Why do YOU love the hobby?

So I'm starting this thread because I want to hear your input on why you love the hobby so much. What made you addicted? How did you get into the hobby? I'd love to hear everyone's stories, as well as share my ownSo here goes!

My dad is a guide fisherman, therefore I've had tanks in my house all my life. Living in Naples, FL, I had the beach in my backyard, where I was exposed to the saltwater ecosystems. My dad would always take us out in his skiff and teach us all about our vast backyard. I've always been taken with the life, and whenever we'd go to the keys, the vibrant colors and beautiful corals would stay imprinted in my mind.

Last June I bought a female betta fish (Lulu)on a random whim with my friend Kendall, as I'd never kept fish by myself, much less thought they were cool. Well, at first I kept my betta in a half gallon but realised it was sad. I thought it was sick and I started to do research. I realised I had provided inadequate care for this animal. I bought her a 2 gallon tank, heater, and silk plants. A month later, on my birthday, I bought a 10 gallon tank with my new male betta, Charlie. All the while I was researching and researching. I soon stumbled into the vast coral world online and realised this was where my heart lay.

As the school year started I kept researching. My 7th grade bio science teacher and I were very close, because I already knew 3/4 of the course because of my research. In April he gave me an excess 20 gallon tank with a stand, which is what my reef is today. What I like the most is something my dad's friend mentioned to me: when you have your own reef, you play God. You can decide what goes where, and pretty much control the system; its yours. It's the one thing in life you actually have a grasp on, the one thing that you can change with your fingertips. I feel like these tanks make me calmer in the sense it makes me feel as if my life is actually in control

So that's my story, what's yours?

 

That's a cool story and kind of like mine. I've always had tanks in the house, but I really got interested in saltwater tanks the first day I went to my 8th grade Biology class. The teacher had a very nice custom acrylic saltwater tank. From then on, I've been addicted, but it's an addiction that I enjoy ;D

 

I have no idea where I'd be without my 7th grade teacher! I self fund all parts of my tank, so the actual cost of it would have set me back really far.All the money's worth it though because I kind of spend hours of my day just staring my my tank and I can't believe it all started because of a betta fish. Without it, I wouldn't have ever gotten into fish-keeping. It definitely is an addiction. In fact, tomorrow I will be going to home depot to buy parts for a pvc overflow to hook up a refugium to my tank. As well as dropping by the LFS tomorrow:laughings

 

It all started at the fish store when I was about 5 or 6. Iloved going there to look at the SW tanks in amazement as the rest of the family looked at lizards, bunnies, and puppies. Never actually bought anything though. We lived in VA, so going to the beach as well as the marine science museum stirred up my interest as well.

When I was 14 or 15 I got my first SW tank (a FOWLR). I used tap water, had very little actual rock, just one fish, crushed coral substrate, a single T8 bulb, and a HOB filter with carbon. Kept it like that for about 2 years. Eventually I re-setup 29g as a reef tank. Got the right amount of rock, sugar size aragonite, a good skimmer, LEDs and had it for a year and 7 months. Now I've recently downgraded (2 months ago) to a standard 10g reef (in my signature) and have it rimless, with much of the equipment from my previous tank.

 

Those are gorgeous tanks! and I absolutely agree with you about the bunnies and puppies thing. Most people don't like keeping fish because they can't cuddle with them or train them. They don't really know how beautiful a fish tank can be

And I still catch myself at the LFS looking at the tanks in amazement

 

I lived on the banks of a fresh water lake all my life. While fascinated by trout, crayfish and other little critters, I wanted more.
I started asking my parents to take me to the ocean at a very young age, probably around 5.
Jacques Cousteau TV shows inspired me greatly.
Personally I think some people have a yearning to return to the water, the ocean, I am one of those I guess. Happiness to me are days at the public aquariums, diving, search tide pools.

 

I work all over the world, I have always bought, setup and maintained a tank of some sort, I even built a fish tank in Iraq from some plain old window glass, each person who went "west" would bring things back, we even brought guppies, mollies, and other fish through in our luggage, as the only fish we could get locally were oddly shaped goldfishes
I sat here 2 nights ago and looked at my wondrous underworld kingdom and said, "it's marvelous, I have my very own piece of heaven right here in our home"

I couldn't be without my fish, last year I had a 55gallon in my office, a 400 gallon in the main entrance to the building, a 60 liter bio orb, I also have a 50% share in a 1200 gallon tank that "we" have been promising to set up for almost 2 years, right now I have a 93 gallon marine land cube, and. Love it ! !

 

Corailline--I know what you mean about the whole water thing. There's no place else I feel more secure, safe, and calm, then in the arms of water The beach just seems to clear my mind and allow me to think and act more clearly, and nothing will be able to compete with that feeling.

Scuba Ken-- Wooow! That is a lot of tanks my friend! I wish I could have as much as you, but then again, random people would come into my house because they would think its a public aquarium I completely agree with you about the "slice of heaven". It seems as if I picked a little part of the ocean, and brought it into my home

 

I was a reef kid early on, remember snorkeling in the Bahamas at 7, from there it was onward and upward. I lie in Montana, so its the closest thing I can get to a dive.

 

Being from Australia, its pretty obvious why I wanted a reef tank. I scuba dive the great barrier reef and surrounding areas regularly and I thought it would be sweet to have my own piece of it at home So every day I wasn't diving I could look at it .