Hello everyone, I am a regular forum reader and have just joined so I may contribute too.
I kept goldfish as a kid with limited success with any of the fancy species, ending up with a single goldfish which is still going strong living with my parents. I made many mistakes, cleaning the filter sponge with hot chlorinated water (my logic being that it was dirty and therefore needed cleaning), I didn't know about gravel vacs and so removed the fish every other week and put them in the bathroom sink whilst I powerwashed the entire tank (again a one man mission to remove 'dirt'). This ultimately ended up with me pressure washing out the sealant and a leaky tank - this is one thing I did do correctly - an aquarium safe silicone was used successfully and again the repair remains to this day.
Last year I set up a tropical tank and needless to say thanks to the use of this website, I have learnt from my mistakes and I currently have a slightly overstocked 65ltr tank (see signature for stocking) which I have recently aquascaped with an 'amazon jungle' theme (wood, rock and live plants) and I am incredibly proud of and everyone is very healthy, despite my other passion for long haul travel(!). I'm currently hoping my german blue rams will breed, they are showing all the right signs but have a love hate relationship and they have only attempted this once before but were not successful in managing not to eat their own eggs!