What got you into reefkeeping?

[Lydia]

I can't remember if I wanted a tank when I was a child, but I do remember always liking seahorses. Growing up I was allowed to have gerbils, but there was no money for anything like an aquarium. I moved around a bit after leaving home, finally settling in Alberta in a newly purchased house in 1992. 6 months later I took my young children into Pisces to buy a handful of colorful gravel for a cactus plant. And came out with a 25 gallon tank. It was on sale! And so it started... A few years later a 10 gallon fry tank came along. Both were FW, and I fell in love with livebearers (even brought some Endlers home on a plane from Ontario one year). And every trip to the LFS had me looking at the seahorses, whenever they were there... I knew that one day, when I had the time and the money, I would keep seahorses...

Well, that time came September 1st, 2007 - the day I made my last truck payment I got tank #3 - a 55 gallon bowfront corner unit. A real beauty. I quickly found out that captive bred seahorses were few and far between, so after a few months I bought a Royal Gramma to hold me till I found the right breeder. When that time came, a year after I had the tank set up, I bought tank #4 (20 gallon hex) to house the Royal Gramma (who I knew by then would be too aggressive with the seahorses). The seahorses were great! But they were not practicing safe sex, so I knew I had to separate the males from the females. Along comes tank #5 (25 gallon tall)... A bit of shuffling saw the Gramma moved to the 25 gallon, and the female seahorses into the hex. And since one should have a QT, tank #6 has been kicking around for awhile now, too. It currently stocks a peppermint shrimp and a clownfish (ha! Got a Nemo jab in here - LOL) that will eventually go in with the Gramma.

Tank #7 will be a much bigger tank, for now I think I want to keep a "Dory"... But shhhh, we don't talk about tank #7 just yet

[TheMikey]

When I was really young my parents had a small 10G tank that we kept under the TV. When we moved to our new house when I was 5, it was relegated to the attic. For Christmas a few years later we gave my dad a 33g tank for Christmas and we just kept it as a a FO FW tank (which has been up and running for over 11 years now - through two wipes).

I've always had an interest in Saltwater fish over freshwater because of how very unique, colourful, and challenging they were. However, I never seriously considered diving into the hobby as everyone always told me that it would be too expensive, too time consuming and too difficult (only one of which was actually the case). So I held off on actually starting a tank because I always though you had to have a BIG saltwater tank to make it work. And as a student, this was unavailable due to costs and space constraints.

Then I found nano-reef.com! And all of a sudden saltwater was viable! After eight months of research (mainly because I was in Europe and couldn't set up a tank overseas) I ran out and bought a used 15G tank and stand, brought it home, and got wet.

Initially it started out as a FOWLR setup but, after two weeks I figured that I wasn't quite spending enough money on my addiction and set up some more powerful lights and got into reefing!

[aquajeep]

I used to stare for hours looking at my moms oscars and large red tail shark when i was really young.i won a 10 gallon fish tank starter kit from good ol chow town (now total pet) i had basic fish and got board quick, thats when the net came out and bam i got 2 larg oscars in a ten gallon tank.lol. bred malwi and tang. chichlids then bred bettas.got into saltwater in gr.7 but never heard of live rock ect.. so had little luck. finally my day has come! wahuahhahahah! now i have nemo traped in a box!

[StirCrazy]

for me it was the internet, and this board, one day I just happened to see a reef tank on the internet and then some one told me about this board.. 20K or so later

Brad where the heck were we when we heard about can reef?????? I remember it was a brand new board but for the life of me I can't remember how I found out about it.

I had kept fresh water for ever and had a couple FO and FOWLR ranks over the years but never a reef with a sump or anything like that so I spend a couple months planning and designing and under threat of having a couple people break into my house and fill my tank with water I decided to start the beast up. I did a ton of DIY and exparamenting with lighting (waisted about 10K on lights for the tank and ones for testing with my PAR meter)

I took it down and sold it about a year ago so I could build a custom tank, but soon after we decided I was retiring and we were going to move to kamloops so I decided to wait and do another tank once I moved so I only have one tank to figure out how to move instead of two.

Steve

[my2rotties]

I inherited an old run down 44g tank with a foxface and four evil damsels in it. The people that owned the house before us left it here. I had no idea of how to care for it, and had no internet to do any research. It was in a big bay window with no backing in it, the hair algae and mess was astounding... It was a nightmare... but we stuck with it.

A year ago I bought my 260g from a canreef member and we had to cut it apart to get it out of the fellow's basement... we just put it back together in September, then cycled it and added livestock to it in December.

As a teen I worked in a pet store and had a freshwater tank for a very long time. Then before we moved I always had three nice bowls with Bettas in them. They all lived three or four years. They were so easy going to care for...

[Rbacchiega]

I saw a fox coral. And wanted it. So I started a tank, didn't know anything, figured it couldn't be THAT hard...and the addiction began. Besides my Discus and Threadfins, I can honestly say that I don't think I will ever have a freshwater tank again.

[Mrfish55]

Originally Posted by Rbacchiega

I saw a fox coral. And wanted it. So I started a tank, didn't know anything, figured it couldn't be THAT hard...and the addiction began. Besides my Discus and Threadfins, I can honestly say that I don't think I will ever have a freshwater tank again.

You mean you can buy and keep freshwater fish also?




Seriously though I have had fish for 27 years now (man I'm getting old!) started with the typical 10gal, had 16 tanks running at one time from 10 to 135 gallons all fresh, 16 years ago decided to try a salt tank, started with a 33gal upped to a 60 then to 77 then to 180 and finally at the current 300 (also have a 30 gal seahorse tank (soon to be 90gal corner) and a 15gal cube (fresh) Have worked off and on at the local fish shop for 20years.