My story starts out a bit like many others. As a youngster my family and I had a number of fresh water tanks. Enough that one entire wall of the family room was filled with bubbling water and rather colorful fish. As we grew up, we became more of a handful than my parents could stand (there were 5 of us kids) so they no longer had the time or money for the fish. Eventually... everyone grew up and moved out, except me. I was the youngest of the 5 and separated by age by about 6 years from the next youngest. So I go the benefits of the "only child" for a few years! (go me! hehe) One of my sisters called and said she was cleaning out some old stuff and wanted to know if anyone wanted the old 55 gallon tank. This this is ancient (I still have it, and it's still FW) The glass is almost a half an inch thick... and it is glass. It ways about 75 pounds EMPTY! anywho.. I said sure I liked the fish when we had them. I've had my FW tank since then... it's been running about 8 years now. One of my first in habitants, a pleco of course actually just recently passed... about a month ago. That is the oldest fish I've ever had. I was genuinely upset to find him upside down that morning. He was almost a foot long.... Anywho.. on to a happier note. Last summer (just about this time! my goodness.. it's been a year...) I was sitting at home, recently unemployed. I flipped through the channels on the TV and came across, "The Great TV Auction" a 20 some year tradition of a local public television station to raise money. Local stores and residents donate items, gift certificates etc that the station auctions off. They started displaying the items of a new table and what should come up... "a certificate for a 20 gallon mini reef starter kit. includes tank, lights, crushed coral, live rock, testing kit, heater, power head, salt, salinity tester and filter. Winner must pick up tank and all other items at the Store" oh and even a power strip! My eye's nearly popped out of my head. I literally whimpered... what a time to be unemployed! over the next 10 to 15 minutes they came back to that table of items and time and time again.. no opening bid. the opening bid was only $75 US!!! I shook my head and said “that's gotta go up! someone is seeing this right now and picking up the phone”... they came back to the table for the "final recap" and it had gone up.... $85! I waited a minute... I thought to myself, “unemployed or not I can NOT pass this up”... I waited another minute, picked up the phone and called... it had gone up to $100... I said "how long before it closes?", "Right now sir, if you want to bid I can put it in but you can't wait." "$120 please!"...
and thus it began. An adventure in and of itself... I'm loving every second of it. my wallet, on the other hand... hates me for it! When i went to pick it up the store had a 55 gallon tank and hood on sale for $100 bucks... so I spent a little cash and "upgraded" what i won at the auction to a 55 gallon setup. I think I spent about $200-$250 for everything I needed to start a 55 gallon reef!