Kia Ora guys,
Actually catching Guppies with plastic bread bags as kids with My brothers progressed to digging a huge hole in Mums Back Lawn and filling it With Carp and Rudd from the Local Pond....till we were told they were noxious pests lol
Now I have my own kids Through them I've fallen back into the fish habit.
My two eldest boys sold there Ipods and play stations , purchased a 60g tank off trade me which sat in the garage empty for a few months till I realised they were serious about fish keeping and offered to throw a few dollars in to get the bare empty Tank up and running ( They told me about this new fandangled NTS and i said bah humbug and went off and stocked the tank with 5 Danios , added two bristle noses a few days later then ten glowlight tetras )...
To cut a long story short it was humbling to update the old skills and find out the lads were absolutely right, Three weeks of intensive water changes and adding established substrate through Potted plants for the good bacteria and we were Cycled.
Along the way we got into plants and had a tank full of terestrial / bog plants from the local chain pet store ( that was a month ago , It's funny how you think people who look after animals MUST KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND BE TRUST WORTHY kinda like the vets etc.....except some of these folks should be selling used cars)
Sick of struggling Plants and algae issues we have gone high tech and done a Major Over hall
the twin T8 24WT Lights are being replaced by a Key K3 LED 90 Watt Unit
Soda Stream adaptors and Solenoids.......
Gravel has been totaly replaced with 28kgs of Flourite Black Sand with Silica Sand over lay.
Flourish Excel Comprehensive and Activate and I'm guessing we will need some Epsom Salts from what Ive read here....
It's been a great learning curve and family bonding hobby......worth every cent of the thousands if we get the kind of Aquascape we are after ( the bare bones look real good )
All in all I've ended up more interested in the Plants than the fish. The Lads like both So they get well looked after between the three of us.