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What made you get into this hobby?

J

Jcurry@wesketch

Xavier613 said:
BillyR98 (my next door neighbor) And his 450gal display that I could see from my room. I mean, how can you not want a tank seeing that every day.

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Been broke since lol.
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That was a beautiful tank that has been bought and sold a few times over the years. In fact I think this tank is for sale again. Too bad everyone who buys it ends up getting divorced.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
Jing_xoxo said:
I never got to try snorkeling! Do you still go often?
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We try and go whenever we are on vacation. Nikki grew up in Abu Dahbi in the UAE so she was snorkeling over there which has fantastic reefs. We have been snorkeling/SNUBA/SCUBA in Aruba and St. Maartin.
 
dirtycontour

dirtycontour

Four years ago my friend broke down his 55g FOWLR and gave me the tank, canister filter, PC lighting, etc. He told me I had to make it a SW tank. I do not have any of the original equipment or the tank that he gave me but I'm thankful that he put the condition on the gift.
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I grew up in Cherry Hill, near what used to be called the Ellisburg Circle. In the shopping center adjacent to what used to be the traffic circle was a store named Martin's Aquarium. I used to hang out in that store whenever I was bored and always dreamed about owning my own fish tank. I sadly never had that opportunity while growing up so the dream sort of faded from memory as I got older.

Then, back in 2009, my sister and brother-in-law decided they were going to move from Cherry Hill down to Florida. Well, they had a 135g (non-reef ready) tank that was simply too big to take down to their new apartment. So, since I helped them pack up the moving van, they asked me if I wanted the tank. Well, that brought that dream back to life and I excitedly said YES!!! It came with a basic pine stand and a big container of dry base rock that I could use for my aquascape.

Now, at this point I knew I wanted to do a saltwater tank and honestly, I had no idea if it was going to be easier or harder than a freshwater tank. All I knew was that I had this 6' long tank that I wanted to fill with beautiful tropical colored fish and just figured SW was the best choice. But, since I really had no previous experience, I began to research the hobby day and night. I soon learned that with SW tanks, a sump/refugium was basically a requirement in order to sustain a bio-system good enough to keep SW fish. The problem I discovered was that my non-RR tank would either need to be drilled or utilize a siphon-based overflow so that I could have a sump. By the way, along with all my research I soon started seeing beautiful reef tanks and quickly realized that I not only wanted fish but a full blown reef.

So, after hearing about issues with siphon-based overflows having a potential issue of failing and causing floods... I decided my best option was to drill the 135g tank. To make this long story a bit shorter, I drilled 3 perfect holes (1 for drain, and 2 for a closed loop system) and I bought some really nice/expensive heavy duty bulkheads. I installed them and all that was left to do was setup the tank. Well, I tried using some pvc pipes to roll it across the garage floor and disaster happened. The one end rolled off the pipe and the bottom glass crashed onto the concrete... shattering the entire bottom panel. I was devastated. :(

But now I was already committed and would not let this dream die again! I had been saving up some money for equipment for the tank and found a great deal on what is still mostly my current setup - a 75g RR tank, stand, 30g sump, mag 9.5 return pump, and a T-5 light fixture. Oh, and they even threw in the lone Clownfish that was the last remaining inhabitant when I bought it. The tank had been running for about 3 months when they decided to move (to Florida also, wasn't sure if this was a bad omen or what, lol), so they suggested that I keep as much of the water and live sand as possible to help cycle the tank faster. It fit my budget and had the basics I needed. I picked up a cheap skimmer from someone else (happened to be a worthless piece of junk, lesson learned) and then got a 20 lb piece of live rock and together with the sand and water that came with the tank it was healthy enough for the Clown to survive right off the bat.

I then became more active on NJRC, met some great people who helped me along with advice and such to continue to gain the knowledge and experience that I have today. I slowly progressed my tank inhabitants and equipment, adding a great working skimmer, LED lights, a reef controller, carbon/gfo reactors, etc. and am currently in the process of upgrading the 75g to a 120g. I simply ran out of room to put corals and fish so I'm going to do as everyone in this hobby tends to do and go bigger!

I'd like to thank the NJRC community for guiding me through the majority of my reefing experience. Without it, I would not be where I am today. I always try to return the favor and give back to other newbies in need. I believe that anyone can enjoy this wonderful hobby if they put in the effort and find others willing to show them the way. Hopefully, this trend will continue here and we will hear other stories like this.
 
J

Jing_xoxo

mnat said:
We try and go whenever we are on vacation. Nikki grew up in Abu Dahbi in the UAE so she was snorkeling over there which has fantastic reefs. We have been snorkeling/SNUBA/SCUBA in Aruba and St. Maartin.
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That is wicked cool!! If you ever decide to go snorkelling somewhere on the east coast please let me know how it went, id love to try !
 
ThatGuy

ThatGuy

I have had a fish tank for as long as I can remember(baby pictures of me in front of a FW angel tank). My official first tank that was all mine was at 10. It was just a simple 10 gal I believe with just some simple fw fish. After that I had a 55 gal that I put a pair of oscars and red bellied pacu's in it. They got HUGE FAST. So at this point they are now lake fish( if they survived) From there I hit my teens where I wanted big agressive bug eating fish(didn't know I had them with the first big fish) so at about 13-14 I got a 75 gallon tank on my own and 2 HOB filters with way to many fish in there(tank sat on the floor as I had no way of buying a stand. I had a pair of maganese, jack dempseys, convicts, red devel, jewels, and 2 catfish. I loved that tank even though it was over crowded. I had that tank for about a year or so when all the fish were BIG and wanted to add another( i was 15 and was nieve) fish so I went to AC. There they had a buttakofri. Biggest mistake of my life. I put the fish in there on a friday and went to my dads for the weekend. Came back monday and the buttakofri killed everything except the red devil that was on its last leg. (still mad) From that point on I had one mean a$$ fish. At this point I found a 37 gal tank and stand in the trash(back before c/l when trash picking was good). At that point I put the buttakofri in the 37 in my moms room so I could start up my 75 gal again. At this point I was an Ahole punk teen and skip foward about a year and change and I'm 16 living in philly with my dad. Lucky me he had a 4ft 110 gal just sitting in the basement so we built a stand for it and set it up. Once again I went on the Cichlid path and got a pair of jacks, maganese, and convicts with catfish. That was another awesome tank as I would go outside at night and catch waterbugs(BIG A$$ COCKROCHES) and feed them to the fish. Unfortunatly about 9 months later we had to take the tank down as the floor where the tank was, was sinking. From there I went back to my moms where the 37 gal was(minus the fish) so I set that up. It was a simple tank with simple little FW fish. Fast Foward a little I'm 18. At this point my buddies brother-in-law tells us about finding turtle eggs and hatching them so we go out and find about 200+ turtle eggs ranging from snappers to painters to redbellies. So at this point I ended up having over 150 turtles in a 37 gal tank. LOL. I let all of them go except 2 snappers. FF a year and I'm moved in with my now wife with the 2 friendliest snappers in the world still in just the 37 gal with goldfish(they were well fed so they never felt like chasing fish). After a little more time I felt bad as they were to the point they couldn't freely swim in the tank so they went to audobon lake(with my ducks I released there).LOL. FF a year of goldfish tank and we moved into my moms basement. At this point I had no fish but lots of other critters. Once we moved out of my moms basement(and got married) to where we are now I found a sweet deal on C/L. I paid $200 for a 135gal tank and stand from someone in jackson. At this point I have a 6ft tank so I go the way of a arowana. CRAZY. So after figuring out it got way to big for my tank I sold it to a chinese resturant in chinatown(not as food but for there monster tank(dragon fish)). From there I got a fantail oscar and a bunch of cichilids witch was cool because the oscar wouldn't eat fish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHvtJYT2zC8 from there I eventually got rid of the oscar and South American Cichlids and went to African Cichlids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxBs21uxPlA from here I went and set up my 37 gal again in the babies bedroom. It was my first SW tank. I took bad advice and Cycled it with 3 damsels. At this point I had one piece of LR and crushed coral. I went to my LFS and seen a Lionfish. So now I have a lionfish and 3 damsels in this small tank. Go to the store the following day and theres a pair of clowns hosting a bta. So now I have 5 fish in this little 37 gal tank for a while until the lion got to big and was sold to someone with a much larger tank. And this is when it went down hill. A coworker was getting rid of one of his coral tanks(all softies) so I took it. I had this (forget the size) corner tank set up for about a week before turning the 135 gal into a sw tank combining the 2 tanks. (how I ended up with more tanks) At this point the baby wont sleep through the night at all and we cant figure out why.(tank is sitting with water but no movement) We ended up noticing that when I ran the filters on the 37 gal tank (was sitting there getting stagnent) she slept right through the night. BINGO. So then I broke down the 37 and put the corner tank in her room making it FW. At this point I had some blood parrots in the corner tank and somewhat of a coral tank going. A short time later I crashed my tank for the first time(had no idea what I was doing, didn't even do water changes). From there I got rid of all the coral and got aggressive fish. I had a friendly porc puff and 2 triggers with some dwarf angels. After some time and the larger fish put on size I ran across reefcentral. Once again I wanted to try coral. So I got rid of all the big guys and tried corals again. At this point I got some tangs and other little guys that I had for a very short time I got ich and gave up. I did the Hyposalinity treatment and ended up selling the lot to fatoldsun. At this point the 135 became a FW again and I put the bloodparrots in there and got some more meaty but non aggressive fish. FF a year or so and I'm back on RC staring at corals again. At this point I start doing a little research and got rid of FW for the last time and started my reef. FF a little and the wife decided she hates the big tank so luckily my friend gave me a 42 bowfront, so I sqeezed everything into that. (at this point I'm on NJRC). After things are going well I decide to set up a 40 pillar for my daughter and let her pick out the live stock. So now I have 2 tanks. One reef the other an eel & starfish tank. FF a little and I get redbugs. I remove all sps and dip and qt for for almost 2 months so I lost almost everything. yada yada yada. From there I go and set up the 75. Things are going good(not great) and I decide to add a sump and better skimmer, and reactors. FAIL. Tank crashed again. At this point I'm so over it and just leave it alone. LOL. But then I talk to mike and nikki about the simpler life of smaller tanks and less equiptment and cleared out the 40 pillar and started fresh. Now its just weekly water changes, one hob reactor, and hob skimmer.

And thats how I ended up where I'm at in this hobby and probably happier with this tank than all my previous SW tanks.


Sorry for the long monologue. Got carried away.
 
J

Jcurry@wesketch

Xavier613 said:
The widowmaker lol
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When your electric bill has a comma in it the spouse can get pretty upset.


Here's my short story,

My life long friend had a girl friend that wanted a saltwater tank. So he ran out and bought a 55 gallon setup and maintained it for a few months. One night he talked me into starting a 20 gallon nano so we would each have another expensive hobby in common. The 20 did well and while we were shopping for livestock he talked me into buying the display tank from the pet store near his apt that was going out of business. Which wasn't really that difficult since it was a good buy.

A couple of months later he broke up with his girlfriend and then realized he hated the tank and never wanted it, she did. So he quit the hobby and moved to Europe. But I was hooked and have been in the hobby ever since 1992.
 
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reefsandrotts

reefsandrotts

NJRC Member
What got me into the hobby few things not in order ;)
Wife didnt annoy me enough
Employees didnt get my blood pressure up enough
And the pearlscale butterfly at open oceans that used to be on blackwell st. in dover along time ago
 
Hockeynut

Hockeynut

NJRC Member
Like most I've had tanks most of my life. 10 gal FW as a kid.
At 17 I took the saltwater plunge I bought a 70 gal, with a siphon overflow, wet dry bio ball filter, UV, florecent lights, and a crappy skimmer, cant remember The name.
At first it was just fish and dead coral, then I lost my mind lol, I started my first reef tank I was 20. It was the same 70 gal only filled with live rock and coral that was destined to die. :(
I switched to metal halide lights and whammy I had a reef tank.
I ran that tank for a couple years till I went with a buddy down to Mexico for a long weekend and the girl I was living with left while I was gone and turned off the electric in our apt. By the time my buddy who was checking on the tank found it the water was 45 degrees and everything was dead.
From then to now I had a couple tanks mostly FOWLR tanks until I started my sons 20 gal nano. That was almost 3 years ago now here I am 3 reef tanks and a member of a fish geek club that I'm very happy to be a part of.... Thanks NJRC
 
lefkonj

lefkonj

I started taking care of fish over 30 years ago when I took over my Dad's 2 freshwater tanks. Shortly after that I had 3 more tanks, but this time salt water. I kept this going for about 12 years until I moved out. I kept on the hobby but only as a fan not as a keeper until 2 years ago when I started again with my 180. While I always wanted to get another tank it just wasn't the right time, but this 180 has been great, and let's not tell the wife but I really want a 340 and would like to do an upgrade, think she would notice?
 
Classklown90

Classklown90

lefkonj said:
I started taking care of fish over 30 years ago when I took over my Dad's 2 freshwater tanks. Shortly after that I had 3 more tanks, but this time salt water. I kept this going for about 12 years until I moved out. I kept on the hobby but only as a fan not as a keeper until 2 years ago when I started again with my 180. While I always wanted to get another tank it just wasn't the right time, but this 180 has been great, and let's not tell the wife but I really want a 340 and would like to do an upgrade, think she would notice?
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Lol eh whats a few more gallons.

Sent from my galaxy s4
 
A

ATLL765

So I guess the beginning for me starts at age 5 with a 20 gallon tank my parents bought me for x-mas. I ran that tank FW for 10 years. During high school I bounced back and forth between my parent's homes, so it was difficult to keep a tank, but I managed to keep a small 10 gallon tank with some Corys and miscellaneous plants. Around when I was 18 my gf at the time, her parents were planning on moving, so they gifted me a 40 gallon, a stand and some fish. I ran that tank as a FW planted for maybe a year before my Mother and I got into an argument over who knows what and after that I wasn't allowed over and my Mother, since she hated how loud the sound of water cascading for the filters was, turned them and left my tank and it's inhabitants to die slowly.

This was quite disappointing for me and after this, I stayed out of the hobby for about 4-5 years until this past spring. My friend happened to be browsing the internet and came across something called a Mantis Shrimp. I previously had mentioned setting up a SW tank and splitting the cost between us, but he wasn't terribly interested until he saw the Mantis, lol. Once he saw that he said, "We need this!". I replied, "Damn right!" and here I am 6 months later, having acquired a 6' 100 gallon tank and a 40B, all for $125 total, that I really would like to see running soon. Between those tanks and the couple I have laying around the house from days gone by or ones I've spotted on the curb, I have all I need to run a couple systems. If only I wasn't so broke, I'd have them set up already. Hoping to have the 40B running and stocked before x-mas and would like to get the 6' tank running some time next year.
 
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