So how did you get started in saltwater?

MMOORE0324

MMOORE0324

Member
So I always like talking with other hobbyist about how they got started into saltwater aquaria. So here is my story

Like most others I have always had freshwater tanks my whole life. I have had everything from little tetra tanks to large African cichlid tanks. I had always wanted a saltwater tank but was always told it was way too difficult and too much money to keep one of those. So a little more than 7 years ago my father in-law was telling me about how he used to keep saltwater f/o tanks and how easy it was... and really wasn't that much more expensive than freshwater. So that of course got my wheels turning... I went up to Aquarium Adventure in Brooklyn and bought a 55g set up for an outrageous price. I was hooked! Kept the 55 for a few years and then sold it for a 150g. My 150g did really well and then I started getting into SPS. After my 150 became quickly overgrown I picked up a 75g and started a SPS dominated tank. I decided that I didn't have the time to keep up two demanding tanks so I broke down the 150 and sold it off. The 75 was growing and doing great when disaster stuck. Two years ago I was away on a trip when my son, who was only 1, decided to dump and entire bottle of Dial hand soap into my sump. Needless to say the tank was a complete loss. The tank sat empty for one year when I finally decided that I couldn't take not having a tank any more. So I set it up again, redesigned my sump and made a few other small changes. So that's where I am now. I'm just slowly re stocking the 75 with choice SPS instead of just buying whatever corals I could get my hands on to have a full tank. I'm looking to upgrade to tank in the 300g range in the future but for now I'm very satisfied with my 75g.

So that's my story... what's yours?
:fish2:
 
Awesome story Matt.

Last Christmas, 2008. My wife gave me a bonus, and I honestly didn't know what to do with the money. We had just moved into our house and it was pretty much empty. Asked me what could we add into the living room to make it more welcoming. Kicked around some ideas, and a fish tank came up. I have never had a fish tank before this, let alone any pets at all (hate cats/dogs). Decided to throw that money into a fish tank, saying that it would be fun for my son who was just 1. Went straight into saltwater (never saw any freshwater tank that I thought was cool), with no knowledge whatsoever about taking care of an aquarium. Went to the local saltwater fish store and asked what are LR and why do I need it in my tank. Luckily the owner told me to go read some books and come back when I was ready to buy some. Saw a listing on craiglist for a 50g tank for $50. Thought it was a steal, turned out the tank was a 40g. 1 year later and I am collecting high end corals and am even able to keep sps alive in my tank.

That's my story, what's yours :)?
 
Coral reef in Akron, love that store. Even though they don't compare to Salty, or AT. The owner has helped me with a lot of mistakes I made from the day I started until now. The only reason I support that store was for that reason, he refused to sell me anything other than salt and sand to get my system started. And you know the itch when you want to purchase everything to get your system going.
 
Where in Akron is that? I grew up in Akron and lived in Akron the first year I had a reef tank. I went to Two Turtles, down in Highland Square the most.
 
Snorkeling in puerto vallarta on my honeymoon... never looked back since... my poor wife ;c).
 
I was kinda raised into it ....Bred african cichlids ... other freshwater started with aggresive saltwater tanks ..then progressed into reef keeping almost 10 years ago !! Now you guys know where I got my love of morey eels ...Man the progress I have seen in this hobby!!!
 
I am 16 years old and have freshwater tanks all of my life it started out with a Betta, then progressed and i got a 10 freshwater tank, then i had African cichlids. Then when i saw the movie "Finding Nemo!!" ( Love that movie). I started with saltwater when my cousin sold me her 72 gallon fish tank. Then realized that that tank was to big so now i have a 55 gallon fish tank and have 2 black and white clownfish, 4 chromises, 2 sea urchins one from myrtle beach ( that is still alive), and a sea anemone. My goal is to keep a blue hippo and maybe some coral.
That is my story.
 
My son who was 3 at the time wouldn't leave the aquatics and primate building. I tried to get him to look at the primates but he wouldn't leave the aquatics section, i could have cared less about fish at the time. So i saw a free 10 gallon tank listed on craigslists and quickly swooped it up, soon we had 1 goldfish. After that i saw a 55g for 100 dollars complete with tropicals and the whole setup i grabbed that. Now i was hooked i went from tropicals to cichlids to oscars and piranhas. I was in my lfs buying some fish and talking to the owner fred who i asked about salt and told him i thought it was to hard, he said no its easy(what he didnt tell me is id be remortgaging my house to pay for it). I started out with my original ten g tank an anenome and 2 false percs, my current breeding pair. Everything skyrocketed from there. All the fresh stuff went out the door i went from the 10 to the 55 to a 75 which i got for free also to my current 120 full blown reef, i got the 120 for 300 with the stand and a fluorescent light everything brand new still in the box. I built everything on a budget diy a lot. Oh ya that 75 is now my frag tank.
 
My Mom has a salt tank in the late 70's , i had a fish only salt tank (55 gal) in the early 80's . and several Fresh water set ups . and in the last 2 years stepped it up about 20 notches to the current 200 gal set up . thanks to Wayne (cashins03) , hes the one who got me so called re- hooked on salt water tanks.... now its a full blown reef set up. Thanks Wayne for all of your help and stuff you have gave me in the last few years . i do blame him for my addiction ,,,,,,,,,,, i have caught the wife messin with the tank in the last few months. she had to do some rock work to her liking a few nights ago ... shes slowly coming around , 1 year ago she would not even look at it . let alone show any interest
 
soundreefer's obsession with having saltwater tanks eventually became part of my life as I had to take care of his 120 gal when he was on the road working. Then he put together the 125 Hawaiian tank. Now we are working on our 300 gal because so much is over growing in the 120...including a vlamengi tang that we call whopper because he eats so much and now that lovely clam we won at the frag swap will do better in the MH lighting.
I can't believe I was the one that talked him into the 300 instead of another 125 because it made more sense to go bigger than have (3) 120+gal tanks...We have nowhere else to put them. So we got the 300 upstairs for everyone to see and will move everything from the 120 into that. Maybe we'll have a party when the 300 is up and running....water, rock, fish...Not long now my little smurfs.
 
I stayed at a Holiday inn express...

I was instantly an expert and had to have a saltwater tank. Just kidding.

I had kept a 55 gal. freshwater tank for years. I had always wanted to try a saltwater tank but didn't know where to start. I updgraded my 55 gal to a 75 gal tank. I didn't even know there were saltwater stores in Ohio. My ex-wife at the time was very negative about the idea of even looking into saltwater. So, I divorced her so I could get a saltwater tank. Just kidding again.. hahahhaa. Anyhow I got divorced moved into my own place and I got the 75 gal tank in the divorce. I set everthing back up for freshwater. A co-worker started bringing in foster and smith catalogs and he started talking about his saltwater tanks. We spent hours discussing the need for turbo snails and difficulty of keeping a copper banded butterfly fish in his 55 gal tank. So, I decided to move all my cichlids back into the 55 gal tank and go saltwater. I bought a marineland magnum canister filter, a 45lb box of foster and smiths "premium" boulder live rock and a 4 VHO retro kit from hellolights. That was somewhere in the winter of 2003. The rest is history...
 
I had fresh water for years. with multiple tanks running moved a few times and got tired of moving big tanks. Met the wife got a house and was given a 75 gal with stand. With no more moving and phishy just opening up in gahanna where I lived at the time I went that direction. Most expensive freebie I ever got.
 
Got my first FW tank in 1974 when i was 4 years old. My dad, besides his full time job, had a part time job at a pet store in Willowick or Wicliffe..can't remember which....., and I remember going there with him and being fascinated by all the fish. I think the store was called Pet Pavillion. Anyhow, was out of fishkeeping until high school, when I started a part time job at an LFS, then moved to a full time job after high school, eventually ending up managing several local shops. Setup my first fish only salt tank in 1985 and my first "reef" in the late 80's. Ultimately, I ended up with a career in the industry, which I never even knew existed growing up. Funny how things work out.
 
After a couple of years of discus and planted tanks, I bid $51 on a starting bid of $50 for a 10 gallon nano in Columbus and won. It turned out to be an unbelievable deal with a sweet sump, RO unit, brute container, and german pumps and equipment. After that it was learn like mad or watch everything in the tank die. Then came the inevitable upgrades. Now I'm trying to put together a 150 gallon reef. The infection deepens....
 
I have always wanted one....one day I found an old tank it held water so I started.. then to find out I knew someone that was into salt water and it totally changed my views on salt water. I thought of just saltwater fish in a tank.. Didnt know anything about coral. now im hooked on coral.. I dont have the best equipment (Lighting) but i love it and ill always have a saltwater tank now
 
In Junior High/ High school I had freshwater tank, Angels and Discus somewhere around 88-89 I go into salt water tanks due to seeing my girlfriend at the time, brother in law Tom Sasina's Reef tank. Tom was a really into reef tanks and actually put a green house on the side of his house to sell frags back in 92-93. He called his store Corals and Clams. He also got me into C-sea back in 90 or 91. 94 is my earliest member card for c-sea that I still have.
8628cseacard.jpg

I've had a reef tank pretty much since 92, took a few years off during moves and college but usually had some sort of saltwater tank all that time.
Erik
 
don don got me started. my girlfriend saw his 55 gallon tank one day and loved it.and then he dropped the boom,im selling this tank soon to up grade do you wanna buy it?of course she said yes.anyways months pass and we got the tank with all the hard ware involved.after he explains how much it costs for saltwater i said screw that will do freshwater.as you can see it didnt happen went with salt and 6 months later upgrade to 120.and still working on it . now all my money seems to go to this rich mans hobby.im hard headed and managed to kill everything once, only learn from lost money
 
I was sitting around one day with too much time and too much money. So I bought a tank. Now I have no time and owe money to everybody.
 
In the late 80's, during high school I did landscaping through the summers. There was a garage sale with a 55gal. freshwater set-up near a place we were mowing. I had to have it. Soon it was not big enough for Arrowana's and Tigerstripe Shovelnose catfish. I bought a 150 for those big fish. A friend of mine liked the set up and started looking for something in the Tradin' Times.
He ended up buying a saltwater tank with all of the fish included. That was all it took, I had to have saltwater. His set up had a simple bio type filter in a aquarium underneath. It used spraybars and big DLS foam rolls. I said to myself I can build a "cool" system like that. I switched to aggessive saltwater. I started building different styles of sumps out of anything I could get my hands on. Just trying to improve the last one. I bought so many diff. tanks. I think the setting up, fabricating, and building is a big part of my passion for the hobby. In the mid 90's I switched to a reef tank. Sold everything in 04' to build a house. I set up my current system in Sept. of last year. Who knows were this will lead.
 
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