WHAT MADE YOU WANT A REEF AQUARIUM? - Page 7 - Aquarium Advice

JonK · 12-29-2003, 01:08 PM

It started with my dad, he kept freshwater and cichlid tanks throughout my childhood. When I was on my own I started a 45 gallon freshwater planted tank. After much thought I decided to upgrade. I was planning a 90 gallon planted discus tank. But, it seemed to be just as involved in keeping that as it would a reef tank. So I went with the reef instead.

Jon

Fishboy-from-NY · 01-01-2004, 12:38 AM

HAPPY NEW YEAR

TheMadNucleus · 01-17-2004, 08:17 PM

Cool post. Here's part of mine: About 40 years ago my Dad refinished my bedroom and during the decorating phase decided to buy a 20 Gallon aquarium. You should have seen this thing - down right comical by today's standards. The front, back and sides were glass pressed into a stainless steel frame which was loaded with some gooey, tar-like substance to seal the glass. The bottom was made of slate. We readied this thing with water and two corner filters (bought everything from a place on Long Island, NY named Ed's tropicals - was a huge place but saw it's demise about 15 years ago). The Air pump, for the two corner filters and a bubbling air stone, was of the piston type and sounded like a storybook steam engine perpetually arriving at the station.

Oh yeah - the air pump also powered to bubble up tubes from the undergravel filter (what we would have done for a Hagen 301

). These uplift tubes were even more comical then the tank. They had clip on pieces at the top with about 8 granules of charcoal in them (i.e., this was their idea of chemical filtration). As if less then a tablespoon of charcoal is going to be doing something benefical to the filtration system. Well I recall getting really upset if those things fell off the uplift tubes and figuring that the whole system would shortly turn into a rotting sesspool.

Well, my Dad had no clue what cycling was and I don't think the [acronym:6d57f9ff62="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:6d57f9ff62] guy did either - it was just sort of shotin' in the dark. We lost a few as I recall but soon enough some algae started to grow and now that I look back that was a really good sign - Life! Some Fish actually took the place up to be home.

Well from that point on I've been graced with the desire, or cursed with the obsession to have aquariums. They've ranged from 20Gallon fresh to 125 Gallon fresh to 90 gallon marine to 125 gallon Marine.

It's been incredibly rewarding at times and incredibly frustrating at others, but I don't think I'd trade it for any other obsession,.... I mean hobby.

The only thing I'm a little concerned about is that my accountant keeps asking me "Can you live in that 125 gallon aquarium in your den?"

Lata'

Tom

SALTFISHDUDE · 01-19-2004, 05:38 PM

Hey, well....a long time ago when i was about 10....i got a freshwater setup for XMAS...lets just say that didn't go too well!

Anyways about 7 years later.....i was in the same plaza as my local fish store (HUGE AND GREAT) and decided to walk in. less than a month and A LOT of reading later....i had myself a nice 55 gallon setup and have been hooked ever since!!!

sacramentofish · 01-28-2004, 11:54 AM

I was born with a 90 g reef tank under my arm.

-kidding! my first tank was a ten gallon when I was 7 or 8, we put a tad pol that I found in a pond, or creek. It turned into a large frog and my mom was freaking out about it jumping out one day and ending up in her bed. So, a neighbor had a built in pond in his back yard- just beautiful (he happened to be the superintendent of schools in my town) he accepted the frog and I was welcome to come visit any time- he also welcomed and encouraged the local kids to bring as many lizards as we could find to his back yard habitat- he claimed the ate the snails.. He also had many (5-10) small tanks with all kinds of fresh water fish in them, I think he was spawning them for the big pond.
So, my 10 g was now empty, so we went to Jones Pet Shop to get another critter, he was a newt. Lots of fun, till one day guess where he was- in my moms bathroom! He got promply flushed.. So, back to the pet shop to find a new friend WITHOUT legs! I think we got some tetras and guppies..
I had a gold fish for like 5 years also, in a small bowl- I won it at a school carnival. The 10 g made it with me to college, where I kept a garden snake- till it managed to escape and end up getting fried in my apple II- I know it seems like I have a history of pet abuse... you should hear my Iguana stories..
Anyway- now I have settled on a 40g show tank with a 30g sump/fuge (oh and a 4 g plastic storage contaner that is now home to the goldfish I evicted from the 30g!
I have always been hooked on criters in cages/ tanks and the Reef is the ultimate challenge/ reward in captive pets.
"don't waste time remembering facts, just remember where to find the facts when you need them" Albert Einstein

ericosuave · 01-28-2004, 12:09 PM

i was looking at my friends fish tank.. he had a 60 gallon for 3 years. and it looked extremely nice! i was addicted.. i could not take my eyes off of it. I would stare at it for hours trying to look for new creatures, and seeing what they will do next. It was like a little world inside a glass tank. After seeing this i had to have one for my own. This is what inspired me to go out and get a fish tank.

BrendanH · 02-03-2004, 04:23 PM

As with most people I started with a 10g [acronym:0fe114b884="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:0fe114b884] when I was very young. I can't remember exactly but maybe 10 years old or so. Of course I had no clue what I was doing so a few fish perished until I got the hang of it. After that the fish lived for several years until I went off to college. All of this was in Ireland where I was born. Now I'm living in California and my fiance and I had been weakly discussing how nice it would be to have a fish tank. We hadn't really done anything about it but then we went to Hawaii on vacation

This was my first time snorkelling (not much of that in Ireland you'll understand!!) and I was immediately and completely hooked on how incredible these creatures are. A close encounter with a good-sized reef shark was not even enough to keep me out of the water

Long story short - We got back from vacation less than 4 weeks ago without a tank. Now we've got a 55g [acronym:0fe114b884="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:0fe114b884] with all the trimmings and our first inhabitant, Eric, a Maroon Clownfish

We're already $2500 in and likely to get deeper but it's definitely worth it.

Apache58 · 02-10-2004, 01:05 PM

I just recently started mine about 3 weeks ago and am now barely going to add the fish into it next weekend. But what got me started in this hobby was I recently moved out to Arizona for school, but from my home in California...so close to the ocean. Still only a 5 hour drive to decent surf but I really wanted to bring a piece of that back into the desert with me. So now its become a hobby that me and my girlfriend have highly involved ourselves in and are having a lot of fun so far with it.
Chris

03-12-2004, 03:33 AM

My fiance told me I needed a Hobby. She said I play too many video games.. I've done [acronym:55be7a74ae="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:55be7a74ae] for what seems like forever and she liked some of the [acronym:55be7a74ae="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:55be7a74ae] stuff so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Been doing it ever since.. Hmmm.. I wonder if her telling me to get a hobby was just her way of getting the fish she wanted without having to do all the work?...

GrannyReefer · 03-12-2004, 08:09 PM

When we got married and started our family two years later with our first of four sons I was not financially successful enough to have a [acronym:13527f3169="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:13527f3169] tank,but we did have a
small [acronym:13527f3169="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:13527f3169] from time to time and then it seemed that one thing or another always prevented me from having one of those elusive beautiful glass boxes to stare into except at the [acronym:13527f3169="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:13527f3169] I would visit and was always drawn to the [acronym:13527f3169="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:13527f3169] section. Then our sons grew up and we retired and one of the first things I did was to get me a [acronym:13527f3169="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:13527f3169] reef/fish tank. I cherished it for about two years then had a horrible thing happened!!! It split at the corner and I lost almost every thing that I had collected. I went rushing down to the local [acronym:13527f3169="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:13527f3169] and brought a 55gal. tank home, and now I am in the process of trying to start all over, but I will not be defeated that easy, a hobby like this is worth all this and more, even with the corals and fish that I lost and had to replace before the tank split. The pieces are coming slowly (due to prices) but I will not be defeated! I will survive and continue to love this hobby.

01-17-2004, 08:17 PM	#63
TheMadNucleus Aquarium Advice Freak Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Bedford Hills, NY Posts: 250	Cool post. Here's part of mine: About 40 years ago my Dad refinished my bedroom and during the decorating phase decided to buy a 20 Gallon aquarium. You should have seen this thing - down right comical by today's standards. The front, back and sides were glass pressed into a stainless steel frame which was loaded with some gooey, tar-like substance to seal the glass. The bottom was made of slate. We readied this thing with water and two corner filters (bought everything from a place on Long Island, NY named Ed's tropicals - was a huge place but saw it's demise about 15 years ago). The Air pump, for the two corner filters and a bubbling air stone, was of the piston type and sounded like a storybook steam engine perpetually arriving at the station. Oh yeah - the air pump also powered to bubble up tubes from the undergravel filter (what we would have done for a Hagen 301 ). These uplift tubes were even more comical then the tank. They had clip on pieces at the top with about 8 granules of charcoal in them (i.e., this was their idea of chemical filtration). As if less then a tablespoon of charcoal is going to be doing something benefical to the filtration system. Well I recall getting really upset if those things fell off the uplift tubes and figuring that the whole system would shortly turn into a rotting sesspool. Well, my Dad had no clue what cycling was and I don't think the [acronym:6d57f9ff62="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:6d57f9ff62] guy did either - it was just sort of shotin' in the dark. We lost a few as I recall but soon enough some algae started to grow and now that I look back that was a really good sign - Life! Some Fish actually took the place up to be home. Well from that point on I've been graced with the desire, or cursed with the obsession to have aquariums. They've ranged from 20Gallon fresh to 125 Gallon fresh to 90 gallon marine to 125 gallon Marine. It's been incredibly rewarding at times and incredibly frustrating at others, but I don't think I'd trade it for any other obsession,.... I mean hobby. The only thing I'm a little concerned about is that my accountant keeps asking me "Can you live in that 125 gallon aquarium in your den?" Lata' Tom __________________ "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

01-28-2004, 11:54 AM	#65
sacramentofish Aquarium Advice Regular Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: sacramento, ca Posts: 81 Images: 15	I was born with a 90 g reef tank under my arm. -kidding! my first tank was a ten gallon when I was 7 or 8, we put a tad pol that I found in a pond, or creek. It turned into a large frog and my mom was freaking out about it jumping out one day and ending up in her bed. So, a neighbor had a built in pond in his back yard- just beautiful (he happened to be the superintendent of schools in my town) he accepted the frog and I was welcome to come visit any time- he also welcomed and encouraged the local kids to bring as many lizards as we could find to his back yard habitat- he claimed the ate the snails.. He also had many (5-10) small tanks with all kinds of fresh water fish in them, I think he was spawning them for the big pond. So, my 10 g was now empty, so we went to Jones Pet Shop to get another critter, he was a newt. Lots of fun, till one day guess where he was- in my moms bathroom! He got promply flushed.. So, back to the pet shop to find a new friend WITHOUT legs! I think we got some tetras and guppies.. I had a gold fish for like 5 years also, in a small bowl- I won it at a school carnival. The 10 g made it with me to college, where I kept a garden snake- till it managed to escape and end up getting fried in my apple II- I know it seems like I have a history of pet abuse... you should hear my Iguana stories.. Anyway- now I have settled on a 40g show tank with a 30g sump/fuge (oh and a 4 g plastic storage contaner that is now home to the goldfish I evicted from the 30g! I have always been hooked on criters in cages/ tanks and the Reef is the ultimate challenge/ reward in captive pets. "don't waste time remembering facts, just remember where to find the facts when you need them" Albert Einstein __________________ 40g show 30g sump/fuge (low flow) 2 [acronym:3ba0b4254e="power head or Measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions, depending on context"]PH[/acronym:3ba0b4254e]'s and via aqua 2600 sump pump 50lbs [acronym:3ba0b4254e="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:3ba0b4254e] 2" [acronym:3ba0b4254e="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:3ba0b4254e] on 3/4 plenum 3" sugar aragonite in fuge with hair algae 20w white [acronym:3ba0b4254e="Normal Output Fluorescents"]NO[/acronym:3ba0b4254e] in fuge 65w [acronym:3ba0b4254e="Power compact fluorescent"]pc[/acronym:3ba0b4254e] 50/50 (2 bulbs) 20w actinit 2 damsels 1 [acronym:3ba0b4254e="Tank Raised"]TR[/acronym:3ba0b4254e] clown [acronym:3ba0b4254e="Mushroom coral"]shrooms[/acronym:3ba0b4254e] and zoos h2o quality is solid 0's. 80 d.

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12-29-2003, 01:08 PM	#61
JonK Aquarium Advice Newbie Join Date: May 2003 Location: Lehigh Valley, PA Posts: 1 Images: 1	It started with my dad, he kept freshwater and cichlid tanks throughout my childhood. When I was on my own I started a 45 gallon freshwater planted tank. After much thought I decided to upgrade. I was planning a 90 gallon planted discus tank. But, it seemed to be just as involved in keeping that as it would a reef tank. So I went with the reef instead. Jon

01-01-2004, 12:38 AM	#62
Fishboy-from-NY Aquarium Advice FINatic Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: New York, NY Posts: 591 Images: 7	HAPPY NEW YEAR

01-19-2004, 05:38 PM	#64
SALTFISHDUDE Aquarium Advice Apprentice Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 31	Hey, well....a long time ago when i was about 10....i got a freshwater setup for XMAS...lets just say that didn't go too well! Anyways about 7 years later.....i was in the same plaza as my local fish store (HUGE AND GREAT) and decided to walk in. less than a month and A LOT of reading later....i had myself a nice 55 gallon setup and have been hooked ever since!!!

01-28-2004, 12:09 PM	#66
ericosuave Aquarium Advice Regular Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Dallas, Tx Posts: 89	i was looking at my friends fish tank.. he had a 60 gallon for 3 years. and it looked extremely nice! i was addicted.. i could not take my eyes off of it. I would stare at it for hours trying to look for new creatures, and seeing what they will do next. It was like a little world inside a glass tank. After seeing this i had to have one for my own. This is what inspired me to go out and get a fish tank.

02-03-2004, 04:23 PM	#67
BrendanH Aquarium Advice Activist Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Mountain View, CA Posts: 164 Images: 2	As with most people I started with a 10g [acronym:0fe114b884="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:0fe114b884] when I was very young. I can't remember exactly but maybe 10 years old or so. Of course I had no clue what I was doing so a few fish perished until I got the hang of it. After that the fish lived for several years until I went off to college. All of this was in Ireland where I was born. Now I'm living in California and my fiance and I had been weakly discussing how nice it would be to have a fish tank. We hadn't really done anything about it but then we went to Hawaii on vacation This was my first time snorkelling (not much of that in Ireland you'll understand!!) and I was immediately and completely hooked on how incredible these creatures are. A close encounter with a good-sized reef shark was not even enough to keep me out of the water Long story short - We got back from vacation less than 4 weeks ago without a tank. Now we've got a 55g [acronym:0fe114b884="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:0fe114b884] with all the trimmings and our first inhabitant, Eric, a Maroon Clownfish We're already $2500 in and likely to get deeper but it's definitely worth it.

02-10-2004, 01:05 PM	#68
Apache58 Aquarium Advice Apprentice Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Phoenix, Az Posts: 12	I just recently started mine about 3 weeks ago and am now barely going to add the fish into it next weekend. But what got me started in this hobby was I recently moved out to Arizona for school, but from my home in California...so close to the ocean. Still only a 5 hour drive to decent surf but I really wanted to bring a piece of that back into the desert with me. So now its become a hobby that me and my girlfriend have highly involved ourselves in and are having a lot of fun so far with it. Chris

03-12-2004, 03:33 AM	#69
Guest Posts: n/a	My fiance told me I needed a Hobby. She said I play too many video games.. I've done [acronym:55be7a74ae="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:55be7a74ae] for what seems like forever and she liked some of the [acronym:55be7a74ae="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:55be7a74ae] stuff so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Been doing it ever since.. Hmmm.. I wonder if her telling me to get a hobby was just her way of getting the fish she wanted without having to do all the work?...

03-12-2004, 08:09 PM	#70
GrannyReefer Aquarium Advice Newbie Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Kemp, TX. U.S. A. Posts: 8	When we got married and started our family two years later with our first of four sons I was not financially successful enough to have a [acronym:13527f3169="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:13527f3169] tank,but we did have a small [acronym:13527f3169="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:13527f3169] from time to time and then it seemed that one thing or another always prevented me from having one of those elusive beautiful glass boxes to stare into except at the [acronym:13527f3169="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:13527f3169] I would visit and was always drawn to the [acronym:13527f3169="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:13527f3169] section. Then our sons grew up and we retired and one of the first things I did was to get me a [acronym:13527f3169="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:13527f3169] reef/fish tank. I cherished it for about two years then had a horrible thing happened!!! It split at the corner and I lost almost every thing that I had collected. I went rushing down to the local [acronym:13527f3169="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:13527f3169] and brought a 55gal. tank home, and now I am in the process of trying to start all over, but I will not be defeated that easy, a hobby like this is worth all this and more, even with the corals and fish that I lost and had to replace before the tank split. The pieces are coming slowly (due to prices) but I will not be defeated! I will survive and continue to love this hobby.