Well, since you all have such wonderful tanks, and great stories to boot, I figured I'd let you all know how I started with SW.
I promised my wife that once we bought a home we'd get a fishtank (I'm thinking 1/2 gal betta bowl). So, in Sept '05 we bought our first house. Yeah us! My wife got to do the honors of moving EVERYTHING herself since I was out to sea at the time (US NAVY doesn't care if you're buying a house, when the boat leaves, you're on it). Some of my fellow sailors that were in port at the time helped her move the furniture, but by large it was her alone.
Time passed, as it always does, I came home, and a few months later was packing to leave again. She definatly was not letting me leave without a fish tank. So off to Mall-mart to get a betta. Loe and behold! Nothing there she likes! So off to PetLand (Like PetSmart, but smaller). No betta bowls there; however, they are having a huge sale on SW since they are trying to go FW only. Nearly $700 later I'm in the parking lot trying to get a 45 gal tank into my Honda Prelude. Some things just won't work. Fortunantly, the manager says he'll stay open for me to go home and get my pickup.
5 hours later I've got a 45gal tank, Fluval filter, 25 pounds of live sand, and a tank filled from my garden hose routed through the window.
