When did you start this hobby?

[stylaster]

Hi All

Curious to see how long some of you have been in the hobby.  What was your first tank?  what equipment did you run back then?  

For myself i started in 1990.... been in the hobby for 31 years... im an old salt!

My first tank was a 55g acrylic tank with two 400w iwasaki 6500k metal halide bulbs.  The tank had a hang on the back overflow box into a 25g sump that housed... and i kid you not a 5' tall downdraft skimmer.  I had that tank running with mostly soft corals and a few stonies.  Then i met Steve Tyree and that's who started me on my SPS journey.  Steve would go down to the wholesaler in LA let me know of any cool SPS and then he would ship them up to me... ah the good ol days.  

Then i took a little side trip in the late 90's into giant clam breeding with a guy from Tacoma.  We started culturing our own zooxanthellae for the giants clams.  (got the culture from a sacrificial giant clam by cutting up the mantle tissue and isolating the algae.)  We did have luck getting clams to spawn, but where never able to get them to grow out much past a couple mm's in size.  Im guessing lack of appropriate foods back then.

For a few years i was the club president and met a lot of great folks through this hobby

Let's here what you guys have done!

[pdxmonkeyboy]

My FIRST saltwater tank was around 1986 that my father and I had. It was a 75 gallon glass tank that had all the really nice gear....  an airstone driven underwater filter and a magnum diatomaceous earth canister filter.  I can't remember what lights, but I believe it was t5.  I remember my mom had a Sh#$%$t fit when my dad spent $20 on a clown fish.  The maintenance was a major PIA but I loved going to the fish store.  

[Pennywise]

I started my first saltwater tank in about 2004. It was a 20 gallon tall I only had for about 6 or 8 months then gave it to a friend. Then no tank till about 4 years ago. started as a 90g corner, transferred to a 90g tall and now that got moved into a 180g almost a year ago and still wish it's bigger lol. 

[Bicyclebill]

I started saltwater in 1994, after playing with african cichlids for a couple years. 29G with Magnum 350 filter, Skilter protein skimmer and VHO lights. Softies and some LPS. Took me way too long to learn the lesson of buying the right equipment the first time, but I was married back then and it was harder to justify the cost. Gateway Bob, Upscales, Waves, and Souta's were the places I frequented back in the day, and it was way before I was introduced to the Internet. It's pretty incredibly how far the hobby has progressed.

[SuncrestReef]

Compared to most of you, I'm still a newby.  I started my tank in February 2018 after promising my wife an aquarium about 5 years earlier because her Ph.D was in fish behavior.  But at that time I was too busy with running my company and working 80 hour weeks, so I kept putting it off.  Once I retired at the end of 2017, I started doing my research and pulled the trigger a few months later.  It turned into a passion for me, but my wife rarely ever looks at it.  🤣