Any Younger Reefers Around?
- Thread starter asiu0009083
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I just turned 16 and started with a few freshwater tanks when I was around 14, but got crazy obsessed with corals and reefing once I visited an aquarium for the first time back in May
I started freshwater around 11 or 12 and moved to saltwater around 16. 26 now and even if I can personally afford it, my family life is unsure and unstable. I'm getting to that point where my grandmother's have lived far behind the life expectancy and my maternal, who was basically a second mother for me, has Alzheimer's. I'm living at the house as I followed my mother's in pursuing nursing and she needs help. My grandmother is the sweetest, happiest, and most benign Alzheimer's patient I've ever known after doing 2 clinical rotations in geriatrics but if she ever gets hospitalized (even for something that just n requires an overnight stay) it takes an immediate toll on her mentally
I find the hobby to be frustrating when I have more important priorities like family because I don't want to neglect my tanks and I'm also limited in space and size of tanks. Having thousands in Coral across the board as well as picking up extra work to help the family has been my struggle recently.
If you're younger and want to give the hobby a shot, you can do it on a budget, especially if you can pick up some handy skills. Get a 40b on Facebook dirt cheap or new for 40 bucks, convert it into an aio (I used to pre cut the pieces for conversion kits and sell them cheap to encourage diy). You can find a stand used and or if you have any confirm build a 2x4 stand for next to nothing. From there get some live sand and see if anyone in the local community has rock. Live even better. No need to add fancy equipment initially. Stick to filter floss and media, find a used skimmer if needed, and a budget pump. Your likely not going to be growing Coral initially, but there are still reputable lights that don't cost hundreds of dollars. Always looked for used. Get a heater preferably adjustable and maybe an ink bird depending on where you live and you're pretty much set. Let the tank establish, don't rush things just because you managed to get live rock and sand, and look into peaceful easy to maintain beginners fish. There's lot of divide on testing kids, but see if your local fish store will test water for you and you can get away with weekly water changes in mid shelf essential test kits. If you're not keeping coral there's a lot less parameters you have to worry about. The only other thing would be perhaps Auto top off which you can just use a five gallon bucket as a reservoir and a reputable but budget r o d i unit off Amazon which will save you tons of money and time in the long run. Always keep an eye on Petco for salt. They often run the sales where if you sign up for repeat delivery you can get decent salt up to 50% off and then just immediately cancel repeat delivery. It's generally recommended to stay away from anything under 40 gallons a lot of people say 75, for a first tank as these smaller the tank the more likely it is to have fluctuations in parameters, but no need to get sucked into all the fancy gear on the market today
I find the hobby to be frustrating when I have more important priorities like family because I don't want to neglect my tanks and I'm also limited in space and size of tanks. Having thousands in Coral across the board as well as picking up extra work to help the family has been my struggle recently.
If you're younger and want to give the hobby a shot, you can do it on a budget, especially if you can pick up some handy skills. Get a 40b on Facebook dirt cheap or new for 40 bucks, convert it into an aio (I used to pre cut the pieces for conversion kits and sell them cheap to encourage diy). You can find a stand used and or if you have any confirm build a 2x4 stand for next to nothing. From there get some live sand and see if anyone in the local community has rock. Live even better. No need to add fancy equipment initially. Stick to filter floss and media, find a used skimmer if needed, and a budget pump. Your likely not going to be growing Coral initially, but there are still reputable lights that don't cost hundreds of dollars. Always looked for used. Get a heater preferably adjustable and maybe an ink bird depending on where you live and you're pretty much set. Let the tank establish, don't rush things just because you managed to get live rock and sand, and look into peaceful easy to maintain beginners fish. There's lot of divide on testing kids, but see if your local fish store will test water for you and you can get away with weekly water changes in mid shelf essential test kits. If you're not keeping coral there's a lot less parameters you have to worry about. The only other thing would be perhaps Auto top off which you can just use a five gallon bucket as a reservoir and a reputable but budget r o d i unit off Amazon which will save you tons of money and time in the long run. Always keep an eye on Petco for salt. They often run the sales where if you sign up for repeat delivery you can get decent salt up to 50% off and then just immediately cancel repeat delivery. It's generally recommended to stay away from anything under 40 gallons a lot of people say 75, for a first tank as these smaller the tank the more likely it is to have fluctuations in parameters, but no need to get sucked into all the fancy gear on the market today
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will?
Community Member
Yeah mate, I'm 13 and from Australia, so our reef has really inspired me to make a tank of my own. it's been hard because there's a lot less reef or marine stores than you'd expect here, and the only local one is an absolute... You get the idea, but although I'm realising the pending stress of later years in life, I'm really holding onto this tank and designing it to look after itself for when I'm busy, it's been doing pretty well for 2 years, and I'm really happy to make this dream come true that I've had for ages, always thought it would happen much later in life, but I guess it just comes when the time is right.Noticed most of the members here seem to be on the older side so I just wanted to say hi to my fellow next generation reefers. I'm 20 and been reefing somewhat on and off past 5 years. Most recently kept a mixed seahorse pipefish reef for about 2 years before I had to sell it and move out. Couldn't find any full tank or better pics sorry.
JZ199
Valuable Member
In my brain I'm young, not sure if I'm considered "old" at 32 lol... when I was in my 20s I'd probably see myself as ancient 
.... I always had freshwater tanks growing up and in my teens, I got into saltwater probably around when I was 19 or 20 then took a break from about 24 till 29
.... I always had freshwater tanks growing up and in my teens, I got into saltwater probably around when I was 19 or 20 then took a break from about 24 till 29
Land&Sea
Community Member
100%… u just described me to a T. And, to all u “young reefers” out there, u too will one day be 43 years old and be asking urself, “when the **** did this happen?!” Life only goes in one direction… unless you’re Benjamin button of course.
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Gtinnel
10K Club member
This describes me exactly.
I started in the hobby while still in high school which is now about 25 years ago and stayed in the hobby until working two low paying jobs and keeping up with two young kids became too much so the tanks had to go. Then about 10 years later when the kids were older and I was financially stable, my wife suggested I start a tank again. To this day she says that telling me to start up another tank was the biggest mistake she has ever made.
woostigger
New Member
My Dad (The Boomer) dabbled in saltwater aquariums when I (The Gen X) was a kid, my teens and 20s were busy with life, but now my teenage son (The Zoomer) has been fascinated with fish, and bought a pre-setup tank from marketplace with fancy lighting and 25 lbs of live rock in it. He got fish and one leather coral that came with. Its been great bonding with him; I learned a new hobby seeing how many variations of LPS coral I could stick in the tank with his fish. With school going on, he is happy I have joined the reef cult with him, as he wouldn't be able to keep the tank going well.
I imagine for him, the tank will eventually become mine when he leaves home to pursue his dreams, and one day, I bet he settles down and creates his own fancy Reef tank maybe 15 years from now with his kids. I will say, we have learned a lot in the last 5 months trying to keep everything alive and thriving.
So far our only fatality was a green mandarin; we just couldn't keep the copepods high enough with damsels eating everything they see.
Our latest adventure is figuring out the right variation of snails to manage glass (3x Turbos), rock (7x Astrea), and sand(2x Conch). Oh and also learning about anemone hitchhikers that need to be managed or risk overwhelming the tank.
I imagine for him, the tank will eventually become mine when he leaves home to pursue his dreams, and one day, I bet he settles down and creates his own fancy Reef tank maybe 15 years from now with his kids. I will say, we have learned a lot in the last 5 months trying to keep everything alive and thriving.
So far our only fatality was a green mandarin; we just couldn't keep the copepods high enough with damsels eating everything they see.
Our latest adventure is figuring out the right variation of snails to manage glass (3x Turbos), rock (7x Astrea), and sand(2x Conch). Oh and also learning about anemone hitchhikers that need to be managed or risk overwhelming the tank.
DylanE
Active Member
34 here, so my backs just starting to hurt on random days. I started around the same age back in high school.
The nice thing about starting young is going from trying to do everything as cheaply as possible to having the funds to try whatever you want. My current setup isn’t anything crazy but would have been a fever dream to 15 yo me lol.
The nice thing about starting young is going from trying to do everything as cheaply as possible to having the funds to try whatever you want. My current setup isn’t anything crazy but would have been a fever dream to 15 yo me lol.
asiu0009083
New Member
Nice. Tell me when the build thread goes up
The new fish on the block
Well-Known Member
Howdy howdy! I’m 23, i joined this forum when i was 12, and had been keeping tanks for a few years before that. Like most I started with FW and moved to SW.
SanFernandoValleyAIOReef
Active Member
Am 26 started at 25 when I went to tractor supply and petco while looking into getting some chickens, seen the neon freshwater fish at petco & looked into fish keeping on YouTube, seen reef keeping was a thing & been hooked since, skipped the freshwater
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