First Tank

[vetteguy53081]

What was the size of your first saltwater aquarium and how was it equipped?

Mine was a 10 gallon tank with a hang on power filter, under gravel filter with dolomite and each corner of under gravel filter had MJ 250 powerhead on it and a glass top with a compact fluorescent light and stocked with a mix of damsels (3 stripe, domino, blue devil and yellowtail blue ( They were 4 for $5)
Floating hydrometer and no RODI but tap water with penn plax water conditioner and nice scenic background on the back glass.

 

[MoshJosh]

Fluval Evo 5 gallon, great tank! I did a bunch of "upgrades" to mine, but a great tank regardless!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

20g all in one tank by Red Sea is my first tank. Now my parent's take from a long time ago I believe was a 75 gallon, but I am not exactly sure.

 

[iamacat]

20gH
Two bio wheel filters
Koralia power head
Ehiem heater
Instant ocean salt
Floaty hydrometer
Tap water

2010 with no clue about saltwater. I Had been keeping a painted turtle and Cichlids. Roommate was the instigator and leader

 

[cwerner]

It was a 75 gallon, which is a great size with a properly setup tank. For me it was a disaster as a new reefer. I didn't have the money for any automation and doing decent-sized water changes was quite the challenge with just 5 gallon buckets, which obviously means they didn't get done as often as they should. I then got a new job and started making more money. I bought an algae scrubber and a fleece filter roller....and promptly zeroe'd my nitrates and phosphates and I had a terrible dino outbreak that NOTHING worked for. I ended up breaking down the tank after it killed all of my coral. Knowing what I know now the plumbing for it would have been completely different, the sump would have been different, basically everything would have been completely different.

Now I have a 50 gallon IM AIO, but my biggest recent improvement is installing Hydros automation and a new saltwater mixing station. I'm slowly working towards having the infrastructure in place to allow a 90-120 gallon tank with fully automated water changes with either a full sump in the basement, or plumbing between the two. I'm working on setting up a system of doing automatic water changes with my AIO, so that it's ready for a larger tank in the future.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

About 2004-5 no clue what I was doing.
29 gal bowfront
two hydro koralias
bio-wheel
Red sea prism hob
massive pile of live rock.
Coralife VHO florescent that I spent more than I could afford on. Then I found a way to pair the fluorescent bar that came with theTank into my light hood with the Coralife. Still couldn't grow anything other than aptaisia. I killed green star polyps.

I'm honestly glad that I don't have pictures of it.

 

[52728299]

Jeez, my first tank.. technically it was either like a 5 or 10 gallon tank. Believe it was a stock kit by like aqueon or whatever. I knew nothing about saltwater tanks. This was set up by an ex gf with me who was going to London for school (and unbeknownst to me we were basically breaking up)

but it had the stock light, filter, heater etc. Sand and rock too. The lfs at the time sold me 2 damsels and ended up adding a clown as well. This started my slow and painful journey went from that to a 36g bow front and then to a 75g with two canister filters and a cheap t5 light setup. After I ended up getting rid of the 75g I didn't have a tank for like 8 years then began getting back into it about a year ago to basically help cope with depression.

I've always enjoyed reefing and all the learning and successes after all the struggle. It's a great challenging hobby that's helped me through some terribly rough times. These fish really have been friends when I needed them most, sounds dumb.. but I'm never alone with them here and that's a nice feeling

 

[Geebs19]

20 gallon tall with HOB filter, I had a friend that was really into the hobby that turned out to know very little. Had a marron clown that was the absolute devil. Friend of mine had my girlfriend at the time by a full size foxface, when she showed up I couldnt believe he was suggesting I put that in this tiny tank. I remember buying a decent size rock loaded with mushrooms for $5, to think what that was worth today blows my mind.

 

[X-37B]

First was a standard 55g. This was done around the same time,1988.
20g with drilled corner overflow and 10g sump. This is the only pic I have from that era. Its a pic of a pic on my fridge. Not much to see as it was just getting started.
You can see coralline on that old as me, lol, powerhead

 

[NkSde]

My first was a biocube i don’t count cause I deployed before it finished cycling.

currently running my true first long term.

20gal L tank
About halfway thru month 2 w it and hitting the uglies I like the chemistry w a smaller tank so I think my next one may be a 40-60 cube if I can convince the wife and I’ll call it even at that. For now

 

[Stephen8169301]

10 gallon hang on back I had no idea what I was doing until I got on to R2R and everything changed after that just a standard light for fresh water this was about a year ago

 

[Tcook]

35gallon Tru View plexi tank. Under gravel filter with Rena plates and canister with Chemipure. Dolomite gravel and one fluorescent tube. State of the art in 1984!

 

[iamacat]

20 gallon tall with HOB filter, I had a friend that was really into the hobby that turned out to know very little. Had a marron clown that was the absolute devil. Friend of mine had my girlfriend at the time by a full size foxface, when she showed up I couldnt believe he was suggesting I put that in this tiny tank. I remember buying a decent size rock loaded with mushrooms for $5, to think what that was worth today blows my mind.

This is strikingly similar to my experience lol. Minus the Foxface woman

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I forgot the actual gallon capacity as they were a little weird. Somewhere in the fifty to seventy-gallon range. It was a Clear for Life acrylic uniquarium all in one. Looking back, they were ahead of their time, great tank. They came with a mini skimmer, a filter floss covered drip tray over a wet and dry trickle bio ball filter, power compact lighting and a those huge plastic mechanical dial timers with the moveable plastic pins for automation. That was in the early to mid nineties, all in ones weren’t really a thing yet back then.

 

[X-37B]

35gallon Tru View plexi tank. Under gravel filter with Rena plates and canister with Chemipure. Dolomite gravel and one fluorescent tube. State of the art in 1984!

Yea my 100 was a TruVu.
This is a piece of paper I found in an old reef book from around 1989-90.
Prices of a few aquariums back then. That was alot of money back then.

 

[19Mateo83]

My first one was a 75g with a coast to coast overflow with a 3 pipe durso. I had a 20g sump running a reef octopus 120 skimmer. Lighting was 2-250w 14k Phoenix halides with two 4’ t5’s with actinics.

 

[PhishMonger84]

2005-2007ish 10-gallon, aqua clear HOB, live sand, 1 piece of live rock.1) 3 striped damsel and 1) blue damsel of some sort. I bought RO water at Walmart and did small changes 1x a month- ran for quite some time but I was couch surfing after a graduated and could not keep a tank for the next 2 years so I gave it to a friend.


I was in college, had a 55 with an Oscar and a 29 with leopard geckos as well as a 5g w/ pink knee tarantula and a 75g bearded dragon. 2 dogs and a cat. The roommates and I were all environmental type majors.

 

[rhitee93]

I had a 20g long in my office (cubical actually) back in 2003. It had a HOB AquaC protein skimmer and a dual T5 light fixture. It also had a DIY top-off system that dosed RO/DI water in 1mL at a time. I just adjusted the timing on the pump to match the evaporation.

I had a yellow-tailed damsel and a domino damsel that my kids picked out. I had to replace the domino several times because the yellow-tail kept killing them. I finally gave up and told the kids the truth.

My main interest was invertebrates. I don't remember what corals I had other than a GSP that became a nuisance. I did have a couple of anemones. A purple tip and a gigantea IIRC.

Ultimately, I had to move offices after a couple of years, and I sold the setup to a coworker who wanted to get into the hobby. Now 20 years later I am starting all over again

 

[nothing_fancy]

First SW was a 10 gal, forget the brand, maybe aqueon, HOB marine land bio wheel, and a DIY light fixture, I believe I had a couple T8's in there, zoo med. It had one anemone and one Clown and it worked out pretty well for a while. I really enjoyed that tank, definitely was 16 or 17 when when I put it together so about 20 years ago and the costs of getting it all together were low low low.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

55 gallon Seaclear with overflow that drained into a series of glass trickle trays with dolomite gravel and a sump with more gravel chambers. A copy of George Smit's design in FAMA magazine. It worked like nothing I ever imagined! Was a difficult filter to maintain due to detritus build up. About 1986 ish.