How did you get into the hobby

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jead85

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I was just thinking about it, how did everyone get into reefing. How did you justify spending so much money! Personally, I didnt even think. I just spent.
I got into fish keeping while I was in college. My wife decided that she wanted a Betta in her dorm room. This was a simple 2 gallon glass jar in the shape of a pumpkin :eek:. A few months later she moved in with me in my apartment near campus. We bought two one gallon triangle shaped tanks and kept a betta in each. From there I put the one remaining fish after moving into a 2.5 gallon bowfront tank. Then things got serious, I dropped around $500 on my 29 gallon setup that I still have today. Started it with tropical fish, moved to cichlids and eventually got a 20H for my wife. (WAIT.. WIFE? we got married!:doh:)
I started to keep freshwater Indian Dwarf Puffers which i still have a 25g tank dedicated to them, The whole puffer thing, and finding marine designs got me into saltwater.
Soon after I setup a 38 gallon with a 4x38w t5, superskimmer 65 and grew from there.

Currently I have my 75 gallon reef, a 29 gallon planted cichilid, 25 gallon dwarf puffer :D, 10 gallon Electric blue crayfish, and a 5 gallon eclipse with a betta.

Tell me your story!
 
I started one day just by chance in a way. Local fish store had a 72 bow set up for 200.00 I was currently running a 10 gal betta,ha ha. Had know idea what I was doing. Set up the tank and asked for forgivness from the wife side of the law. Then just ran water and rock for a bit while I spectated this sight a bit.

4 yrs in it now I still have the first fish I ever bought. It is now the largest clarkie I have ever seen. Pit Bull Fish for sure.
 
:D Ok, I'll play! Hmmm....I've always been a big animal lover. When I was a kid, we lived in an apartment that didn't allow pets. Did alot of hamsters and a 10g FW tank which was allowed. Gave up on the hamsters, but went to a 20g fw in high school. Kept fw tanks on and off. Then I moved away from Florida to GA. Missed the beach! (this is probably a big reason:yes:)

Always thought of doing saltwater, but I was afraid to try.
One day, I walk into this hole in the wall pet store, and "helloo" they have saltwater fish in there. Guy said it wasn't hard and he could step me thru the whole process. Soooo, I bought a 90g tank for $300. lol Yes, just the tank, and thought it was a deal! :lol2:I also thought this was the most expensive thing I would buy! :confused2:

Well, i did pretty well. Bought and read several books. Cycled with Damsels, but didn't know what I was doing at the time. :unsure: Got an undergravel filter (ha ha) got mostly base rock and a little live to seed it, so that wasn't too bad. Oops, then $250 for a pc light and "what" $600 for a chiller. :shout: oh and who knows how many $20 to $30 shrimp till I discovered that Hawkfish eat them! :sad:

Ok, so I've since found better advice and learned how to buy used. I now have 6 tanks running(this varies as I raise baby Clowns and Seahorses) and am working(with Fishscales) on a 220g with 90g display refugium.
As for justifying costs????? Well, I try to keep it down and not think about it too much! :)
 
Always had fish when I was younger, started at age 5 with a betta fish I won at a school fair for landing a ping pong ball in a cup (I always was a gifted athlete). On the way home, stopped and got a 5g hex tank that sat in the kitchen. Eventually moved to a 20g tank with the same betta, some neons, some swordtails, and cory cats (still my favorite FW fish). Parents decided they wanted a pond in the back yard and ended up with a 80g kidney shaped pond stocked with "feeder" goldfish, $2 a dozen...well they grew and grew and grew and eventually my parents decided they needed a tank inside to house the fish for the winter.

Got a 55 that had some 8" feeder goldfish, lol. Those fish eventually died and we were left with an empty tank, but wanted something more than goldfish. I was working at a pet store and decided we needed cichlids (ahh, I remember the days when I thought a $8 cichlid was expensive, lol). Set that up and it ran fine for a few years.

I left for college and was mostly tankless through school (apartment first year, got my own place 2nd year). 2 years ago I picked up a 55g on Craigslist for $100, did the FW thing, black gravel, fake plants, neons, danios, gourami, angels, and of course, corys. That lasted about a month, and I picked up a 75 on Craigslist for $150 with the intention of making it saltwater. Spent weeks researching only to end up with a 4-bulb T5 fixture (single reflector) and a Coralife skimmer as I guess I didn't seriously set out a realistic budget. Upgraded last summer to a 90g RR tank, and then picked up a 120 this summer, which will be the final upgrade, at least for a few years.
 
We always had freshwater tanks growing up; I always loved fish. Then, in college, I decided I just had to get into saltwater. I read and read as much as possible and went to the lfs and bought a 29g tank. I built the stand and canopy myself. I remember upgrading the lights to power compacts (these were hot stuff back then) and thinking "wow, what a HUGE difference". The 29g was a cool little reef tank stocked from the lfs, flying fish express (who remembers that name??) and GARF. The reef thrived throughout college including a couple of moves.

Once out in the real world, I didn't have time for it and broke it down. I then started my research on an upgrade :D

I was tired of wasting money on apartments and started saving towards a house. When looking for a house, I would only consider homes that had an ideal space for a tank on the main floor. I wanted to be able to easily enjoy my tank. I knew if it was in the basement, I'd hardly see it and it would end up being a dissaster. After 2 years of searching, I finally found the perfect house with the perfect space for the tank.

My upgraded system is a 1,000 gallon reef that seperates the kitchen and the great room. It's pretty safe to say: "I'm an addict" :)
 
A friend graduated and asked if I wanted some of his stuff and an aquarium, didn't have room to take it all back home with him. Gave him the key to my place and went off to class, told to leave whatever he didn't want. Came back to the apt to find a 20g set up with some tetras, and then another 10 or so tanks stacked against the wall. The plan was to sell them off, but somehow they all got set up eventually.
 
Had freshwater tanks for a long time.New Fish came and died and it got boring. So one day, my neighbor came by and asked if i wanted a free 55 gallon tank. Long story short, I got a free 55 gallon tank from my neighbor that held water great and looked good. Had the idea to put a sw aquarium in but tried to fight it off. I eventually did alot of research on it and wanted a full on reef tank and here i am...just put my 1st sps coral in and its already growing!
 
I took Marine Biology in high school (near Galveston TX). This was in the late '80's. We would go to the bay and seine for stuff to keep in our aquariums in class. Sometimes we'd throw cast nets off the piers. Nonetheless, we had smallbasic saltwater fish in our tanks, a few crabs and we all had shrimp. I dare to say that this was back before coral keeping became mainstream.
 
had FW tanks years ago but was more of my roommates thing - i remember him going to the LFS every other day and spending insance amounts of money on FW stuff for our 55. Hindsight is 20/20 but now i know why his fish always died - the guy always had a jim beam and coke in one hand, arranging aquascape with the other - his hands lived in the tank....and fish perished often - never saw a WC either...

I decided to take the plunge almost 2 years ago when i needed a side hobby to keep me busy (and a failed attempt of quitting smoking) - I have a very addictive personality (its a curse) so when I do something - I go all the way...went to petsmart on Friday and bought a 36 gal bow kit for $180 - get it home and realize how heavy its going to be (i planned on setting it on a glass table in my living room...lol) so I went back and bought a stand....3 days later i had about $800 in on this set up - 36 gal bow chichlid tank - always told myself no salt - too expensive.....ok, maybe a lil salt - so i went brackish with puffers and chiclids.

I then bought a 55 gal bow on CG as a 2nd puffer tank but never got it cycled.....I sold the 36 and the 55 and got a 210. Told myself - fish only...ok, maybe a little LR for eye appeal but NO CORALS.....ok, maybe one coral and the rest is history. Now I have a full blown "reef in progress" with several fish and coral. I have upgraded every aspect of the 210 since.

justify the cost? "Honey, i won it in a raffle". "I got it for 90% off", "I just wont eat lunch this week....."
 
Back when i was roughly 6 or 7 i walked into a pet store for the first time i went straight to a starfish and told my grandmother i wanted one, unfotunately i never got it but i've always loved the ocean and all the biomes within it so when we took a family vacation to St Augustine Florida 2 years ago my mom decided to get a tank, i watched how she monitored hers and how her fish and corals behaved and eventually i wanted one too so i got my 90 gallon and it is starting it's cycle hoping to have a tank as good as hers.
 
I always grew up with fishtanks mainly f/w that my dad always kept. Then i believe when i was about 8 he got a 30 g tank and made it s/w. At that point my fascination with s/w began. I started off with a 10g tank that was f/w and had firebelly newts and some albino water frogs. I couldn't get s/w at the time i had to pay for ll of it with allowance money. And as my dad said we had to many at the time he didnt want anymore unless i paid for it and took care of it. So I did for many years. Until I was about 14 or 15 and he got new tanks that i helped him with. A 125 FOWLR and a 75 reef. Then i moved to North Carolina for school then to Florida for school and was unable to have any tanks. Then to Georgia were i didn't have any tanks until about 3 yrs ago when we moved in with my gf parents for about 6 months while we were looking for a house. I had a tank with just f/w and some cheap fish . Then we moved into our house and my gfs brother inlaw got a 55g tank he set up as a reef and gave me his 14g biocube which i have set up as my little part ofthe ocean. I also have a 125 tank that i got given to me by my boss that i let my gf play with and she has a turtle in it now. Thats my long story of how i got started.
 
Growing up with it. My dad had 3 tanks. A reef, fowlr, and a fresh water tank. Of corse it grew and became salt only 75 gallon with a wet dry! Well I always liked the challenge and always wanted to continue to expand what dad started. I remember how hard he struggled to reduce N03. It's so amazing how much has changed in 18 years!
I also have always loved the ocean. Nice to have some ocean front property!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I started with fresh water. Eventually moved to more complex aquaria. Went to discus.. then a few other things.. then eventually to my first salt tank :)

fresh water is a gateway drug I think haha.

b
 
Growing up I hung out with alot of vietnamese guys and everyone of them had a large FW tank in thier houses. I used to sit and look at them late at night. I liked them but the color was just so drab, My aunt also had a large FW setup. My brother moved away to go to uga and i went to visit him. He had a 65 gallon SW tank and I was amazed how much better the fish looked. Over the years I've probably helped him move his aquarium 5 to 6 times. The last time it was moved to my house. So here I am having to care for this aquarium and i thought it was da bomb. I start talking to mapleredta(he works with me) and he says he does some SW stuff too. I get him to come over and he tells me how wack this aquarium is. So I joined here after getting my current setup I took it really slow and asked questions and saved money untill i could get it setup. The best thing i did to my setup was kill all the live rock that was with it and start a new. Thanks guys for all your support and knowledge I truley love this hobby!!!
 
A member here (FlyingArmy) is married to a family member, and I saw his beautiful reef tank. Pretty soon we set up a small FW tank, and then I got a 75 for basically free. I was thinking about what to do with it, then just on a whim decided to go SW with it.

Ironically, this was right AFTER Mark got deployed, so I kind of read here and went at it on my own. Then I joined the club, and made some friends who helped me with the learning curve. Sold the 75 (which is now a sump at All Things Aquatic) and bought a 90g RR tank because I couldn't get any decent results out of a HOB skimmer.

One day I was researching lighting, and told myself "I may do some really easy corals, but I don't want a reef tank". I didn't know until much later that I might as well have said, "I'll only eat one potato chip".
 
<span style="font-family: Calibri"><span style="font-size: 13px">Great Thread!!</span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13px"><span style="font-family: Calibri">Well. I have kept fish off and on for years. I bought my first tank some 20 years ago. A used 30 gallon that I kept Rams and Kribensis in. I wanted to try my hand at discus but never could see spending the money on such an expensive fish. :) I went to work for the local pet store which offered me the ability to spend future pay checks and I purchased a Reef Ready Oceanic 75. My parents did not understand my decision but allowed me to set up this tank in the living room. </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri"><span style="font-size: 13px">I have the wonderful experiences of paying for the carpet not once but twice in the living room and the dreadful $1000.00 vet bill for the dog when it drank from my 30 gallon that had been freshly treated with methyl blue/formaldehyde. Apparently the stomach lining is important to dogs and at one drop per gallon the medicine will remove it in a dog. </span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13px"><span style="font-family: Calibri">My family moved and the tank was put in storage for many years. </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri"><span style="font-size: 13px">Today</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri"><span style="font-size: 13px">I broke the tank out of storage 2 years ago and installed it in the wall and was the beginning of a new hobby for the wife and I</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri"><span style="font-size: 13px">Currently I have 3 tanks with a common sump for a total of 290 gallons. Tangs and dwarf angels have become an obsession. Automation of the tank is moving forward at a slow pace but should be completed in the next few months.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri"><span style="font-size: 13px">As for spending, I have to find something the wife likes and then use it to justify the next purchase. Big pretty corals need MH lighting. OK! MH lighting requires a chiller. OK! More than 2 tangs in one tank means a bigger tank. OK! Bigger tank means bigger pump. etc............ (lol)</span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13px"><span style="font-family: Calibri">Don't Tell the wife but I have plans for replacing the 75 with a 375 and using the 75 as a refugium. This tank will go where the 75 currently resides in the wall between living room and my home office. ....... Wonder if I can get it installed during her 2 week vacation to see her family??</span></span>
 
In 2002, I was a senior in high school, and a good friend of mine showed me his salt water tanks. They were basically FOWLRs (non-aggressive) with a couple soft corals. This got me started in FW, which my dad always had a 10 gallon FW setup when I was growing up. I was a complete moron, and drove to PetSmart, bought about 15 fish, some ghost shrimp, and water dechlorinator. Using my dad's old setup, small heater, undergravel filter, etc., I threw everything in the tank and watched it quickly die. That's when I realized there was a lot I needed to learn. So spending time with my friend and going to a LFS, I was able to learn the basics (a lot of which I later found out was misinformation) and turned my 10 gallon into a nano-reef with softies.

Eventually, I got frustrated with the 10 gallon not being what I wanted it to be, so I did what every rational human being would do. I started another tank. This time, a 7 gallon bow front. My first fish? You guessed it, a Green Mandarin. :shout: Of course, I had no clue about the ARC and what great sponsors we have, so I kept going to the LFS that would sell me anything I could afford. When I moved into the apartment that would be our home when my wife and I got married, I combined the 10 gallon and the 7 gallon into a 20 long. I still haven't been completely happy with it, cause I never had a solid plan to begin with.

Now, I'm having a 67 gallon built with stand and sump, and have absolutely every thing planned out, and will not deviate from it, unless necessary. Does this guarantee success? Certainly not, but it's definitely a firm foundation that will give me some solid ground to stand on.

I freakin love this hobby and all the people that have contributed to where I am today, most of you don't know who you are, but I plan on letting you know some how, some day. Happy Reefing!
 
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