Alan Ilagan

When I was a kid I had a saltwater fishtank. It was much more uncommon then (“live rock” was a new thing, this being 1990/1991) and somewhat strange for someone so young to be so into the hobby, but there you have it. Strange unusual creatures for the strange and unusual creature. The vibrant colors of the coral reef and the exotic danger of lionfish and eels and the blue-ringed octopus held greater allure than its freshwater counterpart. The undulating ebb and flow of invertebrates and coral also appealed to my desire for the out-of-the-ordinary.

Like most of my passions (gardening, bonsai) I spent a great deal of time researching, reading, and planning everything out, even if the exorbitant costs involved in running a successful marine aquarium were beyond my budget. I did, however, manage to set up a 55-gallon tank with a few pieces of live rock, which happily housed a lion fish, a few ill-fated damsels, and a pennant-fish.

This past Christmas, I gave Andy a 29-gallon aquarium and finally got around to setting up a freshwater system three weeks ago. We’re trying to do fishless cycling with some pure ammonia (cycling is the process of setting up the biological filter so that the fish don’t have to deal with high levels of ammonia or nitrites – both of which are harmful). Once the biological filter is established, ammonia and nitrites can be broken down into safe, and ideally non-existent, levels.

The aquarium sits in our formal living room, which also houses a number of houseplants by the bay window: a few rabbit’s foot ferns, a Norfolk Island pine, an orchid, and a butterfly amaryllis. It took me thirty years to realize the pattern here: during the winter my hobbies turn to those related to nature – plants, aquariums, gardening – and there is a big pile of books relating to all of it. I start making regular trips to Eddie’s Aquarium and Faddegon’s Nursery, stepping into the warm and humid promise of a spring and summer to come. It’s a world to which I return whenever I begin to feel housebound by the winter, and it provides something to grasp onto through the remaining months of ice and snow and freezing temperatures.