WHAT MADE YOU WANT A REEF AQUARIUM?

[got bait?]

I started when I was 4 or 5 yrs old. One of my first word were Tyronosorus Rex, So i have been fascinated with the animal kingdom all my life. I have a fetish for aggressive animals. Had Argentinian Tegu (lizard that eats med. rats), multitude of snakes, Red tail catfish, every cichlid you could think of, pirhana, turtles, crawfish, waterdogs.....you get the picture. If it will fit in a glass bubble, I've put one there. Sometimes they got too big to stay there, but I had them for a while.

I have an extra fascination with fish, since I like to fish wayyyy toooo much. I will discect everything I catch, just to look on the inside. What they've eaten, if they have parasites, growths, tumors etc. Just interested in Biology as a whole. And if I happen to bring aboard a clump of seaweed, I'm gone ofr hours. I think my TV only gets Discovery Chanel and OLN. Reefin is the only thing I haven't done, until a year ago anyways. I love the diversity and challenges. You are creating your own little planet, very similar to "Sim City" except with live animals.

[William]

I've always loved fish, Used to keep feeder goldfish in a cheapo goldfish bowl when I was very young [ 10cents a gold fish was, like, the most expensive thing in the world when I was that young ].

Well, I keep my goldfish and they were happy for a long time, until one time I left for the summer.. and the person I entrusted my fish to moved them outside in their bowl, They boiled.

After that, I still wanted fish.. but I couldn't afford it [ I was 8 ] and have lusted for one since before I even started with my goldfish in a bowl.

Well, My breaking point came when I finally got me a job.

One of my first paychecks went to buying a 10gal tank, heater, filter and gravel. In it I put more feeder goldfish [ I have an absurd facsentation with these fish ], the feeder goldfish they use now a days are far different then the ones when I was a kid. The ones when I was a kid grew into beautiful goldfish, the feeders now grow into bizzare looking seamonsters.


Well, I've kinda rolled down hill from there.

From day when I picked up my first 10gal I saw all the beautiful fish in the saltwater tanks they had. I vowed i would have a [acronym:3a574c0a83="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:3a574c0a83] tank one day.


and that day came 3 days ago, When I finally picked up my [acronym:3a574c0a83="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:3a574c0a83] tank, Used, from someone who could no longer afford the time for it.

So now I'm sitting here, starying at my Condylactus Gigantae as it sways in the water, With a smile on my face. Even as empty as the tank is now, I still love it.

And hope to some day in the future, when I get my own place, to set myself up a custom built tank 300gal long reef tank.

But for now I'll stick with my 29gal [acronym:3a574c0a83="Fish only with live rock"]FOWLR[/acronym:3a574c0a83] for now.


My addiction has gotten the better of me, with as many tanks as I have now.

[180 manx2]

great topic indeed i went from a 55 fresh to 55 salt then got a 180 then another 180 i love this hobby so does the electris company
i want to tranform 180 to a shark tank is filltration the same is it the same as tangs clowns ectttt

[Hypostomus]

When I was little my parents kept a 55g [acronym:d7c80ab82b="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:d7c80ab82b] tank that housed various incompatible mixes of fish and other things. We'd have angelfish and crayfish, and various large, darty fin nippers in with long-finned fish..things like that. You'd think that might have deterred me, but at 6 years old I always seemed to miss all the fish deaths. The only thing I helped with was sucking on the siphon end to get the water flowing so it would go in the bucket (yummy). My parents eventually decided to close up shop.

In between somewhere here I went to Antigua in the Caribbean and went snorkeling off of the uninhabited Bird Island, swimming with fish far bigger than I was and through some small patches of reef, where I had the pleasant experience of running straight into a floating fish head. (Again, yummy! You can clearly see where my love of saltwater came from )

So about four and a half years ago I kept noticing the old 55g show tank we had just sitting in the garage and I decided to spend my birthday money setting it up. We hauled the double-paned glass tank and its stand upstairs to my room and I set about doing research. That's right, research! And I made a little binder full of fish profiles and information about different kinds of heaters, filters, etc. that I still have today. We slapped a Penguin Biowheel on there, a heater, filled it with water and set up some decorations (driftwood, rocks, etc.) and started putting fish in.

For a while, things were good.

Then about a year later I made the mistake of thinking my parents would research the matter if I agreed to buy them a quaker parrot (originally I was just going to get some finches, but my Mom kept going to bigger and bigger birds). After all, I had researched it to the last tiny detail and figured they were as prepared as I was.

WRONG.

Anyway, after the bird had been placed in a more suitable home with an experienced birdkeeper, I ventured to my Mom that we should buy another 55g show tank for her office downstairs. We set that one up and started running it, and moved the 5 baby angelfish from my tank upstairs to that one. We added some Bolivian rams, clown loaches, etc. A few months later we got a 20g "high" tank, and I occasionally thought about saltwater but was deterred by the massive cost and the scary things written in articles about how I would have to check every single parameter every two seconds or everything would die instantly. All I ever really wanted was a lionfish, but everything I had read recommended a 55g tank at a minimum for the smaller species, and my parents pointed out that I was going to college in a few years. Suitably detered, I focused on my [acronym:d7c80ab82b="Freshwater"]FW[/acronym:d7c80ab82b] tanks. We also acquired a few bettas, but apparently they disliked our conditions and found it fit to die after about two years each. I also got my paradise fish who is now with me at college.

Did I ever originally want a reef tank? Nope. But my mother did after she adopted a clownfish and a snail from my aunt and set up a little 20G for them. So I dutifully did the research this time (I knew she wouldn't) and eventually arrived here while hunting around for information. =) So now that rather sparse reef is finally set-up my mother is threatening to sell off all the corals and go [acronym:d7c80ab82b="Fish only with live rock"]FOWLR[/acronym:d7c80ab82b] because of algae and because she "didn't know it would involve so much money and work," but I'm kind of hoping she'll give it a chance. I'm not exactly a saltwater fanatic yet because high costs + college student budget = uh.. But even if my parents' tank doesn't work out as a reef tank in the end, I'll probably set up one on my own someday using all the great tips I learned here. And maybe someday I'll actually get a lionfish too.

/End. =P

[Tripoli]

I've loved fish tanks ever since I was a kid. My first was a 2-gallon hex with a small freshwater black shark named Shatter. It wasn't but a month or so before he outgrew that tank, so I bought a 10-gallon one and added some scenery for him to enjoy. Funny thing is...the bigger the tank, the faster the fish grow.

Not 3 months after buying my 2-gallon hex, I found myself buying a 55-gallon tank and filling it with freshwater goodies.

Long story short: After a year or so, everything was dead.

After a couple months I decided it'd be cool to check out the [acronym:c8bcd23ade="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:c8bcd23ade] and see what kind of saltwater fish and supplies I could get. I had been under the impression that such things were fairly expensive in relation to freshwater, but when I found a volitan lionfish for $16 I was hooked. 3 days and a hundred dollars later, I had some live sand, live rock, and my lionfish named Bob.

Unfortunately, due to my lack of knowledge, he croaked after about 6 months. That was when I decided I wanted to move away from predatory fish and towards a reef.

Soon thereafter, I decided to sell the 55-gallon and to set my 10-gallon tank back up. (Cheaper and it fits in my apartment ) I crammed most of the [acronym:c8bcd23ade="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:c8bcd23ade] from my 55 into my 10 and after a few more fish had suffered to my inabilities, I finally got the tank stabilized into what you see today.

[kreach]

I can honestly say... it's all my husband's fault!

We had been dating for about a year and he convinced me to set up a 37 gallon in my bedroom. I was skeptical, but he had kept saltwater tanks before I met him and the tank was going to be a project we could do together.

5 years and many many mistakes later, we're married and have a 175 gallon reef tank and a 120 gallon reef (in progress). This isn't a hobby, it's an addiction!!

[nesk7]

http://home.c99.ru/pronira/freeinet.html

[24 hours? NE!]

I'm going to blame my wife, Kimberly. My mom had kept a 30 gallon fw tank that she crammed just about everything into. She stopped after a while and I wan't really interested any more.

My wife and my 2 boys moved from Wisconsin to California and had to rent an house. Couldn't get any other pets, but the landlord said "ok, but not big" to a fish tank. I tried to talk my wife out of sw because I researched the cost. She won out and I've been addicted ever since.

We started with a 25 gallon and now have a 12 gallon nano. I'm doing my best to get others hooked.

[Atlarge]

The Fumanchu Lionfish.
And why do people say fresh water is bland?
African cichlids and discus, my friends.

[nguyen27]

Originally Posted by Atlarge

The Fumanchu Lionfish.
And why do people say fresh water is bland?
African cichlids and discus, my friends.

African cichlids are cool, I like them as they survive most of water condition, Discus looks nice, but with the type of slow moving and required good water condition, it bothers me outta my skull, plus discus is expensive!!!