what got you into the saltie side ?

[total*clowns]

Come on then, own up, what made you join the saltie side ???

We had a tropical tank for years and years but always longed and admired the saltie section from a distance.....Then one day we made the leap, and thanks to Ebay I think we done it at a fraction of the price IMO. The same things as some shops sell at a lower cost.
It's a great hobby, OK a tad on the expensive side, but if done properly it has fantastic rewards, and I also think it is a great educational thing for our three kids.... :-D

So come on lads and laddettes (if there is any) what got you into the hobby ???

[Paul P.]

I got a 2ft fresh trop tank 6 years ago to fill a gap in the living room it spiralled from there until I had 6 display tanks and 9 ancistrus breeding tanks
I then took the plunge and started keeping discus, one day I was looking through the free ads in the paper and a guy was selling a Rio 180 marine set up, I was only really interested in the external filter he was selling with it but ended up buying the lot and here I am today with the Rio 180 still going strong a 5x2x2.5(h) reef tank and another 5x2x2 project in the planning stages and a wallet that is many many ale tokens lighter !

[Dons1903]

I first got into fishkeeping many years ago when I one a goldfish at a local fair! My dad bought me a 18" tank, sponge filter and light for it and I am happy to report that it survived for many years.

I then moved up to tropical fish and kept many tanks, getting bigger and bigger over the years (indeed my current second tank is a tropical setup). I always fancied the marine side as the fish were so brightly coloured but always though of it as too hard and too much work.

Finally bit the bullet in 1998 and upgraded my 4' tropical tank to a fish-only marine tank and never looked back since...

[tonyponty]

saw a display one in shop and me son decided to get one 3 month later i followed lol but they do look awsome when they are all completed
with been a newbie got a long way to go yet though

[Macca]

Many moons ago I visited a shop in Glasgow called M&R Dogfish in Ibrox! Well every Saturday before entering paradise I would spend at least an hour admiring their livestock. The marine livestock just seemed to have so much character than my swordtails and guppys.

I would have begun a lot earlier in this great hobby but it was a very expensive change over.

With the internet in our homes we can introduce beginners to our hobby with price cutting techniques that was not available when I begun keeping my first red leg!

I think the redlegs are cheaper now than they were then :grin:


James

[newkidfish]

I had a tropical tank when young and longed to keep marines, but alas was not to be until recently.
Final push came when kids started nagging for a DOG - and silly me suggested fish instead - less work I thought :lol:
As my daughter has ambitions for marine biology she thought marine tank would be good grounding :shock: not quite what I was planning for them (I was thinking of a goldfish).
So here we are today truly bitten by the bug!

[Tetley]

For me, it started with a 10 gallon Tropical (which I have running still).

I then had some extra spending tokens (Oct last year), and thought to myself I would like a bigger tank, so went to my LFS who at the time was doing a little bit of marine's, so bet you can guess the rest.

The final upgrade will be comming along soon- so will let you all know when.

ATB

Ian

[Dons1903]

The final upgrade will be comming along soon

No such thing as a final upgrade, only the next upgrade! :wink: :-D

[Tetley]

The final upgrade will be comming along soon

No such thing as a final upgrade, only the next upgrade! :wink: :-D


Yes, guess you are right - never say never again :-D

Ian

[Simon]

I've always been interested in fish. :-D Had tropical, goldfish etc but always thought marine was way out of my league. :worried: Then i saved for a while, slowly built up my tank for about 6 months and now i'm very pleased with the results. :lol: It wasn't as expensive as i though but i did have a few problems with live rock. :shock:

[TrollGod]

It all started back in 1985 when I first walked into a Tropical Fish Shop called Ankers Aquariums in Stoke-on-Trent. It was just through curiosity that I went in. The four walls of the shop were floor to ceiling with tanks of tropical fresh water fish and at the age of 13 I was totally mesmerised by what I saw. I must have spent hours looking at the tanks as at that time I did not know such fish existed. I then turned to the shop owner and started to bombarded him with questions on keeping these amazing fish. I eventually left the shop to go straight home, planning on the way home how I could convince my parents to splash out some of their hard earned cash on a tropical fish tank.

Unfortunately my parents did not share the same enthusiasm so I spent the next 5 months visiting the shop every weekend and reading my copy of Tropical Fish Keeping from cover to cover. Eventually it was my 14th Birthday and I was the proud owner of a 3 x 1 x 1.5 Tropical Fish Tank, joined a club which was ran by the owner of Ankers Aquariums and moved to keeping and breading cichlids.

Many years passed and slowly tropical marine was slowly coming on the scene and slowly catching my eye especially the inverts which totally fascinated me and at the age of 17 I had my first fish only marine tank which was 4 x 2 x 2. When I look back now it’s amazing that we managed to keep these delicate fish and inverts as with the hobby still in its infancy it was a very crude way of marine fish keeping.

Sorry folks this is turning into a life history

Anyway I am now 34 and still fascinated by the hobby and 3 years ago setup a 5 x 2 x 2 reef system. It is of simple design and contains hardy corals and fish as to give me the time for work and my family.

I think that you would agree this is a hobby that is continually educating and there is always something to be learnt.

[marcoz]

Well, I'm a newbie to the hobby. A friend of mine works at 'world of water' and keeps a marine tank which I always stared at with fascination when visiting. He recently moved house and wanted to get rid of his smaller tank, an aquaone 620T.. I obliged. At first I was going to take the easy option and keep tropical fish but my mate explained marine was the way to go and that he'd help me out. Anyway, after pricing everything up I realised I was better off buying a complete, mature system from ebay.. so here I am - a few months on with my juwel 260, climbing the educational marine ladder :-D

Ps. the 620T still sits empty but am thinking of starting up a nano reef in the near future

[Wilfy]

My dad had a tropical tank when I was little but got rid when I was young, a memory lives with me of an albino catfish, I was hooked from an early age.
When I was 16 and started work I bought a 3 foot tropical tank with my dad, set this up and sold it within a month. Bought a 4 foot tank and kept tropical fish for years.
It then went downhill, I got married bought a house and my better half bought me a 3 x 3 x 2 corner tank. I bred kribs, convicts, as I dabbled keepin different species. One favourite was a tyre track eel that would sit in your hand to be fed prawns, but alas, I was never happy and always vowed one day to do the ultimate (in my eyes) in fish keeping a own a reef tank.
That day arrived well over 5 years ago, and with itchy fingers yet again I am in the throws of planning an upgrade to a 5 x 2 x 2 from my 4 foot tank.

[Reefer]

My Dad has kept fish longer than Ive been alive and he was in with marines when undergravels were all the rage so I guess it was inevitable I was to be taken into the fold. I started with tropicals but that lasted less than a year before I dived headlong into the marine thing. Cost me a fortune but hey its only money!

[Tangman]

Hi. I got into the fishy side of things by my Granfather when i was a kid of about 8 or 9, at that time i lived on a farm and had all sorts of pet animals. I used to go fishing with my Grandfather and catch all sorts of fish and one day i asked him if i could keep some, so he made me my first tank which was a iron framed glass and putty tank which i kept all manner of fish in that we caught in the rivers and ponds around us. I have been keeping fish since the 50s and moved into marines in the early 80s. My first tank of marines was a 5x12x18 which soon got upgraded to a 5x2x2 , then i added a 4x2x2. After moving house i sold all my tanks and then got a 72x24x30 which lasted me for about 5 years, then i moved house again and sold that tank and bought a 5x2x2 as i moved into a smaller house. Then last year i got a 7x2x2 and filled my living room up, but as i live on my own it does not matter. I have been toying with the idea of having a 48x48x36 inches that is, but at preent it only an idea but you never know. Eric.

[celtic fish]

i first kept a black moor and a tench in a 18 inch tank,you know the ones with the angle iron corners now theres nostalgia with a bubble filter and noisey pet craft air pump.then came the catfish loads of them some years later, but marines were the boys such colour and diversity

[liquidlogic]

was about to buy chichlids and start up into that. but!!. the man in the lfs sed im sure u can do a marine tank go for it why not. i never considered it untill then. and that was 2 years ago. tank still not set up :( untill 2-3 weeks :D

[Rover]

Was impressed with two nano systems set up in a local fish shop and fancied having a go myself. Ran a small ~34l for a year or so with occasional problems (not allways my fault). Have now moved up to something a little larger (~30 gallons) seems to be progressing well at the mo. One day will have that dream set up:D