Reefkeeping is one of those hobbies that happened because of a lack of something, not because of curiosity. In this case, it was due to a lack of having something that I can always tinker with and derive pleasure from.

Obviously I am referring to hobbies - not relationships. My other hobbies are not everyday hobbies. I do not feel like taking photos every day. And the photos I do take are static - a moment in time, captured. Frozen. It is not dynamic - unless of course you are more involved. Unfortunately I cannot travel that much due to work constraints, so a natural alternative was to find a hobby that is immobile, but dynamic.

I always loved my dad's tropical fish he had when I was still wet behind my ears. I even had my own small tank. I remember cleaning it out every now and again - washing the tank thoroughly every month or so (what an evil thing to do - but back then we did not know anything about nitrification and biological filters etc.)

Nevertheless, it was great fun. I loved siamese fighters, my dad's kribensis spawning... But due to broken bases and other concerns eventually we gave up.

So it became a distant, dormant fact of history. Until a year ago, when I started reading up on tropical tanks again. I saw that a huge amount of progress had been made in the field and it seemed much easier to have a healthy aquarium. So I started reading some more and eventually came across marine tanks. Needless to say - there is in my mind no comparison between the beauty of a full blown reef aquarium versus a planted tropical fish aquarium. I immediately fell in love with the whole idea of having a slice of a spectacular reef in my home. So my research changed focus to reef aquariums.

It took mere seconds (with the help of Google) to realise that I will have to go to the very bottom of this bewildering hobby... That the "rabbit hole" is way deeper than I could ever dreamed of. Keeping marine animals is not trivial. Not impossible either, but definitely very involved. See, I read about terms such as "sumps", "skimmers", "reactors", "refugiums" etc. - and I had no idea what they meant. The more I read the more I realised I know nothing about the ocean and even less about keeping marine animals.

I remember walking in to the LFS asking about starting up a new tank, and the guy asking me whether I am going with SPS or LPS. My improvised response was - "A bit of both?".

During the course of the year I have learnt so many things - I am by no means an expert, but I am definitely not a newbie anymore. I understand the fundamental principals of most equipment, water chemistry and know my marine animals much better now.

Should you follow the advise, experience and opinions on this site? Well, that is up to you. I am only posting my experiences - good and bad. Some things worked for me, some not. I am not long enough in the hobby to be able to say I am successful, bit after one year I have some very healthy livestock, and things are looking good.

Starting up was not an easy ride though, and that is where this site comes in. My blog discusses my experiences in real time. This site links together all my various communications regarding my endeavors, and contains reference information for people starting their own tanks. It is by no means an authoritative source of information but at least it shows you my successes and failures.

Enjoy!