Hi all! I have been keeping freshwater aquariums for around 10 years but am completely new to the saltwater side of things. I don't even know what questions I should be asking yet, so bear with me as I learn.
My experience with aquariums so far started out the hard way - I listened to the people at the pet store and started out with a betta in a bowl and a 15 gallon tank full of goldfish with no knowledge about the nitrogen cycle or really anything and was frustrated when I lost every last one of my fish. Instead of giving up the hobby I jumped online and did some research and learned that I did basically everything wrong and started over with a five gallon for the next betta and guppies in the 15 gallon. The next thing I knew I was adding "just one more tank". Right now I have a 25 gallon (zebra danios and otocinclus), a 36 gallon (community with various tetras and guppies), and a 37 gallon (congo tetras and java loaches), plus a handful of smaller tanks in storage.
As far as saltwater, my desire to start a saltwater tank started after a trip to the zoo where I fell in love with a tank they have that has pajama cardinalfish (and some other fish) in a reef tank. It's not one of the main display tanks, but I kept going back over to it and after some quick research figured out I could probably keep a similar but smaller aquarium at home. I'm planning on 40 gallons for my tank. I'm not really supposed to have large aquariums in my apartment and I think a 40 is the largest I can get away with. Anyway, I'm excited to begin my journey here.
My experience with aquariums so far started out the hard way - I listened to the people at the pet store and started out with a betta in a bowl and a 15 gallon tank full of goldfish with no knowledge about the nitrogen cycle or really anything and was frustrated when I lost every last one of my fish. Instead of giving up the hobby I jumped online and did some research and learned that I did basically everything wrong and started over with a five gallon for the next betta and guppies in the 15 gallon. The next thing I knew I was adding "just one more tank". Right now I have a 25 gallon (zebra danios and otocinclus), a 36 gallon (community with various tetras and guppies), and a 37 gallon (congo tetras and java loaches), plus a handful of smaller tanks in storage.
As far as saltwater, my desire to start a saltwater tank started after a trip to the zoo where I fell in love with a tank they have that has pajama cardinalfish (and some other fish) in a reef tank. It's not one of the main display tanks, but I kept going back over to it and after some quick research figured out I could probably keep a similar but smaller aquarium at home. I'm planning on 40 gallons for my tank. I'm not really supposed to have large aquariums in my apartment and I think a 40 is the largest I can get away with. Anyway, I'm excited to begin my journey here.