Does anyone else love their tank but struggle

[Johnny C]

Man I struggle every day. Love it one moment and the next can’t figure out what the heck is happening. Everyone you talk to has a different opinion and non seems to be the answer

 

[thelonereefer1]

All too relatable

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Man I struggle every day. Love it one moment and the next can’t figure out what the heck is happening. Everyone you talk to has a different opinion and non seems to be the answer

As they say, opinions are like a-wholes….everyone has one. I would venture to say that we all had a love-hate relationship with this hobby at one point or another. Even when we finally make it to cruise control, inevitably something comes around and slaps us in the face. A lot of things just have to be ridden out, unfortunately. Sometimes we can only make things worse by being too reactive. Fight through it, the love it days will overtake the hate it days.

 

[KQuillan]

Sometimes I wonder why I wanted the extra stress in my life, then I look at it and just know.

 

[Mr.OK]

I do, i am so close to shutting it down. In the last 2 weeks i have lost over a half dozen torches and cant figure out why. My pho was little high, but i seen it higher and they were fine. So the numbers are good now, but just lost another one. I am so frustrated with it, I think its about 2k worth now......

 

[BWV]

I'm beginning to wonder what my Fluval Evo and will look like with some plants, a school of Neons and a Cory cat in it...Fresh was so much easier... a no brainer... but this marine stuff.. wow.

All kidding aside I'm a year and a half in and feel like Sisyphus every day...

Every time I think I have some kind of equilibrium, something brown or green just takes over the tank... or a heater fails...
I'm sticking with it for a while... cause I just know "I'll figure it out" but not sure how much longer I have patience for.

 

[BigSkyRich]

Man I struggle every day. Love it one moment and the next can’t figure out what the heck is happening. Everyone you talk to has a different opinion and non seems to be the answer

Enjoy the good days. Ultimately we are presented with yet another challenge which keeps us humble

 

[WallyTime7]

I do, i am so close to shutting it down. In the last 2 weeks i have lost over a half dozen torches and cant figure out why. My pho was little high, but i seen it higher and they were fine. So the numbers are good now, but just lost another one. I am so frustrated with it, I think its about 2k worth now......

What’s your alk been the last couple weeks? All over? Sorry man

 

[cancun]

Man I struggle every day. Love it one moment and the next can’t figure out what the heck is happening. Everyone you talk to has a different opinion and non seems to be the answer

Absolutely.....we have all been there and done that! The key is patience and to stick with it within your budget of course. Happier days ahead, especially when you get to the point where you add no more fish or corals, and can sit back and enjoy!

 

[Sharkbait19]

Check out my build thread…if it isn’t one thing it’s something else. But that’s all part of how we learn - if everything always went perfectly nobody would get better.
There’s always room for improvement, and the bad just makes the good look 10 times better!

 

[cancun]

I do, i am so close to shutting it down. In the last 2 weeks i have lost over a half dozen torches and cant figure out why. My pho was little high, but i seen it higher and they were fine. So the numbers are good now, but just lost another one. I am so frustrated with it, I think its about 2k worth now......

Oh man....I am so sorry to hear that. Several years ago I had the same issue when I upgraded my tank to the current one. I went from a 80 gallon AIO to a 200 gallon. Lost several big torch colonies. I didn't buy another torch for a few years. The key for me was stable Alk. No big swings. I use Coral Pro salt, but dose all for reef manually daily, along with NOPOX daily, and Red Sea AB every day as well. Alk 9.5, Calc 440, NO3 10, PO4 0.25. Hang in there.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

Keeping aquariums is a lot like being on a diet. Anyone can do anything for like 3 months no matter how extreme it is. But eventually you will get wore down and give up. You have to make it something that’s easy and enjoyable that you can do for the rest of your life if you want any kind of success. The more complicated you make it the more likely you will give up eventually.

 

[Shunopoli]

I have been doing this for awhile. I had and 90 gallon almost 20 years ago, I never did a water change, filled with tap water that I just dechlorinated, not automation just barely took care of it and I could grow everything in that tank. My new tank I have everything automated, all latest gear and just cant' get it right. The more I learn and study the more I try to correct things. Slow and steady in this hobby

 

[KQuillan]

I have been doing this for awhile. I had and 90 gallon almost 20 years ago, I never did a water change, filled with tap water that I just dechlorinated, not automation just barely took care of it and I could grow everything in that tank. My new tank I have everything automated, all latest gear and just cant' get it right. The more I learn and study the more I try to correct things. Slow and steady in this hobby

Exactly!!! Same here, Over 15 years ago, I knew nothing and had everything I probably should not have had and it was all doing great. This time, I'm testing, dosing, etc....

 

[Brian Berry]

Man I struggle every day. Love it one moment and the next can’t figure out what the heck is happening. Everyone you talk to has a different opinion and non seems to be the answer

I sometimes have the same feeling. I have a 26 gal. and things can change in a heartbeat it seems. I hope that thought goes away from you soon and you find stability/answers for your tank.

 

[blaxsun]

Honestly, there are days that it can seem like a struggle. But I look at it this way: How would you realize any success if you didn't have failures for reference? Whatever small (or even large) issues that arise only serve to highlight the days when you do achieve something remarkable... or simply when they allow you to sit down and enjoy 15 minutes of uninterrupted bliss.

I have a tropical reef in the middle of the prairies 1000km from the nearest ocean. And right now it's -20°C, snowing and my fish are slumbering away - oblivious to everything.

 

[CdubsMixReef]

Definitely a love hate relationship lol

 

[Shunopoli]

I put it this way. I was about to get out of the hobby 3 months ago cause my tank look like crap cause I just got busy. My GF got me motivated and was like either git rid of this tank or fix it.( Have a baby on the way). I said you know it's going to cost for me to fix it. I chose to fix it cause I invested so much into and know I would I would be back in this hobby in a couple of years if I sold and didn't want to start from scratch. Now that I cleaned and got everything automated with water changes, got my system stable ($1000 dollars later) everything is looking good and just running. I have never seen my water cleaner and my surviving corals coming back to life. I should of done this a long time ago cause it got me all excited again and now my GF hates cause I am spending so much time on it now haha I told well you awoken the beast now.

 

[Brian Berry]

Honestly, there are days that it can seem like a struggle. But I look at it this way: How would you realize any success if you didn't have failures for reference? Whatever small (or even large) issues that arise only serve to highlight the days when you do achieve something remarkable... or simply when they allow you to sit down and enjoy 15 minutes of uninterrupted bliss.

I have a tropical reef in the middle of the prairies 1000km from the nearest ocean. And right now it's -20°C, snowing and my fish are slumbering away - oblivious to everything.

So true regarding your words. It’s cool to have a reminder of success/failures. I have applied a lot of my “failure” knowledge into positives to learn from. I am happy for you about your tank.

 

[KrisReef]

I fiddle with my tank for many years. Hay day I was growing colonies and having good success. Then the plague of red wire algae covered my success and smothered it. I fought back, and just when i was on the road to success I got a dirty frag with an AEFW that ate everything except the corals I didn't care about? (Really!?)

So I just put the tank on auto pilot, the coraline algea covered the 4 walls so I couldn't see in and that was great, I kept the water topped off and pretended that it was ok. Three years and cancer treatments and medical failures and mental meltdowns and then recently I decided to clean the tank of the overgrowth of organ pipe corals, and mushrooms, and a few half dead colonies all went into the recycle bin (along with the coke cans and milk cartons-Waste Management doesn't have a reef tank, either) and I've got a few frags that were starting to grow but the clownfish ripped them out of their moorings and managed to kill half of those frags.

I wouldn't know what going right looks like if I had to base it upon my reef. What else is a person supposed to do with their life if it isn't to battle hard with a reef tank or some other challenge? I don't watch TV so this is it. May as well be happy with the small things that are doing ok and the rest is just the normal decay that politicians and globalists claim they are going to abolish with their 5 step plan, heck they raised the interest rates today so my tank must be on the road to recovery, RIght! Why not.

I spent most of my money on wine, reef tanks and wild women. The rest I just wasted.