Growing up in Eastern Washington, the few ocean trips we took as kids were always special. Everything seemed wild and exotic compared to rainbow trout and bass. Always was facinated with ocean life. I would be happy just poking around tidal pools for days. Still am.
In junior highschool my brother bought my parents a 29 gallon FW tank for Christmas. Loved that tank to death. When I moved out to go to college my parents lost interest and gave the tank to me and I kept FW in it for 4 or 5 years. Kept looking at saltwater fish because there was soooo much more color. Kept looking, kept looking, then one day I stopped looking and bought into it. Back in the good old days, I thought it was exactly the same thing as FW only you add salt right? Wrong. Everthing was fine for about a month with my Fish Only. Didn't know what liverock was back then and if you had tried to tell me I would have laughed at you. Rocks are dead, not live!
I was a young kid full of himself. Go figure.
Tank crashed, everything died. Emptiied, washed and returned tank to FW and kept it that way for 10-12 years. Then my friend pipes up one day asking if I want to buy his 29 SW tank setup with livestock. I thought long and hard on it. Borrowed his reef book and wouldn't take possesion of it until I had read it twice. Bought another one and read that one twice.
Jumped in feet first and haven't looked back yet. (bought a 55 6 months later) and it is now my little trip to the ocean everytime I come home from work. It may seem costly, but not as much as a therapist would and it's not blaming my parents for any of my problems. lol