What got you addicted to the reef hobby?

Well for me I got truly addicted way back when I was in high school. Seventeen years ago (hollys*** I'm old). My first tank was a 30 gal hex with a hang on the back bio wheel filter and one 175 watt MH with 2 90 rios powerheads. No sump, no skimmer. The tank was just 2 clowns and 6 line with a few softie corals like yellow polyps and Xenia. With this tank I really wasn't addicted it was just a tank that sat in my room at my parents house.
I got fully addicted when me and my girl got our own apt. I kept the 30 gal hex but added a sump. But what really got me hooked was the pet shop that was right across the street from our apartment. It was in highland and was called Tides N Tales(TnT). All they did was fish and reptiles. This shop had a full blown 8' 300 gallon sps tank in the back of the store. I would go there every day and just watch the corals grow. I still fill it was the sps to this day that got me addicted to this hobby. I ended up buying a 50 gal setup from them and went full sps. With 4 175 watt MH, asm g2 skimmer, chiller, the whole 9 yards.
I use to buy case orders from TnT. The cases were wild mini colonies of sps from Australia. I'd get them and acclimate. It was great the corals were pretty much always browned out when I'd get them. Then with in a few weeks they would start to color up and bam the colors. I loved watching corals turn colors in front of your eyes. That's what triply got me addicted was watching sps change colors in week. I still love to go to local shops and see if they have any browned out sps that they aren't trying to sell for some ridiculous amount and buying them to see if I can get it to color up.
There was no names and LE or tyree or designer name pieces. Believe it on not we use to call corals by there Latin names. It's kinda sad to see where the hobby has gone.

i like collecting things.. so when i realized you can collect corals, i was hooked... i collected chalices and zoas...

I started off with FW, collecting different species of rare goldfish. When I got married and on my birthday I wanted to get a small tank but saltwater. It was a 7 gallon nano tall. I thought seahorse. So, seahorses of all species I started to collect. What got me into softies is seeing a display with xenias. Was so cool and they didn't sting. So. I started to collect softies because it's seahorse compatible.


I like seahorses. I got nothing clever to say. Boo.

For me I started off in FW planted tanks first and I was becoming really successful at it where my plants were super healthy green and flourishing and I would go to aquatic warehouse for plants but at the same time eyeball the saltwater and I was like naw I could never do it too hard. So I continued Planted tanks to the point that it got too easy and I wanted a real challenge. So this is where I got addicted I would go into a this shop called Aquatica in San Marcos everyday as well after getting off of work and I would look at the huge colonies of sps,hammers,Zoas and so much things and I would love all the vibrant colors of the fish. I would asked tons of questions to the owners and they were very helpful so I began to study study study so I knew what I was getting into and that's where I bought a simple 10 gallon with a hang on the back filter and that's where it all began.

My 10 gallon


Then you know being a addict it causes you to want bigger so I was able to get a great deal on a biocube 29 and then transfer over to that one.

29 gallon


So I loved the biocube but I outgrew it because my colonies were getting to big and didn't want a coral fight plus I want other types of fish so now I'm in a 60 gallon.

60 gallon


It's been a awesome journey so far and I still have tons to learn but to all my addicts

REEF ON!!!



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I started with African cichlids and arowanas. .. then with zero knowledge got a 29 gallon tall Eclipse tank. No proper filtration everything would just die. Back in those days google didn't exist and I wasn't Internet savvy. Went to the library and picked up a bunch of books then just took it from there. Corals were never really my thing...it was always all about the fish. The more I see all these colorful tanks though the more I want to try corals🙈

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Went from a 40 g hex tank full of cichlids .. To a 60g long tank . Then one day I got a wild hair and broke it down, added live rock and sand.. And a week later started dropping in seahorses! no sump / skimmer.. Just 2 hang on back biowheel filters I had on the FW. Shockingly I was full of dumb luck! Had the most amazing tank full of red/ orange/ yellow wild caught Brazilians.. Even had a 2-3" 'glass anemone ' that I would feed shrimp to! .. Yup!! I now know it was an aiptasia! Lmao.. I even had a porcupine puffer, and a flying gynard , snowflake eel in w my ponies.. All eating live ghost shrimp.. Smh lol


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my good friend/brother [MENTION=989]babyjess210[/MENTION] made me a 18x18x18 aio. after that it was history. within a year or two i moved up to 120. the challenge of keeping sps got me. to this day i keep telling myself i will have a full blown sps tank again. one day

I built a new home in 2007, the wife wanted to put in a large fish tank in the plans of the house, but I nixed the idea because the tanks were too much work. I had a 60 fish only when I met my wife in high school. Couple years later was researching a media I needed for a blast cabinet and my search brought up Reef Central. Saw a picture of Emsters tank of the month January 2009, the beautiful colors and I was hooked. Met with Dan at Age the next week and had a quote to put in a large reef tank full of coral. The wife said before you spend that much money why don't you try this first?

Next day bought a Bow front off Craigslist and I have been snorting salt ever since!

I've been around tanks all my life but like most, started freshwater and back in the day, keeping coral was unheard of so there wasn't much selection of coral at the LFS. Seeing the color of SW fish got me hooked on SW and about 12 years ago, I helped my dad start his tank and when we went to Jeff's Exotic, seeing the colors of the LPS and the color of the clams got me hooked on reef keeping.

you told me it was the mermaids

ya, them too.

My SGV brothers made me get a tank to a part of their acg...

ill the bishes

I was watching deuce bigalow and wanted the buy the sea snails at the bottom of the tank

lies ..

In general terms Symbiosis got me addicted. More specifically clownfish/anemone relationship but I like goby/shrimp relationship, etc also. It's amazing how intelligent marine animals are.

I started my fish hobby with discus, and I have been keeping and breeding discus for 4 years so far. One day, I told my fianc that I'm kinda bored of discus, and she told me to try saltwater, and guess what? I have gotten hooked from there. Now, I have saltwater tank and discus tanks running together. This salt hobby is even greater when I have met so many good friends here.

My 24 gals saltwater tank.

i always loved goin to the fish store with my pops but we only had fresh water. the saltwater fish always caught my eye. now that I'm grown i want all the things i wanted but couldn't have as a child! love the fish but learned about keeping corals through here and became an addict lol!