WHAT MADE YOU WANT A REEF AQUARIUM?

[rockkfish]

how lame am i... all these great stories, time for a bit of honesty...
my father owns a freshwater tank has for about 20 years... used to watch it in the dark with just the aquarium light on. moved out 14 years ago and didn't think anything of it. 2 years ago my husband buys a 10 [acronym:dd89eb0883="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:dd89eb0883] kit for our 4 kids and obsessive/compulsive that i am i took it over bought gouramis to add to the 4 neons he got. but then a week later i got 5 zebra danios and 5 tiger barbs, then i had to have snails, and lyretails mollies, plecos to combat the algae (what do u mean i'm exceeding the bioload? what the heck is a bioload anyway?), 2 convicts which decided to have babies (how could i be a mother again my husband had a vasectomy?) but no worries the Jack Dempsey i bought took care of most of all that . Shockingly enough he's still alive after a year who says he needs a 30 [acronym:dd89eb0883="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:dd89eb0883] tank. And then...

D I S N E Y -- "Mom can we get Nemo?" Finally! An excuse to expand my compulsions without killing any more freshwater fish. Now I get to see how good I am at killing saltwater fish :P just kidding... i love it, i'm learning alot and so are my kids. my 7 year old is always over there pointing out something i've missed. ****! he just found another "little feather duster" we adults call it aiptasia. let's see how long i can keep some peppermint shrimp alive.... Wish me L U C [acronym:dd89eb0883="Kelvin or Potassium, depending on context"]K[/acronym:dd89eb0883]!!!

[got bait?]

its a living work of art

As noted by malkore!

Looks like artwork, but constantly changing (evolving). It has been 6 months since I've added anything and still wake up to see something new that seemed to have grown overnight. I could just have a tank of [acronym:fc7686ef48="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:fc7686ef48] and I would be happy.

[philly]

im 13, when i was eleven i was opsesed with the aquatic shows on the discovery channel, after i begged my dad got my a 25 [acronym:dda94d6492="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:dda94d6492]. fresh water setup i stuck with that for a year but i got bord because of the lack effort involved with fresh water so i took the plunge and whent [acronym:dda94d6492="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:dda94d6492] i overstocked the tank with a yellow tang a maroon clownfish and a blue tang they all died after a month. i lernt from my mistake and first got 2 oclaris 2 weeks later got a sand sifting gobie and then graduated with ourchasing a rose anemone for the clowns. the tank flourished and matured along wit my water changes they all lived. but this just made me more eager for more challenges and more clolourful things. so when my parents asked me what i wanted more than anything for my big Bar Mitzvah present i said i wanted the beutiful 90 [acronym:dda94d6492="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:dda94d6492]. surfline id been gazing at since i started buying freshwater fish.
so i got that just by our luck the manager was a member at our synagogue and said that hed include the 4 powerheads, heater and skimmer he also broght me too the back of the store and gives me the newely arived healthy fish. at the moment i have 2 oclaris clownfish 1 yellow tang 1 bicolour dottyback and this wensday my blue tang and yellow watchman gobie are ariving, the problem is i dont have any algae in my aquarium for the gobie to eat

[Casimir]

As a young boy I started with goldfish in the small round bowl from the Carnival. When a teenager, my brothers and I started a 15 GA [acronym:e313afaf17="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:e313afaf17] tank, and we had alot of fun raising guppies. When my daughter was a few years old, we started a 20 GA [acronym:e313afaf17="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:e313afaf17] and eventually graduated to Cichlids, mostly mbuna's which I think are the most colorful fish. All this time the [acronym:e313afaf17="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:e313afaf17] was enticing me with their [acronym:e313afaf17="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:e313afaf17] displays, but I resisted the urge, due to the high cost and stories about difficulties encountered by. Now that my daughter is married, and I am semi-retired, I have decided to give it a try.

[Nanoreefer]

People around us all think that we are crazy for spending thousands of dollars on corals, lighting, skimmers, fish, filters, heaters, coolers, and every other money sucking aspect of this hobby. Even when I show my friends and three girlfriends (that had to compete with my reef tank over the five years having the tank set up), the perfection and elegance of each tiny part of life living together in perfect man-made balance they do not comprehend what we find so very interesting. There is something to be said that we can just watch the reef for hours everyday as if it were the first time we plugged in the lights, they will never understand till they build it them selves.

I always wanted a reef tank from the very first time I saw one at an aquarium show in the Tanforan Mall in San Bruno, [acronym:17afd0a6df="Calcium"]CA[/acronym:17afd0a6df] during the summer of 1994. I was only 14 years olds at the time. I saved all my money I could and begged my parents for a 50-gallon tank. Over 6 moths I saved 300 bucks, all I could afford was the tank, an emperor filter, sand, a few gray stones, salt mix and a triggerfish. It was far from the show quality reef tanks I saw at the mall and I killed 5 fish, it was set up for four years. After leavening for college in San Diego and selling my set up for 50 dollars I lost interest in fish keeping. It was not until the spring of 1999 when my girlfriend won a goldfish at a carnival on campus that I again became interested. I went to her dorm that day and saw that poor little guy swimming about in a kim chee jar. I was appalled and we immediately went to the [acronym:17afd0a6df="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:17afd0a6df] and bought the gold fish a ten-gallon tank with an aqua clear filter and under gravel filter with a power head. The fish was won for a quarter and I spent 50 dollars on his new home. That was the renaissance of an obsession we are all too familiar with. Eventually the fish died and I was given a hand full of live rock from a disgruntled nano-reef enthusiast who had spent too much on a tank full of algae and dead coral. I took his sand and rock and five years later today I have the one of the most beautiful mini reef I have ever seen.

[RocketSeason]

Post some pics Nanoreefer!!!

[Florida8]

I grew up born and raised in NE FLorida and loved digging in the creeks and ditches for little turtles and minnows. My grandmother kept a 10g with the old green box filter and rainbow gravel in it at her house for me for whatever new critters I found and a then my grandfather had two 10g above each other on a old metal 10g stand full of guppies. Then when I was about 14 my mom bought a 55g [acronym:54d05fe6f5="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:54d05fe6f5] and broke all the rules and ended up with a beautifully planted and stocked tank, It was something easy to sit there and pass an hour or more watching these fish in their own world. Then I grew up, I married, bought a 55g like my mom and had africans and although big and bright, and even managed to have many breed and rear lil fish, I ached for a [acronym:54d05fe6f5="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:54d05fe6f5] each trip the LSF every week. The same fish store I shopped at was the one my mother shopped at and only changed owners 3 times in over 25+ years... About 10 yrs ago they opened a entire side with the most high tech [acronym:54d05fe6f5="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:54d05fe6f5] tanks and were very reef friendly and had the best help... I rushed home and told the hubby and he was like WHAT!? How much for [acronym:54d05fe6f5="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:54d05fe6f5]??? What is [acronym:54d05fe6f5="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:54d05fe6f5]!? he asked, he thought I was insane, but said ok, thats you christmas [acronym:54d05fe6f5="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:54d05fe6f5]... he has no idea it would be every Christmas for years to come... it was Christmas each week! I went and bought a little rock here and there if it looked to have a button or polyp and found the perfect pace for it and a big one when they caught my eye, and unwrapping that rock in its cooler in wet news paper was so awesome each time. Next thing I knew the hubby was in the living room at 1 am with a flash light with me watching the rocks for strange new life and odd creatures, or helping me catch and trap mantis shrimp... We love love love it! How can you NOT get hooked!?

[seafan]

I live a few blocks from the ocean and love snorkeling, so it was just a short step to a saltwater tank. My first 20gal had a [acronym:0287b88f8b="Under Gravel Filter"]ugf[/acronym:0287b88f8b] an [acronym:0287b88f8b="Crushed Coral (if substrate) or Counter Current (if referring to a Protien skimmer) or cubic centimeter (if referring to a measure of volume)."]cc[/acronym:0287b88f8b] I tore it down to get a 55gal with [acronym:0287b88f8b="Live rock"]lr[/acronym:0287b88f8b] and corals.

[seafan]

I live a few blocks from the ocean and love snorkeling, so it was just a short step to a saltwater tank. My first 20gal had a [acronym:e97ded84cd="Under Gravel Filter"]ugf[/acronym:e97ded84cd] an [acronym:e97ded84cd="Crushed Coral (if substrate) or Counter Current (if referring to a Protien skimmer) or cubic centimeter (if referring to a measure of volume)."]cc[/acronym:e97ded84cd] I tore it down to get a 55gal with [acronym:e97ded84cd="Live rock"]lr[/acronym:e97ded84cd] and corals.

[seafan]

Sorry it sent it twice because I pressed the refresh button