Lizzard111
Mostly New Member
Hi guys I'm Norbert born in Poland and living in England.
I started aquaristic 2011 when my friend gave me 20L tank with fish to take care of durning his holiday. As I had no idea about fish keeping I put fish into tap water and overfed it.
After few weeks fish died from high level of ammonia and was given that fish tank for free.
As you can imagine first thing I did is to go to shop and make it look nice (gravel and real plants- before there was glass like gravel and one plastic plant). So I spend money on it and bought fish and put them in at once. Not only overstocking tank but also skipping water cycle with 50% or more water change.
Once I had ich and many deaths I started to put interest and look into forum. This was a shock how many informations are out there. I was sceptic about it and thought ppl are over-reacting with all that so decided to buy some books realising it was't lies.
So invested lots of money and frequently been buying plants and fish in same time learning from internet.
I also found out that my mom had fish tank for few years (preety late she told me that-25 years) and that my brother had tank and so much interest in fish that he's been invited to TV to make a comment about one book for fish keepers (he had only 10 -12 years so he didn't bother to attend).
Fish keeping was long in my fimily and I also discovered how wonderful is this hobby. To turn one corner of your space into living organist where plants coexists with fish and vice versa, watching how it grows and trives is amazing. At that point I decided to get a bigger tank for £350 300L which is cheap. So I had this new tank for China and I regret I didn't spend more money for better quality tank. I threat that tank as test tank because I realised it doesn't give much light so I had to invest fortune for LED's which I'm happy with.Also I used gravel, later on gravel with turf in middle and gravel on bottom. Few weeks ago I decided to buy plant substrate (Oliver Knott) and my plants LOVE IT
and in few weeks I'll change my powerhead into external filter Eheim 2075.
Most immportant thing I learned as fish keeper is that saving will not only make you poorer e.g. frequently buying plants
but also your life will be easier as you will spend less time cleaning tanks (right now I change sponges 2-3 times a week).
I wish I could go back in time 2 years from now and get proffesional equipment which would save me tons of money but it's impossible. So if you're starting to learn then consider advantages/disadvantages of purchase e.g. gravel is cheap but should be replaced after a year whilst plant substrate can last for 5-10 years (pulling everything out is a real pain and few days of work)
I'm not saying that to convince you guys about any brand or to run to shop but just to consider simple facts and learn from my mistakes.I know how frustrating it can be when things go wrong and I hope you wouldn't had to go through that. Even if you'll see some issues then don't be out off as this might look like a problematic hobby but on the end of the day it's wonderful to create a small piece of nature and watch it live.
Greetings from UK guys
I started aquaristic 2011 when my friend gave me 20L tank with fish to take care of durning his holiday. As I had no idea about fish keeping I put fish into tap water and overfed it.
After few weeks fish died from high level of ammonia and was given that fish tank for free.
As you can imagine first thing I did is to go to shop and make it look nice (gravel and real plants- before there was glass like gravel and one plastic plant). So I spend money on it and bought fish and put them in at once. Not only overstocking tank but also skipping water cycle with 50% or more water change.
Once I had ich and many deaths I started to put interest and look into forum. This was a shock how many informations are out there. I was sceptic about it and thought ppl are over-reacting with all that so decided to buy some books realising it was't lies.
So invested lots of money and frequently been buying plants and fish in same time learning from internet.
I also found out that my mom had fish tank for few years (preety late she told me that-25 years) and that my brother had tank and so much interest in fish that he's been invited to TV to make a comment about one book for fish keepers (he had only 10 -12 years so he didn't bother to attend).
Fish keeping was long in my fimily and I also discovered how wonderful is this hobby. To turn one corner of your space into living organist where plants coexists with fish and vice versa, watching how it grows and trives is amazing. At that point I decided to get a bigger tank for £350 300L which is cheap. So I had this new tank for China and I regret I didn't spend more money for better quality tank. I threat that tank as test tank because I realised it doesn't give much light so I had to invest fortune for LED's which I'm happy with.Also I used gravel, later on gravel with turf in middle and gravel on bottom. Few weeks ago I decided to buy plant substrate (Oliver Knott) and my plants LOVE IT
and in few weeks I'll change my powerhead into external filter Eheim 2075.Most immportant thing I learned as fish keeper is that saving will not only make you poorer e.g. frequently buying plants
but also your life will be easier as you will spend less time cleaning tanks (right now I change sponges 2-3 times a week).
I wish I could go back in time 2 years from now and get proffesional equipment which would save me tons of money but it's impossible. So if you're starting to learn then consider advantages/disadvantages of purchase e.g. gravel is cheap but should be replaced after a year whilst plant substrate can last for 5-10 years (pulling everything out is a real pain and few days of work)
I'm not saying that to convince you guys about any brand or to run to shop but just to consider simple facts and learn from my mistakes.I know how frustrating it can be when things go wrong and I hope you wouldn't had to go through that. Even if you'll see some issues then don't be out off as this might look like a problematic hobby but on the end of the day it's wonderful to create a small piece of nature and watch it live.
Greetings from UK guys
