100 Gallon salt water aquarium!

After being in Missouri for two weeks painting I arrived home at 7:00AM after an all night car drive and what was the first thing I saw? My hubby, but 20 lbs less of him! Yes, that's right people, he went on the atkins diet a week before I went to Missouri and in 3 weeks he dropped 20 lbs. I just stood there and stared for 10 minutes with my mouth open. He looks so good and I love it!
He also decided lately that he needed a new hobby and decided enough was enough, he was finally going to go for the 100 gallon salt water aquarium that he has been dreaming about for a long time. It's expensive but when he found an amazing deal from a super cool friend of his in the surgery dept. (Props out to our man Rob for hooking us up. You ROCK!) he decided to go for it. Salt water aquariums are no easy hobby and not cheap either, but when it's up and going you get to watch this whole amazing ecosystem right inside your house.
The corals that we have been researching are so awesome. We love the fish but even more we love the coral. I think of it as sort of an underwater garden or flower arrangement. (I don't think any die hards would like hearing me say that ;) It's like we are now in this whole new guy realm that I never knew existed. Of course there are lots of women who like salt water aquariums too, but I don't know any of them. I just love this new hobby because it is so beautiful, so tranquil and serene and such an awesome learning experience too. Not to mention, it's a hobby that we can both enjoy!
I told Paul he should start an aquarium blog for us. I even named it "Reef Relief" but he's not into it. I want to document our progress so you'll probably get some aquarium shots interspersed in here now.

The bow front tank came with this utilitarian table which works great but is pretty ugly.
We decided to paint it and let it be until we can make something gorgeous. Now that I know what a pain it is going to be to move it, we are going to have the base ready to go when we move next. Red seemed like a good choice. I like how the tank looks on our blue wall. I think our new base will be walnut. Since this is not a blog written by the scientist of the family you will get all kinds of talk about how pretty it is and none of how it works which is way more important and would be way more helpful, but oh well. I don't talk the talk yet.

This is how it looked the first day it had water in it. The sand had not settled and the live rock we had was all just set in there to keep it alive.
We spend the next few days aquascaping. We arranged and REarranged and RE arranged them until we felt they were just right for our new little coral friends to make homes.

We made a cool bride and two caves and lots of fun holes for hiding.
This is what it looked like when the sand settled. I think it's already very pretty. I think we even adjusted it quite a bit more after this shot and new it's perfect. ;)
For our initial investment we bought: (this part was at a great deal)
72 gallon bow front
20 gallon sump
30 gallon sump
2 corralias
2 overflow boxes
1 red prism hang on protein skimmer
1 little giant external pump
20 lbs rock
60 lbs live sand
30 lbs live rock
60 lbs lace rock
After I thought we had purchased everything except the livestock and fish we had to buy a LOT more important things I wasnt' expecting like:
6 x 54 W THO Nova extreme light system
MR1 in sump protein skimmer
30 gallon refugium and the glass and silicone to make it into three seperate compartments
water distiller
light for refugium
20 lbs more live sand for refugium
pvc pipe, hose clamps, silicone, primer for new pump
18 hermit crabs

The red stand looks pretty cool doesn't it. for now at least. (This was before the new beautiful black light set came in.
These photos show Paul learning some of his new skills. He now knows how to build things out of PVC pipe which he used to install this new pump he bought. He can now build waterproof stuff with silicone. (very technical language mel)


Our first week cycling the tank we got a huge diatomb bloom that lasted about 3-4 days. That means that we got brown algae everywhere but it quickly died and now we have a big green algae bloom which is happening because we don't have distilled water in there and I guess Michigan tap water is good for growing this not so appealing algae. It's not ugly, it just takes over everything and is not the best for coral. We got some hermit crabs to eat the algae but they are not keeping up. we will have to get distilled water to fix this.

It's good to let a tank cycle for at least a month while everything settles before you add livestock. We are excited because it will be just in time for Christmas. It makes buying for each other really easy since all we want is coral. Cool huh? I never knew I'd be a salt water tank girl, but I love it.
Knowing a lot more about coral and fish is going to make our scuba diving trip a lot more fun! (This isn't planned yet, I'm just dreaming...)

Eirik at 2 years 8 m.

It’s been a long time since I wrote an update about my boys.

I have a bunch of notes here to share of funny things Eirik has said in the past few months.

The biggest news is that Eirik is potty trained. He did it basically by himself without much premeditation on my part. I just said, “let’s try it today and we did.” The first day he had 4 accidents and didn’t make it to the toilet once. The second day he had three accidents and more successful potty trips and the third day he didn’t have any accidents and didn’t want to wear a diaper to bed. (That’s where we are right now.) I guess I’m premature to say he is potty trained, but I think he’s pretty confident now and won’t go back to diapers now. That’s exciting! Yeah!

Eirik was playing legos and singing the transformers song as he worked. Suddenly he said to me, “Mom, have you ever heard of eating eyes?” He was singing to himself, “more than EATS the eye.” He was so confused.

“Ha ha, I forgot the pixie dust!”

Eirik got to spend a day with his friend Preston last week and when he got home he pretended that I was Janese and he was Preston all day long. He loves to play pretend and I am always some character in these complicated role playing games he creates. Well, he didn’t forget all day long. If I called him Eirik he said, “no mom, I’m Preston.”

Then he asked me to put my hair in a ponytail like Janese and when I said that my hair was too short he cried and said, “I don’t like short hair!”

The next day he told me that my face looked old. Hmmm…

Then he asked me what that nipple thing on my face was. Hmmm, that must be a zit. Nice.

The Rose Gardens in Oregon

Holding his whip threateningly, “It’s not fair and it’s not funny” “What’s not fair Eirik?”

“My cows are not funny Wendy!” (not out of context.) You figure it out.

One day he told me that his penis’s name was Maid Marrian. Another day it was Wendy.

He’s on a new super hero kick. I guess this happens to all boys. I was again, naïve mother, caught off guard about how boyish boys are. He said one day, “I become a superhero and rescue people.” And from then on it has been the new life theme. Actually it’s just a continuation of the “sir knight” theme except that now he can fly and shoot lasers from his eyes.

One day we went to the park. The slides were wet and Eirik said, “I have an idea. I will say here by myself while you go home to get a rag to dry off the slide. I stay here and relax and pretend about daddy, you go.”

“Maid Mariane (me) I just picked a flower for you, but it just died.”

“I have to go to work at the hostibal.”

“Don’t worry mom, Daddy is a good sheriff now and he will take care of you when I am gone and show you pictures of me.”

I offered Eirik a Carmel Ghiradelli brownie. (the very best kind) and he said, “no thanks mom. I don’t like that kind. I think it has snails in it.”

Eirik and I painted a prayer rock for him to put on his pillow in the morning and at the side of his bed at night. One day he came running in to my room in the morning and said, “I just woke up and bumped my toe on my prayer rock and said, “ha ha, I forgot to say my prayers.” So I said a prayer mommy!” I love it.

At the end of one of Eirik’s time out one day, he had just stopped crying when I came in to get him out and he said to me, “mommy I just said a prayer and said to Heavenly Father, “I’m so sorry for making such a big mistake. Will you forgive me?” He learned that in nursery. What good leaders he has.

When I was painting in Missouri I took Eirik to see what I had painted in the under the sea room and when he walked in he said, “Oh mom, It’s beautiful!” It totally made it all worth it. I love that he, as a 2 year old can appreciate my art. How fulfilling! At the end of our long trip I said, “Eirik, what was your favorite part of the trip?” He said, “the sea turtle and the whale from your paintings!” Wow. That’s too sweet!

After our long vacation we saw Benjamin for the first time. He came over to play and had been here for about ½ hour. Eirik suddenly said, “Benjamin I need a big hug.” Ben was a little tentative but then gave in and they had a big hug. Eirik ran to me and said, “I told Benjamin that I needed a big hug and he gave me one!” Good friends.

Eirik loves his brother and is so good about being quiet when he is sleeping and leaving him alone when he is nursing. He is so nice to him. One day he wanted to sleep next to Joren so I let him sleep in the crib. It was so cute to see them next to each other snuggling. I moved him after a few hours so they wouldn’t suffocate each other, but I loved to see their sweet sleeping faces next to each other.

I’ve told Eirik that we don’t say “Oh my gosh” because it just doesn’t sound right coming out of a 2 year old mouth to me. He still says it a lot and one day he said, “can I say Oh my gosh, because I think it’s a fun word.” Then of course he said it over and over and over again laughing. He also started saying hate.

He’s also been extra SPIRITED lately. That means that he doesn’t want that sandwich because it has a different shaped top piece of bread or that that sucker is green not blue, or I wanted to do it myself, or he will only use his favorite blue fork or only a certain kind of sippy cup. If you move something and he can’t find it or he can’t reach something or he can’t get something out or get’s even a little bit frustrated he has a total meltdown. So sensitive! Meltdowns all day long. I know it’s just 2 year old behavior and I have been blessed lately to be aware of how fleeting this time is. What a privilege it is to get woken up every morning at 5:30 AM and be demanded all day long to do things by a little squirt like this. Oh how I love him.