How Did You Discover Nano Reef Keeping?

[kimreker]

I've been keeping freshwater fish for 37 years! Started out breeding angelfish at age 10, and my husband and I now breed and sell African and South American cichlids. We're also trying to get started in breeding killifish.

 

We actually went with the cichlids when initially considering saltwater. We were overwhelmed by all the research we were doing, and wanted alot of colour and activity. We currently have 8 tanks of cichlids, and finally got brave enough to set up a 30G nano reef 4 months ago.

 

Kim

[yardboy]

A voodoo witch doctor put a curse on me, telling me I would throw all my money in the sea. She's been pretty much right about that, too.

[anemonehost]

I did a google search on nano reef.

[Knuckles]

I did a google search on nano reef.

 

Strange how I found it . . .

I tissue culture carnivorous plants and was showing a friend a video on youtube.com of some kid feeding his venus flytrap a lizard - then clicked on one eating a praying mantis - then the "mantis" term brought up praying mantis vs tarantula - then it brought up vids of mantis shrimp - saw a bunch of mantis shrimp vids that brought me to "Ike the mantis shrimp" and his desktop tank home. I saw how amazing this guy's pico reef cube was and all of the diversity there was in that tiny little cube, and from then on I was hooked.

[davenia7]

20 yrs. with FW... then... My 3 tiger barbs murdered each other and I went to the LFS for some ideas and someone mentioned a nano reef.

And it was all downhill from there.

Edited August 7, 2007 by davenia7

[tiepilot68]

For me, it started on my wife and I's 10 year wedding anniversary trip to Hawaii. The Waikiki city aquarium is AMAZING and had so many stunning fish and corals. I also got to do some snorkeling and went down in a submarine to view some man made reefs.

 

From then on I was captivated by the color and beauty of marine life. So I studied and read as much as I could before I set up my tank.

 

Its been a great adventure, and now I have a son who will some day I hope share this wonderful hobby with me!

[shift_9k]

a crazy leprechaun wearing a doo rag named Earl. Grabbed me as I was leaving from work one day. He blindfolded me and led me to a huge white temple, in the middle of this huge clean temple was a desk, a computer and a chair. There was some ambient light shining upon the brand new computer as if it were sir arthurs sword itself. He then grabbed me a forty and a little bit of the good stuff, and told me to read and whore. Behind the buzz of the liquor and the haze of the green I was hooked. The colors, the shapes and movement. The intensity of the pigmentation, polychromasia, saturation, shade, stain, tinct, tincture, tinge, and tint had me hooked. Its been a few months since the leprechaun has stopped coming. But I still visit that temple everyday. With my bag of weed and bottle of shine. I log on to nano-reef and read all the time.

[WilD]

How did you discover nano reef keeping, and how did you get started? Was it Nano-Reef.com, a friend, or a local fish store? What was hard about getting started? What would you have done differently?

 

I'm not really sure how I discovered the concept of nano reef keeping, but I know Nano-Reef.com is the catalyst that really got me started.

 

The hardest part about getting started was choosing proper equipment (especially lights and powerheads) and remaining patient.

 

What would I have done differently? I don't think the community will like this answer, but I wouldn't have done a nano. I feel like my desires are already outgrowing my 20 gallon, so I wish I had gone bigger. It turns out that keeping a saltwater tank is not as much trouble as I thought and I should have taken the plunge and got a significantly bigger tank. I think a 40 breeder would have been a better start, but now I'm considering a tank in the 75-120 gallon range.

 

If I limit the scope to what I would have done differently in setting up my 20 gallon, I wish I had put in les live rock. My rockscape looked good before I started adding coral, but I didn't leave enough space. Many good corals come attached to significant pieces of rock, so i should have left more room for additions. Also, I'm starting to see that its a very good idea to isolate GSP, it spreads fast and it will be hard to keep in check.

[jimbo327]

I made a wrong left at Albuquerque.

[ldballoon4]

I was told I coulc not do it

[kenthenanoguy]

It was Neanderthalman's fault! He did it! I've had FW tanks all my life. I had just gotten comfortable with my 10G planted FW tank when Neanderthalman came over to my house with BSDemon's old 5.5G stuff he left when he moved to Kansas...

 

I used his equipment to change my 7 Gallon Minibow (fish only freshwater at the time) into a SW wonderland.

 

Those guys plagued me with this curse and I can't get enough of it! I'm taking some more equipment and am putting some serious thought into resurrecting BSD's old 5.5G into another SW tank. Right now it's a pleco haven...But I don't think it will be for long.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Ken

Edited October 27, 2007 by kenthenanoguy

[ClowningAround]

Found a site somehow with a blog of somebody's nano tank...that lead me to this site...and then countless hours of reading here since november 05! As I write this I wonder why they heck I am still up at this time of night!

[Nick's Reef]

Heard about the nano cube googled nano reef tanks and wala!!!!!!!!!! I found nano reef!

[paOol]

had freshwater fish for about a year.

piranhas, snakeheads, arowanas, that kinda stuff

then i had to sell them all since i was going to college, and no one knew how to take care of them.

i also had a 60g FOWLR, only cuz i was too poor to get some lighting.

 

so i got a nano for my dorm room. and was referred to this site from MFK.

[lilredneckman]

One of my neighbors gave me a 55g a few years ago, i have been hooked since then.

[klarion]

Ironically, I gave my best friend a ten gallon fresh water tank for a present 10 years ago and ended up getting hooked myself. It snowballed from there.

[dantimdad]

I had no idea what I was keeping was called a nano. I started in SW in the late 80s.

 

I had a bet with an LFS in 91 that I could keep soft corals in a 10 gallon and have a clown fish too.

 

I set it up with oyster shell gravel, a homemade pvc cocurrent skimmer from Martin Moe's book and a whisper power filter. It had two bulbs on it a 5500k bulb and an a03 phillips that was way too long.

 

It ran for 18 months (until I moved) with incredible growth after a substrate change at 6mos to crushed coral. I won the bet and have always had at least one nano setup ever since.

 

dantimdad

[shaidarol]

I was into fresh water for years, and got my first fairly large tank for discus... then I went to this SW store in Tucson (wasn't local, quite a drive from where I was). Was an accidental find. They had this whole wall 9 foot tall SW tank. Poof, my oscar in my 45 went into a 30 and I setup my first SW tank. Cycled the tank with live rock from a mail order company. I have always believed that whatever you get you keep (except maybe aptasia and bristle worms) and when I found these cute little crabs in the rocks during inital arrival cleanup and curing, I purchased a 10 gallon and made a hood for it. I think I put 75$ into it. That became my crab tank, and later I found out that was a nano.

 

Then I moved to florida from Arizona... LFS got the rock, corals, and the critters... I think he put my crabs to sleep after I left, but I tried... Anyway, 6 tumultous tank free years later my wife and I were thinking... We have not wasted our life savings on anything lately so we went to Sea in the City here in Orlando...

 

Now I have a 12dx and 28 HQI NC awaiting setup... At least I was able to restain my wife from strong arming me into a zero edge aquarium kit with a hanging Solaris LED light... So far...

 

I don't recomend letting your wife see one of these... it may be hard to hold her back... I figure the two nanos will cost about the same as the zero and solaris combo's initial purchase price before it's done, but I can ease into it...

[coolwaters]

i wanted a nano reef tank so i googled nano reef. XD

[Cedar]

I've had FW tanks for years, and it got quite boring. I kept seeing reef tanks online, and I wanted to do one. But everyone kept saying it was too hard, too expensive, and my tank was too small. So I gave it up. Until about two months ago when I googled around and found this site. That's when I knew it was possible, even for a newbie with a small tank. I'll be setting up my first reef tank at the end of this week, once my stuff arrives via UPS.

[Tankcifer]

Ive done everything from dogs to amphibians to reptiles to fresh fish to odd balls and breeding the sorts but never have i slid down a grassy hill on an ice block.

[SPS20]

16 years ago, I set up my first SW tank, in a 20H. It was an abysmal failure. So, I kept a series of larger tanks over the subsequent years with greater success, and the left the hobby for a year or so because I moved into a smaller house which had no room for a big aquarium. I wanted to get back into it, but space was a big issue, so I decided to try a small reef tank, this time also a 20g tank. I am having much better success now, as the hobby has advanced tremendously, and I have 16 years more experience than I did then.

 

I found this website by googling "small reef tank". Now you poor bastards are stuck with me.

 

- Josh

[jovis67]

I owe it all to Nano-Reef!!!, I'm a long time lurker on these forums.

 

I can say that what I have learned from this website is priceless, and had a definite influence on my decision to make marine fish culture my career. I'm now in my last year of college to get a degree in Fish Aquaculture & Management, with plans to start a polebarn/garage size Coral and Pseudochromis/Dottyback farm within the next year and a half.

The amount of information that I have collected on Nano-Reef & Reefcentral (sorry but got to give props where props are due), rivals the amount of information that I learned in 3 years of college, and I think thats really saying something!!!

[Nick's Reef]

I had a 5g eclipse hex setup as fw, It got boring so i got rid of all the livestock but kept the tank. I had kept sw tanks since I was about 7 so i thought why not start a sw tank. After a while my lfs got some nice rics in and I thought what the hell lets see if it will grow under 2w a gal. Sure enough it work and it snowballed from there.

[johnsredline]

I found this site back in 2003 when i used to have my 55 set up. i then tried a 10 gallon that didnt work out. now the 55 is a cichlid tank and i bought a 12g aquapod and its been doing great

Edited January 30, 2008 by johnsredline