Very first tank
 

Just curious where everyone started out. Give us some details about your first aquariums.

My first shot at salt was a 10g with a blue damsel. That was about 8 years ago. Moved to a 45g "reef" and added a trigger and a tang. The tang is still with me after 7 years!

40G tank - mostly SPS
Still going strong after 2½ years.

My first Aquarium is the 180g I'm running right now. Believe it or not, I never even had a freshwater system before this. Zero Fish Experience to 180g Mixed Reef.... it's been quite a ride. lol

reply
 

Holy crap, I haven't even has a chance to respond to my own thread yet!:lol:

Mine was a 28 bowfront, with 2 blue damsels, tufa rock and and modified eclips hood. Had it for 9 months before upgrading to a 54g corner.

Still running the 10G I started with.

- 20 years ago

- 48G, fish only, w/ 4 incandescent bulbs, fluval filter, and dead coral ornaments.

20 gallons, full of hair algae and not much else :razz:

75g with a fluval filter and zero experience. No freshwater experience either. 75 was a total failure and an excercise in frustration that almost did me in. I'm either brave or stupid (no additional comments required) but I then jumped into a 230g with a 77g fuge/sump that is still up and running but it has since spawned and produced a 190g, a 44g. a 20g, a 24g and a 12g and is soon have another big baby with my 300g cube gets up and running.

started with a 65g hexagon...big mistake, didn't know why it had a small tank under it and a hole in the tank (ok that's an overflow and sump)~ made plenty of errors~ bought cheap equipment then bought the right stuff:redface: started with very little information....bought 2 RBTA just past cycling:redface: ....still have a clone of the RBTA that is ok.....lost plenty of livestock and plenty of money but now it is an amazing reef tank! Something to be proud of! And it led us to the 120g and 50g tanks that we keep as well. Not a path I would wish on anyone else...that's for sure!

Go
 

I started with a 4 gallon nano cube that I built. I sold it before I ever added saltwater to it so I could buy a refractometer. I then built a 13 gallon cube so I could put a clownfish in it. After putting a second clown, a 4 gallon sump seemed necessary. This nano tank will be a year old in September or October, so I'm still pretty new at reefing. I've also got a 6 gallon cube (with a 2 gallon sump) housing a mantis shrimp. :twised:
________
LovelyWendie99

Started with a 75 FOWLR. Had did FW about 20 years ago but had always wanted salt. A trip to the Philippines was the nudge to finally do it.

20 years ago, 25 gallon tank with an assload of fish and ug filter! wooty. oh yeah i was to cheap to get crushed coral so i used dolomite, i think it took the water 6 months to clear from the dust.

My first tank was a christmas present in '92. a 20g tank with lava rock, a single blue feather duster on a clam shell and a clown fish being hosted by 4" long hair algae :lol: . Didn't change a thing until '99 when the clownfish died.

My very first sw tank in the 80s was a 108g, which was about the largest you could get back then.

When I restarted on this addiction a few years ago, our first sw tank was a 33g.

Now, I'm up to 280g of total sw volume in 3 display tanks & 2 sump/refugiums.

Anthony

3.5 Gal Pico.
With a green clown goby and some shroom's

72g bowfront with a Berlin skimmer. Still drool over the pics and wonder sometimes.

:cry: My first aquarium as so long ago I dont remember. :cry:

My first saltwater tank was a 6ft. 110G. My first reef aquarium was in 1990 and it was the same tank I have now. A 65g H. :lol: With a dozen in between.

My first tank, 2 1/2 months ago, was and still is a 95gal wave front. My dream tank is to convert a quarter of my basement into a dive in tank ~1000 gal.:mrgreen:

Started out with a 75g in September 05. Wife thought that was a bit big.(Shellie thought a 50 g was big enough) Biggest mistake was not getting a drilled tank and sump. Took our time and percs were the first tenents. Now working on a second tank. Maybe a third. Would like to upgrade main tank to a 220g tank in a year or 2. Fascinating hobby, always learning something new.

Doug

Lets see... Started with a 10g(because I was repeatedly told bigger = better for starting, nano= harder) so I thought, heck, If I can do this, I can do anything! (Little did I know....). That was.... wow, 2.5 or 3 years ago?(I dont even remember, lmao) It cycled fast, (2 weeks), I ended up with beautiful rock, tons of corals, no algae problems, a few snails and hermits, and only 2 20W PCs, in a 10g. So 2.5 months later, a 33 came along, and before it even had more than the 10g's contents plus extra live rock in it, I had a 75g on the way. My current set-up. In the next month, I have a 144g comming along, and everything is going to be done "right" this time. No cheaping out! Haha.

Chris

A 5.5gal. Cleaner shrimp and a yellow tail blue damsel (who is still with me) three years ago. The tank is now the sump on my 16gal. It was really cool because it was in the bedroom and the lights (2 9watt screw in coralife CF) were on a wireless remote.

-Pauli

my first set up was a 155 gal system.. the same one I am running now less the 25 gal tank.

Steve

Hmmm. Tough to answer.
Technically, my first SW was a small...20g?...30g?....way back in....'75?...'76?, but I failed miserably and it was up and running for all of one or two months. Originally, it was my first FW tank and then tried SW with it when I upgraded FW to a 60g. It was so long ago I hardly remember a thing about, other than I didn't know what the heck I was doing:redface:. I was only like 15 at the time.
Otherwise....the 135g Reef I started in Feb 2005....which is now a FOWLR and the Reef is a 180g.

Cheers:smile:,

I started with a 90g and no fish experience with predictable results, found this site and now have 90g tank with things done right, (I hope) and am currently starting to stock it after an 18 month hiatus since moving houses. I am looking for frags, Brad are you there?? Rachel

My first salt water tank is my present 130 gal display with a 30 gal sump started fall 2004

My first way back when was a 66 drilled with a home made trickle filter full of bio balls i had to order from the states for like a million dollers with blue damsel and a lion fish.

didn't know they eat damsels

My first saltwater tank (since I've had freshwater since I was knee high to a grasshopper)...was a 10 gallon (FOWLR) with damsels that a friend ditched at my house which has been taken down since then and the damsels brought to other homes (they were evil I tell you EVIL!!).
I never wanted a salt tank until I had enough room for a big one and was on my own...but....I didn't get much of a choice. After that was a 25 nano reef since someone I was seeing at the time twisted my arm and had me convert an old dumpy white's tree frog tank into it, I still have that tank going now (the corals are outgrowing it) along with the perma cicling 75 gallon in my entrance :P.
When I finish this semester I'll get around to finishing that one since I'll have more time and money....
-hides from Callum, Ivy, John and Tom-

my first tank is the one i have running now, it was a 33 gallon sump for my brothers tank which he gave to me along with some corals he didnt want any more; a couple of leathers, when he got a bigger one about a year ago, maybe a little longer, i cant remember. i removed the ballasts and it is now sittin on a new stand i have made.

33G
actually it is the only one I have. Started a few months ago, keeping mushrooms and stuff
getting ready to change my 75 over

First SW tank was in my old house ... 330G reeftank ... a few of the Calgary/Edmonton/BC reefers were there for a reefmeet a few years back ... loved that tank
< sniff > :lol:

A 10g "reef", started 17 months ago. I was bored with our FW tank, and similar to Chris' story, I figured if I could make that work, I could deal with anything. It is still running, although it has been eclipsed by our newer 50g+sump in my heart. Now I'm an amateur plumber, electrician, lab technician, and lighting technician. (and I thought it was about fish - HA!) And, I've gone from thinking I could figure it all out to understanding that I'll never know anything...

I'm still loving the newness.

I started my first saltwater experience with a 0.75 Gallon Pico just over a year ago and now I have a 30 gallon reef.

I just getting ready to tear down my first Reef, a 28 gallon bowfront, Started out with 130 watt PC, and a cpr bakpak. All equipment was used at the time.

Now just starting to get the 90 going.

Robb

My very first tank was my 175 gal. I always said go big or go home. Three years later though and i am regretting it a bit. I am finding it hard to find the time to maintain a tank this size. Water changes are always a mess. If I was to do it again I would probally start with 25gal to 50gal. That way everything is cheaper and when i learned more about the hobby i could upgrade then.

150 gallons with a 50 gallon sump. Biggest mistake? Putting it in my bedroom. But I did have water changes well worked out - CanadianMan had the insight to build a tap into my plumbing that I could just attach a vinyl hose to and send water straight to the bathroom and down the toilet. Then I pumped water up the stairs and into the tank. Regrets? It was bigger than I needed, and although it was a succesful tank with a bright future, my plans changed hardly a year later and it never had the chance to grow into what it could have been.