Fresh water 20+ years and salt 5+ and hopefully longer :)

1st freshwater aquarium was glass with stainless steel frame and I bought my fish from Woolco (now Walmart) in Calgary. 40 years ago.
1st saltwater aquarium was in 1983 bought from Brighouse Pets in Richmond, B.C. I had a couple of clowns and an anemone. They sold me a bottle of liquid brown goo to "feed invertebrates" , the anemone basically. Skimmer with an air stone and Instant Ocean salt. Incandescent bulb.
I've had some kind of aquarium or lived on the ocean ever since.

If you want to include my fresh water days been keeping tanks since I was 16 1986 had a goldfish tank for 3 yrs finally killed it(learned hard way dish soap and fish do not mix)

got back into it 1997 ran 33 gallon then 2 yrs later a 10 gallon by 2000 had 46 gallon, 33 and 10 going finally quit in 2010

July 2012 entered the empty wallet phase been looking for money ever since

Sounds like my first tank, got it in '69 or '70. Moved into salt around 1997. Gawd, I'm old!!

Ha. You're just a pup.

I remember reading somewhere awhile back that the average reef enthusiast has been in the hobby for 18 months. Of course, when polling an online community you don't get a real accurate representation. I think you will find a good many on here over 5 years. :)

Ya, it seems we have a lot of 5+ members. But from what I've seen, I see a lot more leaving in under 2. Maybe they just stop coming here (not that I think anyone would not want to come here!!)

Had to ask my wife. Time flys spring of 1999 for me.

I just hit 10 years as of this month.

Brad, I think that might be because people have a reasonable handle on their tank by year two, and don't need daily advice such as, "What are these bugs on my glass?!?!" I've found most reefers are quite happy keeping a basic reef with a bunch of softies and some fish.