If you enjoy keeping tropical fish, then I hope you will enjoy visiting my Aquarium web page. For 8 years now I have kept my own tropical fish and thought it might be nice to share my hobby with everyone else.

How I got started

My very first aquarium was a 15-gallon that I purchased in late 1998. A friend of mine had her own 10-gallon tank and got me interested, so I decided to try it out. My first attempt at keeping fish didn't go all too well. I purchased fish the day I purchased the tank and went home and set it all up in my apartment. Unfortunately, most of the fish didn't do too well, because the tank didn't have time to cycle. Never buy fish the same day you set up your new tank. The tank needs to be set up for at least a few days ahead of time before adding fish.

I believe that keeping fish is not something that should be taken lightly and jumped into right away without doing a little research or talking with experienced fish keepers. There is no since in making the fish suffer due to your negligence. In fact, I have compiled a list of Fish Aquarium Tips. These tips and recommendations are from my own experience as a fish keeper and I hope will help any new beginners.

After time I gained some experienced and learned how to take care of fish. A year and a half had passed after I purchased my first aquarium, when I moved into a bigger apartment in 1999. I decided it was time to upgrade to a bigger tank. I was hooked, it was addicting. I then purchased a 20 and 30 gallon tank and sold the 15-gallon. After all, the bigger the tank, the more fish you can keep. In those two aquariums I kept dwarf gouramis, gouramis, cory cats, plecos, and silver dollars.

But alas, the 20 and 30 gallon tanks were just not big enough. After I got married and moved into a town house I decided it was time to upgrade once again. I talked my husband into letting me try a 55-gallon tank and I loved it! I sold the 30-gallon tank to my brother-in-law and gave the 20-gallon tank to my mother. After a few months had passed, I actually ended up with 2 55-gallon tanks. In those tanks, I housed angelfish, plecos, catfish, silver dollars, and bleeding hearts.

In March of 2001 we purchased our first house. I have to say the thing I like the least about fish keeping is moving tanks when you move from one home to another. We moved into our new home and set up one 55-gallon tank. As well, I purchased a 75-gallon and put that in the basement. My brother-in-law had enjoyed fish keeping as well, so we sold him one 55-gallon tank. At this point, I had become pretty experienced with fish keeping and was able to move all of my fish safely to our new home. I had some bleeding heart tetras, silver dollars, and plecos that I originally purchased in 1999 that made the journey.

My mother still had the 20-gallon I gave her a while back and I got that back from her to use as a quarantine tank. I've lost many fish due to adding new fish to an existing aquarium and will never do it again. Unfortunately, that is how I lost my beautiful large angelfish. Now, since I have this 20 gallon tank, I always take time to quarantine any new fish for at least 2 weeks to ensure they don't carry diseases. It has worked out really well and has minimized fish loss considerably.

In February of 2003, I was able to talk my husband into letting me purchase a corner tank to keep angelfish in. I bought a 44 pentagon tank which fits nicely in a corner.

In April 2005, I purchased a new 90 Gallon Aquarium. My plan with this purchase was to combine my 55 and 75 gallon fish together into the 90 gallon aquarium and eliminate a tank. This idea worked out well since I didn't have to purchase a new stand for the 90 gallon. It fit on the 75 gallon stand that I had, only the 90 gallon tank is 3 inches taller.

I slowly moved over all of my fish to the new 90 gallon aquarium. Once, I got it set up, I just knew I loved it. It looked very big when we picked it up and was a bear to get down the stairs, but displays so nicely in my basement and gives my fish much more room to swim around in. They seem to enjoy the space and even gives me some extra room to add some more fish later on.

In October 2005, I decided it was time once again to upgrade my 44 gallon aquarium. Based on experience I have determined I am not a big fan of the 44 gallon pentagon aquariums. One reason, being the lid is so awkward to clean in a sink and I have had problems with the very top of the tank leaking some just around the wood trim. Also, I wanted to add more angels and provide them more space. We have grown accustomed to the glass lids and individual hooded light compared to the plastic lids that came with this tank.

I had been shopping for a month or two and determined a 65 Gallon Aquarium was just the right size for me. I wanted something small enough, no longer then 36 inches to fit in a corner of my living room, but provide more room for the fish. The 65 gallon was perfect because it measured 36 inches in length and 24 inches in height. I had ordered the tank from Pet Supplies Plus because it was cheaper, but ordered the stand from the same Pet Shop I purchased my 75/90 gallon stand from. They do custom built oak stands that are really sturdy, provide lots of storage room, and look very nice in a living room.

It took 2 weeks for the tank to come in, but 8 weeks for the stand. In December 2005, I finally was able to setup the new 65 gallon aquarium and I slowly moved my fish over. I really enjoy this size and think the fish will as well.

See my 65 gallon aquarium and 90 gallon aquarium.

Last Update: 2/24/06