Why did you choose this hobby??

[Krish]

Out of the hundreds of different hobby's out there that you can get yourself involved into, what made you choose this hobby?? As we all know, this is a hobby that requires so much time and dedication as well as a lot of patience. In addition to that, in some cases, it doesn't come cheap! I would agree that nothing sounds more appealing than having a beautiful thriving reef tank full of healthy fish and corals all living peacefully and doing well . But then...You read about people all stressed out over algae issues that they can't ever seem to get under control or a pest like aiptasia taking over their tanks that no matter what they try, they just can't get rid of. Even worse, you hear stories of people who have invested years of their time and thousands of dollars pumping it into their aquariums only to have one small minor mistake cause them to lose it all and in some cases, these same people pick themselves right back up, and start all over from the beginning! :shock: So what pulls/pulled you to this hobby and not something else? It would be interesting to know

 

[Ichthys]

When I was 8 years old (a long long time ago) my mother worked at Seafirst in Ballard on Market. There was a pet store next to the bank and I would go to work with her and walk around Ballard on summer days. I remember walking into the pet store and seeing an aquarium with a treasure chest with lid that opened and closed with bubbles coming out of it. I was enthralled and had to have one. I bought my first 10 gallon tank at age 8 or 9 and have pretty much been in the hobby ever since although with some long breaks. Reef tanks are new to me within the past year, though I have had FO SW for years. Does anyone remember the little square plastic internal filters you hooked an airline to that had floss and carbon? Long before undergravel filters lol.

 

[tat2z_21]

I had freshwater tanks for a long time. I love fishtanks in the house because they used to be so calming, and relaxing. Until the day I was given a clown fish. I was always afraid to dive into the saltwater world because of how hard I thought it was. So I set up a small hex tank and low and behold he lived. Then I started to see the amazing life that comes with a saltwater tank, and how with freshwater tanks you get what you put in it, and it seemed that my saltwater tank was engineering it's own strands of life right before my eyes. I then thought that if I could keep this little clown fish I could be GOD of my own little piece of the ocean. My first corals were mushrooms, which by the way is the gateway coral to addiction. Then it moved on to leathers and gargonians. It just seemed to escalate from there. I know am the proud owner of a full blown mixed reef. That my wife and kids have to pull me away from.

 

[Faciosity]

I loved nature and the ocean all my life. I was Born in Seattle, and raised in all the outskirts until I was a young teen, and was forcefully moved to Spokane. I grew to have an occupation and a family here in my adult life, but still visit the ocean at least once a year. I started with fresh water for quite a while, and learned most of the basics before I ever decided to do a reef, but always dreamed of having a tank full of life and color. I don't even know how I got so far, so fast on such a tight budget. I started my first 10 gallon saltwater tank right about the time my daughter was born, and she is now 2 1/2 years old, and I'm up to a 180 with well over 100 living species. I was a social butterfly that partied a lot before I had a child, so this is something I can really enjoy at home.

 

[dtd87]

I think the hobby choose me, I don't really have a store other than when I was little I was obsessed with fish.

 

[BCT182]

I had always HATED fish tanks. I couldn't keep a goldfish alive if my life had depended on it. Once, I caught a small trout at a stocked fishing pond for kids (I was maybe 10). I kept it alive in a cooler, took it home and put it in a kiddie pool filled with water straight from the hose. The fish was dead in 30 minutes.

My (now wife) wanted a fish tank for Xmas soon after we started dating. I set her up a 29g and told her it was her baby, cause I thought fish were ugly and stupid. Within 3-4 days she was over it. The tank was setup for about two weeks when I stopped in at a hole in the wall LFS that sold brackish water fish. The salesmen told me I could easily convert my FW to brackish with a little salt. I did so and kept a couple puffers and a scat for another week or so. When I was reading online, I found that I was only a couple points from hyposalinity for SW. I said to hell with these ugly fish I want some clowns and a yellow tang.

As it goes for most people, I got my advice from petco. First a hang-on filter, then a hand on with bio-wheel. Then the hang on wasn't good enough and I needed a fluval canister filter. Then the canister was a "nitrate factory" and I needed a skimmer.

Same went for lighting, I was sold the "watts per gallon" theory and had so many N.O. lamps crammed into my hood it looked like a tanning bed, then from that to P.C.'s and from that to halides.

I got sucked in and was spending money faster than I could count it. I went from doing whatever it took to keep her fish alive (out of guilt) to becoming my hobby. I enjoy it "MOST" of the time. A hicccup here or there, but its pretty rewarding to be able to recreate the ocean inside my living room.

 

[bodycology21]

I was influenced by my uncle as a kid. I started with a freshwater tank and when I moved out I left it behind for my brother. I then decided to try a saltwater fish only were I had some good years and some bad years. I have always been attracted to reef tanks because of all the life that takes place in them, but never had the confidence to try it though. Recently, I started building a reef with the help of BCT182 and some other members of the rogue reefers. I am now back to enjoying this incredible hobby.

 

[mcoomer]

When we bought our house I told the wife that I wanted a dog. She said "Get a fish tank. It will be cheaper (LOL) and won't pee on the floor." Several thousand dollars later, a few messy saltwater all over the floor incidents, and all the headaches that maintaining a big tank can bring I bought the dog anyway. It's good to be the king!

Pssst...don't tell the wife about the king part.

Mike

 

[NC2WA]

I kept freshwater for several years, as it was calming and relaxing, but then one day I was in a fish store and noticed that the saltwater fish were more colorful than freshwater. Right then, I said I'm going to saltwater. Before I put a drop of saltwater in a tank, (which was 5 months), I read books, asked questions, and pester owners of fish stores. I started with blue damsels and a 29g tank, that was 1995. I have come a long way since then and try to give back the knowledge I've learned along the way.

 

[Emerald525]

As a child I had a 20 gallon freshwater tank and have always loved animals. Back then (80's) saltwater tanks were thought of being so difficult and only for experts and out of my price range. I always loved the saltwater fish better because of all their amazing colors. I finally moved into a house where I had room to keep a saltwater tank. At first it was all about the fish for me but then I realized there were corals and they weren't all just the sticks you see in the reef.

I remember being in awe of these brown palys , kenya trees, and star polyps!

 

[thatguy559]

i have always had freshwater tanks....then one day i was looking for an upgrade for my turtles and came across a guy selling his whole 30g setup. so i bought it. that didnt last long before i found a 100g tank for 100 bucks!!!! what an upgrade!!.....later that year i bought a 200g cube 3'x3'x3' for my reef....found out that that was gonna work for the wife because she was 5' tall and the top of the tank was 6' with the stand. so i then bought a 210g and that was my reef for 3 years. Moved to washington and bought a 120g sold everything just to buy another 225g tank!!!! going to be custom built by jason at CFI....its an addiction

 

[Krish]

I am in the same boat as a lot of you having a freshwater tank first. I think every child wants to have one for some reason LOL!! As for salt, well, I live on an island and everytime we went to the beach, I'd have my net trying to catch fish in the tidepools then I'd play with them in buckets till we left the beach LOL. Well, eventually after having freshwater tanks for many years, I had a friend setup a saltwater tank (they owned the LFS here) which got me really interested so I set one up and we went out getting stuff for the tank together. Since then, I've been hooked

 

[Scooterman]

I was doing the math yesterday, I was around 8 yrs old when I got my first FW tank, so that leaves me with about 36 years. As to why, back then I can't remember why but when I converted to SW I wanted to keep the beautiful colored fish, that was all I knew about them!

 

[krisfal]

My parents had FW tanks while I was growing up and I got my first when I was around 10. Had FW tanks until about 1995 then took a several year break from fish. In 2006 when I was finishing my bachelors degree I knew I needed a hobby as I had been very busy between school and working 60+ hours a week and knew I was going to be at a loss with what to do with all of my free time, so decided to get a fish tank. With advice from Augustus (Balogh03) I decided to go with SW. That original 46g bowfront has now become a 390g display; from hobby to addiction . . . .

 

[Top Water]

I thoght everyone had a goldfish when they were a kid. I just liked it more.

 

[TJL]

As most I started out with FW, but not the tipical goldfish route. When I was just 6 YO in 1967 loved to watch my uncles beautiful 45g showtank with Guppies, Platys, Neon Tetras, Kribensis Chiclids and various catfish. Well one of those catfish was a Pictus cat and as it got larger started to snack on on his tankmates which really upset my uncle who dubbed him Sh*thead and on one of our family visits gave me Sh*thead and a 5g metal rimmed tank set up to take home. For about a year or so it was just Sh*thead all by himself (I could say his name but only when speaking about my fishtank lol) then got a 20g setup and added some of my uncles Krib Chiclids and Platys... and so on
Started keeping SW fish and breeding Discus and other SA Chiclids in about 1979 and ended up working for "The Fish Store" Crossroads-Bellevue in about '82 where this hobby really took hold in a big way. I was very fortunate to have met Martin Moe Jr who was lecturing on Marine aquaria using LR as filtration and keeping corals alive with the fish, and by days end ended up with about 30lbs of uncured LR and a 15g TruVu acrylic tank with a couple Eheim power sponge filters and 2 full-spectrum lamps for light. So my first actual reeftank had begun...

Todd

 

[WABlonde]

My parents had saltwater tanks when I was very young. A giant lionfish and spotted grouper that were eventually donated to the Seattle Aquarium. As a child/teen, I had my own freshwater tank. After adopting numerous whales throughout the years, and spending our family vacations at the beach, I was convinced that I was going to become a marine biologist. Well that never happened…
The boyfriend doesn’t thrive unless he has something to tinker with. Seeing as it’s too cold for us to ride (or at least for me) and there’s no garage for him to tear apart cars/bikes, seemed like the perfect idea to keeping us busy in our own home and have something that we could enjoy and take pride in. I picked up a fresh water tank in early spring at Goodwill but it just didn’t scratch my itch – or maybe it’s what created my itch. We are now up to 5 tanks in the house with a least one more custom non-reef in the works (dreams). Completely addicted and consuming all of our money and free time. It’s great!

P.S. I still have a goldfish. His name is Jerry and he ROCKS.

 

[fulkerl]

I had buckets of money just laying around and they were just getting in the way. Did some quick research on the problem and found a saltwater tank may be just what I needed, Problem solved, no more money. Really thought, saw my first saltwater tank years ago and aways said I would have one some day. Had I know the work and time (not to mention the money) a tank takes, I may not have taking on this Hobie. But now I'm hooked.

 

[Frankie]

I did not choose this hobby. This hobby chose me!

It all started back in 79 when my aunt Shirley brought me to a carnival on my birthday and I won a goldfish. I was 9 then. By the time I was 14 I was breeding freshwater fish pretty seriously as a hobbyist. I did that until 2000 and my LFS owner, and good friend, suggested I try my hand at saltwater fish. That's when things got really nuts!
This past year is the first year I have not had an aquarium since a child.
I was telling Mojo in chat just tonight how after one year, I can still feel the silence in the home without an aquarium running. It is very unsettling~

 

[krisfal]

I had buckets of money just laying around and they were just getting in the way. Did some quick research on the problem and found a saltwater tank may be just what I needed, Problem solved, no more money.

Thanks for the laugh!