What got you into reefkeeping?

[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"

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 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 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"

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 .

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!