What got you started?

[Manny’s Reef]

Curious as to what got you all started in the hobby? What set you off and made you think, "I gotta have a saltwater aquarium."? I bet we have so many unique answers to this.
For me, I was scuba diving in Thailand. We had a port call for 6 days and while the other sailors were busy getting drunk, I was busy diving. I remember finding a massive lionfish. I thought it was going to attack me. It was so chill though. He was like, "sup bro?" only he spoke Thai and not English. Then this massive sea turtle circled around us. I got to hand onto its shell for a bit. When I came back to the surface I immediately wanted to go back in. That got me to thinking about how I could have a piece of this mysterious world in my home. One of the first things I did when I came back stateside was begin looking into the hobby. The rest is history.

And you?

 

[terraincognita]

To be completely honest.

I walked into a fish store in 2011? 2012? and was going to start a FW Oscar tank.

the LFS owner hard sold me on going Salt. My little kid inside went in head first, killed probably 4 fish and 4 frags in 2 months.

Wrong way to start for sure. But now it's a breeze lol. Well. Kind of.

 

[MONTANTK]

Always been into animals but saltwater really stuck. Really liked my cousins tank as a kid so I started looking at fish on petco and found various other sites through there. Got my first tank at 13 and worked at my local LFS from age 15-20 which made the addiction worse lol

 

[Cajun_Reefer]

Curious as to what got you all started in the hobby? What set you off and made you think, "I gotta have a saltwater aquarium."? I bet we have so many unique answers to this.
For me, I was scuba diving in Thailand. We had a port call for 6 days and while the other sailors were busy getting drunk, I was busy diving. I remember finding a massive lionfish. I thought it was going to attack me. It was so chill though. He was like, "sup bro?" only he spoke Thai and not English. Then this massive sea turtle circled around us. I got to hand onto its shell for a bit. When I came back to the surface I immediately wanted to go back in. That got me to thinking about how I could have a piece of this mysterious world in my home. One of the first things I did when I came back stateside was begin looking into the hobby. The rest is history.

And you?

That is AWESOME! I've always wanted to go scuba diving, but I just haven't done it yet- it's on the bucket list for sure!

My story isn't nearly as beautiful as this, but it is a bit comical.

I used to work at PetSmart (which is where I met my husband). I started a cashier and QUICKLY realized I needed to be in the petcare department. I didn't really know anything about fish or reptiles, but as soon as they promoted me, I went home that night and read up on everything I could. I was testing customer's water, helping stock the tanks, cleaning the tanks, feeding the SNAKES , all kinds of cool stuff.

My husband-to-be was a manager at the time, and he'd always "fuss" at me for not fixing the fish ornament aisle. What a jerk.

Anyway, it was a freshwater fish only store. I had no idea how intricate and awesome saltwater was at the time. But my manager/idiot husband did. So when people would come into the store asking for certain saltwater products or had questions that I couldn't answer about saltwater, I'd call Josh on the radio and have him come answer the customers. Hahahaha.

Eventually, he caught on to what I was doing and says: "Okay, freshwater is cool and all... but have you ever seen a saltwater tank?"

 

[dvgyfresh]

I’ve always had reptiles for over 20 years and then fiancé was like “let’s get a fish tank” little did she know.. haha

It evolved though, it started with a 36 gal bowfront goldfish tank, then sold that and got a 40b for saltwater because I’m a tinkerer , saltwater fit that niche incredibly well, now I can’t stop

 

[Manny’s Reef]

That is AWESOME! I've always wanted to go scuba diving, but I just haven't done it yet- it's on the bucket list for sure!

My story isn't nearly as beautiful as this, but it is a bit comical.

I used to work at PetSmart (which is where I met my husband). I started a cashier and QUICKLY realized I needed to be in the petcare department. I didn't really know anything about fish or reptiles, but as soon as they promoted me, I went home that night and read up on everything I could. I was testing customer's water, helping stock the tanks, cleaning the tanks, feeding the SNAKES , all kinds of cool stuff.

My husband-to-be was a manager at the time, and he'd always "fuss" at me for not fixing the fish ornament aisle. What a jerk.

Anyway, it was a freshwater fish only store. I had no idea how intricate and awesome saltwater was at the time. But my manager/idiot husband did. So when people would come into the store asking for certain saltwater products or had questions that I couldn't answer about saltwater, I'd call Josh on the radio and have him come answer the customers. Hahahaha.

Eventually, he caught on to what I was doing and says: "Okay, freshwater is cool and all... but have you ever seen a saltwater tank?"

How romantic!

 

[CanuckReefer]

2 reasons....
Learning to dive in Cayman Islands as a teen when my brother lived there. Still remember my first time. All the fear disappeared, and I was mesmerized at all the busyness and life on the reef. It is still (47 yo) my favourite activity....
Second, in my early twenties, out of the parents home, renting, working steady and flush with money ( remember those days anyone lol), walked into the PJ'S Pets at my local mall and was shocked that you could bring the ocean home with you, I dropped $1500 bucks that day on a 90 gallon bowfront, all the bells and whistles. The girl at the cash register asked for my phone number lol. That really never lasted, but I did discover when we had friends over it was a surprisingly good way to impress the ladies back then ....it was definitely more the reef than myself. Although the lovely wife does enjoy the tank here immensely to this day....

 

[Manny’s Reef]

2 reasons....
Learning to dive in Cayman Islands as a teen when my brother lived there. Still remember my first time. All the fear disappeared, and I was mesmerized at all the busyness and life on the reef. It is still (47 yo) my favourite activity....
Second, in my early twenties, out of the parents home, renting, working steady and flush with money ( remember those days anyone lol), walked into the PJ'S Pets at my local mall and was shocked that you could bring the ocean home with you, I dropped $1500 bucks that day on a 90 gallon bowfront, all the bells and whistles. The girl at the cash register asked for my phone number lol. That really never lasted, but I did discover when we had friends over it was a surprisingly good way to impress the ladies back then ....it was definitely more the reef than myself. Although the lovely wife does enjoy the tank here immensely to this day....

You sound like a sailor! Cool story for sure.

 

[CanuckReefer]

You sound like a sailor! Cool story for sure.

Electrician....but always wanted to be a sailor lol...good topic BTW. Can't wait to see more responses

 

[malacoda]

A 20-year old memory of a one-minute conversation with high-school friend.

When I was ~18, one of my best friends had FW tank. I had no more than 5-minute interest in it and then couldn't really care less about it.

While he was showing to me, he mentioned he thought about trying saltwater but heard it was very, very difficult (this was in ~1989).

Flashforward to 2015...

The last of our kids had just moved out and my wife had also just gotten rid of her piano.

While we were out to breakfast one morning, she said to me, "We have a big, empty spot in the living room. What should we do to fill it?"

For some reason the memory of that highschool friend saying, "I like to try a saltwater aquarium," just flashed into my head ... and I blurted out, "How about a saltwater aquarium?"

Without hesitation she responded, "Ooo... with your attention and obsession to detail, I think that would be a great hobby for you."

The rest is history.

 

[Biglew11]

In the Marines I got stationed on Okinawa in 98. Snorkling the reefs made me think I wanted a saltwater tank. At the time i had no idea it was even possible, not to mention reef tanks.

The lame part, some years later I saw a reef tank screensaver. I started researching, and in 2016 finally set up my first saltwater tank.

 

[fish farmer]

I like all things aquatic.

 

[Rmckoy]

That is AWESOME! I've always wanted to go scuba diving, but I just haven't done it yet- it's on the bucket list for sure!

My story isn't nearly as beautiful as this, but it is a bit comical.

I used to work at PetSmart (which is where I met my husband). I started a cashier and QUICKLY realized I needed to be in the petcare department. I didn't really know anything about fish or reptiles, but as soon as they promoted me, I went home that night and read up on everything I could. I was testing customer's water, helping stock the tanks, cleaning the tanks, feeding the SNAKES , all kinds of cool stuff.

My husband-to-be was a manager at the time, and he'd always "fuss" at me for not fixing the fish ornament aisle. What a jerk.

Anyway, it was a freshwater fish only store. I had no idea how intricate and awesome saltwater was at the time. But my manager/idiot husband did. So when people would come into the store asking for certain saltwater products or had questions that I couldn't answer about saltwater, I'd call Josh on the radio and have him come answer the customers. Hahahaha.

Eventually, he caught on to what I was doing and says: "Okay, freshwater is cool and all... but have you ever seen a saltwater tank?"

That’s sweet .
met in a lfs and became husband and wife .

the best place of all to meet

 

[TheDragonsReef]

My grandfather used to breed discus and was big into freshwater systems. He had a 150g that i loved watching when i was little. Then he gave me a 20gallon he had in the garage when i was around 6 or 7 and the rest was history haha. He eventually moved to salt water and i followed shortly after. We still keep a 265g together. And i have a few tanks of my own.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I needed some white noise in the house. Thought a fish tank might be a nice way to get it. Fish tank turned into reef tank and I'm now obsessed.

 

[Rmckoy]

It started when I was 15 years old .
my uncle had a 180 gal with African cichlids
Along with a few other lfs with oscars ,
Looked amazing and every week we would go to the lfs to buy feeder fish for the oscars .
he would bargain for discounts on new Africans . Or selling his baby Africans .
I would always wonder into the saltwater part .
at that time they didn’t have much for corals and available fish were limited .
I bought a 30 gal cube and added a pair of clownfish , a anemone , and a yellow tang .
the success rate at that time wasn’t that great as information wasn’t as available as it is now .

15 years later I was watching finding nemo with my daughter and she asked for a fish tank .
with nemo .

the rest history

 

[Uncle99]

An old friend bought me a 10g tank when I was 16.
I said, what the ———-am I going to do with this?
What a dum gift.....

That was 44 years ago.
What a great gift.

 

[Rmckoy]

It started when I was 15 years old .
my uncle had a 180 gal with African cichlids
Along with a few other lfs with oscars ,
Looked amazing and every week we would go to the lfs to buy feeder fish for the oscars .
he would bargain for discounts on new Africans . Or selling his baby Africans .
I would always wonder into the saltwater part .
at that time they didn’t have much for corals and available fish were limited .
I bought a 30 gal cube and added a pair of clownfish , a anemone , and a yellow tang .
the success rate at that time wasn’t that great as information wasn’t as available as it is now .

15 years later I was watching finding nemo with my daughter and she asked for a fish tank .
with nemo .

the rest history

Over the years gradually upgrading to a bigger tank .
the first was a 75 gal with hob skimmer , canister filter ,
Next was a 90 gal bow front .
90 gal drilled rectangle tank with sump was next and finally 230 gal

 

[Cajun_Reefer]

Over the years gradually upgrading to a bigger tank .
the first was a 75 gal with hob skimmer , canister filter ,
Next was a 90 gal bow front .
90 gal drilled rectangle tank with sump was next and finally 230 gal

If yall ever see me upgrading to a 230 gallon tank, PRAY FOR MY HUSBAND - because the stress will be REAL up in the Kaiser household. LOL

 

[Rmckoy]

If yall ever see me upgrading to a 230 gallon tank, PRAY FOR MY HUSBAND - because the stress will be REAL up in the Kaiser household. LOL

Really ?
it’s not that bad ......, I’m sure the husband won’t mind