Why do YOU love the hobby?

[BananaHannah]

So I'm starting this thread because I want to hear your input on why you love the hobby so much. What made you addicted? How did you get into the hobby? I'd love to hear everyone's stories, as well as share my own:)So here goes!

My dad is a guide fisherman, therefore I've had tanks in my house all my life. Living in Naples, FL, I had the beach in my backyard, where I was exposed to the saltwater ecosystems. My dad would always take us out in his skiff and teach us all about our vast backyard. I've always been taken with the life, and whenever we'd go to the keys, the vibrant colors and beautiful corals would stay imprinted in my mind.

Last June I bought a female betta fish (Lulu)on a random whim with my friend Kendall, as I'd never kept fish by myself, much less thought they were cool. Well, at first I kept my betta in a half gallon but realised it was sad. I thought it was sick and I started to do research. I realised I had provided inadequate care for this animal. I bought her a 2 gallon tank, heater, and silk plants. A month later, on my birthday, I bought a 10 gallon tank with my new male betta, Charlie. All the while I was researching and researching. I soon stumbled into the vast coral world online and realised this was where my heart lay.

As the school year started I kept researching. My 7th grade bio science teacher and I were very close, because I already knew 3/4 of the course because of my research. In April he gave me an excess 20 gallon tank with a stand, which is what my reef is today. What I like the most is something my dad's friend mentioned to me: when you have your own reef, you play God. You can decide what goes where, and pretty much control the system; its yours. It's the one thing in life you actually have a grasp on, the one thing that you can change with your fingertips. I feel like these tanks make me calmer in the sense it makes me feel as if my life is actually in control
:crazy1:
So that's my story, what's yours?

[BananaHannah]

FTS of it now(: (colors aren't right)
http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/af320/hannahlegutki/IMG_1072.jpg

[inwha]

I got started because of my parents, they kept saltwater tanks as far back as i can remember. So naturally i was drawn to it bc of that. Im actually using a hand me down 55 gallon from them.

I love the hobby because i like to watch things grow. I love animals and really care for their well being. To me its fun to obsess over water quality etc. Being able to show off the tank when people come over is cool to :). Knowing that its all up to me to keep everyone happy drives me everyday.

[BananaHannah]

I definitely enjoy showing it off as well! Those are the moments where you can wipe the sweat off your brow and say okay, the water changes and algae battles all paid off. It definitely gives you a sense of satisfaction! People at school know me as the "fish girl":spin1: but its all good because they actually come to me if they have fish problems. I actually have set up some tanks for them!

My dad has always been skeptical of me doing this, saying it's too much work. But he takes one look at my 20G and says, "you wanna turn the freshwater 75G into something like that?":lol2: I also like the hobby because it kinda helped me prove my dad wrong, I can take on things like this!

[brandon429]

I started out of curiosity in keeping really small reefs which at the time almost everybody said could not be done. Joined up here and at rdo and nr-com, the big 3, asking questions.

Eric Borneman on here took time to catch me up to speed, he's the reason I stayed in it past the early tank crash stages when I thought reefs didn't need feed only light etc

I stay in it now to see how many rules can be broken, and how much new ground can be attained with small reefs. They break almost every known rule that was put into reef book type as inflexible/certain. Knowing there are new discoveries to continually be had even in 1 gallon of water really does it for me lol.

[BananaHannah]

That's awesome that you're bending the rules and seeing how far they can be pushed(: it must be cool to discover the possibilities that lay out there! And as for the beginning, its good you found this site, there are a lot of really nice people on here!

[Petown Mike]

I enjoy the challenge of being a successful "artificial ecosystem technician." There is great satisfaction in getting bizarre organisms to thrive in enclosed habitats.

A well done reef tank is visually incomparable. Ever since I was a child I've enjoyed noticing the little details of nature and observing animal behaviors. Reefs are rich in both.

[Vince272992]

My little sisters favorite animal is a starfish and since I had a fresh water at the time she told me she wanted me to set up a TINY 2gal tank so I could put a starfish in it bought all the supplies (salt and tank and light... I know I was a noob back then hahaahaha) and got home and never got to it, but later on we decided against it and I decided to set up a 20gal reef and dump my 20gal fresh water, so I traded all my fresh water fish plants and everything for salt water equipment (hydrometer, test kits, live rock, filters etc..) and the addiction started, had a really nice 20 gal for 4 months with a clown , purple fire fish, and six line wrasse with some corals, mushrooms, Duncan, zoas u know noob corals haha and then one trip to my LFS I saw a 65gal used tank that came with refugium, overflow, tank and stand for 150$!!!!! Got it the next day along with 78lbs of LR and now currently I have SPS (birds nest, montipora, acropora) LPS( Duncan, acans, war corals, frogspawn, candy canes, bubble coral, )softies ( mushrooms, lots of zoas, toadstool, GSP,) anemones ( GBTA, and soon a RBTA) I have 10 beautiful fish ( yellow tang, bangii cardinl, 2 clownfish, a firefish, royal gramma, mkoskers wrasse, alge blenny, lamsrks angel, and a blue green chromis) and inverts I have a cleaner shrimp and sand sifter star. Overal a beautiful set up... I'd also like to share my equipment upgrades from when I was a noob to now when I k w wht I'm doing:) so in my 20gal I had 2 HOB filters rated at 20gal each, no power head, a tetra heater, 3 T8 bulbs for light and a reef octopus HOB skimmer now in my 65 I have a 20gal refugium, 2 koralia 1050s on controller, a German made heater rated for 100gal (forgot name brand), 10 T5 bulbs all on current USA fixtures a in sump reef octopus skimmer rated for 120gal just to name a few haha

So that's my story. HAPPY REEFING

[Chris27]

I got started because my wife and kids wanted the "pretty" fish from the store instead of neon's and tetras......

Many years later, many 1000's of dollars later, many tanks later.....I'm hooked. My favorite thing about this hobby are the symbiotic relationships that mother nature allows us to have in these tanks.

Pistol shrimp / goby
Clown / anemone
Coral / crab
Fish / Cleaner shrimp
etc...

[cbbram]

Bump

[BananaHannah]

Wow thanks guys for posting, it's really nice to hear the stories! It's funny how I can relate to every single one of them :)

Petown Mike
There is great satisfaction in getting bizarre organisms to thrive in enclosed habitats.

There is! It's like, wow this thing is so amazing as it is, now I get to watch it thrive and grow!

Vince272992
65gal used tank that came with refugium, overflow, tank and stand for 150$!!

That's a really good deal o.o I'm sure if i saw it and I had money, I'd get it in a heartbeat! However, I don't know if I'd need one, since my dad is convinced to let me convert the 75G:D

Chris27
my wife and kids wanted the "pretty" fish from the store instead of neon's and tetras......
My brother got sick of looking at betta fish and didn't understand why I liked them so much:rollface: but that's okay, he's real content with the coral under the moonlights:lol:

[bluewater921]

i got into the hobby over 30 years ago with my best friend .. we started going to the grass flats and collecting sea horses n baby puffers n would bring them home and house them in our lil 10 gallon tanks n when they got to big we would take them back to the same grass flat and return them to there home and catch more .. then we parted ways when he moved to PR and i moved to hawaii moved back to florida in 92 n we met up again and kept going with the salt water .. here we are 30 years later n we are living our dreams ..im still surfing and he is a diver/ collector down in the florida keys he owns a ML and RS endorsement n collects fish and corals has been doing this for the past 5 years now . i make trips down there every other month or when needed to help him fill really big orders .. i have a 180 gallon tank its been up and running for a while now and i just enjoy sitting in my living room and watching the fish swim it so relaxing and takes all the stress of this busy world away .. plus i love showing it off makes me feel good when people come over and see it ..

[BananaHannah]

My favorite places to snorkel are over grass flats... It's so cool seeing the animals in the wild, then being able to duplicate it in your home.. it is literally your piece of personal ocean :)
i have a 180 gallon tank its been up and running for a while now and i just enjoy sitting in my living room and watching the fish swim it so relaxing and takes all the stress of this busy world away
At night I like to just watch the fish swim, and the lps sway... it really melts all worries away! Although I wish I had put my tank in my bedroom, as it's in the dining room right now:rollface:

[KafudaFish]

I get to use my Overlord powers for good.

[BananaHannah]

I get to use my Overlord powers for good.

....:lmao::lol2::lol::spin2::lolspin: My family just stared at me for laughing hysterically at the computer. But yes, I agree, you do get to kinda play God to your aquarium :)

[rrasco]

It took me a while to venture into SW. I was doing the cichlid thing for a while, still am actually, but am slowly moving more and more towards SW only. I'll always have a FW tank (love my mobas), but reefs are a whole different world. My cichlid tanks don't require me to baby sit them, while my reef tank has more or less turned into a reef system. The fish room has evolved into a maintenance room for practically that one tank.

Once I got into reefing, it was on. FW fish are cool, but there is no comparing a reef ecosystem to FW fish. There is so much going on in a reef and you constantly learn new things, find new creatures, and watch your corals grow. It's basically extreme aqua gardening. That's one of the things I really take away from this hobby too, not everyone can just have a successful reef. People can throw all the money they want at a system, but unless they take the time to learn, or have someone build and maintain it for them, they more than likely won't succeed. It takes knowledge, patience, and motivation to stick with reefing and be successful. I get satisfaction out of knowing that I can provide adequate conditions as mother nature to allow a miniature reef to thrive.

My tanks allow me to escape. Through the daily grind of life and work, when I get home, I switch into a different mode. No matter what the day brings, my tanks are the one constant in my life that bring me back to down earth. It's a hobby, a passion, an escape route.

[Psirex]

I have had FW tanks for over 10yrs now and decided I needed to step up my game and take on the challenge of a SW tank. After about amount of reading and researching and talking with friends who have or had them at one point I jumped right into a 120 gallon tank and have never looked back.

For me its about a sense of accomplishment and being able to see your hard work and hard earned money payoff. I find things like doing yard work, taking care of my tanks and such RELAXING! Most people say "isn't that a lot of work" I say yes but it is relaxing and I enjoy just being able to have something like a sw tank thrive because I take care of it.

The reason it addicting to me - is seeing other tanks and wanting raise my game to match theirs...

[Reeferz412]

My dad kept FW and always told me it was too difficult to keep SW. I learned from him about FW filtration (we had a 86 gallon FW aquarium) and upgraded the filtration and I built our pond filtration as well with him. We built that pond in 98 and to this day when I revisited our old house it is still the same. I always had that mentality that SW was too difficult and way too much work thanks to my dad, but one day in college I decided to go to the library and research. My friend gave me his 20 gallon high and I started with a 20 gallon nano reef aquarium. After many mistakes, impulse buys, and lessons learned, and LOTS AND LOTS of research on this forum and many others, I now have my 46 BF reef tank which I am very pleased. A rather simple setup with some hardy SW fish and a mixed variety of corals ranging from the beginning of my 20 gallon to fairly new.

I love this hobby because it is always changing. There is never a dull moment in the hobby because you can always add new corals, reaquascape, research the latest technologies on the hobby, and get to know some really cool people who share the same passion. I love teaching people about the hobby, because they had no idea how complex it is. All the patience, planning, work, and research it takes just to keep a fish or coral is a job in it self, let alone the whole ecosystem you keep. People pass my tank and wonder if it is freshwater or salt and I want to cry lol. I educated my girlfriend who is not fascinated by the complexity of the hobby (and the $$$ it costs). I am constantly trying to improve the way of life for my fish and corals and seek the best environment for them. I dont think a day goes by where I dont touch my tank or equipment.

[reefanatik]

My Aquatic adventure started in Feb. 2006 due to my older brother. He purchased a 72g Oceanic bowfront with the stainless steal stand. He had PC lights, a HOB skimmer, Canister filter and a couple of maxi jets. He was in the hobby for about 1 year. Needless to say he didnt know about reefcentral. Well he was in a motor cycle accident which he was thrown off a 15ft overpass going at about 65mph. When we got to the hospitol he couldnt feal his legs. It was a very hard time for us. After a few months of me taking care of him after work an hour away from where i live he started to be able to do things on his own. Taking care of the tank was very hard since i lived an hour away and he couldnt do any heavy lifting on his own, atleast not carry 5gallon buckets and changing water. The tank was very helpfull for him at one of his lowest times in his life. He said he would stare at it for hours when he was bed ridden. We lost alot of fish and coral at the time cause our husbandry wasnt where it should be. RIP to all the fish/coral that were lost in helping my brother keep his spirits up. After a few months he decided it was too hard for him to keep up with a saltwater tank in his current state so he asked me if I wanted it. I was excited. I was getting a 72g Oceanic bowfront saltwater tank for FREE!!!! Needles to say this hobby was far from free for me to get into. after upgrading lights to Tek T5's, canister filter to a customized sump/refugium, HOB skimmer to a SRO XP2000i, Maxi Jets to Koralia 3 and 4's, losss of all coral and fish to hurricane Katrina(loss of power), loss of all coral and fish a 2nd time due to high temp issues(more money on chiller$700), and finally the free tank recently got a crack in it so i had to upgrade to a 90G AGA, pumps upgraded to Vortech MP40(2nd mp40 coming soon), 40B sump. Although i know i left alot out this hobby was def. not free. So the main reason i got into saltwater is because it was free, so i thought. But now im in it because it gives me a sence of accomplishment when u buy something and see it grow throughout the years, I love showing off my tank to family and friends, my kids love it, its a beautifull art peace in the living room, it helps releive stress at times, although it can also add alot of stress, I love to stair at the tank and see the wonderfull life that we keep in our homes. That is why I started and why i will stay in this wonderfull and expensive hobby of ours.

[IridescentLily]

I had been scuba diving a couple times (in the US). I loved how elegant, and quiet it was.
A few years later I fell for the jewel-like colors of the fish and corals the day i visited my best friend at the place where she and her husband worked, the local fish store.
After i saw their display tank i wanted to learn more about this whole other quiet, beautiful underwater world.