The Life Aquatic

I've set up the aquarium this week, for the first time in two, perhaps three years. (There was some problem or other, back in the day, that caused all of the fish to die, and for whatever reason it's taken this long for me to take everything down, clean it thoroughly, and put it back together again.)

(Actually, I do know what the reason was — it's a lot of work!)

The last time I had to do this, which must have been ten or eleven years ago (not too long after we moved into the house), we set everything up, added a small number of fish, and hoped for the best. In the years since, with the accumulated wisdom of the Internet now available, I can go about this slightly better informed. (I had Internet access ten or eleven years ago, of course, but I don't recall thinking of it as a resource where I would expect to have any question answered. And I probably hadn't discovered Google yet.)

Now, for example, I know about the very necessary step of "cycling" a new aquarium, the process of establishing the biological colony that keeps the water healthy for aquatic life. I had read that I could encourage that along by the use of an additive — though I had also read that the results were often hit-and-miss, and it didn't seem to do much for the small (very small) number of fish I tried adding yesterday.

So now I'm trying again. I've discovered what I somehow missed in my research from the beginning of the week, and wish that I had known — a process popularly referred to as "fishless cycling" that seems to have caught on over the past several years. Without getting into too much detail, rather than slowly stocking a new tank with fish and hoping they survive long enough to encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria, you use small amounts of ammonia (to simulate fish waste) that will (if done with a certain amount of care) accelerate that process.

Part of this involves carefully monitoring the water quality, testing for levels of various compounds that indicate that the process is working as it should. This part appeals very much to the scientist in me — I have to fill these little glass vials with aquarium water, add several drops of various chemicals and compare the color of the results to a chart. So that's fun. (I only need to do this twice a day, but I've already done it twice in three hours.) I've been having my seven-year-old help me with this, adding the drops, shaking the vials, et cetera. He has a basic understanding of why we're doing this, but no idea what it all means. (Perhaps I'll set up a chart and set a goal to try and emphasize the scientific process for him.)

If only I had known, I would have started this process last week. (And I wouldn't have bought any fish, either.)