What made you catch the reef bug?

[ramtheory]

I was changing out my filters on my RO/DI tonight when I caught my littlest one trying to take a peak at the tank. This is a routine for him as he normally comes running in yelling something I can’t understand when something is wrong. Just before going back downstairs to finish up I snapped this pic. Really the point to this thread is to ask those old and new to this forum. What made you catch the reef bug? For me it started out as a relief from work going downstairs mellowing out enjoying my reef. TV these days is mostly full of depressing nightly soap operas or reality TV shows. Then as the kids got older really it has been for them as well. I love to watch their fascination with the colors and life of the reef tank. They always want to know what is going on and ask questions. Sometimes it is just that which keeps me going in this hobby. Then there are the friends you meet and joke around with can’t wait for the next pizza night. Have fun in this hobby it is whats important.

So, what made you take the plunge into this hobby?

[pewter_jean]

When I was a teenager ( many years ago, or should I say decades), I was an Air Force Brat growing up in the Phillippines. For fun and something to do we would go to different areas on the island and explore. Most of the time we would go beach type areas and go snorkling. That is when I saw what was really under the ocean for the first time. The reefs are septacular. I guess that is when I caught it.

[Reggae Fish]

I bought my son (1 year old) a 55 gallon Freshwater for Xmas. A couple fish died and I'm kindof an extremist so I had such a hard time finding really cool FW fish, etc...

But, what really caught me was I stumbled across this site and didn't really pay attention when I asked a question and the person replied,

"Ahh, a GuppieKeeper...I guess I can go ahead and help "

That was when I thought, why not! So here I am...

Plus my dad when my parents divorced when I was 3 or so, my dad moved to the Keys and he was a scuba dive instructor and was also contracted out for deep dives...He would always send me care packages with candy, toys, but there was always stacks of pictures of underwater

My kids love my tank as well (1 and 4)

BTW- Cool pic

Also, to oldsaltybastage'- Thanks again for helping setup my webcam for my fish tank!

[Kathy55g]

My son wanted one. We had to wait until my job became secure after a bigger company bought my company and we all had to apply for our jobs all over again. It did get more secure, and I went ahead with the plans to do a saltwater tank. Then I read Joyce Wilkerson's Clownfishes, and I began to think about the possibility of raising them....

[Kathy55g]

My son, of course has completely lost interest, but still helps me on occasion.

[Nanook]

I had always wanted an aquarium, but never tried it. My wife surprised me when I got up one day with a brand new Walmart 29g aquarium with blue rock and freshwater. I quickly made it a planted tank and then started reading about saltwater...I felt the challenge would be a good time and jumped in head first.

Started with a 10g, then 29g, then 120g, then 58g, then 65g, then moved here and got a 470g and 375g...it has been downhill ever since. I started reading here on Reef Central in August 2000 and spent six months planning before ever putting water in my tank, now I have been studying and planning for three years and still don't have water in my tank

I like reading and learning about the different corals out there. While I am a bit of an equipment junkie, I am nothing like farmer But, I do appreciate all of Tunze's equipment and I have a fascination with protein skimmers. My main area of focus though is having a responsible saltwater tank that is balanced evenly and focused on health.


Dave

[SpankyStL]

I'll try to be brief (hard to do most of the time).

I've always been a perfectionist, pretty anal too, have been a gardener since about age 8. So the ultimate in home-based aquaria seemed to be inevitable.

A friend had freshwater, I was fascinated. He gave me his 10 gallon. I started my subscription to one of the fish mags. Got bored with freshwater, and saltwater seemed limitless. I found GARF.org, they said "don't let anybody tell you that you cannot do it" so I converted the 10 gallon to salt. I just wanted to plant my underwater garden with some live rock and see what would emerge with no technology...

...and "wah-la" here I am today.


PS -- 5 years later, the 10 gallon is still the only system I have set up, but I've added some technology.

[zt444a]

I can really relate to Dennis and the kids being into the tank.

I always wanted a tank for myself, as saltwater fish have been a fascination for me all my life, so when I had the opportunity to try finally I jumped at the chance.

I always try to involve my daughter Katie, and now I love it when she asks if she can help check the water quality, etc. She always tells me when something looks funny, etc. We sit and stare at the things going on in the tank and the sump/fuge too.

Quality time spent together and both of us learning at the same time! Can't beat that...

[stlouisguy]

Bored with fresh and the challenge of saltwater, where most people say (outside of the hobby) its just too hard

[Sk8r]

I grew up before tv existed, in a smallish town where there was very little to do. The big deal was to go to the local hardware store. Why?

They had a 3 gallon bowl with weed and some zebra fish and an aeneas catfish. I would stand forever watching that tank.

My father one day brought home a 5 gallon metaframe, a couple of Chinese takeout boxes of fish and weed he had gotten while on the road---Lord knows how he got it home, because his trips were long. He had a little ceramic grass hut and a bubbler and, thank goodness, instructions.

That tank was my pride and joy. I was about 6. And I took care of it.

Thousands of dollars and decades later, I still think that was a pretty tank.

[Letmegrow]

My Dad and I got into the diease, um hobby, some years ago.
Just out of pure fascination.

One defining moment was when I was at Pet Market Place and Tim the manager of the fish department, I am sure you all know who he is, scoffed at me when I asked what a certain butterflyfish was called. He really made me feel like an imbacile for not knowing what a Latticed Butterflyfish was called.

So I got the little spark in me stoked to learn and never be snide and discriminating about reef keeping and saltwater knowlege.

Tim that used to work at Clayton Pet Emporium, he REALLY got me into the hobby, he gave me frags before my tank was cycled. He was also always there to answer questions or just hang out and look at the tank.

Andy at Andy's Animals also played a crucial role, as he supplied me with the majority of my tank creatures. He always was there to help too, and with out him and his store I don't know what I would have done.

[Nanook]

Nice story, Steve! Glad to see you alive and posting

[johnb0184]

My girlfriend and I saw finding nemo and i said that it would be cool to have fish. So for christmas she bought me a 10 gallon tank. It was set up as freshwater for about three weeks, and I was hooked. Then I went to midwest aquatics to see about a 55 and saw their saltwater selection and started talking to tom about the care needed. Needless to say two years later and I am in the process of upgrading for the third time to a 120.

Great thread by the way. the stories are realy interesting

[cwegescheide]

I started out with a 30 gallon Pirahna tank. I had red bellies and the black pirahnas. I thought they were cool. Then I pretty quickly got bored with them. Not very colorful and didn't really do much except eat when I was not looking!

I then got a 75 FO tank with some yellow tangs, flame angel and damsels. One time I remember getting up in the middle of the night to check on the fish. All of them were very discolored and laying on their sides on the rocks. I was VERY PO'd and just about netted them all and flushed but I was too tired and thought it will have to wait till morning. I got up and they were all swimming around happy as clams.

Then one day I was walking thru the LFS and saw a REALLY COOL looking tank with some really cool BLUE LIGHTS and GLOWING CORALS..

The rest was history, along with my bank account.

[Ocicat]

I've loved animals all my life, which led me to get a 20-gallon FW tank when I was 12 or 13. I would go to Aqua World on Manchester, and I always found myself wanting the prettier, more colorful SW fish, but I thought SW would be too hard and too expensive.

This past August, my husband and I moved into a new house, where we plan to live for many years, so life is finally stable enough for big tank. When he made the mistake of suggesting how cool "a big fish tank" would look along one wall, I was off to the races. I realized it was finally the perfect opportunity to get into SW as I had always wanted to do.

[scbadiver]

I had kept FW tanks since early in grade school. I always wanted a "big" tank but the folks said "no, when you move out you may get as big of a tank as you want but not here". So I settled for the 15 gal. Jump ahead to '81. Got to snorkle for a week in Grand Cayman. What an expensive little adventure that was. We got home and I HAD to get scuba cert and I HAD to get a SW tank. Moved into an apartment a few years later and got my 75 and made it SW. Not much info was avialable then. I made several close friends back then thru the hobby and we all remain close today. We still laugh about just starting and I got an outbreak of green hair algea and shared it with them. We thought it was "cool". Boy were we dumb! Now, 20 years later...still fighting algea blooms.

[ramtheory]

It is interesting to see how people got into the hobby. I love to read the stories and hear where people are coming from. I didn't really mention how I got into it. I just explained why I was into Reef Tanks. So, here it goes.

Keeping aquatic life has been around in my family since my dad was so hard core into it before I was born. It was always around while growing up as he was into breeding all kinds of freshwater aquatics. Those weekend trips to the old Beldts. Apart of MASI for a while and I use to be one of those bag runners during the auction as a kid. When I was in Junior High, and the beginning of High School we were big into African cichlids and bubble tumbling the eggs. I thought this was difficult and when I asked if we could ever have a saltwater tank. His response was always it is impossible and a waste.

It wasn’t until one of our friends decided to go out of business. Judy’s place was Aquatic Life on Watson in the little center where Computer Renaissance is today. This is when I bought one of the 29 gallons with sand and rock, took it home and started my first saltwater tank. I won’t call it a reef as it was just rock to me and it had a few feather dusters still alive on it which I thought were neat. Had a damsel that killed everything I tried to put in the tank until I met the old man at the Blue Dolphin in Belleville. He took in my damsel and taught me how to take care of a couple clowns. This was great taking care of a saltwater tank and my Dad would do nothing but shake his head. To make my long story short a little salt creep down the power cord dripped into the multi outlet and small fire. Mom told me never again till you grow up and get your own house. Well here I am today and my old man is learning about Saltwater from me because my mom really wants one now. Funny how I am the one telling him it is not that hard you need to do this.

[sirreal63]

My own fascination came from many years spent on the coast. It wasn't until my son saw Finding Nemo that I decided to get into fish. My ex is a master at killing fish and killed countless FW fish. It was so bad my son thought the only purpose for a net was to take dead fish out of the tank. I decided to give it a try and did the walmart thing and followed their horrid advice and killed all my fish too. I couldn't accept defeat, hit google and found a few fish message boards and learned what I was doing wrong. I knew I wanted saltwater and a clown or two but decided to learn as much as I could about FW first. The little 10 gallon grew into a 29, then another 29, then all of them became planted tanks with DIY co2 and better lighting, then came the 75 and I had run the course for planted tanks. All of this time I hung out on RC and tried to learn what I could about salt. One year to the day after I started my first FW tank I filled my first salt tank. One thing led to another, I discovered Roy who gave me my first coral and the rest has been downhill ever since. Roy...I'll pay you back someday, somehow, but for now I want to say thanks. I have met the most wonderful group of people here and many are like family to me now.

My name is Jack...I am a reef addict.

[Chelsey]

I've always been interested in saltwater stuff. Several years ago I caught a bunch of baby fish of various species in some temporary tidepools caused by high tide on an Alabama beach. I tried to bring them home but only one baby survived. I also brought some beach sand back in hopes of setting up a saltwater tank. My first tank was a stock Eclipse 12 with the beach sand and a piece of coral skeleton. Needless to say the baby fish died and the tank was a disaster from the getgo. The sand did have some white mini brittle stars in it though, so that was a cool experience.

I took that tank down and it wasn't until after watching Finding Nemo did I decide to attempt saltwater again...this time because I wanted a pair of clowns

I went to Petco (didn't know about any of the locally-owned LFS yet) and set up my tank per their advice. About 4 months later I decided that for my bday I wanted to hit every pet store in STL. We ended up at CPE (the first LFS we stopped at) and Gene introduced me to my first coral, a red mushroom (I still have it today ) and from there I was hooked

[Arsenal11]

then gwa & hooked on steve

[Poof]

How I got addicted.......

About seven years ago I wanted a cat, dog, some type of animal. I went to petco and got a betta. Had the betta for about a year and then got a 10gal FW tank then about another year later seen Finding Nemo and that is when I wanted to start a saltwater tank. I wanted to make the same tank that was in the dentist office and that is what got me started. I went to Beldt's and bought my 55 with stand and did a lot of research and now I have a nano reef. But my boyfriend also was into reefs and FW. So now we have tanks all over the place. It is so awesome. Our 4 year old knows the difference between LPS, SPS, and softies. She can name all the fish we have and most of the corals. She is addicted already and wants one in her room. Now it is my goal to have a tank on ever wall of the house that isn't being used.

[hckycoz]

to be honest i was at a friends house and i was so high i started staring at his FW tank. soon after i set up a 20fw then my finace bought me a 55 to turn into salt. found out i want somethin bigger and have started on my 110.
PS my 55 has never seen salt. been FW for about 2 years.

[gath2]

I had a small FW tank in my room for as long as I can remember. My dad also always kept a tank up. When he tried salt, his under gravel filter with crushed coral 55g tank never lasted that long until it would crash. He would move back to FW frustrated. The price of SW fish and that I had never seen fish live for very long kept me away for a long time. My cousin, goalie66, kept telling me I needed to try salt and got me hooked on RC. The more I learn, the more addicted I get. After getting my own reef setup, my dad now has his own successful reef; he's learning

[Island Hopper]

Twenty Three years ago my wife and I took a delayed (5yrs) honeymoon to St. Thomas. We spent a day at Megans Bay where I had my first experience diving and snorkeling. Having all those beautiful fish come up and eat out of my hand was awesome and I never forgot it. Living in So. Il. has some drawbacks like NO SWF stores or oceans anywhere near. About a year ago a fellow co-worker opened up a small store and it wasn’t long before I had a 12 gal. Nano up and running. Six months later it was a 150 gal. Reef Tank and meeting up with this guy in South County who sold corals out of his basement didn’t hurt any. Now I’m making up for the last 23 years and having a blast. Being on line and having access to all the available info, such as RC and SlASH has probably made this hobby a reality for me.

[Grace's Dad]

I started with fresh water in the early nineties when I lived in Maryland. The LFS in Randallstown had both fresh and saltwater fish. I had always wanted to try saltwater but the cost of everything would've cut into my beer money. Plus I always rented and didn't want to move a tank every year or so. I had told myself that I would try salt once I bought a house and a more permanent residence. We bought our house in 2003 and I quickly got a 75g and 125g before my daughter was born (had to spend the money before the wife wanted to spend it on kid stuff). I am now looking at getting a larger tank with the money I'll save from not having to pay daycare this summer. I want to do evrything right with this one so I will probably be on the "Nook plan"