Well hello fellow aquatic reefers, just thought I would throw out a little info about myself. I've always been into fish and aquariums, I started in freshwater.
Set-up One: I started out back in 2004-05 with my first tank, I think it was a 29gal freshwater goldfish and other small fish with just basic equipment, I don't even remember where I got the tank form. After I got tired of the small fish I got some oscars, those were fun to feed, lol.
Set-up Two: I found a used 55gal at a garage sale and decided to upgrade. At Petco I found an open box canister filter, bought it knowing I need something better then my HOB bio wheel filter. At this time I had the extra tank, so like any other tank watcher, I set up the extra tank for my wife. She stocked her tank with neon glow fish and a few other small "pretty" fish. I found a small electric catfish, didn't want to put it in with my oscar so I talked my wife into putting it in her tank. She noticed one of her glow fish was missing, we used a black light to find the belly of my catfish glowing. She made me put it in the oscar tank, the catfish was only 2-3" and my oscars were upwards of 6", so I thought the catfish was gonna be a snack. Ended up the catfish actually shocked enough to knock out one of my oscar and ended up killing one oscar by shocking it to many times. The other oscar died after chocking on the catfish. After that we had to move into my wifes parents house for a little while so I sold/traded everything, it was a sad day.
Set-up Three: Finally moved out of the in-laws house and into our own place. I found a 6' 100ish gal tank for sale and I had a 6' dresser I used for a stand. Ran the 100gal in my garage with a new oscar for a while, until one day while I was at work my wife called me to tell me there was water coming out of the garage door and that the side of the tank had split open and the water was spilling out. luckily the tank only lost half of its water and I was able to save the fish, sold/traded the fish and planned on resealing the tank then going saltwater. It didn't happen.
Set-up Four: A friend had a small 10gal freshwater with around 15 small convict cichlids, he wanted to get rid of so he sold me everything super cheap. After a while the same friend found and ad on craigslist for a fish or something, he ended up buying the whole tank. It was a 55gal tank with a little bit of rock and some inverts in it, but he had no where to put it. He asked if i wanted it and at the time I really didn't but I told him Ill "watch it" until he sells it. Well after he brought it to my place we needed to refill it, not knowing much and not thinking there was really anything worth saving left in the tank, we used the hose to fill the tank then started adding salt. I think we only had like 7-8 cups of salt and thought that would be enough, i knew we need a hydrometer but didn't have one yet so we were guessing. After a couple days I got a cheap hydrometer, the tank was at like 1.010sg, I then added salt to the right level. After a while of "watch" my friends tank I decided I was in need of a new tank so I bought it from him and started paying more attention to the tank. After being at a low salt level for a couple days I was surprised to find a few snails and a pistol shrimp still alive in the tank. After having the tank for a little while longer I got my first fish, got a scopas tang.
Set-up Five: Got rid of all my freshwater and focused on the new saltwater tank. I then added an overflow box and a sump. Next my friend found a 72gal bow front, he bought because he knew I wanted a bigger tank and wanted to move the saltwater into the house, so him and I built my stand in my driveway until it got dark. For the next 2-3 days I was building the stand and getting everything ready in my kitchen, my wife just loved that, lol. Got everything set up but had a very crude sump, it started out as just smaller tank with the skimmer sitting in it. I then turned the 55gal into a better sump with actual chambers in it. More fish, more inverts, and more rock later and here I am today.
Set-up Six: So I've traded corals, inverts and some halides for a 5' 125gal tank and stand. Well my wife commandeered the stand as a desk for her laptop and crafts. Now I'm left trying to figure out how to get the new tank ready for the swap and then swap everything over, and hope nothing dies. (scary)
