Marcus Hamaker is The Sleepy Geek

I have had an aquarium on and off for most of my life. Most of the time we have has fresh water fish and for a stint we had 2 turtles. Aquariums are great for warming up a room by offering a peice of nature in your home. Right now I have an 80 gallon aquarium measuring 48″ wide by 24″ high by 16″ deep. I have spent a lot of time looking around for information on how to set up plants and what fish go with them. After a lot of searching I found a lot of information but noone who put them all together in a list. UNTIL NOW!

General Aquarium Sites:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/ – Typical about.com site that might give you just enough information to give you the aquatic bug
http://www.fishlore.com/ – Good overall page, lots of FAQs and beginners guides
http://www.aqua-fish.net/ – Large database of fish species
http://www.tropical-aquarium-fish.com/ – Good information for beginners
http://saltwater.tropicalfishandaquariums.com/Fishcare/Index.asp – Good information on fresh and salt water aquariums, might help decide which you prefer to start
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/information/freshwater.htm – How to start a fresh water aquarium from what type of tank to buy and forward

Aquarium Plants:
http://www.freshwateraquariumplants.com/ – An online store but still has good information
http://www.tropica.com – Has a large species list with good information
http://www.aquariaplants.com/ – Good tips about planting, choices and care

Specific Pages With Important Information:
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm – This is very important to know as a first time hobbyist

I hope these sites help you as much as they have helped me. It’s an amazing hobby to get into. An aquarium is a relaxing thing to have in the home and kids love them. My son is now an expert feeder (with dad’s help of course). It makes sense for families.

Update: A friend of mine was poking around and because he has just purchased his first aquarium he found this site!
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/home.php – Great page with a lot of good photos of tank layouts from the UK

Okay, I admit it… my office is an absolute mess. Since my wife and I have lived together, I have always dedicated a room as an office in the house. I help friends and do some other repair work so I often need a place to work. Since we have had our second child, my office became the place for the guest bed to go. We had a guest room before that, now it’s an office with a guest. Or is it a guest room with a lot of junk in it? Not sure.

So my dilemma is how to maximize my space. I have half, if not less room than I used to and it seems that I end up with parts everywhere. The bed is all too convenient to put something on for “just a moment” while I do something. Something inevitably takes a long time and whatever was left there stays there.

Some of my problem is the fact that I have old furniture in the room that used to work when it was a dedicated office. I used to also host my own web space, run my own domain with a dedicated domain controller and run a computer based router instead of a Linksys router. Most of that was in a rack in the corner and all it holds now is the router and a laser printer.

I think it’s time for some spring cleaning. Going to throw out some of the old parts that are obsolete and get rid of the rack. Then maybe I can build myself a test bench to work on computers and store some stuff under it.

I am curious though; how do you set up your office? Is there something you couldn’t live without? Maybe I can steal your ideas :)