Tank Tales: What was your first tank like and how did it come about?

[jmNoles]

I purchased a used "full setup" from a guy on Facebook. $250 for a 72 bowfront. Come to find out, most of the equipment didn't work/was so filthy it had to be tossed out (live sand was mostly dead corals and inverts that he never cleaned out in 10 years).

$900+ and several months later and I finally added fish. Lesson learned: Do your research, consider ALL options and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Especially in this hobby.

 

[MONTANTK]

I was 13 or 14 and got a 29g biocube for Christmas. My dad hid it right behind The couch where I would play video games. It sat there for two months without me knowing. Had it for 3-4 years before a graduated to a 45 gallon shallow reef after we moved to a new house. Eventually put a radion over it. Can’t remember if I had an MP10 or just a koralia.

 

[I'm salty]

Today let's talk about your first tank and what led you to setting it up!

1. What was your first tank like?

2. What was the circumstance that got you into reefing?


My story is a 4 part mini series!

It's crazy how mine came about and it was some development of circumstances that I didn't even see coming that ultimately led me here today. I was a teacher in our small church private school and we had a couple of brothers who got a saltwater fish tank for Christmas one year. I had a really good relationship with this family and they would always talk about it, the fish and the cool stuff that they saw etc. Made me very interested! Part one is completed.

Fast forward a few years later and we're watching this really awesome movie you might have heard of called Finding Nemo! Man it was a thriller! Anyway my wife mentions to me that she would like to have a Nemo tank and part 2 was done! I was on it!

Remember those two brothers from our Christian school? By this time they had already graduated and we didn't have too much contact as this was before Facebook and other social media avenues that easily connects friends and family. I was able to locate their number and gave them a call to talk about their old tank and they told me that their tank was dry and sitting in a garage and if I wanted it I could buy it. I think I got that 75G with stand and a bunch of other mismatched Seaclone skimmer parts for $150 or so. Part 3 was finished!

So I begin to research saltwater tanks, should have done that first, and begin making trips to a LFS where I presented my box of skimmer parts to the owner of the store who begin to explain to me what I had and what I needed. I found a forum, www.aquariumadvice.com, and that's where I really dug in and started learning. I was able to learn that I needed a bunch of rock called live rock and then I could pretty much get started. But that stuff was expensive! Well hello and thank you Tax Return check! By this time my wife was all into this venture and so it was an easy decision to spend our entire tax return (all of our extra money) on wet brown rock that was somehow living and one of the best skimmers on the market, according to the lfs owner, a Sea Clone Skimmer! It was a pretty good investment if you ask me. And so part 4 comes to an end with the lfs owner coming to my house and helping me set up my first ever saltwater aquarium. Shout out to LFS owners! WOOT!

This is embarrassing but here is one of my very first threads... ;Bucktooth

Then about 10 days later I ask how many anemones can I keep in my tank! HA! I'm surprised, looking back, that they didn't ban me!

Haha mine was a 20 aio, I saw a long finned clown with a rock flower covered rock behind it. It was all over I was all in.

 

[xtremeyolks]

Started saltwater with an old jbj nanocube about 20 years ago. Was doing freshwater before that then decided I wanted a clownfish haha. Had to stop when I went to college, and due to covid I finally had time to start up another fish tank (red sea 425xl). Truly missed this hobby.

 

[ssweet12619]

Well I'm pretty new to fish and reefing especially, I started in April with a free 60 gallon tank and stand from craigslist and started a freshwater cichlid tank, while it was ok I immediately knew I had bigger dreams to accomplish. In the first week of may I posted my 60g setup for sale for $300 and it was sold within a day. I then turned my attention to a 100g setup and coincidentally found a complete saltwater setup for $300 after my negotiation skills took over of course I haggled the seller down to $175 and used the remainder to purchase a good light. Obviously I needed a little extra to make it to a "good reef light" but it wasn't much. And next I live near a very pristine ocean reserve and collected water for free, which I highly recommend if you do a little digging into the pros and cons. And lastly all the odds and ends I needed I got with the lfs credit on the cichlids I traded in. It also covered my clowns and tang. It's now late July and I have a thriving reef tank.

 

[wranodj]

Won a dang gold fish at the fair.

 

[NVSReefer]

Hi Everyone,

First post here. My first saltwater tank was actually because I did something dumb. I started out with a freshwater tank and two freshwater eels. Somewhere along the way I read that freshwater eels actually preferred brackish water. I started to switch the tank over to brackish water (I was young and dumb), but I had to leave for vacation for the weekend. I had a cousin watch the tank for me and the whole thing crashed while I was away. She felt so horrible because the eels were jumping out (because they couldn't take the brackish water) and she kept putting them back in, not knowing she was killing them

After I'd inadvertently killed everything I had to start from scratch again, and I just decided to make it saltwater to start with this time. LOL. I've come a long way since then.

 

[dorinmoon1964]

My first reef tank is by far the most bittersweet experience of my life. My son and I had plans to do a reef tank build as a fun project for the 2 off us to do and spend great time together. Build a love of a great hobby together. When he passed away earlier this year, the tank project was the last thing on my mind. A few months later, the life insurance arrived and I decided to build the tank as planned in his honor. It has been a labor of love, and I know he is with me every step of the way. Every moment I spend on this tank is a moment connected with him. I am so glad that I made the decision to create this living memorial to my sweet boy.

 

[hllb]

I lost all my pictures of my two previous tanks. First one was a 60g flat back hex reef tank. It was great. But I really wanted an angel and larger tang, so after a while I upgraded to a 120g FOWLR tank. I had that tank until I had two toddlers and no longer had time. Took a break (maybe 12 years or so) and now have a 32g reef. Even though I have a big house, it has surprisingly few walls to put a tank on and that was what I had room for LOL.

 

[weamdog]

My very first tank I believe was around 5g. While others were fascinated with sea monkeys, I had found an ad in the back of a magazine for live seahorses. Hard to believe that back in the late 70s/early 80s these were being shipped by USPS. Beats the crap out of spy cameras and decoder rings!

 

[sp1187]

1. What was your first tank like? first tank (early 80's) was a 29g, undergravel filter, freshwater lighting, on one of those metal stands. first fish were damsels. got rid of them in a hurry for a white mouth moray. added two snowflakes and a lionfish.
added a second 29g below it with some yellow polyps, some brown button zoas (who knows what dazzling colors they might be under todays lighting) and a blue ring octopus.

2. What was the circumstance that got you into reefing? The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (1968-1975) got me in to salt water. Visiting Richard Perrin, at Tropicorium, got me in to reefing. He had 5-10 washtubs with live rock, mushrooms, zoas and I don't remember what else in the original first room of operation. He would spend hours talking to us answering questions.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

first Saltwater tanks was gifted to me by my daughters, who originally kept a lizard in it. it was a 50-gallon that i turned into a reef tank. it was my first attempt at a saltwater setup.

They had no idea what i had planed, and to be honest, i don't think I did either. It was a fun tank to build and setup and to maintain - had it up and running for a few years.

1. What was your first tank like?
50-gallon, mixed reef

2. What was the circumstance that got you into reefing?
I had always wanted to try a reef tank, and this was my first opportunity. Had the tank for a few years




Day one:

A while later, after things grew in:

Initial build photos

 

[schuby]

My first tank was a saltwater tank that I got after moving into my first house in 2004. A friend of mine, from years before, had a nice FW tank and I had always wanted to get a tank. I was browsing around a LFS (multiple visits) and the owner got in a nice-looking, full system: 90g Clear-For-Life tank, stand, sump, hood with 2 400w MHs, skimmer, CaRx. I knew nothing about saltwater. I bought that full-tank package which he delivered and set up with water, sand and about 150lb of live rock. I had fantastic success with that tank, growing fish, sps, lps, and a clam. It was beautiful and amazing to see. I think that I only measured salinity and Calcium, in the first 5+ years.

 

[CoralReefer13]

Isn't "I just had enough money" and "savings" kind of the same thing...?

Savings you just forget about. Having enough money is money for frivolous spending.

 

[rgulrich]

My first aquarium was a goldfish bowl won at a state fair in OK...mid '60's.
My first salt water aquarium was a 10 gallon stainless steel frame (hand sealed with silicone) slate bottom. Kept hermit crabs, star fish, and later more collected from the mud flats and NC beaches in the late 60's. One of the favorites back then was a toadfish that fell out of an old boot we found at low tide.
Cheers,
Ray

 

[Jose A Venereo]

My first reef aquarium circa 1986
10 gallon system

 

[dennis romano]

It was the year 1972. My mother drove me to one of the local mom and pop pet stores. It was a 10 gallon tank and the frame was made of real wood. Needless to say, the frame and nails that held it together did not last long. Plastic frame tanks were just coming out. The gravel was actually gravel for giving to birds to help in their digestion. Filtration was a in-tank box filter. The first inhabitants were a percula clown and blue damsel. Mom paid for it in cash. Very few people had credit cards then.

 

[GrandpaShark]

So this is my first reef tank. My wife and I over the past 20 years have had numerous fresh water tanks. I have had friends with saltwater tanks and they said it takes alot of time to manage one. Well at the time I was super busy being in the Marine Corps and family life, I didn't want to be bogged down with taking care of a tank.
Fast forward to now i/we are older our child is 22 gave us our first granddaughter and we have a job that gives us the time to "baby sit" the tank.
I was aware of the cost but dang the initial cost the first month was shocking. I am sure we have spent almost a grand in July alone, we started middle of June on a Wednesday. Seems like every other day I am buying something for $20 or $30 bucks. We didnt save it was one of those things sitting around and decided it was time for a salt water. It really started when we were walking through petsmart and they were having sales on 45g tank with stand and we hit the ground running after that.
We love it and it is coming together nicely.

 

[Topreefer92]

1. What was your first tank like?

My first tank was a biocube I believe around 32 gallons, live sand, real live rock (when it was easy to find) and clown fish. That tank lasted for quite sometime but I had no idea what I was doing as informational resources such as this great forum I was not aware of.

2. What was the circumstance that got you into reefing?

This is the best part in my opinion is I was surfing craigslist for a canister filter because back in the day that is what I had read was "good" to use for a fish only system. I reached out to one person on there and he told me no I will not let you buy the canister filter for that. He instead invited me to his home to check out his awesome reef tank, and boom I was hooked. It was a very good learning experience and I ended up purchasing the biocube from him. Later down the road he ended up selling that amazing system he had and offered it to me. I declined and ended up building a system from scratch, the rest is history. Like everyone else, mistakes were made and money was lost but I wouldn't change anything as it helped me to become a better keeper and save money.

 

[Arricefe]

A coworker at a military unit was leaving and was trying to sell a tank, I causally mentioned that I thought about buying one a couple of weeks later a different coworker, his neighbor, calls me to come get "my" tank out of his house. The first coworker told the other that I had bought from him and that I would pick it up. I was now the owner of a 50 gallon "show" tank that I had no idea what to with, I made it a FOWLR.