HelpfulGardener.com

Well, there's technically still SOME gardening...

This is a freshwater tank. Loosely Amazon black water themed. I'm not snooty about it, but I do try to keep to the water parameters, plants and fish true to the biotope! My angels have recently started breeding! It's starting to become problematic, as they are great parents. They're beating the junk out of all the other fish in the tank. :/ I've considered selling one of the breeding pair off. I wanted to get them their own tank, but was quickly shut down by the resident man.... I say meh to that. I'll keep chiseling away at that wall!

Very Cool Lindsay!

I have had aquariums for years...just recently I've had my first productive breeders...Yellow cichlids.

They've taken over my tank really(55gal)

So the cloud of little things are the fry? How cool is that!?

...so where is your aqua-ponics set up, Hmmm? Are you not combining your two hobbies

I used to have a pair of black angels. I found out with aggressive species you have to have a pair. The angels and groumis will badger each other if they aren't equalized with a pair of each.

yes the little cloud is the fry. They were freshly swarming!

I'm suspecting that I have 2 breeding pairs. 4 total Angels. But these two have the prime real estate!

Apple, I have considered it, but I need to learn more. Hands are full-ish at the moment.... I DO use the change water refuse as plant watering! It's good stuff!

They are only aggressive like that when they have eggs or fry. Last time they layed eggs, I sucked them all up and tossed them in the trash. Everyone was much happier, including mom and dad. They didn't lay again for a whole month!

I've kept aquariums since I was 10 years old, and at one point I had 28 tanks in my parent's basement! They let me do it, since it kept me out of trouble. lol At one point I was breeding them so much that it was actually paying for the hobby, and I was making a little money on the side! Cichlids were always my favorites, and I still have a tank of African cichlids, and a Managuense in its own tank. He loves getting those worms and (later in the season) crickets from the garden.

I have 4 gold barbs in a community tank in my dining room, and every once in a while I see that they spawned overnight, as the two REALLY FAT females would reduce in size to almost what the males are. It must happen in the very early morning, as they, and the rest of the fish have all of the eggs eaten by the time I look in there! Takes about 4-5 weeks, and they are ready to spawn again.

How beautiful!
I have an aquarium myself with Cory Catfish, patties and some tetras.
A friend of mine had an angel, but it killed all the other fish and lived to be over 7 years old!
I try to keep my aquarium as much "garden-looking" as possible, so I never use plastic plants or decorations, but instead real plants from the pet shop and rocks and pieces of wood from ponds, lakes, etc.

There are 4 angels, 5 Cory cats, 11 Cardinal tetras, 5 serpae tetras, and a brushy nose pleco. I adopted some snails once from some plants, and they have been present, but manageable ever since.

Very cool! I can't wait until I get a bigger place so I can have a tank. I love fish, but I would get a kick out of the underwater landscaping alone. When I was younger my mom had a 50 gallon that was passed down to her. I wish I would have appreciated it more (and wish she would have kept it for me later). Just as well, I have too many projects and things I'm teaching myself. There aren't enough hours in the day.

There aren't enough hours in the day.

Word.

Sooooooooooo.... I was under the impression that the mating pairs inAngels stuck together.

I believe I have 3 females and a male, and he just switched partners! I definitely have 2 super aggressive females reeking havoc on the rest of the tank inhabitants... I've never seen anything like this before!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaand the home wrecker spawned....




Mr. Bigstuff




I'm gonna have a heck of a time getting these eggs off of there.

Lordy mercy! I think I'm tired of Angelfish!

One of my best friends died recently of cancer; he wanted me to have his drums. This got me to redo our studio; I pulled all the equipment out and all the wires, and then redid everything. There are hundreds of wires of all kinds so it was not an easy task to do, I now have drawings of where every one of them goes.
I also go a bunch of new gear. All of the instruments run through the mixing boards into an interface that sends them to the computer to record them. The electronic drums and synthesizers all talk MIDI, a computer language for musical instruments. I can there for play any of them from any other one, but mostly I play virtual instruments that I have using the keys and electronic drums, ones that are software and plug into the studio program on the computer.
I also made the computer table.
Currently we are in the process of balancing out everything, and making sure the computer knows what and where everything is.
I play drums just not well, now I will need to get good at them. My wife is also learning. We both play everything else and sing; I also play harmonica. Soon it will be fun time, so if the house is a rocking don't bother knocking just come on it, as the song goes.








The gray deck on the wooden rack is a video editing unit.













Electronic drums, you can play software drums or use it's sound, best of all you can play on headphones and not drive others crazy.



I only need one more guitar dear!





I have the drums miked out so I can hear how bad I play, or use it to get better. And for friends who can play well.



The things with all the knobs are mixing boards, the audio comes to them and then goes to a unit in that rack to the studio program in the computer.







Looking to the other side of the house, we mostly live on that side, there is a metal door that can close to seal off the sound from both sides of the house.

OK Tom, two questions. Is that an old player piano with the scroll that plays automatically? That piano looks to have a good bit of age to it.

And as for the skis, are they for folks to hotfoot it out of there when the music gets a bit weird in the winter months and cabin fever sets in? Just thinking of "The Shining" and Jack's novel writing while locked down in the hotel.

The piano is just a piano, it is from 1884.
Yes the skis are for escape, we kep them in a heated part of the house to keep the edges from rusting.