Aquarium Newbie - Day 10

3/10/09 - Pics!

So here are some pictures of the tank so far! I'm really getting the itch for a reef aquarium! Budget-wise I'd only be able to do something like a 6 or a 12 gallon NanoCube even though they are much harder to maintain.

I probably won't be doing as many aquarium updates after this as I think I'm doing pretty good so far with this 10 gallon freshwater tank. I think it's got a little bit of cycling to do yet but all the fish are doing well. I may take the Guppy out because I still think it's a tad bit overstocked right now. Oh yeah, and one of my Tetra's is missing a back fin, one of the fish bit it off. He's not doing so well, kinda stays by himself, I wonder if the 'pack' of the 'Others' (Neon Tetra's) are bullying him because he's the weakest...

Aquarium Newbie - Day 8

3/8/09 - Cloudy water after partial water change

Well, on Friday the 6th I bought 4 Neon Tetra's despite the tank being a tad overcrowded with them. People warned me and I did think I was going to lose them that night! I brought them home and acclimated em for about 15-20 minutes adding tank water to the bag every 5 minutes. They were ok for a while but then they started to lose their brilliant color and stopped schooling all together. So, I went to bed figuring I'd wake up to dead fishes but much to my surprise the next morning they were all very awake, alive, schooling together and full of color! I fed them and they ate eagerly, which about made my day.

Saturday I did a 25% water change for the fist time since I started the tank a week ago. Took me a while to figure out the siphon but eventually I got portions of the gravel vacuumed until about 25% of the water was in the bucket. Forgot to clean out the filter in the old tank water though, oh well, next week should be fine. I de-chlorinated 2 1/2 gallons of tap water and added it to the tank along with the EasyBalance water treatment...

This morning and throughout the day the water has been a bit cloudy again, all fish seem to be doing very well however. The Tetra's are looking good and even a tad bigger, but that may just be my imagination. The Molly is growing a bit of a belly and my wife and I think she may be pregnant. We'll see in a week or two how that goes! Not sure what we'll do with a bunch of fry in an already crowded tank but I figure the Molly or another fish will most likely have them for breakfast. Anyway, I'd like to note that the tank may still be cycling and I hope the fish survive it. I should see a difference tomorrow if the cycle was anything like the first 72 hours.

I'll post some pictures of the cool little Tetra's as soon as the water clears a bit.

Aquarium Newbie - Day 4

3/4/09 - Monitored Aquarium

Everything looks good so far, the Molly is a bit of a bully as she is always chasing and nipping the Guppy. She seems to leave the Platy's alone, probably because there are two of them that stay together. The water is still a bit cloudy but not much. I turned the temp down a degree or two so it should be hanging right at around 78F and added 1/2 tbsp of Aquarium salt to the tank in hopes that it would calm the Molly down. Seemed to actually work after about 30 minutes!

Went to Mr. Aquarium during lunch with a buddy and checked out their reef tanks and saltwater fish, very cool. I would like to eventually have a 75-100 gallon saltwater tank with live rock but that seems pretty distant considering I'm still such a beginner and have no experience with saltwater aquariums. Speaking of experience, I'll be going over to said buddy's house this weekend to help him clean out his 20 gallon saltwater tank and get the cycle going. He's had trouble keeping his Damsels alive in there and gave up a while back. Come to find out after researching the issue, he had the salinity wrong because you have to make sure the water temp is correct while mixing the sea salt prior to adding it to the tank. He was getting a false salinity reading. So hopefully he'll have better luck this time around.

Regarding my tank, I plan on doing a 15% water change this Sunday and vacuum some of the gravel with a siphon at the same time. Until then!

Here is a shot of the tank now, it's clearing up a bit.

Aquarium Newbie - Day 3

3/3/09 - Tested water and added new fish

Here are some pictures of our setup, nothing fancy but it's a start!

Here is one that shows the lighting, notice the cloudiness of the water indicating the cycle...


After the dramatic and rather quick deaths of the 1st round of fish I took a bottle of my now 48 hour cycled water to Petsmart to have it tested. Test proved perfect! Purchased additional decor and a 50w heater. Also purchased freeze-dried bloodworms and aquarium salt for the Mollys. Went to WalMart and got a refund on first round of fish, RIP. Purchased 2 Platy's, a Dalmatian Molly and a male Guppy. Set up heater in tank to bring temp up to 78F. Added ½ tbsp of aquarium salt for the Molly. Floated fish in their bag for 15 minutes, adding tank water to bag every 5 minutes. I then moved the fish from bag to the tank one by one without letting the bag water into the aquarium. I let the fish swim around for about 1 hour then fed a very small amount of flakes and bloodworms. All fish ate eagerly which is a good sign. Need to try to not overfeed the first few weeks. They seem to be doing quite well after 2 hours in their new home. Fish were named with the help of the family...

Molly – Molly, Carly’s fish
2 Platy's – unnamed, Drake’s fish
Guppy – Charlie, Macy’s fish
2 Ghost shrimp – Jacque and FeeFee, Clay’s invertebrate’s

Aquarium Newbie - Day 2

3/2/09 - Research, research, research

After last night's fish slaughter I continued to read up on how to set up a new aquarium and the do's and don'ts of caring for tropical fish. Went back to Wal Mart during my lunch break and spoke with an employee who knew his fish (at WalMart..surprised?) he told me that they would replace the fish at no charge, cool! I decided however that I would let the tank continue to cycle for at least another day to avoid any further casualties. Went ahead and purchased a tank thermometer.

That night I observed that the Ghost Shrimp were doing quite well for themselves, they are very hard to spot sometimes! I installed the thermometer and after an hour or so the water was hanging around 72F, which was on the low end of the 'comfort' range for tropical fish, who really need anywhere from 73-80F. Added a few Tetrafin flakes to the water to start getting the nitrate cycle going a bit faster, not to mention the shrimp found one or two and dined on them. Noted that the water was still very clear.

Aquarium Newbie - Day 1

3/1/09 - Purchase and Setup of the Aquarium

I know a lot of people with Aquariums, I have always liked the idea of having a tank as a kid but I failed miserably. So I was at Wal Mart doing some shopping and stopped by the fish isle and had the sudden urge to try again after all these years, plus the kids would love it. So I go home and get the wife and kiddo's and head back up to Wally World. We perused (that means thoroughly searched btw) the tanks, stands, and accessories as well as decided on some fish.

We ended up buying a 10 gallon Aquarium kit with the filter, some food and water treatment all in the box for about $30. Picked out some blue substrate, plastic plants and decor to go inside. For the fish, we purchased 2 Glofish, a small Pleco, a Gold Snail, 2 Dalmation Mollys and 2 Ghost Shrimp. I set up the tank and rinsed the substrate thoroughly. Added 1 part tap water (room temp) and 1 part RO water until we filled the aquarium to within 2 inches of the top. Rinsed and set up decor and added the EasyBalance water treatment (1 1/2 capfuls) Let filter run for about an hour, put the fish into the tank in their bag and floated them for 15 minutes. I then let the fish out of their bag and into the tank. Yep, I know what you experienced people are thinking, tap water??? All fish perished within 2 hours except for the Ghost Shrimp, who are quite hardy. I figured the Chlorine killed them because I forgot to treat the tap water and didn't let the tank cycle for at least 24-48 hours. After this discovery, I added 1 tsp of Aquasafe water conditioner to bring down the chlorine and chlorinate levels to livable conditions.

So the first day was a real disappointment, especially for the kiddo's. I was not deterred though, I researched into the night on how to care for tropical fish...

Top 10 Most Annoying Game Enemies

Let me start this blog off with this: I game, therefore I am. Every gamer is different, I respect this, and I don't expect anyone to agree 100% with anything I have to say here, that said, it goes both ways. I recently found a list of 7 of the most annoying video game enemies written by a fellow gamer, which was mostly niche-type games anyway and I thought they could do a bit better. But it was a good idea, and I'm bored so here's my own personal take on some of the most annoying little #%$@ out there in the virtual world:

#10 - Thief Bot (Descent II)

If you know what I'm talking about here, I'm impressed. These little devils known as 'Thief Bots" prowl the mines of Descent II and once they manage to find you it's a neverending, relentless struggle to keep the coward from stealing your guns, weapons and power-ups. It will always run from you if you shoot at him, is extremely fast and has more armor than is even remotely fair. I swear I can almost hear it laugh when it steals my quad laser and barrels off down the mine with uncanny AI ahead of it's time. Once you manage to finally kill this little bastard breathe a sigh of relief and continue about your business. I certainly made sure I blew it to bits before I tackled the endless mineshafts and tunnels of Descent. Nothing quite like getting your SmartBomb ganked while in a firefight with heavier bot.

#9 - Fetishes/Flayers (Act 3 - Diablo II)

Yeah I know the Lightning Scarabs are tough, but this isn't about toughness. It's about pure annoyances. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Natives of the jungles of Act III. These little speed-heads were the bane of my existence as a Sorceress struggling through the game. I had little armor and life as a caster and these cracked up maniacs storm you like flies on a fresh steamy pile of dog dung and stab/spit/flame the living crap out of you. I cussed and wiped spittle off my screen for hours wading knee-deep through these gibbering midgets and had a celebratory shot of whiskey when I finally stepped out of Hell and into the Kurast Bazaar. Best just teleport around these guys unless you pack some serious Area of Effect spells...and don't even get me started on their skeletal Bone brethren...

#8 - Headless Bomb Guy (Serious Sam)

Running, screaming, (somehow without a head attached), bare-chested, maniacal suicide bomb holding madmen. Hundreds of them. Coming at you at once. 'Nuff said.

#7 - Abominable Snow Monster (SkiFree)

Who hasn't played SkiFree? Who hasn't been skiing gracefully and skillfully dodging tree's and children minding their own business and out of nowhere get tackled and eaten alive by a grey snow monster running at 250mph? This is a joke. The real enemy here is the developer. What a sadist. I hope HE gets eaten alive by a giant snow monster...

#6 - Octobrain (Duke Nukem 3D)

From the land of babes and witty one-liners, we have the OctoBrain. You know, 3 shotgun blasts kill this thing but I can't count how many times I've been underwater searching for something or trying to NOT drown only to have 4 of these ugly, pulsing brains swarm me with their horrible speaker-cracking echoing growl and painful telekinetic projectiles. I don't know what pisses me off more, the sound they make or themselves. In a game that's otherwise just plain fun to play, these guys are real annoyances.

#5 - Fiend (Quake)

Throughout my Quake 1 experience, I've never quite taken an ass-beating like I did with these guys. These monstrosities lurk around nearly everywhere in Quake's hellish environment and every single bloody time I get the crap kicked out of me before I can react. They are fast, painful and can lunge at you effectively gouging out your eyeballs from across the room in .2 seconds flat. These guys annoy me so much I hesitated to play Quake alone in the dark by myself and was forced to overreact to every door that I opened blasting at nothing most of the time and getting viciously impaled the time or two I forgot. I think I'd rather play chicken with a Shambler than mess with these guys.

#4 - Pain Elemental (DooM)

What gaming list of any kind is complete without Doom? I had a hard time with this decision. Doom isn't so much annoying in any way as it is (was) just scary. But out of all the hellish minions, the Pain Elemental would be the most annoying. Anything that belches out flaming skulls at me will get on my nerves. Your basically forced to take out 4 or 5 dumber-than-a-brick Lost Souls, then, as a nice little reward for putting the thing out of it's misery, you get one last flaming skull eating your face off *every single* time you blow this bastage up. You can't ignore them either, because you'll have about 20 Lost Souls clogging the hallways so you're pretty much forced to deal with these guys every time you see em.

#3 - Keese (The Legend of Zelda, take your pick)

These batshits just epitomize annoying. The easiest monsters to kill in any given Zelda game will end up knocking more hearts off and burning up more shields than anything you encounter, why is this? Well it really depends on what Zelda game you're playing. See, the geniuses at Nintendo go out of their way to make sure you don't ignore these flying little turds. In the first Zelda for instance, their random, hard to predict flying pattern frustrated the hell out of me, then it got worse when I moved into the 3rd dimension with the N64 version and they decided that they could flutter around 'on fire' and dive bomb the crap out of you when you can't even see the little SOB's. What the hell happened to my Deku Shield? Oh it got burned up by one out of nowhere bat hit and run. So you can go to hell Keese. Just go. I hate you.

#2 - Lakitu (Super Mario Bros.)

Ahh Mario, few games ever held such an impact on my childhood as these industry defining series of Mario titles. There are many, many annoying monsters throughout Mushroom Kingdom and beyond, such as the Angry Sun, the BossBass, just to name a few...but go waaay back to the first time you got a Spiney thrown on you...repeatedly...without end. It was then that we learned to get through a level as fast as human thumbs possibly can. Oh they die, they do, but 3 seconds later he's zooming back onto the scene, bobbing up and down, tossing those nightmarish eggs. Mommymakeitstop! *twitch*

#1 - Murlocs (World of Warcraft)

Woe to any gamer who hasn't played World of Warcrack. We have here the most annoying monster ever to appear in any game at any time (In my humble opinion). And leave it to Blizzard to come up with the most played MMO of all time and within it, the bane of all online gaming existence. The Murloc. I can't help but love to hate these fishy little unpresumptuous, hateful shits. How many times have I died after hearing multiple "Aaarruhghibbrgubuhrgbuhrgrguhrburgle" at once? Every time! That's how many! How many times did I mean to pull 8 of them at once? NONE! Damn them, damn them all to hell!

Now I know there are many more out there. However, I've not had the chance to tackle 'The Flood' or 'Wretches' or any 'Zubats' etc. So my list here is based solely on my gaming knowledge. But I had to add these honorable mentions to the most annoying gaming enemies:

- Jack Thompson (aka - asshat)
- 12 year olds (aka - noobtards)
- Cheaters (douchebags who like to use aimbots and hacks to ruin others' experience)
- Last but not least, Uwe Boll