A beautiful Wednesday! Work and the usual, and an evening spent breaking down an old aquarium.

It isn’t done yet, with an inch or so of water, under-filter planes, and a smattering of rocks, but it’ll be out tomorrow.

A few years ago the top bracket on my 55-gallon aquarium broke. It’s a typical glass aquarium, with silicone corners, and a plastic frame on the top and bottom. The frame makes a big, square figure eight, dividing the top in half. That crossing member broke, with age, leaving the center unsupported, causing the long sides to bow just a little under the weight of nearly 400lbs of water.

We mulled what to do with it, but let it sit until the last fish died. I mean, taking care of it, but letting it be. The two lids were light enough to “float” and not fall in, with some clever use of straw-covered chopsticks. I did have to get a four-foot light, though, as the shorter were too heavy for the jerry-rigging.

if you have to fix your aquarium with chopsticks, it’s probably due for replacement.

it was winter when it happened, so humbug and bother. Then it became normal. It needed a top-off of water occasionally, but nothing more. Actually easier to take care of than when it had fish.

Now the kids want fish. So after some debate and planning, we started to take it down. Drained all of the Water we could, siphoning as much of the detritus from the rocks as possible. Scooped the rocks out and dumped them where we don’t want plants outside.

Tomorrow we’ll bring it on the deck, pull the filter planes out, dump the water, and put the hopefully still not broken tank in the garage until else can remove it. Probably lug it to the aquarium shop and get another setup.

Not the project I wanted, kind of ever, but it was long, long, long overdue.

Of course, while they were enthusiastic and helpful for stretches, both kids tired of the speed and tedium of watching water siphon away, and scooping rocks.

Everyone is healthy.