My toes want to be in that surf.

While nothing is official yet (which means plenty of room for something to go wrong) it’s looking likely we will get the larger apartment.  Please don’t shout hooray and tempt the fates yet.

Wonderful news, right?  Of course it is.  What I’ve wanted forever, right?  Of course.  But there’s that part of me that keeps whispering, “suckerrrrrr!”  Because getting and moving into the bigger apartment moves my dream of living by the beach from the category of infinitesimal to bwahahahaha.  Which in turn leads me to I want a big tank again.

I miss reefing.  I miss Sadie the fire shrimp and Gloria the glorious yellow tang. I miss my electric blue crocea clam and my florescent green hydnophora colony.  I miss stinking of low tide and vinegar from doing tank maintenance. I miss playing God in a glass box, having my own little slice of the ocean.  And I really miss having a big tank.  I’ve been thinking this for a few months.  Several months.  OK, since the first time I heard the larger apartment was a possibility.  Hearing Big Senile Dog’s diagnosis of kidney failure turned the thought into a rumination.  (There’s a limit to how many creatures with significant needs I can take care of at once, and setting up a new tank is a lot of work.)

The other day I was at a friend’s house.  Her tank is currently a mess, choked with cyanobacteria.  I stared into those waving reddish snot flags and thought, “I miss my tank.”  Yeah, I got it bad.  My hands were itching to get into that water.  Bizarre, because the skin on my hands and arms is in better condition than it’s been in for years because I’ve been tankless for a while.  If I had been able to find her turkey baster I would have started doing some manual removal for her.

Part of what made keeping up with a big tank unmanageable would be much easier in the larger apartment.  Because there’s an extra half bath, I could set up an RO/DI unit, mix my own saltwater and not have to buy and lug distilled or RO/DI water from the local fish store.  Or be begging Husband or boys to pick it up for me.

My tanks have always been my beach house, my fantasy measured in gallons.  At this point in my tsunami of downward mobility, I’m thinking eighty gallons sounds about right.

reef life 1 (Photo credit: Raven_Denmark)