What's Your History in the Hobby?

[young_reefer]

Wow! This is such a cool thread. I just got back into RC after a “few” years offline. It’s great to read/see these types of threads, especially everyone sharing their story.

Me, I was a “late bloomer” lol. I got into the hobby some 15+ years ago, by chance. A good friend of mine was about to get married and his soon-to-be-bride did not like aquariums, or so he told me at the time. But the reality was that he had neglected his 72g bow-front aquarium. He had a few fish (a Vlamingi and a pair of clownfish), some 80 lb of live rock and a few critters. But, I loved it. I bought it (back in 2010) for $75, all in. I kept it for a couple of years until we moved overseas for work.

Then in 2016 we came back and I took it upon myself to setup the cheapest reef tank I could afford. I bought a 75g fresh water setup during one of Petsmart dollar per gallon sale. Got the tank drilled (was a collaboration with a long time FMAS member) and bought an external overflow. Although it was not quite the crash course (I researched for over 6 months before pulling the trigger on the project), I quickly found I had a lot to learn. But, this tank gave me the most satisfaction and taught me a lot about discipline, ingenuity and love for the hobby. This tank allowed me to make mistakes and to grow my knowledge of the hobby. The tank was a light mixed reef with mostly soft corals and anemones. And a few fish, of course.

I sold that tank a few years later (around 2018 to a co-worker who wanted to get into the hobby) and bought a used Red Sea Reefer 525XL. I was thrilled to upgrade from my 75g, homemade tank, to a bigger setup. One day, I read another RC’s member add about Black Widow Anemones. I was hooked. I bought like 3-4 medium size anemones from him and placed them in my tank. It was an amazing experience seeing them multiply… I believe I had about 25 anemones at some point. Not a lot of fish (blue hippo, yellow tang, pair of clownfish, trigger fish, sailfin tang, blue-green chromis) with lots of live rock.

Then, during COVID, my wife wanted - like many people did - to remodel our kitchen and living room into an open floor space. While designing the space, I got to thinking about the new (at the time) Red Sea Reefer XXL750 V3, which I’ve seen a couple of times at my LFS. We “compromised”… she got her dream kitchen and living room. I got my (up until then) dream reef tank. So, in early 2020, I bought it!

Fast forward almost six years later, I am still in love with my setup. It’s not the biggest tank out there. It’s not small either. It’s perfect. And, it fits the 6 foot wall I made sure we designed around remodeling. lol

And in late 2020, I bought a Red Sea Reefer 200XL as a Christmas present (I wanted to do a peaceful community reef) which I took down a year later and gifted to a good friend. Although, I do spend time over his place helping him with it.

I have been offline for a few years, but not gone from the hobby. Life has been busy and lots has happened. But, I’m grateful God has given me the opportunity to enjoy this hobby.

Happy Reefing!

My tank today…

 

[griss]

View attachment 32416199
My tank today…

Beautiful tank.

 

[lebowski]

Hey! Looks like you started in this hobby with a good hand in large tanks! I would like to briefly say I started with a 29 gallon. I will say more, this goes to a Petsmart! I made the best of it. I will post pictures soon. I wanted to come back on this website and see how things have been since the early 2000's!

 

[vlangel]

View attachment 32416199
My tank today…

Yes, very nice reef. How big is the coral on the left? A monticap???

 

[SantaMonica]

2006 in my office with a 90g set up by a maintenance guy who killed everything. After the second maintenance guy killed everything again, it was time to start learning how tanks work.

 

[mellotang]

I was reefing when JohnL used to have frag swaps at his house

 

[game misconduct]

my pop got me started back in the 70s when i was in kindegarten he was into discus and dwarf cichilids so i helped with the water changes,picking out new fish to add into his tanks.i didnt get tanks of my own until i was able to manage 5 gallon buckets/sparklets bottles on my own without sloshing water all over my 1st tank was a 60or 75 gallon that i kept a tiger oscar had lots of other smaller tanks20s/30s etc that i kept native fish i caught even turned my baby sisters kiddie pool into a tiny holding pond for crayfish/bullfrog tadpoles that i fed to my oscar.i know better now risk of parasites disease etc. i was a kid still. dad and i kept a40 gallon breeder that we tried breeding rams in no internet back then so it was all just make it up as we go along basically a money pit.after high school when i earned my own money i began buying tanks of my own and jumped into nano marine tanks. for whatever reason i really like trying to keep native stuff that i am lucky enough to catch locally. i seen my first stomato pod at my lfs and after that i ended up buing any species of mantis shrimp i came across in any lfs i walked into set up a 40 gallon hex filled with more than3/4 of the way with beach sand for my baby lysiosquillina maculata mantis .after my roomgot to crowded full of nano mantis tanks i asked my pop to let me use his old 200 gallon disus tank. i idid a fowlr bought a baby dog face puffer tried keeping it with a few different trigger fish while it was still a baby picasso,undulated blue line he killed em allusually after a few months the banded moray he was ok with. 2014 i suffered a stroke spent several months in the hospital all my tanks had crashed during that time i was gone. nobody at my familys house knew anything about marine tanks so they were just adding fresh water or unplugging stufff to stop the noise etc i came home to dead tanks12 years later present day here i am again running a flex 32 with a pair of baby ocellaris clowns with one frogspawn,duncan and hairy mushroom in it.gonna wait until my anniversary with the wife to see if i can talk her into letting me buy a 100 gallon plus size tank to keep 1 big predator display tank fresh or marine

 

[griss]

my pop got me started back in the 70s when i was in kindegarten he was into discus and dwarf cichilids so i helped with the water changes,picking out new fish to add into his tanks.i didnt get tanks of my own until i was able to manage 5 gallon buckets/sparklets bottles on my own without sloshing water all over my 1st tank was a 60or 75 gallon that i kept a tiger oscar had lots of other smaller tanks20s/30s etc that i kept native fish i caught even turned my baby sisters kiddie pool into a tiny holding pond for crayfish/bullfrog tadpoles that i fed to my oscar.i know better now risk of parasites disease etc. i was a kid still. dad and i kept a40 gallon breeder that we tried breeding rams in no internet back then so it was all just make it up as we go along basically a money pit.after high school when i earned my own money i began buying tanks of my own and jumped into nano marine tanks. for whatever reason i really like trying to keep native stuff that i am lucky enough to catch locally. i seen my first stomato pod at my lfs and after that i ended up buing any species of mantis shrimp i came across in any lfs i walked into set up a 40 gallon hex filled with more than3/4 of the way with beach sand for my baby lysiosquillina maculata mantis .after my roomgot to crowded full of nano mantis tanks i asked my pop to let me use his old 200 gallon disus tank. i idid a fowlr bought a baby dog face puffer tried keeping it with a few different trigger fish while it was still a baby picasso,undulated blue line he killed em allusually after a few months the banded moray he was ok with. 2014 i suffered a stroke spent several months in the hospital all my tanks had crashed during that time i was gone. nobody at my familys house knew anything about marine tanks so they were just adding fresh water or unplugging stufff to stop the noise etc i came home to dead tanks12 years later present day here i am again running a flex 32 with a pair of baby ocellaris clowns with one frogspawn,duncan and hairy mushroom in it.gonna wait until my anniversary with the wife to see if i can talk her into letting me buy a 100 gallon plus size tank to keep 1 big predator display tank fresh or marine

Nice, thanks for adding your story.

 

[game misconduct]

Nice, thanks for adding your story.

be better if i can convince the wife to allow a couple of big tanks