Did anybody here start out with reef?

[phi delt reefer]

i've never had any pets or even a fish tank growing up.

i did buy my daughter a betta tank to keep her happy while i spent a year building my reef system.

i went live in july 2011 and am already keeping sps. My advice, wait the 6 months like everyone says before getting into sps. I put SPS in like 2 months after my tank cycled and it barely grew. Now its finally taking off but my tank went through some disgusting algae outbreaks and two serious month long dino blooms. If i wasnt so deep into my tank financially i would have tore it down but i am glad i kept it.

I dont mess with my tank too much now that i have it dialed in. I have lots of live rock/bio media - filter socks - powerful skimmer and lots of flow. Lots of fish help as well for SPS love to eat fish poop. I only do a 10% water change once every one or two weeks and havent had a nitrate or phosphate issue. And i feed heavy and my tank is heavily stocked.

stick with it - like Mike said - Rome wasnt built in one day