Discussion - When you first....

[Reefscape]

......entered in to the hobby of marine fish keeping, what did you expect to get back out of the hobby?

Is it what you expected it too be?

What were your aspirations for your very first marine tank, and did it turn out the way you had planned it too?

Please discuss at will...old members, new members, experienced or just starting....Lets hear from everyone....

 

[Ace25]

1994-1995 - Freshwater, did not like the fish available, especially compared to SW.
1995-1996 - First and only try at "Brackish tank" trying out Figure8 puffers
1996-2001 - Loved Puffers so much, had to run 2 SW tanks for 2 puffers
2001-Present - As much as I loved puffers, having only 1-2 fish in a tank got old after many years, decided to try my hand at reef tanks.

What I expected: Lots and lots of learning and knowledge, yes, got what I expected.

Aspirations for first SW tank - Just keep a porcupine puffer happy and healthy as long as I had it. Ya, it turned out good, but very basic tank setup, simple FO tank.

Personal experience, it is a night and day difference between a simple SW FO tank w/ HOB filter and skimmer vs a full reef tank. To me, as big a difference, or more so, than switching from Freshwater to a SW Fish Only tank. Fresh and saltwater fish still only require the basic water parameters to be tested for and maintained, where as Reef tanks require much more testing of many more parameters.

 

[Hooked Newbie]

Ok, hmmm...

I've only been keeping fish (responsibly) for about 2 years. I really got into it though and had no life for a good portion of that time so I dove in hard. Went from 1 FW tank to 18 with a pretty prolific breeding setup and spent up to 8 hours a day reading everything I could find. I've only had my marine tank (20G) running since Thanksgiving. I was always spooked to start because of the typical concerns (too complicated, too expensive, etc.). Sev definitely encouraged and helped me to get started. As far as my aspirations for it... I just didn't want to kill anything! lol

It is WAY more than I expected. I'm keeping this tank very simple, but we've got a 50G just about ready to start up once the move is finished and things settle down. We also have an empty 125G tall that will eventually go reef. I'm reading alot lately on the more complex aspects that can be integrated into the systems. The funny thing is that corals NEVER interested me in the least before I started the tank. Now, I find them absolutely fascinating! It's alot different to see them established in a tank vs. seeing them pissed at the LFS. Hooking up with the local club has helped alot too. Lots of info, really helpful people, and even free frags! Plus it's cool to be able to get one or two rare polyps at good prices instead of having to settle for the run of the mill or dealing with shipping. I can't wait until everything grows out!

 

[Dan06]

Been pleased with the 'stability' of my system so far. My LFS cures their own live rock, gave me a couple cupfuls of their gravel and argonite to seed my tank. Never saw any detectable ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, there are a bunch of various critters appearing to be thriving in my tank already. They gave me their undivided attention everytime I came in with questions...

I've found the SW resources are far deeper & many more people have the addiction and are loaded with good knowledge, not to mention all the equipment associated with SW seems to be better quality. I really like the idea of using virtually pure water to begin with, I think a lot of my issues with Freshwater began from my tap, not to mention the fish from the FW LFS's were never in good shape and regardless of the exhausting measures I took, I lost a large amount of fish, hated having to order plants I wanted blind from the internet..etc. The effort and work I was putting into freshwater just got obnoxious for very little reward.

My goal with SW for now is to just maintain a balanced and healthy easy to care for SPS system.

My LFS is a SW store only, the guys who own it are young and not afraid to try new things - so they've been an invaluable resource so far. They take coral/fish/rock/equip all in on trade for store credit or cash - so should I mess up with a purchase, I can get some help and not completely hate myself.

I only have a 36g tank right now, I hope to have a various assortment of polyps, leathers and other sps for now. Something inexpensive and stuff that won't be the end of the world if I screw up and wipe out a tank.

 

[Amphiprion]

Hmm, not sure. I always appreciated and was fascinated by marine life in general as a child, so when I was able to afford the necessary basic equipment, I tried one. I suppose I expected a learning experience and to successfully keep and observe marine animals in as natural an environment as possible for as long as possible. That may have been unrealistic, but I wasn't displeased with the results overall.

 

[fsn77]

......entered in to the hobby of marine fish keeping, what did you expect to get back out of the hobby?

I think the enjoyment of having a small piece of the reef in our living room was about all I expected. I knew there'd be a lot to learn, despite my educational background, fw experiences, and long time interest, and fully expected it to be a pretty expensive hobby. In fact, the implied expense kept me from setting up a sw tank for years. It was only after I got married and my wife encouraged me to do it that I set up our first tank. It's since become more than just my hobby, as she has a substantial interest in it as well (and not just financially). If I could only get her to do water changes every now and then or prune the macroalgae...

Is it what you expected it too be?

It has been everything I expected it to be and more. Fortunately, the number of really great days have significantly outnumbered the number of really bad days. And, thus far (knock on wood) those bad days have been very low in number and been full of issues that are fixed with a lot of time and only a little bit of money.

From the hobby itself, there's been some things that I didn't expect -- some good, some not so good. The variety of what's out there seems limitless at times (both in terms of dry goods and livestock). I've honestly been suprised by several things about the hobby as a whole -- how much some people are willing to learn about chemistry, biology, and ecology that have no background or real interest in the sciences (some of them unknowingly learning these things through their experiences), how little others are willing to learn or even discuss alternatives, how some hobbyists make so much out of such a relatively small investment (make the most of their money spent and have beautiful tanks), and how some are so content with so little despite a rather large investment (those that continue to throw money at the tank thinking the amount of money spent directly equates to a tank's sucess).

What were your aspirations for your very first marine tank, and did it turn out the way you had planned it too?

We didn't have many aspriations for our very first marine tank, other than having it be sucessful. Three plus years later, it's still going and we're very happy with it, so something must being going according to plan. It all became much more enjoyable once I started simplifying things. Keeping things simple and doing what's needed when it's needed have been the best things I've done for our tank. Making the time spent on the tank be time well spent has really gone a long way for making our tank both sucessful and enjoyable -- so much so that we've set up a couple smaller sw tanks and are planning a significant tank up grade in the coming months.

 

[rdfriend]

Being an animal lover all of my life, and having had numerous different types over the years, I had thought about an aquarium at times but had never jumped in. I had a friend that had a 55g salt setup at one time but after having quite a few fish deaths and continuous problems I was turned off on the idea and would have probably went fresh had I made the conscience decision to try. As fate would have it, one of our customers,(my wife and I have a cleaning, maintenance and handyman business), was moving and had decided they didn't want to take their 125g setup with them and since I was always fascinated with it when we were there they asked if we would like to have it for free. Of course free turned into almost $500 immediately when I had the service company they were using tear it down, move and setup at my home. Not knowing anything at all about saltwater tanks I at first decided to keep the service. Initially the tank was crushed coral substrate with dead coral decor that the service would swap out each month they came out. They original owners had 4 large fish in it,(yellow tang, flame angel and not sure on the others), that the service claimed had not survived the move except for the angel. Well, to make this part of the story shorter, I was soon unsatisfied with the service as I read and learned more. They told us we had to wait at least a month to start a cycle and then did so with damsels, different guy coming out each month, month being too long to wait between changes, crap they were telling me, etc. So I fired them and started taking it on myself. The gratification level and respect for what it takes to be successful in this hobby rose almost immediately. At this point kudos have to go out to Aquaria Central for my education!!! So after much time, effort and money, I upgraded the system. There have been highs and lows of course but since I really didn't know what I was getting into my expectations were sort of borderline. Then like an addiction I was hooked! So here am, 2 years later, with 4 tanks of varying sizes and still boggled by what can be involved. I actually look forward every week toward my Sunday maintenace and water changes. BTW, even though this is off topic, I recently posted pictures of my tanks,(thanks to all who gave the nice comments!), and am going to try a video soon because I am so amazed at how my dragon wrasse tosses rocks around the tank. Who needs TV?! So I would say all in all my results have far exceeded my expectations and even though the economy may eventually force me to start downsizing I find it hard to imagine myself without at least one tank setup.

 

[Cory Keeper]

......entered in to the hobby of marine fish keeping, what did you expect to get back out of the hobby?

Is it what you expected it too be?

What were your aspirations for your very first marine tank, and did it turn out the way you had planned it too?

Please discuss at will...old members, new members, experienced or just starting....Lets hear from everyone....

On Q #1: Probably the satisfaction of being able to grow corals, and or watch various inverts crawl around the little tank. Don't really care about fish too much, prefer FW fish for some reason.

#2: Actually, expected it to be alot harder. Even though I'm only in week 2 I expected alot of trouble, havn't had issues with algae or anything of that sort, its the lights that are giving me issues.

#3: A nice pico reef with quite a few nice corals and frags of various sorts.

#4: I'll back to you on that one, like in about 6 months, lol

 

[ToeJam]

......entered in to the hobby of marine fish keeping, what did you expect to get back out of the hobby?

Is it what you expected it too be?

What were your aspirations for your very first marine tank, and did it turn out the way you had planned it too?

Please discuss at will...old members, new members, experienced or just starting....Lets hear from everyone....

Well I had a 55 gallon Pleco tank... full of bog wood looking like the roots in a swamp water forest...

I used a 10 gallon tank to host a clown and sea bae... I was thinking just itll be my lil salt tank I dont want anything more.

Well now I have been through 3 salt water tanks and I am way off where I expected I was going on the start. Now I am growing frags of SPS to trade.

Surely not where I expected to go with t his.

 

[Catpicklesdog]

I didin't have any plans or expectations when I started with the hobby.

I'd goneinto a local LFS for some fish food for my pond fish and started looking at the tropical and marine sections. I was such a noob I didn't even know the title "marine", to me they were just brightly coloured compared to the trops so I bought a tank! It was a starter pack that came with the sand, heater and powerhead. Brought the salt to go with it and a book and went home.

My first batch of salt water I ever made was using tap water!!!! I waited 8 weeks for the cycle and one of my first fish was a box fish!!!

I've come a long way since those days!!!!

I've learnt so much and I now appreciate the diversity of marine live, I could never imagine being without a tank. I'm now on my third tank and have never looked back