Why do YOU love the hobby?

Expensive, frustrating, never satisfied, addicting.

Come to think of it, why do I love it?

 

Was a busy time that's for sure, down to 1 tank now, and thats enough for anyone, although the 1200 in there waiting for the day to come .

Next weekend we are setting up a 400 gallon in my mates garage for his "fish sales", I will try and do some photos and update the group.

I simply love being involved in fish and aquariums !

 

LG...Lilly's Granddad..yup thats me...Lilly was only about a year and a half..and it was "Finding Nemo" that she loved so much (like SO many others).. so a 30 gallon starter..I'll never forget what my friend said when he gave it to me.."it has everything you need" LOL..wow..what an understatement that was. : )
Well, Lilly is almost 7 now...she has since moved on to Barbies..and I have moved on to 90 gallons. : )
I am hopelessly addicted.
But...I still catch her looking in on them now and again. ; )

 

I am brand new to the hobby, as far as having my own personal reef tank. We are in the process of putting together the filtration system at this point, so we haven't added the water yet...

However, I have wanted my own reef tank for years. My love for these little saltwater ecosystems started when I went to Sea World in San Antonio, TX, as a young kid. My love for the ocean started probably the first time I ever went to the beach (can't remember because I was about 6 months old, but I looked like I was having a blast in the pictures). As a kid my dream career was to be a marine biologist and work at Sea World. I even made it so far as to get into college for Ocean and Coastal Resources. Well, that ended up falling through because I wasn't quite ready for college at that point, and I was questioning my career goals. I did take an Aquatic Science class in high school, and we had a saltwater tank. It was awesome! It was incredibly frustrating though because we had old school equipment and it was extremely hard to keep stuff alive. All our fish ended up dying over Christmas break, so that sucked.

I am finally getting serious about the hobby now that my husband and I both have stable jobs, and we settled down in a house. We've had a lot of crazy stuff happen to us that is completely out of our control, so it's nice to have something of our own that we can at least attempt to control. I also think saltwater tanks are beautiful in a house and therapeutic.

 

My love of aquatic critters stems from childhood, my brother and I would use our wading pool for pollywogs & crayfish we found in the creek. After going to the beach and the public aquariums I was fascinated by the diversity of life. My parents wouldn't let me have a tank but I had a cousin who had a marine tank and just loved to go there and watch it.

After I was an adult I wanted t get a saltwater tank but at the time equipment and livestock were so expensive and the setup seemed too complicated with 3 young kids to care for too, so for years I settled for FW tanks. Finally I decided to look into it again and found 3reef and all the helpful folk here and took the plunge.

 

I've lived foot steps away from the ocean all my life, Warm waters? No.. %$#& cold waters? Yes. In Northern Canada. I've always had an interest in marine life since I was small catching crabs/lobsters and small jellies, Watched countless Nat Geo shows on the great open blue.. But it wasn't till I've moved to Florida, Fort Myers to be with my wife that I've felt in love with the abundant amount of life in the warmer parts of the water.. lol corals and colorful fish... But I'm only 24 but the ocean is my best friend. 8)

 

Because I have done this for a while...

P9280069 by DiverNole, on Flickr

And seen this...

Queen Angel by DiverNole, on Flickr

Christmas Tree by DiverNole, on Flickr


I wanted to bring some of that home! Pure Joy!!!

 

lillys Grandad

..yep I can relate to that! My little half brother always watches the tank with a look on his face like "where's Nemo?". He watches that movie at least 2x a day.

riverchel

That was mine too! Since I was like 8, because I'd always been infatuated with the ocean life. Well, here I am now, 14, and coming back to it! I feel as if it's one of those things where I might have some points where I'm not interested in it, but it will always come back to me.

SkyFire

what are pollywogs?:biggrinbo And I understand the whole watching-the-tank thing. Apparently at Seaworld when I was a kid I would cry when my parents tried pulling me away from the tanks

N00ZE

To this day,my favorite shows are ones like Blue Planet, Life, and Planet Earth. Their technology is insane!

I can relate to that. Sometimes, if my siblings and I need to get away, we go to a local beach at night with some of our friends and just walk. It's so pretty under the stars, and me makes me feel at ease.

 

Yep, I have all the box sets! lol

 

Of course my favorite episodes of Planet Earth/Life are the ocean ones... it's just in my blood I guess I could watch them over and over, and still find the content extremely fascinating.