What Dragged You In?

[MadBrad527]

So as the thread title asks itself, and I have heard several different stories already about this, but how/what introduced you into reefing? I'd love to hear how you got into the time-consuming (but incredible!) hobby and perhaps also how you introduced others into it as well.

Personally, I was introduced by my father. Around ten years ago, I had a freshwater pet frog that was only supposed to live about 4-5 years, but I had mine live for much longer than that, so Froggy was a very close member to our family. Well, let's just say one day I came home and he wasn't in the tank. He wasn't on the floor. He wasn't anywhere in the house to be found. In fact, to this day I have no idea where he went, but he's gone. Anyways, we then took the 10g tank that he was living in, and gave it to my father. He then got introduced to the reefing hobby from some online saltwater website, since he has had a saltwater aquarium before that only had fish. He made this into a small nano reef that is still running to this day. Unfortunately it's overgrown by HA and he has been struggling to get everything back in tact. Anyways, this sprung me into wanting my own. And now here I am with my good 'ole 40g.

Please share your stories, I'm sure we'd all love to hear them. I'm also hoping this thread hasn't been created yet, that would be embarrasing!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Embarrassed to say but we had a young daughter at the time and Nemo was the movie to watch and that's what did it! LOL! Yep finding Nemo! There I said it. Flame away!

 

[Squishie89]

Well I was already an animal person. I loved the look of saltwater fish, but was afraid of the commitment, so the plan was to "get my feet wet" so to speak with freshwater and do that for a while before "upgrading" to saltwater. I then went to Australia for vacation and took a cruise in the great barrier reef (scuba dived 6 times there). I came back home and decided I would go straight for salt. I got some books but they made everything SO complicated, but then I got the book by Michael Paletta and everything made sense, and I felt that I could do it. I then dived head first into the hobby with a 90g tank with all the accesseries in September 2012. And pretty much since the tank is just another one of my animal children (that just seems to cost a lot more money for upkeep). But I am glad I didn't do freshwater, I think there are some great FW fish, but salt is where I belong.

 

[ritter6788]

I haven't seen Finding Nemo! I promise! I had 3 younger kids then and I still haven't seen finding Nemo! Haha!


I got started when my 7 year old oscars died from a heater malfunction in my freshwater tank. My wife said "why don't you do a salt tank?" I'm sure she regrets that now!

My FW tank was cool though. I had local bream in there at one time. :xd: Bream are crazy in an aquarium. I haven't seen any fish eat like they do.

 

[Clearwater]

Got the bug from my father in law. Except he broke his down and now every time he comes over he gets the itch! Haha. Payback

 

[Bjohn]

I first started from a school project surprisingly. Part of a first year engineering project I had to do was to make a Rube Goldberg machine to do a simple task. My team decided that we wanted to make ours feed a fish. So I went out and bought a Betta, and kept it in my friend's residence. As I didn't live in residence I ended up taking the fish. That grew to picking up an old 10 gallon tank in November, stocked it with freshwater. I then bought my 37 gallon saltwater tank in January. You could say the bug took hold pretty fast. I am so happy I got that Betta.

 

[Deinonych]

I got the bug from my 11yo son. I set up a freshwater aquarium for him about a year and a half ago, with the understanding that he would research all the livestock and learn to maintain it. He checked out countless books from the library and became the resident expert on freshwater fish. His enthusiasm got me interested and I spent the next 9 months researching marine aquariums and how to properly care for the livestock. Needless to say, I'm hooked now.

 

[jservedio]

Was on vacation in Asheville about 4 years ago and the B&B we were staying at had a FOWLR in the wall and one of the shops we were in had a reef that was probably around 100g LPS/Softy reef and once I saw all the color and movement I knew I had to have one. My FW planted happened to crash about 2 years later from an extended power outage (lost all the fish -gave away all the plants) and decided to dive right into reefing with that same tank. It's now a 20g SPS dominant reef that went "over budget" by around 5x over the past year.

 

[Dylan J.]

I grew up and have lived in florida my whole life and so one way or another I've became fascinated with aquatic life, whether it was when I was 10yrs old running around n collecting things out of a ditch behind my house or in the nearest pond catching things. Once I went to High School there was an elective called Marine Science which gave a basic over view of Marine Life and on my spare time I was already taking care of a 55g planted freshwater tank, soon after I was brave enough to start a 20Gallon Long. That same year I was introduced to a program called Ocean Bowl which was a competitive group of jeopardy style questions that went to Miami and FIT college to compete with other local schools of coarse our 2 teams came in 1st and second .....getting off track haha anyways I soon upgraded into a 40Gallon Breeder and I'm sure it wont be long till I upgrade to a bigger tank haha. I have done freshwater tanks for about 6years and salt water tanks to about 2years and I am now 20yrs old and I don't think I'm going to be leaving this hobby any time soon haha

Fresh Water 55g Tank:
[video=youtube;CBRQGguAwks]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBRQGguAwks[/video]


Salt Water 40gallon Breeder Tank:
[video=youtube;oeLMBr98EUA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeLMBr98EUA[/video]

 

[AZDesertRat]

In about 1979 or 1980 my son and I became very good friends with the owner of a LFS who had a young son on the list for an organ transplant. His condition worsened and eventually they had to close up shop. This was close to Christmas so my son and I bought about 12 or 15 of his 30G display tanks, filters, heaters and lights, stocked them all with Damsels and Clowns and sold them to pay for our own Christmas.

We helped the owner out by purchasing everything from him and helped ourselves by not having to go into debt for Christmas. Boy was it fun for awhile though, we had every flat surface in the house occupied by a tank or two for a month or more until they were all gone and this was in the days before the internet and craigslist!

The funny one is how my reef hobby got me into the beer homebrewing hobby when all I set out to do was get a CO2 bottle filled for my calcium reactor, but that is a diffent story!

We have both been in the saltwater hobby ever since.

 

[saliva911]

Embarrassed to say but we had a young daughter at the time and Nemo was the movie to watch and that's what did it! LOL! Yep finding Nemo! There I said it. Flame away!

love that movie me and my son still watch it

 

[saliva911]

my sister bought a a nano cube when i lived with her i always had cichlids and she figured it was the same wrooong everything died so i studied up on keeping everything alive and when i moved she told me to take the tank.so my sister got me started

 

[eliramos]

Ohh man well my uncle had a 210 gallon long aquarium i would sit in front of it for hours and hours since i was little. I still can and its basically empty but theres just something about being able to be in the ocean without actually being in it, all the life and possibilities, its mesmerizing. needless to say once i got a job and could afford a tank of my own it wasn't even a question! i may have to get another side job just to get these lights i want but you'll never hear me complain. These fish become like your kids and you want whats best for them!

 

[xrayjeeper83]

I had few tanks, I love puffers but the fw side of puffers is very limited so I took the plunge and went to the dark side(the cookies are better here). Started with a green spotted puffer that I still have and will never part with, no matter how evil she is becoming lol

 

[Mike in CT]

My older brother (17 years my elder ) had a fish only tank when I was a kid.
This is when undergravel filters were state of the art! He eventually gave his up when he started a family.... And that almost happened to me until one of my fish hit the 10 year mark and I decided I owed it to him to redo his tank since it had been running for over 12 years. One thing led to another and now I am on my way to a full blown reef. My kids love the tank and it gives them am alternative to looking at a LCD screen.. Lol

 

[Mrfresh]

I was 11 and my told me she would buy me a starter kit tank if I eat my veggies... I cleaned that plate.
That got me into aquariums. A few years later, and finding melevsreef website (giving me the know how) , I started my first sw tank.
I took a little break while in the military but once I got out I started a reef tank.

 

[Aquaph8]

Older brother got me in and then quit a month later so I got all his stuff. Rev dont feel bad, I watch Nemo too along with Sponge Bob and all the rest. I like cartoons.

 

[sredzins]

My girlfriend got me hooked. She insisted we stop at a lfs we always pass and have always wondered about. I walked in an was amazed... walked out with a tank and all the equipment necessary to start cycling. I bet she regrets making me go in their now haha

 

[ntime60]

I've always had critters as far back as I can remember. My grandfather owned a bait shop and my grandmother opened a freshwater aquarium store in the same building. Sounds like a match made in heaven...right?

From my grandmother, I have always had all sorts of tropical fish over the years. I got out of the hobby for a while, when I was in the Navy; where I was trained and became a certified diver. I didn't get reef fever until I dove off the coast of the Bahamas, that single experience changed me for life.

I am forever amazed with the diversity of life on a reef, even in our little slices of reef.