From: vest@novavax.UUCP (Steven Vest)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria,rec.aquaria
Subject: Re^2: Some questions...
Date: 3 Sep 92 23:30:03 GMT
Organization: Nova University, Fort Lauderdale, FL


<Questions on what to buy for a first aquarium deleted>

Ross:

    I'm going open myself up to mega flames here by giving you advice that may
go against the grain of many of the regular posters here.  My advice is to not
let them talk you into getting too elaborate with your first setup.  In reading
the posts on here you'll see that for one reason or another many of these 
people can and will spend multiple hundreds of dollars on elaborate equipment
and incredibly complex setups.  You'll get advice that says if you want to
grow plants you'll need special heaters and lights, expensive trace elements
C02 injection units etc.  You'll be told to avoid certain filtration systems
(such as undergravel) be pushed towards dozens of other "essential" gadgets
gizmos and scientific instruments.  Let me tell you about my setup.

    Here in my office, five feet from this computer I have a 20 long tank 
that often garners gasps of "My god what a beautiful aquarium!"  and "That
must be really expensive and/or take a lot of time!!"  It has a lush growth
of plants and some of the happiest, healthiest, horniest Gouramis, Australian
Rainbows and Corydoras you've ever seen.  My setup?  I use a two bulb 
flourescent desk lamp for lighting with 15 watt GE "Softwhite" bulbs, a 50
watt 14 year old heater and a 10 year old Aquaclear external power filter.
No Cable Heaters.  No Metal Halide lamps.  No Wet/Dry filters.  And worst
of all I use a GASP!!!!!!......Undergravel filter with plants! I test the
PH twice a month or so (if it's convenient) with a $2.00 test kit.  If it's
off I add a bit of "Bullseye 7.0" the next time I change the water.  Which
happens about every ten days or so.  All in all I've spent less than $80
dollars on the entire setup and I spend less than 1 hour a week on the tank.

    What's my point?  I've been keeping fish for more than 20 years and 
aquarium newbies seem to fall into one of two categories;  either they read
nothing on the subject and talk to no one, go to K-mart and buy the $30.00
ten gallon kit or they talk to everyone and spend a fortune on stuff.  Both
groups usually end up disappointed after a few months and throw it all in
the attic.  The first group makes all the worst mistakes and is much larger.
They overcrowd, overfeed and underchange.  The fish die and they give up.  
The second group works feverishly and spends too much time and effort.  They
get burned out and give up.  It's a waste and a lost kindred fish lover either
way.

    Find the middle ground.  Don't be taken in by the things you read here. 
These are people who are SERIOUS about fish.  Most of them are very intelligent
and well informed.  But they forget what it may be like to want fish as just
a "kind of something neat to have in the living room".  Get yourself a good
setup.   Get a power filter and the biggest tank you can reasonbly deal with.
Don't buy too many fish.  Feed half as much food as you think you should and
change the water twice as much as you want to.  Keep the ph close to 7.  Ask
someone at a Fish Store (not a pet store or God Forbid a Dr. Pet) for advice
on what fish to buy or get a good friend who has fish to go with you.  
     
     
     Then sit back and enjoy your tank.  Relax and get into it slowly.  Then
in awhile if you're interested in it and/or have an understanding spouse, by B
all means buy yourself $$300 cable heaters and digitally calibrated ph meters.  
Fill your living room with hanging metal halide lamps.  Test homemade wet/dry
filters in the bathtub.  Just don't forget that most of this isn't really
necessary to have a good tank with healthy fish and plants.  Keeping aquariums
can and should be a relaxing little hobby.  It doesn't have to be a constant test
in chemistry, biology, electrical engineering and hydrology to be interesting.

     Oh yes, and be careful of advice (even this advice).  While the VAST 
majority of the people who post here are really great and give good advice,
there are some nuts out there.  Once when I had a die off of Plecos in three
different tanks in three different locations a guy wrote to chastise me and
explain how I had starved them all to death.  He never really explained the
coincidence of them all starving to death on the same day...  I'm just waiting
for someone to write how they've put a troop of monkeys into their fish room
so that their droppings and urine can help him get just that perfect mixture
of trace elements ;-)

    Well, I'll kick the soap box aside and await the incoming telling me
all of the things I've told you are wrong.  Good luck and let me know how
it all comes out!
. 
-- 
========================== vest@novavax.nova.edu =============================
= Steven Vest: Electronic Reference Librarian: Nova University, Ft. Ldl, FL  =
=      Anything you see by me is just MY opinion.  Don't blame Nova.         =
=================Life is strange. Yeah, but compared to what?================= 
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria