Gorilla Fish Tank

Aquariums are fascinating, just like affiliate marketing. I’ll explain in a minute.

I’ve longed to start up again in the hobby I left about 5 years ago and now was the right time. As my 40th birthday present (early by a few weeks), my wife and I went out and purchased a top of the line 70-gallon system at Marine Fish and Reef in Marietta, GA. The lights and filtration were beyond the technology I used in the mid-90′s. Back then I had a fabulous show tank filled with lots of plants and easy to keep Angels and tetras. I want the same thing but the difference is we invested in everything up front as opposed to building a system over a period of a few years and experimenting. I’m using my best practices from back then to do it right this time. I’m sure I will make new mistakes but that’s part of the fun of keeping an aquarium.

The need for some personal balance is key when working from home. I keep the same routine. I don’t watch soap operas and I’m staying away from the refrigerator. Staying active physically is a challenge when you try to grow a business online and you want to sit in front of the computer 24/7. It helps that when I’m on the phone with affiliates or merchants because I pace around the house and now that it’s warmer, I pace “around” the house! So to help myself mentally, I placed the tank directly across from my desk in the home office. This way I can focus on it when thinking, especially when glancing over the top of my monitor. It’s very calming and easy to concentrate on when going through a brain blast on how to grow the affiliate programs I manage.

The way to pull this back to affiliate marketing in general is that building an aquarium for the first time is like building your first website and trying to earn money consistently. It takes knowledge, research, experimentation and failure before you figure out how to make it work. You will kill fish unintentionally – lots of them. Don’t believe everything you read, it takes lots of different variations to find the results you are looking for. If you keep at it and learn from your mistakes, those fish will stay alive and your plants will fill out and bloom. Ask questions on the FishChannel forum and bug the managers at the local fish store. or, ask questions on ABestWeb and talk to affiliate managers like myself.

Look for more pictures of my aquarium as time goes on. This is day 5 after adding water. No fish yet.

Equipment:
70-gallon glass tank
Custom built Cherry cabinet with hood
Reaction 4 EFU-35 canister filter
Root Therm substrate heating system
CoraLife 24-inch professional series retrofit kit – 10,000K Daylight HQI Metal halide Lighting [1 x 150 watt], True Actinic 03 Blue Compact Flourescent [2 x 65 watt], Lunar Blue-Moon-Glow 470nm LED Lighting [2x1 watt]
External Thermal Heater
5 bags of Flourite

Plants:
Amazon sword, microsword, bulbs, wisteria, ludwigia, various bulbs.