Marine Aquarium Experience

[Deanos]

How many years have you maintained any sort (reef, fish-only, etc) of marine aquaria? Please do not include freshwater/brackish experience in your answers.

:scratchch Any interesting stories in what led to your first tank?

 

[inkblue]

...i had a smaLL reeF taNk back in 1991 t0 about 1995. haD 5 taNks baK theN :usa1: :smokin:

 

[DEEPWATER]

Funny you asked ,My Brother joey started with a 55gal that i liked ,i got a 30 gal had t for a month before i upgraded to a 90 ,a year later i started witha LFS and here i am today :knockedou

 

[jhale]

I got my first salt water fish and dead coral tank in 1986,

that means I've been keeping marine tanks longer than Kiris has been
alive :arg:

 

[Rborgia]

I started with a 55 gal, using fluval canister, an air deriven skimmer and a wet/dry which held about 3 gallons of water... back in 1989ish. If power went out, I would have to run home and break out the shopvac.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

I got my first salt water fish and dead coral tank in 1986,

that means I've been keeping marine tanks longer than Kiris has been
alive :arg:

hahahaha poor kris. were always picking on him.. lolz.. LMAO.. hes picked up alot of bad habits.... we gotta teach him right to drink beer... not to sniff CO2.. lolz..

anyways ive been doing this for about 6 months or so.. i learned so much already and this is my 1st saltwater setup all the other tanks before this were boring freshwater.....:banghead: :banghead:

 

[alrha]

I had a 20 gallon Marine Fish tank in high school from '94-'98 (before i went off to college).
When i got married and bought a house in May '03 i set up my 72gal Reef.
In August of '04 I upgraded to my current 187gal Reef.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

its so addiciting its not even funny.... LOLZ..

 

[joe]

started off ssaltwater like 6 years ago,
20 high with a clown a damsel and a firefish. fluval and a dual bio wheel. and shallow SB. crappy skimmer also that produced zero skimate

then to a 55 with like 50 pounds of LR and a few fish.

severeal other tanks along the way, bigger and smaller,
and now im setting up my
120 reef.!!!!
good times!!

 

[aaron]

My Father and my uncle had a series of SW tanks where i grew up in sydney Australia, that they had been keeping since the mid sixties, then when i got old enough to start diving we set up another tank, i think it would have been around '84 or '85 and it was about 40gal. We caught fish at the beach down the road from where i lived. Not just some crappy little fish though, I'm talking lunar wrasse, different kinds of Chaetodons, lion fish and tangs. These were all sub gravel filter fish only systems with dead coral skeletons but there was plenty of natural sea water for water changes just down the street so everything survived pretty well.
I got my first full mini reef system with the spining spray bar, sump and bio balls in '96 and have pretty much just evolved from there.

 

[gforce6]

My first saltwater tank was 29G with magnum canister filter and Amiracle air driven skimmer back in 1990.
I barely knew nitrogen cycle from LFS(Fish town and Ace aquarium), I started with demsels and put all
kinds of fishes like tangs, butterflies.(those LFS were really trying to sell their fish to me)
Of course, all of them went fish heaven and I end up with one yellow boxfish.
After boxfish died, I took it down.

And this is my 3rd year since I begin this hobby again.

 

[ECFENCING]

I started my first saltwater tank in June 05 (44gallon pentagon later sold to Missy Johnson) since I was bored with freshwater (started in Jan 05) and to prove my wife wrong after I mentioned to her that I wanted to start a saltwater tank.

The challenge was that I couldn't keep the two clowns I got in July 05 alive past September 05 since my wife's brother in law, a surgeon, had numerous failures with his saltwater tank.

With a little caution and this wonderful forum I proved her wrong and intend to stay in the hobby for the love of it and to prove my wife wrong every step of the way (J/K on the last part)

 

[pecan2phat]

Had a standard 150g when I was living at home with my parents back in 1979. Used to use undergravel filters, hang on Supreme power filters and a couple of Eheim canister filters back then. No reef, just fish and dead coral decos with NO flourescents.

 

[212jay]

I started my saltwater tank in 85 and always hade a 30g set up. I just got into live corals in the past 3 yrs. My father started me up with freshwater tank when I was 3 or 4.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

aight since everyone went into detail on there tanks..

i setup my 29 gallon in september 05. started out with about 40 lbs of live rock and live sand/fake sand(neva again will i ever use sand). and the cascade cannister filter (stupid petco for making me spend another 140.00).. upgraded to the prizm skimmer and tunze 6060 almost chucked the cannister out the window.. lolz.. and now have a nice little reef. not stocked to were i want but getting there. and i will be with this hobby for years to come... 5-6 months and loving it so far.. and without u guys my tank prob. would of crashed by now... lolz.. thanks for the great forum

next tank up is a 75 gallon. asm g3 skimmer, tunze 6060 (i will add another one eventually) metal halides (comming soon).. great plans for this tank... im addicted beyond belief...

 

[masterswimmer]

Does the time researching and planning count? LOL. I spent many years in FW. Always dreaming about the SW. I finally got the itch in 2002 to finally start. I spent a year reading and researching. That took me to 2003. Then I spent another year just accumulating equipment/hardware. That took me to 2004. I don't like spending money twice, so I bought all the equipment originally that I have now. Never had to upgrade anything.

In March, 2004 I finally put water in my tank and LR the next day. So I answered 1-3 years on the poll, but have felt like I've been in the hobby for four years. As y'all know, I do like to take my time. No rush, no worries.

Russ

 

[LiquidBlues]

i've started w/ FW 2-3 years ago w/ a 10G that someone didn't want

went to fish store to get some FW fish and then some dude looking at the SWs said... you should go into SW... they are not so much harder than FW and they are much more beautiful... so i went to RC and did some reserach and started my 75G

 

[MPISCIOTTI]

bought my fisrt tank in 2001. auctally went to buy a dog seen the reef tank in the pet store so bought a tank insted. then my uncle bought me a dog 2 weeks later..

 

[Gmandese]

I used to have a tank setup with my friend in high school, from '75-'78. We used to go diving for new additions to the tank (we lived in Santa Barbara, Ca) near the channel islands. Mostly snorkeling, and pulling ourselves down anchor chains from swim platforms. Nice local species!

 

[FRY]

bought my first tank in 67 ,30 gal long still have it ,back then under gravel filter,hob supreme filter ,I think lee skimmer with air stone boy it was hard to get the tank started, I don't know if anybody remember aqua stock in manhattan warrant street to Murray street, that was a big fish store,