Listing the number of years you have been in the hobby.

[bigmac]

I have only been keeping a reef for about 2yrs. And I never post. Although I feel as if I have tons of experience due to my looonng hours lurking various groups. When I have problems or concerns, I can usually search around and someone has already had that problem-and solved it via groups. So while my years in the hobby are not nearly that as some of the oldhands around here, and I can probably count my posts on 1 hand, I would not discredit myself as a newbie, or someone wet behind the ears. I find that I am much more informed than 99% of lfs. To sum it all -I believe that good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from BAD JUDGEMENT-no matter whos bad judgement :wink: So I never take one persons opinion as truth or fact, no matter how much of an "expert" but just take it into consideration with the overwhelming different views found, then based on my own research and observations, form my own opnions.

 

[Ralphyhp]

I have my first 10gal. freshwater tank when i have 12 years old. Then i bought my first 55gal saltwater reef at my 21's, i use to be an impatient guy and you now what happends, so i change to freshwater again for about 11 years and then try again with saltwater but this time with a lot of patient and friends thats the key of success in this hobbie. Now i upgrade my 55g to 125g and everything is ok. I been 23 years on the hobbie and only three years of success in reefkeeping. Ralphyhp

 

[Anonymous]

Always had FW since a kid.
Had my first SW aquaria around 1970...was not a success.
In college in the late 70s spent time seining for interesting SW fish on Long Island and even experimented with an illuminated algae filter to support that tank.
First traditional "reef" in 1991.

 

[npaden]

To answer the original question you can add pretty much whatever you want to your information under your name. It takes a little tweeking, but you just add the information you want in the "Location" spot in your profile. I just put a few spaces in after my location and then added "Reefing Since: 7/99" a few more spaces then "Current Setup: 415 gal 10' Tank w/ 135 gal sump/refugium". You can see how it shows up under my name on the left.

Not sure if this is good or bad as far as the moderators go, I just assumed the standard software didn't have a spot for items like that. I'm sure you could go overboard with it, but I typically am quite wordy when I post so there isn't 3" of info on the left for a one line post. (Not saying that would be bad if I did though! )

Disclaimer: I'm not saying that my opinion is worth anything simply because I post with my real name, have been reefing for a mere 3 1/2 years, have a fairly large tank, or have just a tad over 500 posts!

FWIW, Nathan

 

[Bron-yr-aur]

My first tank was in 1986 a 10g that broke and flooded my tiny (and I mean tiny) college room. I went to a 75 after that and had a red-belly pacu that grew to the size of a basketball. Got a part-time job at the LFS in '87 and converted the 75 to SW.

IME, the a well-read 1yr hobbyist is more informed that many others who've been in it for years, think they know everything, and don't know squat.

 

[dale nilson]

Hi. I had FW for about 6 years in the late 70's-early 80's, and SW fish for a year or so during that time. Work & moving forced me out of the hobby for a while, but I started reefing in late '97.

Dale

 

[64Ivy]

Began SW (FO of course) in 1978. First "reeftank" was in 1986, I believe. It was very soon after George Smit's article appeared in FAMA. In fact, the only time I have NOT had a tank up and running was between '94-'95 when I was moving from Cali back to the East Coast.