Why Not To Discuss Reefing With A 3 Year Old.

[Scavenger]

While my 3 yr old daughter and I were watching my fledgling 20 gallon nano today, I made the mistake of saying, "Daddy needs to get some new live sand in there." Sammie replied, "Yes, I think you do." Great chuckle having her so knowledgable about reefing so young don't you think.

Well a short time later, the doorbell went and I went to answer it. It was my wifes friend in need of some help stapling some new fabric on a chair. I helped her right then and there content that Sammie was enthrolled with the tree house network.

Well after the chair was finished and I went back and watched a little tree house with Sammie, she said to me, "Do you like the live sand Daddy?"
As you can imagine, my response was, "HUh??"

I went to examine my reef only to find added to the "display" was about a gallon of sand that we had used as a temperary measure in the cat's litter box last night when noticed we had run out of litter. Not only was it in the tank, but a powerhead had also been knocked lose and was doing a fabulous job of mixing old and new sand. My blender couldn't have done a better job.

OK, in a panic, I mixed up emergency water into a tote and in went the livestock. I then syphoned off all the substrate into a flower bed outside the window. Wait, why's the carpet all wet??? Hmmm there seems to be a hole in the bottom of the tote. Well there were numerous totes in the garage at the bottom of a huge pile of stored junk. Well now that pile is more of a spread out heap of stored and recently broken junk. But now the tide isn't going out on my livestock anymore and they are temporaraly safe.

I then made a quick call to the LFS. "Yes we have live sand. $35 for a 20 lbs bag." he said. At this point I did my Rusty Wallace imitation and went to pick up my new sand. I got there and found they only had live crushed coral and dead sand.

Damn!!!

Needless to say, I love my new aquascaping in my reef, the haphazard arrangment of liverock and corals on a crushed coral substrate has the most natural look of a wild reef.

Well off to the beer store now. I think I earned it.

[Namscam]

Maybe you should have just keep the old sand...that way the bacteria in your tank could turn all that kitty ammonia into some N2 gas or it can even be your new fishy litter...
But for real, that really sux...hope all your stuff will be ok when the tank settles down again...good luck

[Canadian Man]

Ahh Kids!
Alway's trying to be helpful.

[Doug]