My Fresh Water Beginnings

When I was a kid, traveling to the pet store to buy some new fish was always a great source of excitement for me.  We would talk about the charicteristics of the possible fish, which ones were "hearty" and what their compatibility was with other fish.  We had a typical 20 Gallon Community tank sparsly decorated with artificial rocks and plastic plants complete with an undergravel filter system.  I remember glancing longfully at the colorful fish in the salt water tanks and asking my dad why we couldn't get those.  He simply told me that they are too much work and they are hard to take care of. For a kid this answer more than suffices.  As I got older I took over the care of the community tank.  In my teenage years I added all kinds of aerated ornaments that would float or gyrate with the air released from the loud pumps beneath the stand.  I also added a hang on the back power filter.  I even tried my hand at live plants and due to my ignorance of the topic and the poor advice of the local fish store, that didn't work out too well.  I had a few fish in the tank throughout college and when the time came to move out of my parents house I took the tank down for good.  It sat in their basement for a couple years before they threw it away.  About 5 years later my friend and I decided to start a new fresh water community tank at work. We got on Craigslist and bought a 30 gallon tank with a stand for $100.  We each put some money into it and before we knew it we had it up and running.  This rekindled my interest in tanks and I was now fully determined to try salt water.