Alan started keeping a saltwater aquarium earlier this year, and since I’ve been living with it for the past two months, I’ve become fascinated with reefkeeping. I am planning to start my own once I move to my next apartment in January. This leaves me plenty of time to obsessively research the many aspects of marine life.

I had a hard time deciding what size tank I should get. Initially I thought I would do something quite small. Alan has a 10 gallon standard glass aquarium, though he is starting to fill another tank, a 20 gallon long acrylic one. I figured I would get the cheapest 10 gallon tank from a local pet store and go from there. After much research, and discovering how much I love little invertebrates with which I hope to populate my tank, I decided I should get a 20 gallon tank at least.

I checked Amazon’s selection of acrylic tanks, figuring they would be likely to have more than a local store, and shipping might not be horrible for a plastic tank. I did look at some glass ones, and as expected, there were reviews speaking of needing tanks to be reshipped several times due to broken glass. Filtering just on the acrylic ones in the 20 gallon range, there were not many options. A few ready made products existed with lights and filters built in, but they are of course expensive, and I am hoping to customize my setup more than they would allow. The tank I kept getting drawn to was a simple 24 gallon acrylic aquarium with overflow (24x15x15). It costs $235 shipped, more than I can spend at the moment, but some of the features would save me money when I inevitably add a second connected tank, likely sooner rather than later knowing me.

24 gallon acrylic aquarium with overflow (24x15x15)

Alan suggested we check out a local fish store (which I am apparently supposed to write as “LFS”) in San Francisco, so we caught Bus 1 and headed to 6th Ave Aquarium and Flowers. The store does not have the greatest reviews on Yelp, where people complain of poorly maintained tanks and possible disease or endangered species, but cheap prices. I can’t speak to the disease or selection, but I did see a few dead fish. Alan perused the livestock, but I was there mostly to look at tanks.

6th Ave Aquarium and Flowers had a bunch of sizes of glass rimless tanks for pretty cheap. The smallest ones are less than 10 dollars.

Upstairs I found some of the same aquarium kits I saw on Amazon, but not many simple 20 gallon tanks, and no acrylic ones. There was a good sized 20 gallon glass tank that looked nice but had a chip in the top.

The tank I wanted had a chip in the rim.

At $38.99, the tank was far cheaper than the 24 gallon I liked on Amazon. I also started thinking the slightly smaller size was an advantage since I would be moving it from Alan’s to my new apartment. I asked the cashier, who may have been the owner, if they had any other tanks that might not be damaged. He said more would arrive Wednesday, but told me he would sell me the chipped one for $25.

38.99 price tag

I decided to go with it, and I bought the tank and about 12 pounds of live rock. I looked at the livestock a bit and convinced Alan to get 16 small hermit crabs, most of which I would put into my tank once the water parameters were correct. Alan also got a banded shrimp, and I made note of a fabulously weird creature, a sea apple, that I hope to raise some day.

Sea apple at 6th Ave Aquarium and Flowers

Once we got home, Alan wisely decided we would not start the live rock and saltwater in my new tank, but rather in his extra 20 gallon tank. That way I wouldn’t need to move a loaded tank, which is of course good, but it also means I have to wait another month before I can start cycling my tank, meaning it will be probably two months before I can get any creatures. Patience.