I have kept freshwater fish for as long as I can remember. The notion that keeping a saltwater aquarium, especially a reef tank, was too hard and expensive for the average person was engrained into me from the beginning.
One day my coworker told me that he had no fish keeping experience, but set up a 10 gallon tank with two clownfish. I quickly jumped down his throat for having no knowledge of the nitrogen cycle, not knowing about topping off with fresh water, and not even knowing that water changes were even a thing. He didn't even know what algae was. As months went by and I continued to ask if his fish were dead yet, and they weren't, and I thought maybe I can actually do this.
I spent hours upon hours upon hours researching nano tanks. I had always heard that bigger systems are more stable and easier to maintain. A beginner should always have no less than a 55 gallon, but a 55 gallon was not possible for me. If I was going to do this, it had to be a nano tank. It was going against almost everything I had read, until I came across a certain post in a forum. They wrote something along the lines of saying that the saltwater and reef hobby was a bit of and "old boys club". There were traditions and protocols that were upheld and viewed as untouchable procedures and theories. It suggested that this was a crowd that viewed themselves as somewhat elitist. After reading this, I decided I would go ahead with planning a 5 gallon nano tank.
I came into the hobby well researched and dedicated to providing a suitable habitat for my animals. I decided to put together my own system rather than an all in one...to force myself to research each component of my system. Having started with a nano, I believe that I have gained more respect for every aspect of reef keeping rather than if I had started with a large system which provided more room for error. It also was less of a financial burden as I "got my feet wet" in the hobby.
So now I am wondering about other's opinions on this. Is it time that we stop discouraging people from reef keeping by saying we must start with large, expensive systems? Is there a benefit to starting small?
One day my coworker told me that he had no fish keeping experience, but set up a 10 gallon tank with two clownfish. I quickly jumped down his throat for having no knowledge of the nitrogen cycle, not knowing about topping off with fresh water, and not even knowing that water changes were even a thing. He didn't even know what algae was. As months went by and I continued to ask if his fish were dead yet, and they weren't, and I thought maybe I can actually do this.
I spent hours upon hours upon hours researching nano tanks. I had always heard that bigger systems are more stable and easier to maintain. A beginner should always have no less than a 55 gallon, but a 55 gallon was not possible for me. If I was going to do this, it had to be a nano tank. It was going against almost everything I had read, until I came across a certain post in a forum. They wrote something along the lines of saying that the saltwater and reef hobby was a bit of and "old boys club". There were traditions and protocols that were upheld and viewed as untouchable procedures and theories. It suggested that this was a crowd that viewed themselves as somewhat elitist. After reading this, I decided I would go ahead with planning a 5 gallon nano tank.
I came into the hobby well researched and dedicated to providing a suitable habitat for my animals. I decided to put together my own system rather than an all in one...to force myself to research each component of my system. Having started with a nano, I believe that I have gained more respect for every aspect of reef keeping rather than if I had started with a large system which provided more room for error. It also was less of a financial burden as I "got my feet wet" in the hobby.
So now I am wondering about other's opinions on this. Is it time that we stop discouraging people from reef keeping by saying we must start with large, expensive systems? Is there a benefit to starting small?
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