# How i got here...



## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

So, i'm bored today and I thought this would be a neat idea. If anyone would like to participate, I would be very interested in reading your threads.

This is how my hobby life evolved.

When I was 14 years old my parent bought me a 29 gallon aquarium. We set it up freshwater, with an undergravel filter, an air pump, and carbon inserts in the uplift tube. We did exactly as we were told by the LFS, adding Stress Coat and Nox Ich to the aquarium every time we did a water change and every time we added fish. We never tested anything, but we did our regular partial water changes (using the garden hose). We had very limited success for about a year and eventually the aquarium was taken down. I remember having Red Swordtails and Black Skirt Tetras, but that is pretty much the extent of what lived well.

About 2 years later my brother set up a 10 gallon aquarium. This was 1989, if memory serves me correct. His aquarium was going well, with the help of a knowledgable man at the local LFS who really was a true hobbyist. Given his success, I dug the 29 gallon out of the basement. Being a little more mature and eager to learn, I lived at the LFS. I was there every day, just watching Tim take care of the tanks and talking his ears off. He was more than happy to let me participate and always willing to trade fish in and out. It was freshwater only at first, then a small number of marine fish to catch my eye.

Fast forward 3 years. I am 19 years old living in my parents basement. In my bedroom I have:
A 29 gallon African Cichlid tank.
A 55 gallon Cichlid Tank, way overstocked with large Cichlids. From memory, I had an Oscar, Jack Dempsey, 2 Pike Cichlids, 2 Jewell Cichlids, 1 Firemouth, and 1 Pacu.
A 10 gallon Saltwater tank. It was set up with a U/G filter and freshwater decorations. I kept a Coral Beauty Angel and a single Ocellaris Clownfish. I used baking soda as a buffer and did weekly water changes. Overall it was successful, but I got bored within a few months and went back to FW.
A 10 gallon freshwater tank, with basic community fish.
A 20 gallon freshwater tank, wtih basic community fish. 
My mom was starting to get a little annoyed.

Fast forward 2 years. I am 21 years old living at home, and working at the LFS. In my bedroom I have:
A 10 gallon open top live plant tank with Cardinal Tetras and Albino Corys. 
A 10 gallon species tank for a pair of Paradise Gouramies.
A 55 gallon with a Blood Parrot, Gold Severum, Green Severum, 7 Silver Dollars, and 3 Raphael Catfish. 
FYI - the Blood Parrot lived 14 years.
A 29 gallon African Cichlid tank. I loved my Africans. 
A 20 gallon long saltwater. It had a U/G filter and an internal protein skimmer home made out of a tennis ball can. It had several fake barnicle corals, 2 Clownfish, a Yellow Tail Blue Damsel, and a Domino Damsel. I had no problems with this tank, but was still not really interested in marine.
A 20 gallon freshwater community.
A 10 gallon Ram and live plant biotope.
A 29 gallon with Tiger Barbs, Serpae Tetras, and a Leporinus. 

Fast forward 1 year, to 1995. I am 22 years old living with my girlfriend in a 1 bedroom apartment. We have:
A 29 gallon saltwater with Damsels, filtered by a Penguin Biowheel.
A 10 gallon saltwater with a pair of Clownfish, filtered by a sponge filter and an internal skimmer home made out of an old uplift tube.
A 29 gallon saltwater filtered by a Penguin with Clownfish and an anemone. 
A 29 gallon live plant tank.
A 20 long live plant tank.
A 55 gallon saltwater with a Black Trigger, a Regal Angel, and a Porcupine Puffer. The Regal lived for about 6 months before I returned it to the LFS. It did not get along with the Puffer. This tank was filtered by a Penguin and a Skilter. Keep in mind, this was 1995. The internet was just getting its start and supplies were hard to come by. Information was slowly exchanged and sump systems were only used for the largest of aquariums. Weekly water changes were normal and live rock was not used in any of my tanks.

Fast forward 2 years, to 1997. My girlfriend and I now live in a 2 bedroom apartment. I am about to graduate college. We have a fishroom. Yes, we moved to a 2 BR apartment so that we could have a fishroom. We have:
A 90 gallon Asian FW tank. It was a square home made acrylic tank, 3'' x 3''. Very cool.
A 55 gallon saltwater, with a Black Trigger, Picaso Trigger, Maroon Clownfish, and Porcupine Puffer.
The saltwater tank now had a generic brand CPR type unit, with protein skimmer and bioballs. No live rock.
A 10 gallon mini reef, with live rock and dual light strip. It had mushrooms, Tubastrea, and feather dusters, along with a Yellow Clown Goby, Ocellaris Clown,and various inverts. It was a natural system with no filter, and eventually a skilter was added.
2 more 20 gallon tanks, 2 more 29 gallon tanks, and a pair of 10 gallon tanks, all various FW setups. 
We also had a Turtle tank, a hedgehog, 2 Lovebirds, a Parokeet, a Cockatiel, and a lot of Finch.

Fast forward 2 years, to 1999. I bought my first home and turned the basement into a REAL fishroom. I will continue this part of the story later today, because now the hobby starts to really get fun!


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## willow (Sep 9, 2006)

wow !! 
you've come a long way,you seem to be living the dream 
and you had a hedgehog too.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Your leaving us in suspense!!! Did you marry the girlfriend that shared your passion for fish. My hubby thinks I am fish crazy. I think my house would be full of fish if I married someone who also enjoyed my hobby.


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## mags2313 (Nov 25, 2008)

Wow....true...fanatic...

Fantastic!!


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

You have a GREAT memory.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

Pasfur said:


> Fast forward 2 years, to 1999. I bought my first home and turned the basement into a REAL fishroom. I will continue this part of the story later today, because now the hobby starts to really get fun!


Ok, part 2. At this point in my life i'm really a dedicated hobbyist. The fishkeeping hobby has taken off over the last decade and the marine hobby is catching on very fast. The internet has been a huge factor and information is being exchanged real time every day, making it quick and easy to learn.

Outside of just keeping aquariums, i've been involved in everything I can. I had submitted multiple writings and had a few articles "published" by early subscription based internet magazines. I was maintaining a large web site that was near the top of the google hits, called "Ocean World". I was involved in ther first ever hosting of a MACNA conference in my home town, which allowed me to meet some of the biggest names in the hobby. I had become extremely active online, which over the prior 5 years had started to see the evolution of forums and chat rooms. (In the very early days I used the screen name "ffishmaster" and I still stumble across my user name in threads from time to time.) 

Ok, enough of that. Lets talk fish. When I bought my home I decided to put a fishroom in the basement. So we put up a wall, separate electric, and heat. I used concrete blocks as legs and 4x4's as the framework for my stands. In the end I had wall to wall fish tanks, 48 aquariums at one point, ranging from 10 gallon fry tanks to a 90 gallon terrarium. The fishroom contained the following, to best of my memory :-D...

In order, along the wall circling the room.... (picture yourself sitting in my recliner)
* 16 x 10 gallon aquariums used for fry grow out and quarantine purposes. These were turned sideways on the stand, looking end to end, to save space naturally. These tanks were all bare-bottom with sponge filters, using one air pump and a series of gang valves.
* a 90 gallon terrarium, with a Turtle, various frogs,and fish.
* 3 consecutive double iron stands, 29 gallon on top of a 20 long. 5 of these were saltwater fish only tanks, and one of the 29 gallon tanks housed my Blood Parrot.
* another double iron stand, 20 gallon on top of 10 gallon. These were both live plant tanks, with the 10 gallon being my favorite open top style, with plants breaking the water surface growing out the top.
* a long homemande stand, with 4 x 20 gallons on top and 5 x 10 gallons beneath. These tanks were ever evolving, my "hobbyist" tanks. If I saw a unique fish, this is where it would be kept. Each was a species tank, keeping everything from Lake Tanganyika cichlids to Killies in species setups. I was the guy that the LFS would call on the phone if they had something unique on the fish list. Lots of fun.
* A homemade rack of 3x10 over 3x10 over 3x10, for a total of 9 more 10 gallon tanks. These were for breeding purposes. I never became to facinated with breeding, but I bred the basics and suggest you give it a shot also. Again, lots of fun. 
* A series of fish bowls, I'm guessing 6 to 8 of them total. At this point in my life, if it held water it was a fish tank. I would look for unique shaped glass bowls and vases that would make cool aquariums. I loved to do saltwater setups with nothing but sand, live rock, and the appropriate small fish and inverts. I had a 3 gallon saltwater bowl with live rock and an air stone for filtration that housed an Ocellaris Clownfish for over 4 years.
* a 20 gallon storage tote with a hang on biowheel that I used to quarantine my marine fish. 8) It was also home to a Porcupine Puffer for about 6 months after my move.
* a double iron stand 29 gallon over 20 long. Both saltwater tanks. I really enjoyed the shallow 20 long saltwater look. They were simple to maintain and with the long tank I was able to keep several small fish if properly aquascapped.
* a 55 gallon Asian tank, loaded with over 30 Tiger Barbs and live plants. I loved this tank. A ton of fun.
* yet another double iron stand, 29 gallon over 20 long, again both marine. 

Ok, lets count tanks and see how good my memory is. Yep, that is 48 tanks, not counting the fish bowls and quarantine tote! Oh yes, I also had a 58 gallon bowfront in my living room and a huge pond in the back yard. 

The pond was an interesting story. One day I just decided to start digging. When I stopped it was 20 feet long and 14 feet wide, 4 feet maximum depth. This was a very fun summer project, with landscapping, a small picket fence to protect from the dog, and a patio area to drink coffee and enjoy the pond every morning. I can't wait to move into my new condo in March so that I can have a pond again. (Yes, it has a back yard.) I never expected to enjoy the pond, but it was the most enjoyable project of my fish keeping life.

So, all of this continued for several years until I met my ex-wife. We soon bought a new home (sad), had a kid, and I became a real adult.  For the next 4 years my only aquarium was a 55 gallon saltwater tank, fish only. She finally agreed on a large tank project, and we had a 400 gallon tank on order from GlassCages.com. Unfortunately I had to cancel the order due to our relationship going south. Talk about taking candy from a baby. Did you hear what I just said. A 400 gallon tank. And i had to cancel the order. :-(

Then I divoced, moved into an apartment and promptly set up 2 tanks, both freshwater. A 58 bowfront Asian tank and a 28 gallon tall Angelfish tank.

Fast forward a few more years to today. I currently have my 38 gallon reef, a 20 long Turtle tank, and a betta bowl for my son.

I am now counting down the days until the closing on this condo, where my wonderful fiance is also excited about putting a large tank in the dining room. It is currently planned as a 180 gallon, and I actually have it picked out and an LFS that will deliver it. To say I am excited is an understatement!

And that folks, after a long boring thread, is how I got to where I am today.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Very interesting story! Best of luck with the new condo, wonderful fiance, and the new tank! How exciting!


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## Kellsindell (Sep 15, 2008)

Wow, best of luck with the condo(which i have been following ) should i input with how i got here?


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

Pasfur said:


> A 400 gallon tank. And i had to cancel the order. :-(


that explains the divorce.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

onefish2fish said:


> that explains the divorce.


LOL

Kells - yes, please! Lets hear it.

Cody - I want your story buddy!

OF2F - you're on the list.


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

heres as much as i can remember.

i got my first fish when i was about 5 years old. well fish is plural, but 1 fish "survived"
it was a common/feeder goldfish that i won at a community fair. sharky was his name as he grew about a foot long, was kept in a 75 gallon tank and lived for years and years. i never did any of the maintnance but i always saw my dad running the hose to the tank and filling it back up.
we had the goldfish until i was 10, 11 maybe even 12 years old (maybe even longer) but we also had another tank going when i was young too which was a community tank with neons and tiger barbs. it was a pretty sweet tank and the barbs actually had fry. these fish lasted awhile t oo but i remember going on vacation and coming home to a tank full of cacoons :shock: (lol, the fish were in what looked like white webs) apparently the heater malfunctioned and killed the entire tank.
ive always kept critters and creatures. before they built behind my house it used to be sand pits and i found a bunch of frogs in a puddle once, ofcourse i had to "save them" so i set up a frog tank. ive had firebelly salamanders before too.
at one point i had 2 frogs in a tank in my room and i remember one escaping, never found it. i remember playing soccer once and finding a guenie pig under bushes (with long long hair) next to a pile of food like who ever had it dumped the cage (shame on them) so ofcourse i had to "rescue him" so i had him for awhile along with another one that we got from the store, boy do those things make noise. ive kept a few small red eared sliders before for a brief time, my sister recently gave hers away that shes had for years. i once caught a box turtle that i put in my garden for awhile until it got out.
i always used to go to ponds and collect things, tadpoles, baby catfish, frogs, turtles, anything i could scoop up. we found the missing frog, behind my stove- fried to a crisp :roll:
ive kept tanks through out the years but stopped through most of my teen years due to drug addiction. i lost interest but getting clean put me right back with the tanks. 
i came back into fish keeping and set up a few tanks right away. i kept a 55 with a school of neons, a tank with guppies, a tank with dwarf puffers, a tank with guppy fry, dwarf frogs and a few other things in various tanks around my room.

not long ago i found this caused major issues. my house is old and the outer walls in my room get cold, apparently the humidity that was created mixed with the cold walls allowed it to condense and create alot of moisture. recently moving things around my room i found mold growth due to this :shock: so i ended up scrubbing my walls with a warm water/mild bleach mixture, got it all off and realize the paint is chipping so i ending up scraping all the paint off the walls. now it needs to be sanded and primed and then im painting it with a moldacide paint which is holding me up from upgrading my tank.
i didnt actually get into saltwater until about a year - year and a half ago. this was my research stage and read everything and anything i could to build my tank right. i learned so much without the hands on experience. it was until about 7 or so months ago i actually got my feet wet with saltwater. i continued to read and joined a local reefing club where i learned so much more, met some great people with the same interest and have seen some great tanks.
i now currently have a fancy goldfish tank, a 75 divided with dwarf puffers/ neons and guppies (the left overs of my tanks) and a 46 gallon bowfront reef which is shortly getting upgraded to a 5 foot 90 gallon. you can find my thread here: http://www.fishforum.com/saltwater-...fish2fishs-bowfront-salt-tank-progress-17236/
sorry im all over the place but this is as my memory recalls and im sure ive kept more things then ive stated, to sum it up ive kept all sorts of critters but was really only interested in fish and as ive found saltwater fish. me and my father both like fish, im into the saltwater and hes into fresh due to the ease of keeping pretty much everything freshwater. he shows great interest in my tank (he originally went for marine bio in florida but switched majors) and i think theres a small chance he might set up a saltwater tank. we have a billion empty tanks at my house and the reason theyre not set up is because my mom says shes sick of looking at a tank in every room. shes not bad about it, infact she wants a tank in the wall for when we redo the basement but she says enough is enought. this doesnt bother me to much as i really just enjoy my one tank. 
looking foward to hearing everyone elses story.


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## Kellsindell (Sep 15, 2008)

Mine's not as interesting as yours...

in 1995, age 10, we went to the old State Fair of Texas and as everyone knows, back then they had the "Win a fish" booth in every fair, but my mom wouldn't let me have a shot at it unless i did it with my own money. (i never had any) So i was forced to be an onlooker of those privlaged many that got their fish. 

Well my sister wanted one and so she gave it a shot and won! Yay, a fish in the house right, well that thing only last for a few days and we got really bummed out.

One year later now 11 i had money this time ;-), so i gave it a go. I won and took my fish home and put it into the living room, but my mom adopted the fish and maintained and all with it. Even upgraded from the little 2g we had already to a 20g hex tank. It looked really good and we started to add plants. Well situations came up in the family and we ended up having to leave the tank outside while my mom tried to get a vehicle to move everything (we got kicked out because the owners wife was really mean, to put it niecely), and when she came back, everything of ours was taken accept for the few clothes we had on our backs and in the car initially when we left

Moving forward to the attemts with gerbils (that was very successful) and turtles, those are all gone and given to good homes. It's now 2002 and i've been itching to get back into the fishing community again, but didn't know where to start or if i could even afford anything in it...

One year later 2003, almost 18, i bought my first real tank, my 25g. I spent $600 on it (it was a rip off, but i didn't know any better) and it was beautiful. I didn't know what i wanted so i saw the pretty fish in the tanks and said "i want that one!" and they go "great!" So i take my Yellow tang home (i know really smart!) and acclimate it into the water i bought from the LFS and used the live bacteria because they told me to use it, and i used a hang on filter, penguin if i'm not mistaken. I also got me a 10g tank from ebay that i spent $20 on and filled that sucker up with way too many fish!

Many poor fish later i find out that there's a cycle, but only after i got me a new Maroon clown fish. I see the maroon playing in an anemone and said throw it into the bag too, then they asked "what kind of light do you have" i told them the one that comes with the tank, and they said "you need this bulb" and gave me a Marine glo, normal output litght... humm... It's ok though because before i could kill the anemone with poor lighting ( i was feeding it brineshrimp and silversides too TYVM) my tank broke out in ich and killed my Maroon and a False Percula i added (another bad idea).

So then several months later, i am 18 now, my mom was in the LFS and saw a porcupine puffer that she couldn't resist and brought it home. I was still treating the tank for ich, but the LFS said, put the puffer into the tank while the treatment was going on. Fortunately(unfortunate i should say) the puffer survived. Yay! right?

So with the cycle behind me and ich behind me, i'm much better at keeping fish right? i buy clowns, damsels, an angel fish and a royal gramma. It turns out the Porcupin will eat anything smaller then it's mouth. It was a 25g with 4inch puffer... 

It lived for a year and i'm now 19 and discouraged. I bought mushrooms for the tank and snails and sea stars and they were all killed by my puffer. my LFS said, "feed him more and meatier foods" i said ok and still didn't matter. Finally, i said, my LFS doesn't know what they are talking about and i jumped online and started reaserching all the fish i could get pics of, had ever owned, or wanted to own. I was finally learning so much about the hobby. I still didn't join a forum because i had never heard of a forum before. my porcupine was doing poorly as my hope began to dwindle.

He died later and my spirit was lifted (horrible i know)


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## Kellsindell (Sep 15, 2008)

onefish2fish said:


> sharky was his name as he grew about a foot long,


LOL, reminds me of the show they had breifly on TV about Lewi Anderson and his huge fish with a small bowl that talked to him. Did he eat cheese burgers too? Rack of lamb or some mutton! :lol:


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## Kellsindell (Sep 15, 2008)

Ok, after my Puffer(spike) died, it was time to try with different fish again. Remember all that reaserch i did? Yeah, it was pointless, i went out and got me a Yellow Tang and a Sailfin tang in the little 25g tank and i also got a Tomato clown fish and a blue damsel that survived Spike. The fish were doing well. I was happy finally, doing normal water changes and what not... i read or heard, can't really remember, somewhere that a SW tank should be kept at 89F... so i was like OMG, let me raise the temp really really quick. So i cranked up my thermometer and killed all the life in the tank and i had nothing again. My mom never liked the tank to be empty so she bought me a tomato clown. I put it into a 55g that i later got.

It's now 2005, and i'm 20. I have a 55g tank with 1 LR that's 7lbs that i've had since the beginning and some sand. It was sad, ,but the clown was doing well as was the anemone i got. Someone i knew was a part of the local club that i had never heard of and grabbed me about 120lbs of LR and i threw it into my tank. it was from a reefer that said he had too much and needed to get rid of it for corals.

05 and 06 were spent moving a lot and i brok the 55g down and put all the LR into the 25g. then at the end of 07 i got good lighting finally and the only thing living in the tank was the tomato clown. He died in the last move. My sister got me a tomato after i was already given 2 false percs. I had read and studied and made everything stick into my noggin as much as possible and realized this was doomed. I couldn't find another place to put the tomato and it aggro'd my false percs too much and caused the female to jump (she looked really close to laying eggs too)

I went to my first club gathering in 2008 close to the beginning of the year and that's where i got my first frags or Zoanthids and a Birdsnest. I got engaged and was getting a little worried. I joined the club's message board and the club al together. Started listening to a couple of Podcasts about Reefkeeping. Did a lot of reaserch again and again and then i began to get worred even more-so...

So i posted a thread in my local clubs open forum and heard good and bad, but this is what scared me...









I finally had a tank that was starting to come together and i was getting ready to sell. Well, i decided to get me a BTA and let the clowns play in it... She loved it and said we are keeping it end of story! YES!

2009 i'm almost 24 and i have a 55g and a 2.5g. I've now moved into SPS corals and almost completely skipped the softies thing and i never kept any LPS. The tank is almost 8mo and everything is starting to look very promising. I've had many ups and downs and i'm continously learning as time progresses and questions come up. You can check my tank out here and you can see my Picotope here.

Thanks for following and happy Reefing!


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

if thats your wife your one lucky man ;-)


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

onefish2fish said:


> me and my father both like fish, im into the saltwater and hes into fresh due to the ease of keeping pretty much everything freshwater. he shows great interest in my tank (he originally went for marine bio in florida but switched majors) and i think theres a small chance he might set up a saltwater tank. we have a billion empty tanks at my house and the reason theyre not set up is because my mom says shes sick of looking at a tank in every room. shes not bad about it, infact she wants a tank in the wall for when we redo the basement but she says enough is enought. this doesnt bother me to much as i really just enjoy my one tank.
> looking foward to hearing everyone elses story.


Its funny, but I had similar feelings about my existing 38 gallon reef. Being the "only" tank that I have currently, it has been one of the most enjoyable tanks i've ever owned. I also think taking a few years away from the hobby greatly increased my passion. (Naturally, because i wasn't very passionate when I only had 48 tanks.)


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

Kellsindell said:


> I finally had a tank that was starting to come together and i was getting ready to sell. Well, i decided to get me a BTA and let the clowns play in it... She loved it and said we are keeping it end of story! YES!


You are lucky! My ex wife was a passionate scuba diver! Clearly, i expected her to love my hobby.
Not so much.


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## Kellsindell (Sep 15, 2008)

onefish2fish said:


> if thats your wife your one lucky man ;-)


Not my wife, but it was an actual picture from a club member and his wedding



> You are lucky! My ex wife was a passionate scuba diver! Clearly, i expected her to love my hobby.
> Not so much.


Oh, i know it!


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