My name is Dexter and I am a second year business university student living at home in Toronto, Canada.
I've been quite busy recently with non-planted tank related things, so I haven't gotten around to updating this blog. However, I have continued to be quite active on various aquarium forums (plantedtank.net, pricenetwork.ca and gtaaquaria.com) and I've learned a lot since I first started keeping fish and plants in tanks in September.
How did I get started into the aquarium hobby?
While spending 4 months vacationing in Hong Kong this past summer in 2007, I got bored one day and the idea of keeping fish really appealed to me. Before you knew it, when I wasn't going out, I was reading online about things like the nitrogen cycle, fish compatability and the whole works.
I stumbled across planted tanks-- and very quickly found out about Takashi Amano's hand in this hobby. My interest grew on from there.
If you didn't know, there's an entire street in Hong Kong dedicated to fish and aquarium products. Basically dozens of fish stores packed into one street. Pretty soon it was one of my favorite destinations to visit; I think I went to that street about 10 times throughout my stay.
Here are some pictures.
The product prices are very competitive, much cheaper than in Canada where I live. If you ever decide to visit Hong Kong, it's definitely some place I recommend, even just for the experience.
Back on topic, so I picked up some equipment while I was there in preparation of starting my own fish tank once I got back home in Sepetember 2007.
When I got back home, I found my old 20 gallon high aquarium in the basement that I kept some fish in when I was 7-8 years old. I set-up my first aquarium in a long time and it was doing very well. In December, I gave that fish tank away to my friend, replacing it with a 55g fully planted tank.
Now I own 8 active aquariums, but that's the limit I'm going to keep at. It's not too much work, but it does take consistent care. The tanks have been through ups and downs, with algae outbreaks and some fish deaths. I would say 90% is learning and thinking, and 10% is actually working on the tanks.
