How Did You Discover Nano Reef Keeping?

[mandarin dragonet]

what does that mean?

 

[Dr.Fumanchu]

I discovered Nano Reef in 2001. I was a member of the Planted Tank forum and did a search for nano tanks and this site came up. I have been hooked ever since. After a couple of failed attempts a couple of years ago I finally have a nice 10g nano reef that is flourishing thanks to NR and the folks here.

[sparticleveland]

I jumped into it the way I jump into every other avocation I develop -- saw one, thought it was cool and did the homework, then made it happen by taking part.

 

Other things I've successfully approached this way include baseball, Java programming, ice hockey and jewelry design. We shall see.

Edited January 14, 2007 by sparticleveland

[cooksalot]

i had wanted a SW tank ever since i fell in love with a clown fish i saw in epcot back in '95. i came home from the trip, ran to the bookstore and bought a book on SW aquariums (i still have it...boy how things have changed in only a decade!). anyway, the book overwhelmed me, then i decided to have kids and there was no time for even thinking about a fish tank. over the years i'd occasionally stop by the fish sections of a pet store, look up info online and browse in the bookstores. i had some goldfish for the kids over the years, but it wasn't until this past fall that i got the fish bug again. aside from my betta, who i've had for a couple of years (he started out in a little glass bowl and now lives in a 10G), i hadn't considered much more. then my kids won a few goldfish at a carnival. up until that point i had only really looked at fish in pet stores. well, long story short, the carnival fish went belly up and we wound up getting a few fancier goldfish and at that point i really learned what cycling a tank was all about. unfortunately the goldfish didn't make it, but on a frantic search for something to make them better while they were sick, i stumbled upon my LFS. i was in awe...and i kept going back just to look around. i asked an employee what i would need to do to start a SW, and he said go home and do a lot of research. that's how i found NR (along with a few other forums), and within a few weeks i had decided i was going to do this thing...went back to look at big tanks, but ultimately decided on a 24G AP. now i'm obsessed and all i do is look at my tank and read these boards (while looking at my tank lol).

[Mr_G]

I had been doing research on SW tanks for about a year but never had the money or will to start one due to other hobbies. This past November I was given a 5 gallon for my birthday and decided to put it in my office at work. I started out with FW baby cichlids and rosie's (for the cichlids to eat) and that was that. I got alot of attention by passers by lookin in my tank and my co-worker (who also had a FW tank in his office) started to get a little competitive and took out his betta and put in a few FW puffers. He stole my thunder. Hardly anyone looked in my tank anymore. So one day I decided to take the cichlids home and put them in the turtle tank and took a refresher research course (self-taught) and bought my sand, salt, rock and water and most importantly light and all testing supplies and put it all together. Now my office is glowing and I have my own personal nano sized piece of the ocean in my office. I love it!

[Kombucha]

A fellow employee whom I share an office with! I can see the addiction take over.

[FishFriend11]

I know some people on Fish Index and they recommended this site to ask questions and read up on nano tanks. I'm thinking of starting a 10g.

[alpha]

Google.

[Kool-cat]

I did a Google search to learn more about reef keeping and I joined here in 2004.

[Greenstar]

from chatting with you (chris marks), fant and everyone else on the old irc channels 5-6 years ago

[HotRodScamp]

I had numerous freshwater tanks growing up (mid-70s). I remember being about 9 years old and having four 29g freshwater tanks at one time, along with several other caged pets, a snake, some rodents, etc.

 

1988 I set up a 90g fish only tank at the office. I maintained it for about 2 years before I moved on. So in 1990 I wanted to set up a small tank at home, in the days of "nothing smaller than 55 gallons for saltwater". So I bought a 10 gallon tank, a hang-on filter, some crushed coral and a bag of salt and went to it. I cycled the tank with a single domino damsel, then added a banded coral shrimp, a tiny Haitian pink tip anemone and a tiny oscellaris clown. All these creatures thrived in that 10 gallons for nearly 4 years before the tank was lost due to a power outage.

 

Then I went 10 years without any tanks In the summer of 2005 I came across a free 47 gallon tall with a nice stand and top. I went to the LFS spent a few bucks and set it up freshwater. My roommates and I were having a great time with the tank, but I was craving saltwater in a big way.

 

We hatched a plan to start coral farming in the garage While I was searching eBay for supplies to start plumbing the garage, I ran across an ad for a saltwater fish wholesale business for sale 2 hours away from me. He was asking about 75 times as much money as I had, but I called him anyway and took a trip to see the place. 7500 square feet, 55,000 gallons of tank space in 12 separate systems. I was awed to say the least.

 

He had the place pretty empty and was mostly using the place for selling live rock on eBay at the rate of about 2,000lbs./week. We made a deal with him to take over the operation and buy him out with the proceeds. For the next 6 months I was in saltwater up to my knees. Long story short, the partnership didn't work out so I went back to my "real" job.

 

Now it's a year later and I really miss the "fish store". I bought a 12g Aquapod a few weeks ago and I'm having great fun with it (the link is below my signature). My girl and I are already talking about the possibilities of coral farming or maybe even starting our own LFS

 

You were looking for life stories in this thread, weren't you?

 

- Mike

[modularduck]

magic..i i was poking around looking for more about these wonderful creations after hitting a wall with FW so i guess google...

[this1fish]

my very first attemp at saltwater was because of finding nemo. used a 5gallon eclispe, natural sea water and no live rocks. I was such a clueless noob thinking it'll be like freshwater fish which i've kept for over 10years but i failed miserably. I then did tons of research after my failed attemp and here i am today with a successful 5gallon nano.

[crazinezz978]

Mine is rather....noobish too.

A new petco opened in town, being curious i thought i check it out. And they had a 10g AGA kit for sale ... 20 bucks. So i bought it and started a little 10 freshwater fish tank. Spent like 45ish. And then i thought freshwater sucked big time(probably cause i had catfishes and bala sharks). So i researched saltwater and the guy @ petco told me "dont even go there, toooo much work, it will never workout for you".

 

...4 months later i find myself with a 55g saltwater successfully running with fishes that could eat my finger[believe me, they can]...

 

...i guess i took his words as a challenge. And now searching for info online i see "nano reefs"...looks like a new challenge.

 

...i took it.

[Abstract Reef]

I have been wanting a reef aquariam for a long time now. I just helped my brother who is also my roomate set up his 15 gallon bio cube. I am going to be purchasing a 29 gallon oceanic very soon. I have been taking care of his aquariam for about 5 months now. It is packed with a lot of fish crabs and coral. Nothing has died in the tank yet. The tank is doing really well and all the fish and invertebrites are very happy. I love this hobby. It is one of the coolest things to be apart of. I really like this site.

 

My emerald crab molted and at first it freaked me out. I thought I had a large hitch hiker in my tank. I thought how could I not have noticed that. So I searched the internet for some answers. I lead me to this site.

[phases]

A lame as it sounds I found this site while looking for reef pictures on google image search. Now I'm totally hooked.

[herostar]

I've had FW for as long as I can remember. I stopped keeping them when I went to college, but after visiting a friend's house who had a 55g fowlr and a few mushrooms I knew I had to have a 10g reef... Led me first to aquariacentral.com then here.

[enano]

Was wanting a reef-tank and so was doing all the research and getting pretty discouraged at how much moola it would take to get it working. Was reading some post on aquariacentral that linked to nano-reef.com What's this? reefkeeping in small tanks? The heavens opened, light shone down, an addict was born.

[mindaugas]

I was doing research on a crazy Cichlid I have and found out about nano reefs few weeks of reading and I bought a Biocube 14g, cycling right now

[drg0nzo1]

I have been keeping freshwater fish since I was about 6 years old. A friend of mine had recently got into saltwater and I was reluctantly considering it too. One day i saw this cool aquarium called a Nano Cube. But my friend insisted it was too small for any type of saltwater aqurium. So i did a search online and found this site and saw all the amazing tanks that you guys have set up.

 

So I guess it was nano-reef.com that got me into nano reef keeping.

[agears]

I've had tanks for a number of years now. I used to have a fish only salt, but more recently, I just had a 75 gallon fresh water with some blood parrots and angels in it. I was at the LFS buying the angels and saw this TINY little 10 or 12 gallon reef setup on the counter.

 

I asked the price and a few questions and that planted the seed that I wanted a little reef. I searched the web for nano reefs and came across this site. I read the boards for a couple of months, drooled at all of the cool pictures, and about a month ago I bought my 22g Finnex and my wallet has been empty ever since

 

My next goal is to start some frag tanks and to convert my 75 gallon eventually. Then I can start trading and selling frags with ya'll!

[r20crazy]

had a fresh water tank for about 7 years, decided to upgrade to a planted fresh water tank, and then decided I wanted something with more color to add to the collection. Damn google for finding this site and giving me the salt water bug more than I already had!!! hopefully I'll have a tank soon!!!!!! looking at an AP24. and damn Pacifc Reef for being less than half a mile away!!!!

Edited April 1, 2007 by r20crazy

[Shredder]

I've always been fascinated by SW tanks. My wife had a 5g Galaxy FW and moved up to a 20g. I was looking around on the net for a good size for a starter SW and stumbled on a thing called a nano-reef, and here I am. The little 5g has been running for two months and just got some candy cane and zoos in last weekend. Everyone seems happy so far.

[stockegg]

Went to go buy some pizza, and next door, was a fish shop, went in and said, damn that looks pretty nice, so I got a 12G nano cube

[joel sandoman]

the LFS was next to my bank at the time. saw their tanks in the window, walked in, and fell in love. couldn't afford a tank for a few years though. so i'd go in and window shop.