How did you get into it?

Back in the olden days when I was in High School, the gym I went to had a pet store next to it. Before or after working out (or sometimes before AND after), I would go into the store and just stare at those few saltwater tanks. I set up a 9 gallon eclipse nano and the rest is history. Eventually, I had 1100 gallons of saltwater tanks in my house.

 

Hubby and I have had FW for years and although we liked it, we both kept saying we always wanted to go with SW but were too afraid that it was too hard, too much work and too expensive. Well, his job transferred us to Richmond and we hadnt met too many people and had a lot of time on our hands, so we decided to take the plunge. I had looked at a 55 at petco and we were just going to do FO....got on google and searched for other SW stores and found our local LFS. We went one night just to look at stock, met the owner Joe and by the time we left, we had purchased a 75 with stand, PC lights (that he threw in for free), sand and LR and he was coming over the next week to set it up...he knew that it wouldnt take long for us to be completely hooked. Within 2 months, we had gotten involved in a local reef club, upgraded to a 150, switched to MH and have gone with a full blown mixed reef.

And we are talking about setting up a 70 FOWLR in our bedroom so we can keep some of the fish that are not reef safe!

 

My pregnant wife and I decided to go with a fish theme for the nursery, wheather it was a boy or a girl. She wanted to get one of those battery powered aquarium things for the crib and I said that I have always wanted to try a salt water tank, so here I am. The tank was running 6mo before she was born. She's 5 1/2 mo now and love looking at her fish. The wife says I have to build another for the next baby. Oh well.

 

I started with goldfish after winning one at the state fair. Then moved on to tropicals off and on for twenty years. Then about 10 years ago decided to try a FO SW but wasn't happy with the way it worked out and converted it to FW planted. Tired of it and got out.
About 3 years ago decided to get back in with another planted tank. About a year and half later decided to do SW and wanted to try a reef. So here I am on 3reef learning and helping others where I can.

 

Well I am an animal lover. I've had cats, dogs, birds, bunnies, parrots, ducks, snakes horses. YOU NAME IT.. so When I was little maybe 6-7 I had a fresh water tank with goldfish, cichlids, and many others.. But when my parents moved to the us we had to give them up.. Then when we were living here at Georgia, I asked my parents for a pet. A dog or a cat but they said no because that kind of animals were no good for my little sister since she has this disease(not goin to details but she hadn't been born when I did have all sorts of pets).
So at the very end tired of trying I said.. Ok a fish tank like the one we had. They said ok cuz they know how much I love animals. So we went in search for fish at petco. I didn't liked their stuff. So I asked my brother in law if he knew of any other places since he got a tank they gaved him for free. He said he knew a place named "nemo fish store" and me having seen the movie went for it... Go figure..Lol

we went to the store and I came out with a 29g and two days later I bought a tang and a clown and plastic ornaments ( I dint know about cycles or ammonia or tangs needing bigger tanks).. After 6 months everything went downhill and I lost my fish due to ich. While they were sick I was looking in the Internet and I found 3reef. From then on I learned so much and I even upgraded to my 150. And made my 29g a reef tank. I love this [STRIKE]addiction[/STRIKE] hobby.. Lol

 

Having some/ may say to many drinks with a friend, wandered into petco... and HAD to have a tank... lol from there the tanks got larger faster after reading online. Hobby is very addicting and enjoyable. Im glad to have had those few drinks

 

K+ for an awesome thread, and I'm sorry if it gets shut down for this.

I blame the thousands I've dumped into this completely on Pixar's Finding Nemo. I'm sure this is a common story. After seeing the movie my son looked at my oscar tank and said, "that's not Nemo." That was the start of my long downhill trip towards the reef. I threw some crushed coral in an old 20g tall I had and hooked up an HOB filter. Of course I knew nothing of marine fish care at the time, so within two days I had a happy little Nemo in the tank. I'm still not sure how that overzealous en devour would of ended, because within a week I walked in my sons room to find Nemo caught in a net dangling in the tank. I decided he was too young for such a pet and hung it up to dry (for good I thought).

About four years after that Bio Cubes started coming out, and I was hooked. Naturally, we still have characters from Finding Nemo swimming around our living room.

Oh, just for the record when I returned to marine fish, I dug that old crushed coral out of the closet, and it sits under the sand in my tank to this day.

 

Well my story goes as this.I had a small 10 gal FW when I was young.had it going with no probs for a couple of years,then went on a family vacation with good old uncle watchin the place.well we come home to a note saying this that and oh p.s the fish all died...do you belive he left the dead fish in the tank for me to come home to...needless to say i hung it up for years till I found an old 55gal out for the garbage and started over w/FW..that lasted only a year before I found myself staring badly at the SW fish..sooo I went for it (FOWLR) and as my taste changed I went reef and here I am today(all with the help of 3reef)..cant wait to have a house to set up a nice size inwall tank....This hobby rocks...

 

I helped a neighbor build a patio cover, and he asked me if I wanted the 75g Oceanic in his garage, as his kids were coming home from college, and he needed the space. I really did not want it, but did not want to hurt his feelings. So after a month of him calling and asking when I was coming over to get it. I finally loaded it up. After it sat in my garage for another month. I was bored 1 day and asked the wife if she wanted to set it up. We literally fell in love with it. It was so beautiful. ( I look at the pics now and laugh, how amature it really looked). Well we had to buy another for the other side of the room. I then started looking at the Saltwater, and knew I had to move up and learn. I found my 150 drilled on CL. As they say, the rest is history!! I know have 7 running tanks 5 fresh and 2 salt.

 

We had kept freshwater cichlid tanks as well as discus for years and had always wanted a marine tank but never had the extra cash to set one up. One day we were bored and looking in the free section on craigslist and found a couple who was giving away a complete 16 gallon set up with everything, even some fish. They were moving and couldnt take the tank with them so somehow we actually lucked out and were the ones they chose to take the tank. We brought it home and set everything up, and it just snowballed from there. We upgraded 3 months later to a 40 gallon reef and now have plans to go even bigger once we get out of our apartment and into a permanent home.