How did you get into the hobby?

[SAMS]

How did you get into the saltwater hobby?

Personally I have been involved with our family water filtration (reverse osmosis) business here in UK for 11 years and my father has kept Koi Carp for many years.
I also had the chance to go to Interzoo in Nuremberg (Germany) in 2014, that's when the fishkeeping bug truly bit me.
I originally wanted to keep freshwater or discus, but my father managed to persuade me to go down the saltwater route as he said (at the time) that the colour range of fish is so much better.

I will one day look to come over to the US to go to MACNA

 

[andrewkw]

In 2005 my sister wanted to get fiddler crabs. I was helping her research them and discovered they are actually brackish water and not freshwater like how they are sold in stores. She lost interest at this point and I turned the 15g that she was going to use into a nano reef. Hard to believe that was almost 15 years ago...

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

Welcome to R2R! Love your tank too!! Is it custom built?

I got the saltwater ich from visiting a friends house and seeing his 8ft tank. I had never seen anything like it then or even now. Every square inch of that tank had is own biome and literally looked like it was straight from a coral reef!

 

[LadyMac]

I blame a forum. Actually a forum member. @Reefing Madness to be exact. Just seeing his massive setup and all the fish he has shown off and everything.

 

[MTBake]

I was waiting for a pizza order to finish getting ready. There was a saltwater only lfs right next door. I walked in there while I was waiting. I was absolutely amazed at what they had. Ended up setting up a 55 gallon the next day. This was back in 2004. Got everything from that store for my first 2 years in the hobby. Live rock from Fiji, Tonga, Indo and Bali was in that tank. I sure do miss the quality live rock you could get back then.

 

[SAMS]

Welcome to R2R! Love your tank too!! Is it custom built?

I got the saltwater ich from visiting a friends house and seeing his 8ft tank. I had never seen anything like it then or even now. Every square inch of that tank had is own biome and literally looked like it was straight from a coral reef!

Thankyou.
And yea it is custom built by a company called Aquariums4life here in the UK

 

[Dragon52]

I've been in & out since the 70s, worked part time in a fish store & managed to get my hands on a 55gl Acrylic tank for cheap. I now have a 185gl but would like to go up to 300 except wife says no. LOL

 

[Jon Fishman]

My daughter wanted glo-fish. Spent $45 and thought that was crazy. My kids cleaned out a fish-bowl we had (with soap) and the fish made it less than 36 hours.

I used her desire to have a fish, as an excuse to buy a secondhand SW setup that had no fish, just rocks. It exploded from there.

I went from a glo-fish to an 8’ reef and an octopus tank in < 1yr