Hi, I'm Daniel, 24, and from Cape Town. I was into the whole fish keeping thing in primary school, but was clueless back then. I had a 90 with a corner filter, a heater and a canopy with a light and I'd get mom to buy me some neons, plants, etc. Then when the tank was dirty I'd put all the fish in a bucket, empty the tank completely and wash it out, put in fresh water and put in my anti-chlorine drops. Water changes, siphon tube, huh, what's that? High school came and the fish tank got given away. Helped my dad with his 1st little koi pond in the corner of the garden with 6 koi and a submersible pump of a coupe of 100lph. Both going on what the lfs suggested. When I was at the age of 20 I decided I wanted to get back into fish keeping, this time doing it properly. At this time home adsl was a reality and a lot was learned very quickly, made friends with people who were long in the game and malawis became my chosen path. I bought a 2nd hand 1700x600x600 tank with stand, sump, heater, pump, lights, slides, and bio material still wet and active. The tank ran amazingly well and I had 90 malawis at one stage, a mixture. Mbunas, peacocks and haps. I bought and sold and bread and visited 100s of home breeders all over Cape Town. Then I sold up my fish and moved to mbunas for a short while before settling on some F1 frontosas. Beginning of 2008 I overhauled the filtration on the little pond as it was more of a bog. It was soon running 100%. So Jan 2009 we decided to finally tackle the big pond. It was on the plans of the house even but had never been built. Details of the build are in the pond section. September last year I bought my 1st marine tank. All I can say is its slow going, damn expensive, and a steep learning curve. I have a 2 clowns and a regal tang. Hope to add some more soon as the tank is just starting to mature now. Will enjoy my stay here at TASA. Dan
