I’ve been told to write a few words as an introduction post to reefs.com blog so people know who I am. “Yeah, that’s a good idea” I replied. So here it is: Hello, my name is Marcin and I like keeping fish.

10 words, nicely done. Wait, you want to read more? Well OK then, just a friendly reminder- you may get bored if you go any further.

I started keeping fish when I was 9 or 10 years old (it must have been somewhere around that time, I remember being bullied by 6^th graders), it was when me and a couple of other kids figured out how to make and use a DIY hand net. First display tank was a rusted metal frame aquarium sitting on my balcony. I can’t say it was an extremely successful tank, but it caught my interest. After a couple of months I begged my mom to buy me a real aquarium and so she did, not knowing it would be a curse rather than blessing to her having a son spilling water everywhere. In the following years I’ve managed to keep several different fish alive-I even had some successes breeding South American cichlids. It was my “learning curve” that helped me get to the point where I am today.

After graduating from high school I went to college but after two years of studying something I didn’t really enjoy, I needed to change something in my life. When the opportunity arose I packed my bags, tore down all my tanks and came here to the States.

Yes, you see, English is my second language, that’s why you probably won’t find technical language and metaphors Shakespeare would be proud of in my blogs. I will be a headache to bloggers admins too, but there’s a good thing with all of that, but that’s later.

My first years here were tough for me so I couldn’t have a tank at home, but I’ve been subscribing to almost all US aquarium hobby magazines (a dry hobbyist I would say). Finally our situation stabilized a little bit and my other half Kamila agreed to setup a 20g and then my current 75g planted tank.

One tank is never enough, so I was thinking about a smaller setup, but when I calculated all the expenses and showed it to Kamila she said “Hey, as long as it costs so much to set up a planted tank, maybe you should think about the reef setup you always dreamed of?” We took our first real vacation in Florida Keys, I put on the snorkel mask, saw what’s underneath the surface of the ocean and made my decision-reef tank is an absolute must!

Then I found manhattanreefs.com while browsing the web, signed in, met James, Randy and the rest is history…

 Thanks to manhattanreefs.com and my other half Kamila, I’m a full-time reefer now, I’ve met and befriended many cool people and I found inspiration for my other hobby…

…Which is pressing the shutter button on my Nikon DSLR camera. Blending photography and reefing is one great thing that has happened to me and I hope I will be able to show it to you in my upcoming blog articles…