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Regarding my attempts to have a aquarium in our home. My wife and I began in this hobby last February with the purchase of an aquarium and several books. Following advice, I find myself here with more equipment than I ever intended to purchase and an impossible regiment to follow. It has proven to be an experiment in failure. All I wanted was an aquarium with some nice plants and fish. I failed in that I let myself get caught up in the part of this hobby that I misunderstood "high-tech" planted tanks.
Clearly some folks have made a career out of a hobby. Some people know more about this hobby than most people know about their profession. I'm not one of those people. Do we all have to learn that much to survive here? I'm sure I don't know how to digest the advice I get on these forums and turn it into success. I've tried and failed. The advice becomes conflicting and contradicting. I feel that I have found myself in over my head and I'm a reasonably intelligent person. Maybe I under estimated the "dedication" that this hobby requires to be successful. I just don't know what to do. I really have to reevaluate the whole thing, which I will.
What are my options?
1.) Pick myself up and keep trying to find the answers. What makes this difficult is that I'm not sure that I want to anymore. I mean if I manage to get it to stabilize, I'm told that the high-tech method is such a fragile state that if I over feed one time or have a power outage or let the CO2 run out.....look out!!
2.) Drop back to low-tech. How do I get there from here? Do I simply cut the wattage in half, turn off the ferts and the CO2, and replace my plants with low light species? Or do I have shut it all down, empty all contents and start with potting soil and the Diana Walstad method?
3.) Remove all plants, install non living (plastic) objects. As long as I don't overfeed the fish, keep light low enough to prevent major algae issues, and keep the tank clean, I should be able to keep the aquarium.
4.) Sell it all and get a dog.
Right now the dog is looking real good. I'll decide where to go from here and set a new course with a new year.
Clearly some folks have made a career out of a hobby. Some people know more about this hobby than most people know about their profession. I'm not one of those people. Do we all have to learn that much to survive here? I'm sure I don't know how to digest the advice I get on these forums and turn it into success. I've tried and failed. The advice becomes conflicting and contradicting. I feel that I have found myself in over my head and I'm a reasonably intelligent person. Maybe I under estimated the "dedication" that this hobby requires to be successful. I just don't know what to do. I really have to reevaluate the whole thing, which I will.
What are my options?
1.) Pick myself up and keep trying to find the answers. What makes this difficult is that I'm not sure that I want to anymore. I mean if I manage to get it to stabilize, I'm told that the high-tech method is such a fragile state that if I over feed one time or have a power outage or let the CO2 run out.....look out!!
2.) Drop back to low-tech. How do I get there from here? Do I simply cut the wattage in half, turn off the ferts and the CO2, and replace my plants with low light species? Or do I have shut it all down, empty all contents and start with potting soil and the Diana Walstad method?
3.) Remove all plants, install non living (plastic) objects. As long as I don't overfeed the fish, keep light low enough to prevent major algae issues, and keep the tank clean, I should be able to keep the aquarium.
4.) Sell it all and get a dog.
Right now the dog is looking real good. I'll decide where to go from here and set a new course with a new year.