My little piece of happiness

Amidst all the negative things that has been happening in my life, I managed to find one thing that truly makes me happy.

People have different picker uppers. There’s shopping, drinking, travelling. I would like my picker upper to be TRAVELLING but time AND money does not allow me to do this one thing that I am so sure will make me very happy. So, I settled for something that is not as expensive as travelling but gives me the distraction and happy feeling that I so need.

I am a reef hobbyist.

This is not the first time that I’ve tried it. I’ve actually kept a reef tank 6 years ago. It all started when we included a saltwater tank in our design during our exhibit in college. I took up Interior Design in UP Diliman and one of the requirements was to design a module in Greenhills. My boyfriend (now my ex and a good friend) and I decided to design a Lanai, so we wanted the lanai to have a cozy and relaxing feeling and a friend mentioned that saltwater tanks are very relaxing, so we ordered a 200 gallon tank for our module. Of course, it turned out real nice. We got a lot of praises and compliments. We were both very proud! Lots of people would stay at our module and just watch our tank. When the exhibit was over, we had to return the glass tank to our sponsors so I watched them break the tank in front of me. It wasn’t a very pretty sight. Everything in our tank was borrowed, except for the fishes. So I bought my own tank, a smaller one, 100 gallon tank and set-up my own at home

Then something really depressing happened to me. So my friends thought that it would be best if we do a road trip to Pangagsinan, La Union and Baguio to keep my mind off my dilemma. We were gone for 5 days. We went to this secluded and private island in La Union. It was beautiful! I was taking a walk along the beach and found some blue rocks. I was in awe when I saw the rocks. I am a certified scuba diver but I have never seen a blue rock in any of my dives. So I brought a couple of the blue rocks at home and decided to put them in my tank. I was so excited! I couldn’t wait to get home and see how it would look in my tank and how the lights in my tank would affect the colors of the rock.

I got home late from Pangasinan that night so I didn’t have the energy to clean the rocks. I did it the next day before I left for work. I didn’t really have the luxury of time to enjoy watching my tank that morning. When I got home at 3am, I noticed that my fishes were still awake even when the lights were switched off. When I looked closely, they looked soooooo pale and their swimming behavior were a bit odd and after a few minutes, they were hitting the live rocks as they swam. I knew they were all dying. I was sooooo angry. Too angry at 3am in the morning that I yelled at GOD “Why must you get everything that I have?” After 6 years, all my fishes were wiped out in a matter of hours.

I was too depressed and angry that I didn’t get near my tank after that incident. I just left it running. I wasn’t even the one who took the dead fishes from the tank. Weeks went by and I still wouldn’t go near my tank. The saltwater level was almost half of the tank already and I didn’t care. Until one day, my dad just told me that he will clean my tank and keep it in our storage area. I still didn’t care. I let him do whatever he wanted to do with it. After a couple of months, my friend decided to buy my tank. I sold it to him for 5 grand. I didn’t care that I spent more than a hundred thousand for it. I just wanted to get rid of it.

Since my friend didn’t know anything about setting up reef tanks, I had to help him. We scheduled the saltwater set-up and Cartimar trip. When we got to Cartimar, the owners of the shops were surprised to see me (they already know me since I frequent the place) and I saw all the beautiful fishes again. It reminded me of how beautiful they are and how much they made me happy. So I decided to set up a tank of own again, but a smaller one this time. I bought a 15 gallon tank that I placed right beside my bed.

Now my tank is 2 month old. It is very beautiful! I can’t believe I got rid of my 100 gallon tank! The happiness my 15 gallon brings me is irreplaceable. It keeps my mind off the stress and issues that my everyday life brings me, but keeps me awake till the wee hours of the morning just because I cant get enough of watching my tomato clowns and angels.

For those of you who are interested in setting up a saltwater tank, piece of advise, be very patient. Plus, you have to invest and purchase good quality products and livestock even if they are very pricey! Don’t worry, you may have an empty pocket in the end but the joy it will bring in your life will be unfathomable. If you’re interested, leave me a message.