What got you into reefkeeping?

[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.

[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. coolest bugs ever. maybe this'll help...

[mark]

As I said in this thread, 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

[Doug]

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

[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 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.... )