MatPat

In my introduction, I decide to include a little bit of how SWOAPE was started so it may be a little long

My name is Matt and I live in the Dayton, Ohio area. We moved back to Ohio in late 2004 after living in various areas of the country for the past 20 years. My last job prior to the birth of my first child was as a professional cabinet maker. Since it is hard to find an evening job working in a cabinet shop, I am now a stay-at-home Dad of two.

I have been into planted tanks for about 4 years now and into aquariums in general since the late 80's. I recently had 6 high tech planted tanks going but have downsized to three, after the birth of my daughter. I have two 75g tanks and a 50g tank planted right now along with two low tech 10g planted tanks.

When I moved to Dayton I found two others in the area via APC and Aquabid, Damon (Simpte 27) and Ken, who were interested in planted tanks and lived nearby. After talking with them, the three of us decided it would be a good idea to start a plant club to meet other enthusiasts. Since I didn't know too many folks from this area, I posted this thread on the Greater Cincinnati Aquarium Society (GCAS.org) site wondering if there was enough local interest to start a club.

Jack (Jack W.), Rob (rwoehr), Sean (ctmpwrdcamry), and probably a few others I am forgetting to mention decided it would be worthwhile to start up a plant only club. We held our first "meeting" in April of 2005 and SWOAPE was born. We now have nearly 30 members and seem to add a new member every month.

ctmpwrdcamry

My name is Sean and I have been dabbling with aquariums for about 6 or 7 years. I tired to have one when I was younger, but as we all know they can get costly fast, so without an income, once the fish died, I was done.

I moved to Ohio in 97, found Aquarium Adventure in Columbus shortly there after. After being amazed by their large planted tank I decided I wanted to have something like that one day. After trying to keep plants in a 10 gallon, and then again in a 37 gallon, I got on the Internet to find out what I had been doing wrong. Turns out, I had been spending to much money at AA Thanks to Matt and others here, I learned the beauty of Dry Ferts and cheap plants. But thats all that was cheap.

I currently have 5 tanks. The original 10 and 37 gallon tanks now have nice plants in them, as well as a 20, 20L and my 75 which is the only tank with co2. Thanks to Jim, not only do I have a plant problem, I also have a discus issue. I still have not found a cream to clear these up.

In addition to fish I also like cars, hence the screen name. For 4 years I ran an on line parts business. After starting a full time job while still in college, I decided I needed to spend more time on school work and dissolved the business. I also sold the Camry and purchased a MINI. So much more fun.

Six

I guess I'll go next.

I'm 24, female, and have lived in Columbus my whole life (not that I'm entirely proud of that ). I attend OSU full time with classes starting yesterday. I'm a junior there.

I attended Otterbein College to basicly play D3 soccer and when I didnt get playing time I wanted to transfer the next quarter. Life worked oddly for me then... I picked up a job at Aquarium Adventure and made it up to an assistant manager there. I also met my current boyfriend, Daniel, there so it wasnt a bad experience all around. I had that job around 2001. There I met Sue who created and cared for the plant tank there. My interests turned to reefs, but plant tanks still amazed and enthralled me. I'm "six' nano-reef.com and maintain a large reef set-up and planning on creating a propagation system that will push 300gallons.
Anywho, I quit AA and worked at Byerly's for a little while. I then got a job at FedEx Ground where I am currently employed part time as a service manager. My area loads packages to NY, so please no service comments.
So, I'm with another fish nerd, Daniel, I'm maintaining a few semi-serious plant tanks (for danio choprae, pelvicachromis species, and shrimp mainly), a large reef, working and attending OSU.

ctmpwrdcamry

Sue was an awesome and tallented person. So unfortunate....

Yzfr6

Hi my name is Scott; I have had aquariums in and out of my life since I was a child. I have done the standard Fish only tanks and then moved onto Salt water. Although saltwater tanks are a thing of beauty they also require a lot of work. More work than a planted tank. Given my busy work schedule, I am a principal consultant with Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions. I had very little time to take up the great hobby. You just have to know your limitations. I can at times travel a bit and thus have no time for the saltwater tank. So in case anyone wants to know my job consists of computer technology from Microsoft, Linux, Citrix, SAN's, clustering, networking, and so on. I have had a planted tank since the June meeting where most of you came out to lend a hand. I was treated with a warm welcome and have since been on this forum. I have now started a 30 gallon planted tank for the office.

Pyro

Hey everyone, I decided to introduce myself too! You may have seen me hanging around, but I'm one of the newer members of SWOAPE and planted tanks in general.

I'm a 17 year old High School student and I've been into aquariums for about a year now. Although I spent about 3 months trying to do a fishless cycle with plants. The bulb that was recommended by the LFS for plants was 21,000K I believe. It was something outside the usable spectrum of plants. Not to mention I was at something like 0.9 wpg. So my 20 gallon was dormant, and I consistantly tested water and put in huge amounts of ammonia hoping to make progress. Unfourtantly, the tank was rather old so it ended up springing a leak, putting an end to to my planted tank happiness until last December (there was lots of reading and hanging out on aquatic plant boards until then!)

Finally in December I setup my 1st planted tank...with vals and anacharis, and blue gravel with eco complete on the bottom! Unfourtantly, a massive hair algae attack forced me to upgrade. During the upgrade, the clown puke gravel was replaced, and the filter was changed from a Penguin to an Eheim 2213...killer canister filter

Just last Friday, I drained the tank again and replaced everything with 100% eco-complete, and finally fired up CO2 injection. At this point, I think I've replaced everything in my tank that could possibly have been wrong and holding me tank. I don't think I have 1 original component from my first setup besides the tank thermometer.

Planted aquaria is really a hobby that I enjoy quite a bit. It just seems like such an odd hobby, but I really enjoy it. Friends look at me really strangely when there's a CO2 tank sitting in my room too, although I think the jubilant celebrations at the arrival of my KNO3, or considering taking my CO2 regulator as a prime date might've franky disturbed a few people.

Right now plants still look rather...depressing, and I'm looking to see if I can find some more cool ones online right now. I finally have my dosing regime up, and right now I'm tinkering with the bubble count on the CO2, trying to get the CO2 right. I graduate early from High School in January (have to decide what I want to do with my life too I was thinking about being a high school science teacher, but that almost requires a vow of poverty), so I'm a bit busy with school - hopefully I'll be able to attend a meeting eventually!

molurus73

Hello all,
My name is Jim. Married with a 5 year old child. I had fish tanks as a child ever since I can remember until I was about 18. Got out of them for awhile and finally got a 29 gallon from Jack's about 3 years ago. Threw in some mixed africans. You know the ones, "Anything in that tank will go together well". Nope. From there I just exploded with MTS.

Found Swoape or the beginnings of, in April of '05. Started planting tanks. Started off not wanting co2, then DIY co2, then pressurized co2. Damn you Matt. I think I enjoy the journey more than the destination. I am in a state of constant "What do I want now?" I have had a discus addiction (bad) and now am seeking to put together a beautiful planted african cichlid tank.

I love football (WHO DEY), NASCAR 8, fish, reptiles and hanging with my son. In my spare time, I decorate cakes. I am a baker in a restaurant in West Chester. I aspire to be professional pastry chef. I make a little extra money doing birthday, wedding, shower, etc. cakes.

I can haul a full 4' x 8' sheet of plywood and Matt cannot. I love to sit and talk plants and fish for hours if I could. Anyway, I guess that is about it.

Jim
Oh, and did I mention
WHO DEY

Paywan

Hi all,
My name is Scott, and I've also had fish tanks since I was a kid. Started getting into the planted tanks a few years ago, but it's been kind of off and on. Right now I just have a few small tanks (20g or less) set up, while my 125g and 2 75g tanks sit empty. It's likely I'll be moving a little closer to Kentucky in about a year, so I'm waiting until then to set them up.

Right now I live in Hamilton. I'm not married and I work for an investments firm. I've been following the SWOAPE forum for about a month or 2 now, and been to one meeting. Great group of people here!

CincyCichlids

Hi my name is Chris, and I'm an Aquarium-Aholic. I've had a tank since I was probably like 6, you know the 10 gallon tank with the tetras and whatever else Mom thought was pretty.

Over the years it was just a tank on the dresser, nothing too exciting. Sometime around 7th grade, I surprised my parents by paying for a 20H to replace the 10 gallon. Not long after that, I bought a pair of Convicts to go in with my mom's mollies, sword tails and tetras. The Convicts spawned shortly afterward and killed everything else, I was suddenly addicted to Cichlids!

Shortly after I bought a 55, and then it just continued to grow.

Fast forward to late 1999. After graduating high school and going to Wright State, I decided I absolutely couldn't stand the school and moved back home in West Chester and started commuting to UC. At the time my fish "collection" was a part time business called... CincyCichlids. I had somewhere around 50 tanks, just over 2000 gallons. My main focus has always been Tanganyikan Cichlids. Many from the Neolamp and Julidochromis families. My favorite are definitely the Cyprichromis Leptosoma.

I've tried raising plants a few times. In some tanks I could get java moss and java fern to grow, but even the anacharis was a waste of money and I soon gave up on plants.

After 9/11, I was no longer able to ship air cargo so it gave me good reason to close up shop and sell everything. About two years ago I purchased a 300 gallon acrylic tank, and the bug came back!

Now I'm up to 20 tanks again and ~1300 gallons. Late last winter I sold a tank to Matt. When I delivered the tank, he showed me his planted tanks, and I was pretty much hooked.

After 3 attempts and 60lbs of C02 (in 8 months) I can now say that I have a pretty stable 75 gallon planted tank.

I'm in the middle of setting up a 125 planted tank, all I need now is the substrate and the 6 T5 bulbs that will go on top.

So, that's a bit about me. I graduated from UC with a BA in Communication. Currently I'm selling generic pharmaceuticals but still looking for a "real" job.

I have some connections too for some dry goods (heaters, water pumps, etc) so please let me know if you're looking for anything.

TheLoachGuy

Im 39 years young. Been keeping fish since I was 13. Worked for a small fish store in Athens called Fish-n-Stuff from age 14-20. Started there officially at 16, but would "hang out" there with the owner prior to that helping him bag fish for customers in exchange for the occasional guppy trio or tetra. (Mike the owner is one of my better friends now btw)

Spent 8.5 years in USAF and visited saudi arabia back at the beginning of the gulf war in 1990/91. Got out and started working at Safari World in Goldsboro, NC. The owner was a specialist in exotic animals. We had rare poisonous snakes on display,(taipain, green mamba, asian king cobra), a 14 ft albino burmese python, monkeys, tarantulas, you name it.. I was one of their fish guys. Its funny.. Every job Ive ever worked (fish related) I thought I knew soooo much about fish.. I look back at those days and realize I didnt know nearly as much as I thought.

I abandoned my "fish shop whore"(will explain that another day ), days and started working in the IT industry. Currently working for Reynolds and Reynolds as a software analyst here in Dayton.. I have a gorgeous understanding wife and two handsome young boys, ages 7 months and 4 years. The oldest likes to put hotwheels and gi joe into my bottom aquariums, so all the lid handles have been removed.

Ive had various lvls of success with planted tanks. All have been low tech/DIY variety. Selling off all of my large central/s. american cichlids now to make room for planted tanks that will be accompanied by angelfish and other bread/butter fish. I started out 2006 with 16 tanks.. Down to 9 now, with the goal of being at 5-6 by end of this year. I'm a member of the GCAS, AKA TheLoachGuy. I love clown loaches. I have 14 of them from 3-6" in a 75 gallon.

Thats about all I have to say about that....

Jeff E.