How and why did you get into reefkeeping?

[chromiumlux]

In a brief summary, tell us how you caught the salt bug and why you keep a reef tank.

[marinelife]

Well got into it because of the beautiful fish and that is why I am still here. I love the color and personality of the fish.
Jump on coral for the same reason, the color!!

[chromiumlux]

O.K. That is a short summary of why. Now we need to know how this all came about? What, besides color and fish personality got you hooked?

[marinelife]

Not sure really that was almost 15 years ago. Sadly I do not really remember!!

[chromiumlux]

That's exactly why I started this thread Eric. To get us all to remember where we started and what we have learned over those years that has brought us to where we are today in the hobby.

[marinelife]

I am interested to hear others stories. I got into it from the color catching my eye at Jacks when looking at the freshwater.

[marinelife]

So what about you

[chromiumlux]

Truth be told, I had a friend back in the early 80s that had this huge tank in his basement family room. I noticed that everyone that came over was very impressed with it and so was I. I always had this thing for the ocean. So, I saved up some dough--a lot of dough-- and bought a large tank--and you know, to this day i can't really remember what size it was-I want to say 120g or so. However, I wanted to impress people too and thus began my spiral into this thing. I quickly found that ego and saltwater didn't mix well. At first it was the bright colors and exotic looking fish that attracted my interest and due to my delusions of grandeur I murdered a lot of fish and corals. Short story is I didn't impress too many people back then.
I tried again around 1994 with a small all in one tank--don't remember what kind or brand--and ended up with a soupy mess of black urchins that just seemed to proliferate over night and proceed to consume about everything in the tank. Needless to say I gave up again.
It was Christmas of 2006 when my three children gave me this little 14g biocube. they said i should try again. It was the first time my children gave me a gift that meant a lot to me. cried like a baby. This time I did a lot of research about coral reefs and tried to learn everything I could before setting this tank up. I was determined to succeed. Somewhere along the way I learned the real reasons why I enjoyed this hobby--save a reef--stress relief--and a real love for aquatic life. Not to mention all the knowledge I've gained over the years and some real good people I'd like to call friends.

[TechGuy40]

A buddy of mine has a little 10G tank. Nothing fancy, few crabs, lots of Cyano, some damsels that kill each other. I wanted to give it a shot after some research. Plus I was sick of looking at chiclids. At the same time a friend sold me a 29 with stand super cheap.

The 29 did alright for awhile, but filled up way to quickly! So it was time to upgrade to the 120 I have now. What a change that was.

A few months later my wife went with me to a frag swap and decided she wanted a tank. So we tore down the 55G Chiclid tank and set it up! Turns out she didn't like the footprint of the 55, too narrow. So I found her a new pre-drilled 75 with stand for $150.

I wanted a frag tank, and everything kinda fell into place. Plumb it all together for a large stable system. The systems are going thru a mini cycle from my old disturbed sump sand and I have lost some color. But its working out well so far!

[reefer3737]

I started with 75 fresh water again i would go to jacks to buy and would look at the saltwater,i finaly jumped in. I would lose alot because i had no knowledge of what i was doing,then i started to do my own research and ask real hobbiest and iv been hooked (addic)