Bi-Weekly Discussion of the Week: What got you started in this hobby?!

[Geoff]

So what made you start wanting to keep critters in an expensive glass box?

G~

[rogerthmyers]

For me it was a friend that already had a reef tank, from the first time that I saw the tank, I knew I had to have one of my own!!!! Now 5yrs later here I am..

[rtgordon]

several years with a 10G FW. I got a new aquarium for the FW, and started to play with SW in the 10G. That was all it took. Now, I have a reef and a soon to be FOWLR. I still have the FW, but I moved it back into a small tank and took it to the office.

[Jeremy1973]

Always loved the colors of the saltwater fish, and then when I started to see the corals..I was hooked.

[kwjones]

My wife wanted "Pretty" fish and the LFS guy said it wasn't that much harder than a fresh water tank. We just happened to have a tax refund check that we didn't know what to do with, so we started down the long road of newbie mistakes.

[tims]

started out as a FW tank as a kid. and moved to SW when i started working for a pet store and was put in charge of the whole SW section... did the trail by fire thing... boy things have really changed alot since then...


how was vaction Geoff?

[Andrew]

My parents had always had FW tanks. I can still remember as a kid saying "one day I will have a saltwater tank". I was always told by people that saltwater tanks were very difficult, so I stuck with FW cichlid tanks. I finally decided about 6 years ago to purchase a book and really see what was involved with a SW tank. After reading the book, I knew I was hooked for life.

[fliberdygibits]

It kinda runs in the family. When I was growing up, for a while my parents bred and sold fish. It was all freshwater, but we had 55 gallon aquariums everywhere. It was all they used just so they had some consistency in the equipment they needed. I don't recall what kind of fish they raised, but I'm thinking it was guppies, platties, mollies, that sort of thing.... tetras of various sorts. As near as THEY can remember when I asked them about it, they had over 20 55 gallon aquariums, MOST of them plumbed together. They also had a bank of smaller 30 gallon aquariums, 10 or 12 of them that they raised plants in to resell. And lastly they had a handfull of 10 gallon tanks for quarantine, new arrivals, etc...... We lived in a big 2 story house in south texas and I remember for years we didn't have walls, we had fish in the family room. Dad was always the consumate DIYer, so there you have it.

[TurboRook]

When I was a kid, I used to be totally addicted to Audubon field guides. My favorite one was the marine fish guide and I must have memerized the scientic names of all the butterfly fish in it (at age 7!). Many years later, I went snorkeling in Hawaii and I saw all those wonderful Chaetodon species I had read about so many years before and it re-sparked my facination.

After my friend setup a nano, it was all over for me and I started a 40g breeder of my own. After much trial and error as an FO, then FOWLR, and finally softie and LPS reef, I finally started finding some success until a power outage wiped out my entire tank three years ago. I was out of the hobby for two years, but (to the detriment of my wallet) just couldn't keep away, and here I am now with my current 80g reef.

[csacord]

I love the ocean. I love to scuba dive. I love science. I love hobbie with a lot of gear. Naturaly I love my reef tank. I am recently inflicted with the reef disease. I enjoy all aspects of it. I am always learning something new

[Doug1]

I started back in the 70's had FW tanks when the kids were just little. Always liked SW fish so after moving to Oregon in 74 set up a 29, hooked up with LFS owner that was a refugee from the Bay Area like me and wound up with a 125. Loved the challenge since no one thought you could do it back then.

[icebear]

i think i have attempted to answer this question a few times before, and it always comes out a little different each time

i started with frog ponds, up to my waist most of the time just watching things buzz and swim by.....also 5 gallon buckets with frog and salamander eggs in them, snuck the pollywogs into my room in ball canning jars and watched them grow. stuff like that.
water beetles, water striders, boatmen, dragon and damselfly larvae. i was lucky my mom somehow accepted this.
managed to con my mom into buying me a 10 gallon tank for guppies under the guise of a school science project which never panned out as guppies aren't terribly smart, though they can be trained to come to the water surface for food when you blow a whiste in another room.
that 10 gallon tank became home to an ever increasing population of whatever fish someone thought would be cool to give me. this means the guppies shortly became food for something else. plus i kept putting bullfrog tadpoles in there.

i don't remember when that tank faded away.

later on in highschool i was given a 55 galloon tank by my grandmother, which i quickly filled with a pair of baby oscars. then the heater malfunctioned and they were poached.
there was also a long line of 10 gallong tanks which housed a number of mixed fish, platys, guppies, mollies etc.
Redid the 55 and put in another oscar, named him Odin and he lived to grow quite huge and was like a cat- enjoyed being petted and would eat live goldfish from your hand.
ice storm of '98 was when he died.

later on after college, a baby and two moves from one miserable apartment to another i got a part time job at a pet store and with a bit of extra money and a substantial employee discount, i started up my saltwater hobby.

[JustDavidP]

Gumhead! As simple as that. We ran into each other in another forum (non reef related) and I showed him a picture of my Cichlid Tank. He showed me "LittleReef" and I instanty began scheming my own reef. I had a 20 gallon nano, and a 12 gallon at my office. As it turned out, I bought the "LittleReef" from him. That is the only reef I now have.

Thanks Dave!!

[toms]

I needed another excuse to spend money and get stressed. I have always had a FW 10gal "starter" growing up. I saw what could be and what I had and said, "I need that." 12 years later with my 75g reef I'm lovin' it.

[Phishnoob]

I had a salt water tank 20 years ago before the 'net and my damsels died. There was always a pent up desire and challenge to do it right.

When a guy that got laid off and moved dumped a full 90g setup and three boxes of junk in my lap it was time to get going. TRT really made it happen though as the tank was covered in coralline and goo and everything was worn out or missing stuff.