Joe's Misc Post!

Hello! So I have a bunch of stuff to post about today. To start it off, we went to Lowes today and bought a bunch of tools! We got a 4 pack of wireless Kobalt tools that included a drill, flashlight, skill saw, jigsaw, and two batteries. They were having a special where you got a free battery when you bought this kit which was really cool! We also got a sander because we will probably need it when we go to complete our DIY pallet patio furniture (more on that in the next couple of days!). Here's a picture of the tools boxed up:

Oh yeah, we also bought a sawhorse for when we go to cut the pallets. Here's a picture of all the tools unboxed:

 One other project that we did a few weeks ago was to put up wall hangers for the dipnets. They hang out of the way now witch is really nice. Those nets seem to tangle with everything, so it was good to get them flat against the wall. I'm sure that once we get the garage cleared out we will want to put up more of those wall hooks. They work really well!

Lastly is our newly acquired fish/coral reef tank. It holds 10 gallons of saltwater which is pretty small in the aquarium world but sooo much cheaper and easier to maintain. It has about 20 pounds of live sand and 12 pounds of live rock. The sand and rock are there to develop the ecosystem inside the tank. Plus they look really cool. The reason why those are the only things in the tank is because the tank is in the cycle period right now. When you put live rock into the aquarium everything dies that was in the rock which causes the ammonia to spike within a couple of days. Right now my tank is at 0.25 ppm which means it is at the very beginning of this stage. Once the ammonia gets really high, it will start to lower because the essential bacteria in the tank will begin to form and bring the ammonia back to 0. After this Nitrites will spike then Nitrates. After all of those are back down to zero we will be ready to add a fish! Should take about a week or two.  I'll keep you posted!

On a final note we won both of our softball games tonight and I went 5 for 6! That will bring my average pretty far above .500! We have our city tournament this Sunday so hopefully I can stay hot!