WHAT MADE YOU WANT A REEF AQUARIUM?

[madhatter208]

Lots of interesting stories here.

When I was younger I started out with, like most of you, a 10gal. It was FW, green cat, albino, guppys, mollys etc. I also had a bowl w/ a sharp looking beta and I even got them to breed. Sadly not knowing WTF i was doing I lost all the babys.
Eventualy I got a 37 tall for a christmas gift. This time I wanted to do something diff. I kept the cats but the guppys, molly, swords lost intrest for me. They were more of my dad's thing then mine. I ended up doing Discus. had 4 or 5 i dont recall, some alge eating cats, yumyum eel and a black ghost knife. This was around for a good amnt of time. But as School and work took more n more of my time and Alge out growing the alge eaters apaites it was time to fold the tank. all the Live stock went to my cousin who had more tanks then some of the LFS at the time.

Fast foward to the present by about 20yrs. A co-work was talking bout seting up a nano reef and I was very curious bout it since all I ever heard about SW was what a pita they were to maintain n keep going. After talking with my co-worker, reading a book, and hitting this web page I finaly dived in. But not with a nano.. no no.. I had to go bigger hehe.. space and money preveted me from going insaine, which is good. And I ended up w/ a 65 gal SW system. I've slowly been adding Live stock and greatly enjoy the experence. SW is no diff then FW in the way of maitnece. Ok maybe it costs more and takes a bit more time. But since I got what I call a real job and only work Mon- Fri I have time to take care of what needs to be done. My cat seems to like it to as he sits there watching and occastionly sittiing up to sofly bat at the tank. hehe

[mike3epanda]

Originally Posted by tyler

what made me want a reef tank? you bastards, that's what. i think i may start a nano coming up here. i think nano's are delightful, and i have nothing but time to give it. i'm actually going to take my time on this one, but i'll keep you guys posted.

haha same here..

[fast94tracer]

well my story is ever since i was a baby my mom always had freshwater fish and always large tanks like 2 55gal and a 75gal but she never did sw as i grew up my first tank was a 20tall fw and i started gaining a real interest in saltwater from like the age of 5 or so
so after my parents divorced i never had my tank set back up and after 13 years and after i got married and my wife had my first kid i thought it would be great to buy a tank so my daughter could enjoy fish as i did so i bought a 29gal and set it up but i still had this deep edge to go saltwater i continued to buy fish and more tanks after a while i had 3 10gal brackish tanks and my 29gal but all still fresh water so after about 2 years of that i gave all my fish away and bought my 55gal and all the things i needed to setup a saltwater tank and to this day it is the only tank running in my house and its not big enough for me so now i am in the process of planning out a 300gal that will be started in 1-2 months and i cant wait

[smn723]

Very easy...looked at the tank of the month photos at reefcentral as well as some members photos here. Amazing how you can have a little piece of ocean in your living room.

[RISEANDFLOAT]

"to create a personal link to one of our planet's most astonishing natural realms."
- Paletta, Michael S. The New Marine Aquarium

[rayray]

My sons and I watched that movie everyday for six months... I said "sure we can have Nemo in the living room", then Dori, then the anemone, the other fish, the reef followed, not in that order. Now, how to get a friendly great white shark in there...

[MommaFishels]

My parents took me and my 2 brothers to Florida when I was 4 years old. My father said he had to run after me as I was running straight into the ocean. That was the first indication that I loved water. The second is when I caught my first fish.. I kissed it. Yes. I kissed it. Well my parents bought me goldfish after goldfish although I never could keep them alive very long (I know why now). Well I got tired of killing fish so I never bought anymore until Christmas 2007 when my wonderful boyfriend knowing how much I love the ocean purchased a 75 gallon aquarium as my Christmas present. First we toggled about freshwater but I really didn't want fresh and I finally looked at him and said 'will you kill me if I choose salt?' of course he said no and away we went. 4 months later, I have two 75 gallons and love every minute of it.

[catmel]

It all started when I was probably only about 3-4 years old. My parents had bought a little beta bowl with a beta. I was intrigued by the bright colors. This eventually turned into a goldfish habit. While in gradeschool, being part of campfire ( similar to girl scouts) we had an overnight trip to COSI ( center of science and industy - a scientific museum, really neat), where they gave us each a goldfish as part of learning about nature and wildlife in classes there. Flounder ( my first goldfish aptly named after the fish in the little mermaid.. out at the time) lived alone in a 3 gallon hex aquarium. Around the same time my parents had tried for a few years to d oa 30 gal long aquarium and back then boy let me tell you that thing seemed like a 300 gallon! hah. Anywhere there was water, I was always attracted to it. Be it ponds, aquariums, streams etc ( I loved watching the minnows in the streams)

Anyway, I had always been facinated by the bright fish and corals of saltwater everytime we had went to the petstore, id stand there the whole time my dad was shopping staring at the colorful fish. Years later after moving out and finally get my own house I have room for a 55 gallon and always wanted a BIG ( big to me.. see above owned previous tank sizes hah) aquarium. And being that ive always been facinated by and wanting saltwater, I figured i'd give it a try. I'm so addicted and I havent even added my fish yet I find myself staring at it.. even with nothing in it! haha

[lance]

My brothers bad a** reef tank was cool and with a little nudge from him i was hooked. But i think he used me as an experiment for the fuge and in the hopes i would quit and give him everything i bought. Well he is getting nice frags and thats it.

Its the fact i can keep this delicate small eco system " a spec of the real reef " In My Living Room. And it not only lives but grows and thrives. I think we are very lucky...

[divedeep1689]

I got into the hobby because i am a scuba diver love the ocean i dive mostly to watch the fish as i swim around them so i got to thinking and i decided i wanted to try my luck at saltwater aquariums ( i had heard they were difficult, but to me they are easy) so i could watch the fish i love so much constantly istead of once or twice a year on vacations so i got my first tank a 29 gal which i have had scince last december 9 months almost now then a month ago i decided i wanted a bigger tank so i got my new 55 gal which i just set up three weeks ago and you can see my pictures of it in my album. But mainly wat got me wanting this hobby is i have a fasination of wanting to breed clownfish dont ask me why i dont know. lol