How did you get into it?

Well I got into this hobby in a weird and unexpected way. My friend and I were really bored so he decided to get a pet he had a long long time ago. A hermit crab. So we biked to petco which was right around the corner and said, wow these are boring as ****. Lets get a fish tank! My dad had one so we thought we would both give it a try. We both got 10 gallon tanks. We had no idea what test kits were or test strips even so we filled her up with tap water, running to eachothers houses back and forth, added the water conditioner it came with, and waited. We would constantly be going to petco to either get decor, gravel, anything you could think of. A few days later we went to a fish store about 30 mins away and bought some cool freshwater fish, anxious as hell. Well then we saw the really expensive fish at petco, not knowing they were saltwater and saw a nemo and had to get it. Well once asking, we found out it needed saltwater so we dropped that idea quickly. Well we both went on with our tanks and he lost interest in it but i on the other hand, had, just begun my adventure, and had to have a nemo and had to somehow make this a saltwater tank. this is when i was constantly on google researching ext. I eventually converted the 10 gallon and got more and more into saltwater. Didnt know anything about skimmers or anything, just knew how to operate a HOB. Not needing to go into the history of my tanks, that is how i got into it. If it werent for that stupid friend i would never be here and would be up about 3 grand ;D jk i love this hobby. But I went from not knowing how to operate a HOB and having not a clue about nitrate and nitrite and ammonia, to learning about, and eventually owning phosphate reactors, skimmers, sumps, overflows, dosers, wavemakers, and knowing about calcium, magnesium, ext. Its amazing that it went from a set up freshwater setup for about $100 to a full blown saltwater setup for god only knows how much money. And it was all because of a friend who wanted a hermit crab!!!!!!

So please, share your stories about how you got hooked to this hobby and how you got introduced. Thanks!

 

i got into it to fill a space. lol . my hot water heater blew up in may 2008. carpet was soaked , so decided to totally redo my basement . turned it into my man cave. put drycore on the floor and cherry laminate. once i got my tv and stereo all set up , had a big empty space and wasnt sure what to put there. well as you can see and guess, that i filled it with my 1st sw tank. i did alot of reading for 3 or 4 months , and ordered my setup from my lfs. had them do the setup because basically i had no idea whatsoever what i was doing. thats how i got here, all because of a lousy hot water heater.

 

Cool Thread K+, Well, I suck at tellin stories but my story goes like this. Back about 10yrs ago I moved from chicago to atlanta and met a neighbor who had a betta fish and he told me about them so I decided to get one, then we decided that we could try to breed this. Didnt have much success keeping the fry alive. Anyhow, he then purchased a 20g tank and some cichlids and I got a 30g tank and some cichlids. Did that for a while and even succesfully bred a convict with a firemouth and sold the fry to the lfs. I went on to purchase a saltwater tank, fish only w/ LR, had some cool stuff, made plenty mistakes and learned alot. Didnt have access to the internet of 3reef back then so it was all trial and error. Then about 2005 I got accepted into a carribean medical school and tore everything done and sold my livestock but kept my rock and equipment. After coming home 2008 I came back strong, did all my research and now have a reef, a freshwater and settin up a pico. I am so addicted to this hobby and even though I've spent so much, I know that when I get residency I will have to tear it down again but once I'm done and a fully licensed doc I'll be finally be able to set up a huge reef, lookin forward to that maybe more than my medical degree lol. I will be gettin married soon and my table favors for people to take home will be betta fish in those bowls you get at the lfs etched with the names of me and my bride. So... thats my brief summary of a story, told ya I suck at tellin stories but glad I could share with all of you.

 

My whole life has alway been around water. Whether it was FW, SW or just fishing. I honestly taught myself how to swim. I feel more at home in the water than any other place. I started with a FW tank and lasted about 6 month. One day when I went to my LFS to buy a FW fish, I dared to go to the OTHER side of the store where they had the SW tanks. I can honestly say that I mopped the floor with my jaw. I was like a kid in a Toys-R-us store, with all the ew's and aw's with it. I've been a saltie ever since that day and that was about 1987, so do the math.



luna

 

saw a friends tank and decided i would work in the summers (lot harder than i thought to get the money i needed for a fish tank) on a farm. but man is it worth it!!

 

I was about 13yrs old when I got my first freshwater tank. It was during that summer working for my dad and to pay me for my help we went to the local walmart and he bought a 30gallon setup. I had that for many years and when my older sister moved out she also got a 30gal but it was saltwater since then I always wanted to show her up so when I moved out I got a 125gal and love this expensive hobby ever since. Now she wants me to set her up with something better.

 

I always had fresh water fishtanks and they were way to easys to keep up ( i am some one who enjoys a challenge). I also spend most of my life in around water fishing, boating, diving, ect. Then my friends dad got one and he failed at it he would buy a coral and it was dead before he bought a secound one. I started asking him how everthing works ( not the best source) so for about 6 months I read books and seached online for all the info i could get then I final found this web site and spoke to my friends dad about it he basical told me that I would fail and not be able to do it . So now I had a point to prove. So I got the ok from my parents and the fun began.

 

I always had freshwater tanks but was so facinated with my uncles reef I started with a nano cube. Then this year I upgraded to a 72 and before I upgraded I knew nothing when I had my nano but learned more and more as my 72grew so I becAme more involved and here I am today.

 

My mom got a little 12 gallon tank and that made me want one. Then I thought about how small freshwater community fish are a little boring (no offense to anybody), so I decided to go saltwater so I could have some big, beautiful fish. I did it pretty spontaneously, because that's what I do. Lol.

This hobby is so much more interesting and fun than I thought it would be, and I absolutely love it!

 

Ive had many FW tanks over the years. I like them and there are some very nice FW tanks out there. I tried to make them as pretty as I could but I would get bored with them after awhile. To me the fish arent as pretty and get kind of boring after awhile. I always wanted a SW tank but was to cheap to take the plunge. A friend of mine had 3 and offered to sell me his 72 for real cheap. So I tore down my 55 FW and set up the 72 SW. I couldnt be happier.