What got you into reefkeeping?

[digital-audiophile]

Not sure if this has been talked about before, I'm sure it has but my attempt to find anything through the search engine were a failure.


Anyhow... It would be interesting to hear how other people got into this hobby. Cats and dogs are cute and fluffy and you can hold and play with them, but fish? Not very soft, not able to cuddle, don't really do tricks.. yet we spends thousands upon thousands of dollars to keep fish and coloured calcium sticks in our homes.

Myself? well...

When I was about 10 I had a small plastic hex tank that I had a couple little fish in.. I don't even remember what they were now. It didn't last that long because in the old school days every week I would help my dad scoop the fish into a glass of water and then we would empty the tank and rinse out the gravel and plastic plants. :p

That was the last of my fish experience until about almost six years ago now.

Strange story but I ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis.. long funny series of events around this but the rockyview hospital actually sent me into the alcoholics ward.... the main medical cause of pancreattis is alcoholism.. and even though I told them that I don't drink that much they didn't believe me (although all alcoholics say they don't drink much so I cannot blame them) Long story short two days later after a bunch of tests they found that my cholesterol was through the roof and that was because i was doing the Atkins diet at the time... great thing.. I lost over 40 pounds doing it but eating nothing but meat was killing me...

Anyhow.. not to ramble, but I got lots of flowers and goodies from Friends/family/coworkers and there was one really nice vase that I got. I had seen Beta fish in stores in vases with peace lilies so I thought I would give it a try! After about a week after I started this I read that lillies are poisonous to cats so it had to go.. so my wife took it to work for her desk... but by then the bug had bit!!

Instead of creating a fresh water tank however I thought I would try saltwater because when I was in big Al's to buy the beta I saw the salt section and was blown away that you could actually keep animals from the ocean in your own home.

So within a couple days I was at home with a 10 gallon AGA a coralife PC light and a couple pounds of live rock and a bag of sand.

About a week after this was set up I was luckily home at the time because I heard water dripping from across the room and saw that water was oozing out of the tank... I picked the whole thing up and carried it into the bath tub... this could have been the end of my adventure but instead I brought the tank back and got a new one in replacement.

Well here I am a number of years later and many gallons bigger (and thousands of dollars poorer) and still going strong! I love this hobby and have learned so much. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Canreef and many of the members here. I have had the chance to meet many cool people over the years and am thankful for all the advice I have got over the years. I am grateful for the vibrant reefing community in Calgary and the great LFS that we have in this city. I cannot tell you how nice it feels to walk into a store and be greeted by my first name... To have an owner to make time to stop what he is doing to come shake my hand and thank me for my business. I love nothing more that people in these stores know my daughters name (she is 22 months old). Heck I have been bringing my daughter to the LFS in Calgary since she was a week old... I will never forget one time when she was about three months old and my wife went into one of the stores and instead of having to carry he around the owners wife wanted to hold her and play with her while we were shopping... how many other hobbies could you find this kind of camaraderie!!!

I've met so many nice people that are passionate about reef keeping.. from starving students with hardly two pennies to rub together to people living in million dollar homes.

Please feel free to share what got you into this and what keeps you going.

[karazy]

good topic :)

well, it all started one day when i was nice and warm, but kinda squished up.
I then saw a bright light and before i knew it i was being held in a doctors cold hands.
I was taken home, and to my delight there was a fish tank set up :)

the point of this story is i've been around freshwater fish tanks for my entire life (thanks to my dad) and always enjoyed them.

my true story though starts when i was about 9. I was getting more and more interested in our 20 gallon, and then my dad finally gave me his 10 gallon which he had no luck with.
It was a 10 gallon "kit". pink gravel. plastic plants. also known as "the works" :p

so i started looking at fish stores (petland) for fish i liked. i wanted something carnivorous,ferocious, and mean.
First i wanted pirahnas, but knew they would outgrow the tanks. then i really wanted green terrors:lol: finally i decided to get a blue crayfish.

We set up the tank with white and pale green gravel, a lil castle, and some plastic plants. we got our crayfish, and brought him home.

Most would say i was bit by the bug by now, right? Wrong.
dont get me wrong, i loved my crayfish(named zoidberg) but i just wasn't crazy bout fish.

then it happened. I wanted a tank at my moms. i had kept bettas in bowls before at my moms:doh: but never any what i thought to be "real fish".

I was 11, and i wanted a goldfish bowl at my moms house. I really did. So my mom said could. But first i wanted to check if i could, so i went on a forum, and BAM! i got bit.

that goldfish bowl i asked for all that time ago never happened. why? because i kept changing my mind to bigger and better things.

My "goldfish bowl" is now a 29 gallon reef in the works, and im more obsessed than ever.



that's my story, and its all thanks to my dad, people like you on forums, and the wonderful LFS owners of Calgary

[sitandwatch]

First I hope I don't read the words "Finding Nemo" :biggrin:

My parents had a freshwater tank so that might be part of it but I think my scuba adventures are what really got in intersted.

Getting bitten by a Damsel at 100 feet under water made me want to catch the little bugger and take him home.

[christyf5]

I started a freshwater tank a number of years ago, and really got into cichlids for awhile. One of the local stores I started going to had saltwater, I ended up working there for awhile to help the owner out was to receive a saltwater setup in payment. When the store ended up closing before I could get it fully setup, I got the tank and was rushed into the hobby by the owner who suggested I take a couple of butterflies to cycle the tank. Unfortunately I haven't done enough reading and took them. On about the 5th day, I had read enough and realized the stupidity of what I was doing and gave the fish to a friend who had a bigger tank.

Left without a LFS I then started shopping at Petcetera. Well need I say more about that? I soon stopped.

About 4 months later I realized how my 48 gal cichlid tank would look so much better as a reef. About 6 months after that I found a great deal on a badly scratched 90 gallon tank.

I've fought through, dinoflagellates, various algaes, red bugs, monti eating flatworms, caulerpa and the most evilest of plagues, the sandbed :razz:.

If it weren't for the internet, Canreef and a myriad of reefers meeting I don't think I would have continued. Luckily I found you guys early on and I'm hooked!

[banditpowdercoat]

I like being different. And I allways liked aquariums. Never liked fishing, but could watch tanks for hrs. About 10 years ago, I tried FW. jumped in, over stocked, etc etc. After a coulple years I gave it up. FW just were not that interesting after a while. Not as colorfull, and just plants. A few years ago I resurected my old tank. mainly for our daughter. I figured maybe she would get interested, and have a 'pet' or 20 LOL. Well, then I figured I was at a point in my life that maybe I could afford a marine tank(Boy, was I wrong LOL) But I soon after, found Canreef and the rest is history.

[Myka]

I started with freshwater when I was a kid. I went with my mom on various occasions to the library, and always checked out their fish section. I noticed the saltwater books, and started reading those. The Conscientious Marine Aquarist is one I remember specifically. I would special order my saltwater fish and inverts at my LFS because they only carried freshwater, but would order something for me if I picked it up when it arrived. I also went down to the US (closest saltwater LFS to me) and spent my babysitting money there. It just kinda went from there.

[Lance]

Back in the late 80's I was into freshwater for quite some time. I tried them all: community tanks, cichlid tanks, Africans, breeding, etc. Saltwater was just starting to take off at about that time and I was thinking of trying it out. But before I got a chance we took on a new business and between trying to get the business off the ground and babies that kept appearing I just didn't have the time for the hobby anymore. I gave away all my tanks and was away from the hobby for a long time. Then a couple of years ago my son got a FW tank and I got the itch again. But this time for SW. Now that I've experienced both I could never go back to FW again. This forum and the people on it make this hobby even more enjoyable.

[justinl]

I got into reefing because I heard these grow ops could make you a bit of cash... boy was I wrong.

alright, so now that the mandatory reefer pun has been said and done with, the actual reason i got into this (and I am aware that a lot of people won't understand this) is because I wanted to keep a mantis shrimp. :biggrin: coolest bugs ever. maybe this'll help...

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v652/214/109/116200608/n116200608_33575606_7258.jpg

[mark]

As I said in this thread (http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=42125),:wink: was a trip to the Philippines.

[Ian]

OK so I was visiting my niece and we it was a crappy rainy day and we needed something to do. So she decided to watch a video. It was this cool movie about a clown fish and well it was actually animated you may have heard of it....Finding something I think was its name.........

K honestly I have had fresh water tanks for the better part if the last 25 years and they have always facinated me but SW seemed way to hard to do and way to costly. about a year and a half ago I got the itch again to try SW and started to read up. After reading and showing my wife everry pic. and article I found SHE finally told me to do something about it. So now I have a 30 gallon bio cube and am about to start a build of a 90 gallon plus sump system...and my wife......well she is just starting to realise how much this hobby can actually cost:lol::lol::lol:

[Doug]

Natural progression. Freshwater in the 70,s.....saltwater fish only in the 80,s....reefing in the 90,s. :lol:

[Skimmerking]

What got me into SW, Hmmmmmmmmmmm well my mom was always in to Fresh water tanks every where i used to help her all the time.. never thoguht about it we got a puppy from this store and it didnt work out. so i got credit and said hey a 10 gal what the heck..
cleaned and water change every week went retarded keeping it clean.
so 10 to a 40,52, 135, all fresh then started SALT WATER 1st tank 120 then back to Fresh 280 gal its was a cover up :lol: then 280 SALT,75 ,62, 170, 120, now 150 and that is it.

until I move to our victorian home once I figure out where in the city to move it will be a 36x36x24 CUBE...

[Leah]

When I was a kid my Dad was into freshwater. We had a huge basement and at one point we had over 30 tanks set up and running. It was my job to clean and catch the
babies. The latter was just sooo much fun. We then moved from North Van up to Whitehorse.....I left all my friend's on one condition, that I could set up a tank of my
own in my bedroom. We had one petstore in town and I loved going there. And at 16
I got my first job. And guess where..... I am still surprised my parents would even allow
it as I was A-1 in bring home stray aniamals. I even had a pet squirrel named, tiche
until my parent decided that it was not to cool for him to be running up and down my
mom's drapes~ Ha! Then after living in Hawaii for a couple of years, I thought it would
be cool to set up a saltwater tank. And the rest is well, history. It is such a wonder
to own these pieces of art. I just wish everyone could have the experience. I feel very
privledged as not everybody can afford to do this. Even through all the good and bad, I
can not believe what I have learned. How fortunate we are to be here. Opp's didn't
realize how much I wrote.

[leezard]

I watched "Finding Nemo".

*coughcough*

Ok, just kidding. Couldn't help it.

When I was little I wasn't allowed pets -- no puppy, no cat, no mice... we had a guinea pig for a little while, but one little fight with my sister and he was gone. That was the last of pets, despite my love for animals.

My dad just didn't want to spend the money on pets of any kind. One day, though, someone gave me this nifty bubblegum fish bowl and a betta. To my happiness, Dad let me keep it.

And he found a matching fishbowl for the other side of my head board! Awesome!

These guys were alive for about a year and my mother bought me a little 5 gallon fish tank. I never asked for help with any of these, and found out what I needed to do on my own. They were allowed to stay!

Fast forward five years, and I still had the tank and betta bowls. Granted, different fish, but they were still part of my life.

Fast forward another five years, I was living with my mom and my five gallon turned into a 10 gallon.

Fast forward ANOTHER five years, and the 10 gallon now held a gecko. Reptiles took over my life at this point, but I still had bettas.

Life got busy, reptiles abound, and when we moved to Wetaskiwin a year and a half ago, someone was selling her freshwater tank with all supplies for cheap, so I figured I'd give the fish community a try again. I had always admired salt water tanks, but knew little to nothing about them.

Last December a friend of mine was looking to give her 20 gallon saltwater tank away.

Here I am. Not much, but as much as I can have in the space we've got! I don't have the reef part of it, yet, but it's slowly building..... we need a light, first. And I'm still learning a whole lot, but I have the "one day" dream of a much, much larger saltwater fishtank.....

(So, really, Nemo had NOTHING to do with it. And Dave has named our percs "Bill and Ted" anyways, despite one of them being a female.... )

[Leah]

I watched "Finding Nemo".

*coughcough*

Ok, just kidding. Couldn't help it.

When I was little I wasn't allowed pets -- no puppy, no cat, no mice... we had a guinea pig for a little while, but one little fight with my sister and he was gone. That was the last of pets, despite my love for animals.

My dad just didn't want to spend the money on pets of any kind. One day, though, someone gave me this nifty bubblegum fish bowl and a betta. To my happiness, Dad let me keep it.

And he found a matching fishbowl for the other side of my head board! Awesome!

These guys were alive for about a year and my mother bought me a little 5 gallon fish tank. I never asked for help with any of these, and found out what I needed to do on my own. They were allowed to stay!

Fast forward five years, and I still had the tank and betta bowls. Granted, different fish, but they were still part of my life.

Fast forward another five years, I was living with my mom and my five gallon turned into a 10 gallon.

Fast forward ANOTHER five years, and the 10 gallon now held a gecko. Reptiles took over my life at this point, but I still had bettas.

Life got busy, reptiles abound, and when we moved to Wetaskiwin a year and a half ago, someone was selling her freshwater tank with all supplies for cheap, so I figured I'd give the fish community a try again. I had always admired salt water tanks, but knew little to nothing about them.

Last December a friend of mine was looking to give her 20 gallon saltwater tank away.

Here I am. Not much, but as much as I can have in the space we've got! I don't have the reef part of it, yet, but it's slowly building..... we need a light, first. And I'm still learning a whole lot, but I have the "one day" dream of a much, much larger saltwater fishtank.....

(So, really, Nemo had NOTHING to do with it. And Dave has named our percs "Bill and Ted" anyways, despite one of them being a female.... )
Opp's hit the wrong button, Good time to admit I am blonde.
But I have never laughed harder then when I read the part about your sister,
the fight and the untimely departure of the guinea pig as a result.

I have a brother so I can truly relate, I am still laughing. My parent's were
not nearly as clever as your's. If they had only thought of that!:wink:

[leezard]

If they had only thought of that!

It was literally a small argument of whole was going to feed him first.....

until I tripped up the stairs and got a nose bleed, anyways.

(Yes. I STILL trip up the stairs. Shhhhh.)

Dad wasn't too fond of pets, though..... loves them now, and will play with all of mine whenever he comes over.

[brizzo]

By some unusual course of events I ended up at a friend's cousin's house 3 cities over... lo and behold he had a very amazing 55 gallon reef setup.
Seeing a reef tank in person was the bug that bit me :) .. so it was fate!

[Leah]

Still laughing! And I won't tell anyone about the stair tripping if you don't!
I guess my parent's thought if I was bringing home stray's, I was far to busy to do
or try other stuff. So when my daughter wanted Discus and 5 mice I said sure honey.
She is growing up! ~ Not I, maybe tommorrow.

[Mrfish55]

Still laughing! And I won't tell anyone about the stair tripping if you don't!
I guess my parent's thought if I was bringing home stray's, I was far to busy to do
or try other stuff. So when my daughter wanted Discus and 5 mice I said sure honey.
She is growing up! ~ Not I, maybe tommorrow.

Discus and mice? I know mice can swim and all but still, what an odd combo, carefull who you tell this too there is another member getting ripped right now for putting cichlids into saltwater.:silly:

[Leah]

OOPS! I forgot how clear you need to be here! LOL
She had the fish in a tank. And the mice in a home of their own, which reminds me of the
mice I had as a kid. I promised my parents they were brother and sister and could not
have babies!!!!

[fishoholic]

It's kinda odd that I'm as addicted to this hobby as I am.

As a young child my Uncle had a FW fish tank. I thought the guppies were pretty but sort of boring, and I always thought what good is a pet you can't pet. As a young teenager one of my best friends had a FW fish tank in her bedroom and I always thought it was the loudest most annoying thing ever :twised:

Fast forward to when my boyfriend moved in with me and he wanted to bring along his 10g FW tank. I told him no way fish tanks are annoying and noisy. After a few months though I felt bad for saying no to him and we bought a 20g FW kit to set up. After it was set up for awhile I started to realize that the fish were sort of fun to keep. So we set up and kept a few small FW tanks while we lived in my condo.

After awhile we sold the condo and bought a house. We kept the 20g FW tank for awhile but after a few trips to Big Als and admiring the SW section we thought about setting up a SW tank. We held off for a bit thinking it would be to hard and expensive (if only we knew then how expensive it would really be) but we ended up getting a good deal on boxing day on a 60g tank and we started our journey into SW.

Well shortly after getting into SW a friend of mine told me about canreef. We lurked around on the site for awhile at first then Steve started up his account and I would just use his account if I wanted to post anything. Then I thought I'd better create my own account. After reading a lot on here and getting very addicted I thought to myself that the 60g wasn't enough so we set up a 15g. The 15g wasn't great so we turned it into a nano cube. Well the nano cube wasn't big enough so it turned into a 30g cube. Meanwhile a lavender tang followed us home from the LFS and well a 60g isn't big enough for a tang, so that tank turned into a 120g with a sump. But guess what one tank is easier to take care of then 2 different tanks and really a 120g isn't big enough for all the fish I wanted so..... the 30g cube and the 120g turned into a 230g reef.

Well the 230g reef is nice but what's better then a 230g, two 230g :mrgreen: So here I am 4 years later after first starting into the SW hobby, with many canreef friends, a heck of a lot of posts and two 230g tanks.

[Lydia]

I can't remember if I wanted a tank when I was a child, but I do remember always liking seahorses. Growing up I was allowed to have gerbils, but there was no money for anything like an aquarium. I moved around a bit after leaving home, finally settling in Alberta in a newly purchased house in 1992. 6 months later I took my young children into Pisces to buy a handful of colorful gravel for a cactus plant. And came out with a 25 gallon tank. It was on sale! And so it started... A few years later a 10 gallon fry tank came along. Both were FW, and I fell in love with livebearers (even brought some Endlers home on a plane from Ontario one year). And every trip to the LFS had me looking at the seahorses, whenever they were there... I knew that one day, when I had the time and the money, I would keep seahorses...

Well, that time came September 1st, 2007 - the day I made my last truck payment ;) I got tank #3 - a 55 gallon bowfront corner unit. A real beauty. I quickly found out that captive bred seahorses were few and far between, so after a few months I bought a Royal Gramma to hold me till I found the right breeder. When that time came, a year after I had the tank set up, I bought tank #4 (20 gallon hex) to house the Royal Gramma (who I knew by then would be too aggressive with the seahorses). The seahorses were great! But they were not practicing safe sex, so I knew I had to separate the males from the females. Along comes tank #5 (25 gallon tall)... A bit of shuffling saw the Gramma moved to the 25 gallon, and the female seahorses into the hex. And since one should have a QT, tank #6 has been kicking around for awhile now, too. It currently stocks a peppermint shrimp and a clownfish (ha! Got a Nemo jab in here - LOL) that will eventually go in with the Gramma.

Tank #7 will be a much bigger tank, for now I think I want to keep a "Dory"... But shhhh, we don't talk about tank #7 just yet ;)

[TheMikey]

When I was really young my parents had a small 10G tank that we kept under the TV. When we moved to our new house when I was 5, it was relegated to the attic. For Christmas a few years later we gave my dad a 33g tank for Christmas and we just kept it as a a FO FW tank (which has been up and running for over 11 years now - through two wipes).

I've always had an interest in Saltwater fish over freshwater because of how very unique, colourful, and challenging they were. However, I never seriously considered diving into the hobby as everyone always told me that it would be too expensive, too time consuming and too difficult (only one of which was actually the case). So I held off on actually starting a tank because I always though you had to have a BIG saltwater tank to make it work. And as a student, this was unavailable due to costs and space constraints.

Then I found nano-reef.com! And all of a sudden saltwater was viable! After eight months of research (mainly because I was in Europe and couldn't set up a tank overseas) I ran out and bought a used 15G tank and stand, brought it home, and got wet.

Initially it started out as a FOWLR setup but, after two weeks I figured that I wasn't quite spending enough money on my addiction and set up some more powerful lights and got into reefing!

[aquajeep]

I used to stare for hours looking at my moms oscars and large red tail shark when i was really young.i won a 10 gallon fish tank starter kit from good ol chow town (now total pet) i had basic fish and got board quick, thats when the net came out and bam i got 2 larg oscars in a ten gallon tank.lol. bred malwi and tang. chichlids then bred bettas.got into saltwater in gr.7 but never heard of live rock ect.. so had little luck. finally my day has come! wahuahhahahah! now i have nemo traped in a box! :mrgreen:

[StirCrazy]

for me it was the internet, and this board, one day I just happened to see a reef tank on the internet and then some one told me about this board.. 20K or so later:wink:

Brad where the heck were we when we heard about can reef?????? I remember it was a brand new board but for the life of me I can't remember how I found out about it.

I had kept fresh water for ever and had a couple FO and FOWLR ranks over the years but never a reef with a sump or anything like that so I spend a couple months planning and designing and under threat of having a couple people break into my house and fill my tank with water I decided to start the beast up. I did a ton of DIY and exparamenting with lighting (waisted about 10K on lights for the tank and ones for testing with my PAR meter)

I took it down and sold it about a year ago so I could build a custom tank, but soon after we decided I was retiring and we were going to move to kamloops so I decided to wait and do another tank once I moved so I only have one tank to figure out how to move instead of two.

Steve

[my2rotties]

I inherited an old run down 44g tank with a foxface and four evil damsels in it. The people that owned the house before us left it here. I had no idea of how to care for it, and had no internet to do any research. It was in a big bay window with no backing in it, the hair algae and mess was astounding... It was a nightmare... but we stuck with it.

A year ago I bought my 260g from a canreef member and we had to cut it apart to get it out of the fellow's basement... we just put it back together in September, then cycled it and added livestock to it in December.

As a teen I worked in a pet store and had a freshwater tank for a very long time. Then before we moved I always had three nice bowls with Bettas in them. They all lived three or four years. They were so easy going to care for...

[Rbacchiega]

I saw a fox coral. And wanted it. So I started a tank, didn't know anything, figured it couldn't be THAT hard...and the addiction began. Besides my Discus and Threadfins, I can honestly say that I don't think I will ever have a freshwater tank again.

[Mrfish55]

I saw a fox coral. And wanted it. So I started a tank, didn't know anything, figured it couldn't be THAT hard...and the addiction began. Besides my Discus and Threadfins, I can honestly say that I don't think I will ever have a freshwater tank again.

You mean you can buy and keep freshwater fish also? :silly:




Seriously though I have had fish for 27 years now (man I'm getting old!) started with the typical 10gal, had 16 tanks running at one time from 10 to 135 gallons all fresh, 16 years ago decided to try a salt tank, started with a 33gal upped to a 60 then to 77 then to 180 and finally at the current 300 (also have a 30 gal seahorse tank (soon to be 90gal corner) and a 15gal cube (fresh) Have worked off and on at the local fish shop for 20years.

[whatcaneyedo]

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo starring Rob Schneider. I had kept freshwater for several years before but when I saw the lionfish I new I had to go to salt.




Eh, it could have been worst. It could have been Finding Nemo. :razz:

[sitandwatch]

"Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo"

What a masterful piece of cinematic art.

[whatcaneyedo]

You have to admit though that the scene where Rob drinks the dirty tap water and pores the pure bottled water into his tank is painfully true of all of us and damn funny. :lol:

[Whatigot]

I just got into it for the chicks dude.

[russp]

I have had various FW tanks for years but always was very interested in SW. every visit to the LFS I would look at the SW stock more than anything else. After about 6 trips to the Mayan Riviera , a lot of snorkeling & a bit of reef diving & I had to have a reef of my own to enjoy for the other 51 weeks of the year. I thought now that my kids were grown up I could finally afford this hobby (wrong)

1-72 gallon Bow front Reef tank
1-10 gallon SW fish only
1-33 gallon FW
1-empty wallet

[hummer]

I have always loved having fish. Probably something I picked up from my dad. I had a FW tank for a couple years when I was younger. The tank was very successful so I though I would try to make things challenging by breeding live bearers like guppies. Turns out it wasn't that challenging at all. Just put a male and female together...go figure. Then I was interested in SW. I started asking people questions but most people I talked to said don't do it, SW is too hard, too expensive, requires constant attention, etc. Eventually I said screw it, I'm going to try. Turned out pretty good so far. Guess they were right about one thing though. It is too expensive :)

[Key Equine]

I had a freshwater tank since childhood, but always felt that a saltwater system would be too much work and expense... Then a trip to Ocean Rider in Hawaii where they raise seahorses convinced me that I had to convert my tank so that I could get a herd of 'horses. I'm loving it!! So glad I made the switch.