife, Marylu', had gone to Walmart and bought gravel, some gaudy sunken ship decorations and some plastic plants, and asks me to clean out the 10 gallon platty tank and replace the contents with the new items. You see the tank is my middle girl's and she has been away at college so it had gotten kind of green. Not being one to disobey a direct order I embarked on the cleaning and redecoration process and I have to admit when I was finished, the tank looked pretty good. My wife then commented that she wouldn't mind having a 10 gallon salt water tank to place on the other bookcase....wush...the line was cast.

Not being one who likes 10 gallon tanks I replied to her, "oh, you can't do salt in a 10 gallon, it has to be bigger". Now I honestly belived that statement to be true at that time, never having done salt water before. To my surprise my wife replied "but where would we put it?". What! My suggestion of a bigger tank wasn't dismissed?....hook set!

I figured I was on a roll so I got out a tape measure and started measuring around everywhere looking for a place to put it. You see one problem we have is that our house in New Hampshire is 233 years old and there aren't many places that are level enough or strong enough for a big tank. It turned out that the only place available for a tank was in the living room, the spot was between two windows and was about 38 inches.. Hmm, time to do some research and see what I could get in that footprint...I let out some line.

A hurried search of the internet revealed tanks in the 36x18" footprint but I had no idea what size to buy. I then found #reefs and The Beginners Reefkeeping Message Board and asked a bunch of questions but that is a story all by itself. Suffice it to say that I decided on a 65 gallon AGA with corner overflow. I now had to convince my wife that the 65 was the way to go since she had picked a corner spot in the living room for a tank...and I didn't want a corner tank. As luck would have it we have a reef store in Nashua New Hampshire called Inland Reef Aquaria, and it is around the corner from where my wife works. I had been in there the day previous and they have a great selection of inverts and fish. This day my wife and I rode into work together and I had to pick her up at the end of the day so I did and swung by the reef store....reeling

We went inside and the first tank you see is the owner's display tank, it is beautiful and housed amoung other things a bubble tipped anemone and a pair of skunk clowns. The clowns were very busy with the anemone swimming in and out of it and just loving the heck out of the bubble tip. That was it, my wife asked if we could keep them in our tank and I of course replied yes...reeling. I still had the problem of the corner tank though and I offered a trade, I committed to sanding and refinishing the floor in the living room in exchange for the 65 gallon tank, we struck a deal!...landed :)

I hope you all take the above tongue n' cheek, my wife and I have been married 27 years and have kept freshwater aquariums on and off throughout most of them. What I wont deny about what I've written is the fact that I did have to help her come to the conclusion that she wanted a salt water tank...call it a conspiracy if you like.

by Bill Esposito