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Hello from North Dakota, USA

ShawnMac

Member
Joined
4 Aug 2015
Messages
123
Location
ND, USA
Hello UKAPS members. Joining UKAPS is probably long overdue and after browsing the Facebook page and seeing some familiar faces (usernames) and their work, I thought I should sign up and join in on the great thing going here at UKAPS.

I guess this is the hokey introduction part: My name is Shawn and I've been aquascaping for about 5 years. I'm a regular over at Aquascaping World where I'm a moderator. I've also taken on a recent project of helping the startup Aquascape Awards website. Professionally, I'm an infectious disease field epidemiologist and if I'm not working or aquascaping I'm usually spending time with my wife and 10 month old son...or sneaking away to play a little Xbox One. I'm glad to be here and without further rambling I'll share a bit of my past work:

My recently created Flickr album: https://flic.kr/s/aHskhxyjEd

My horrendous YouTube Channel (be kind :p):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR3y9XIPIoMoK12cK5mbhsQ

I look forward to sharing more and seeing what everyone else is up to!
 
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Hi Shawn,

Welcome to Ukaps ( What took you so Long).......

Nice Pics on your flickr account, hope to see a journal soon.
 
Thanks, Mark. Its good to have finally found my way here...

My photography has slowly improved and I hide away the bad shots (although the blurry one of the axelrodi reisei slipped through).

I'm currently waiting for a cabinet to get finished up and will then rescape my 45 cm and also put a smaller nano on the cabinet. I'll start a journal for those once they get going. I'm itching to do some rescapes.

I'm awful at documenting the process, but will hopefully improve upon that as well.
 
Hi Shawn, those are some really beautiful pics.

I'd love to have an aquarium like that in the future, I'm making sure I learn all the basics with a low tech tank first though.

I noticed you have an Eheim Skim 350 in one of the tanks, would you recommend it?
 
Hello Adam,

Thank you!

That is a great way to start. Learning to grow plants and scape in a low energy system will save you lots of frustration and line the learning curve with success. I was one of those over enthusiastic beginners who thought he could grow HC first time no problem...that didn't work out.

I do like the eheim skim 350. It will add to degassing with pressurized CO2, so CO2 should be adjusted to compensate. There was a great article I read somewhere that tracked the differences in CO2 build up associated with skimming, CO2 running 24/7, with surface film, etc. It was insightful and very helpful to see the differences. Learning to manage CO2 well is probably the biggest hurdle towards great plant growth in more high tech tanks. If you aren't running CO2 then there is no reason to not have some skimming.

Low tech tanks can be gorgeous too. You will see many experienced aquascapers move in the direction of easier to manage style scapes as opposed to high light, fast growing, high energy systems that draw enthusiastic beginners.
 
Cheers Shawn, I'll order one. It will add a bit of extra flow and keep the surface clear.

I'm not running CO2 (yet) so that's not a problem.
 
Hi Shawn, Welcome to UKAPS:thumbup: Nice to see you here ;)

Roy, very nice to see you here. I was meaning to give you a hard time. I saw a beautiful wabi kusa posted here that I did not see on ASW!? ;)
 
Roy, very nice to see you here. I was meaning to give you a hard time. I saw a beautiful wabi kusa posted here that I did not see on ASW!? ;)

Hi Shawn, Please don't give me a hard time :D Was it one of mine ??? ;) If so I am sorry I have done so many W-K :eek: Have a look at some of the other members W-K they are stunning :cool::cool:
Sorry I could not find Wabi-Kusa one :( its here some where ?
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/wabi-kuza-iii.37108/
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/wabi-kuza-iii.37108/
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/wabi-kusa-stem-mix.35829/
 
Hi, ShawnMac
I am also new here for just one day. I found that the members here are really nice like you. and I think we both will have a very good time in this forum.

CP

I have found the same, Susan. I also appreciate members can have a discussion in which there is disagreement but still do so in a respectful and helpful way.
 
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