Have you ever left the hobby and came back?

Sabellafella · Mar 10, 2016

Yes unfortunantly, at the time i had 4 freshwater tanks with rays and discus, also had an elos, a frag tank, a seahorse gorgonian biocube, and at my girlfriends house a 55 mixed reef that i lost all to hurricane sandy, by the time i sold everything i had(2 years later) i decieded to setup a frag tank and now back to chatting with you nice folks lol

Jason edwards · Mar 10, 2016

I'm fickle and hop hobbies every few years after blowing a small fortune on it. First it was salt, then dart frogs, built up a huge collection and then hopped over go planted tanks, then ganja, hot peppers and back to salt.

Still have 2 small planted tanks with dwarf puffers in one and my fluval ebi full of shrimp.

Also still doing peppers with over 80 plants and many of my own crosses I'm working on

All Delight · Mar 10, 2016

Yes! I recall visiting LFS even when I didn't have a tank. Driving by, I couldn't resist. I'd have to stop and look around. This is definitely the longest stretch tho...10 or 11 years.

NeuroticAquatics · Mar 10, 2016

I took a "break" for about five years. We bought our first house and there was simply no good usable wall space to put a tank up against. It was all windows, dressers, tv, etc. When we decided to sell and look for another house, that wall space became a must. Every place we looked at had to have at least a "big tank" spot or it was out. When we looked at what became or current house, I immediately saw a 2' corner for a 60g cube in our bedroom (which is there now) and there was a 10" wall in the living room that I knew would not have a tv and I saw a 300g there. I was sold. We ended up getting a deal on a 240g, but it was close enough. The kid's rooms have a 28g and 60g too.

ENARP · Mar 10, 2016

I have been out of the hobby almost 20 years and had three tanks, 30, 60 and 100 gallons. Left the hobby basically because life became top priority. Wife, Kids, Family and work. It was always in the back of my mind to get another tank going when things slowed down.

The number one thing that drew me back were LED lights. Also AIO tanks, ATO's, Controllers and the information access that the internet allows. In the past, heat in tanks was always a problem here in Texas during the summer. Mainly heat from VHO and Metal halide lights with ballast so hot you could fry an egg on them. I believe LED lighting will solve that. AIO tanks eliminate the need for outside the tank overflows (drilled tanks back then were done at your own risk) and the constant fear of overflows. ATO's eliminate the need for daily top offs and I now have an APP to check on things whenever I want! It also doesn't hurt that the availability and the variety of corals and live stock has increased to a level I never could have imagined 20 years ago.

R2R also helped me.

reefwiser · Mar 10, 2016

I took a break after a divorce and remarriage. Life has a tendency to do that to everyone. For me what was the biggest change was how the hobby had grown. I helped start MASNA and MACNA's to see how it had grown and become an industry event was quite pleasing. I spend many thousands of my own money promoting MACNA to vendors who wanted nothing to do with a Hobbyist aquarium show. Now it is a must attend event on vendors schedules.

Scottsquatch · Mar 10, 2016

I got out in 2000 due to a divorce. I then lived in several small apartments where I couldn't really due a proper tank so I didn't. Then I went to Iraq, came home and battled cancer and a bunch of other stuff. Finally got back in with a nano 2 years ago. I am currently working on a 33 gal and a 220 gal build. When I got out, the biggest thing in lighting was electronic ballasts and VHO bulbs. LED was just for flashlights back then. I hadn't heard of controllers at that point, and all they had for flow was just plain old power heads. Skimmers were not as good back then either. It has been a lot of fun seeing all the new tech that has developed while I was gone.

mmw64 · Mar 10, 2016

Scottsquatch said:
I got out in 2000 due to a divorce. I then lived in several small apartments where I couldn't really due a proper tank so I didn't. Then I went to Iraq, came home and battled cancer and a bunch of other stuff. Finally got back in with a nano 2 years ago. I am currently working on a 33 gal and a 220 gal build. When I got out, the biggest thing in lighting was electronic ballasts and VHO bulbs. LED was just for flashlights back then. I hadn't heard of controllers at that point, and all they had for flow was just plain old power heads. Skimmers were not as good back then either. It has been a lot of fun seeing all the new tech that has developed while I was gone.

Thanks for your service!

AllSignsPointToFish · Mar 10, 2016

I was out of the hobby for about ten years until fate placed into my possession a 125 gallon tank. I missed the hobby every single day I was sitting on the sidelines !

Maximus · Mar 10, 2016

Countless times!!

jlanger · Mar 10, 2016

My first venture in the hobby was from 1992 to 2001. When my wife and I had our second child, we needed a bigger home and decided to build and move. Instead of dealing with moving a young family and multiple tanks, I decided to sell off the whole lot.
Even though I got out of the hobby, I still bought many of the books and other publications to keep my interest in the hobby.
When my son asked for a desktop aquarium in 2009, I knew that it would have to be a saltwater tank. He started with a 15gal that quickly upgraded to a 45gal cube. After a few years, that cube upgraded to my current 120gal reef (my dream tank from the '90s.)

Lots had changed in nine years.
Back then, I remembered how excited I was to upgrade my lighting to a compact fluorescent system with six bulbs. I even thought my external pvc venturi protein skimmer was the greatest advancement in the hobby; since I had started the hobby with a reverse flow UGF!

Maritimer · Mar 10, 2016

I kept saltwater through my teen years and into my twenties, and even had a "reef" tank with a new-fangled "trickle" filter in the late 80's... Was pretty excited that I could grow these little brown sea anemones . . . (>_<)

Kids are expensive, and so is saltwater - guess which one fell by the way?

Kept my toes wet, working weekends at the local Public Aquarium, where I get to check out their fish all the time ... which can be kind of a tease.

What's changed?

Everything.
Salt. Testing. Lighting. Filtration. Substrates. Stocking lists. Forums.

Every. Thing.

~Bruce

mwilk19 · Mar 10, 2016

My wife and I started in the hobby back in 1988. We eventually ended up with a 75 gallon reef and a 125 gallon FOWLR. In 2003 I was transferred from Ohio to Texas and had to sell my tanks. Actually, I sold the 125 but kept the 75 and we put it in storage. In 2011 we went to Maui for our 30th anniversary and of course when you swim in the ocean you see all of the fish we used to keep in our aquarium. That got the juices flowing again and we set the 75 gallon up as a reef tank. This time we went with LED lighting. Everything had changed so much from the time we started in the hobby. The 75 didn't last long and we upgraded to a 150. We had the 150 until last month when we moved from a house to an apartment. We downsized just a little to a 120 rimless. Once you have the bug, it never really goes away.

IronVulture · Mar 10, 2016

Got my first saltwater tank in 1986 had a huge crash due to power failure while out of town in 1999 lost everything in 5 separate systems. I tried to get back in the hobby in 2005 but had to move 2 months after setting up and couldn't bare setting it back up (lost sump skimmer and 2 month old lights in the move). November 2014 I picked up a bio cube and I am now full on re-addicted. I have always had some type of tank set up everywhere I have lived since I was a very small boy but saltwater is so much more rewarding to me. One thing I can say that changed between '99 and present is frag plugs. It has been a love hate relationship with those little ceramic disc. I hate the way a fresh plug looks in the tank but love the fact that super bright corals(another thing that has changed)that were never available to me before are somewhat affordable now. Somewhat meaning that some are just insanely priced. I do remember being super excited seeing a new brown coral at my lfs in the 80's lol most of the stores I shopped at are still in business today.

melev · Mar 10, 2016

revhtree said:
How many of you have ever gotten out of the hobby?

I don't even understand this question. Gotten out? What...?

Bronc · Mar 10, 2016

I'm just now getting back in after being away for almost 15 years. (My tank is cycling now).

I got out due to bad water at my (then) new house. The biggest changes are definitely frags, led lights and Internet forums like this! Urbanek's thread, these forums and my LFS supplying RODI water are what got me back in!

dricc · Mar 10, 2016

I was around fish tanks most of my life. I won a goldfish at a carnival when i was seven . we then progressed to tropical fish and then one day when our family visted my older brother at his new apartment( i think it was 1974 or1975) He had these amazing fish.(two domino damsels and two blue devil damsels) my dad and i were hooked. He set up a salt tank (i think it was in 1977) a six foot 100 gallon tank) that he kept until the early nineties. I started a 75 in wall fowlr in 1989 and tore it down in 1999. Had a heat problem and could never figure out the source. I am still tankless even though over the years i always wanted to start up again. I worked seven days a week morning till night and raised two kids in the meantime and never found the time. The equipment is all different now but the biggest change is the wealth of information that is easily available due to the internet and especially because of sites like reef2reef .I am really thankful for this place! I hope to get wet again in a year or so after i move.

jsauger · Mar 10, 2016

I left the hobby for a while because I went off to college. It broke my heart to see all my babies go off to other tanks, but it's what was best for the animals because I just didn't have the time, space, or money to properly care for them.

What's changed most? Availability, marketing, and information.

Back in the early- to mid-90's, when I started switching from fresh to FOWLR and reefing, we had maybe one protein skimmer on the market which wasn't an import. If you wanted one, you made it. Which is how it went for most equipment. There were about twenty fish to choose from (mostly damsels), live rock came straight out of the ocean, and you could have about eight corals in any shade of brown you wanted. Color hadn't been invented yet. And if you had a problem, chances are you combed through stacks of old SeaScope's looking for an answer. Beyond this, it was all trial and error.

It's so easy now. There is so much equipment and information available now. The downside is because there's so much it can be a task just to figure out who is legit and who is peddling snake oil wrapped in slick marketing.

kimoy · Mar 10, 2016

Yup. Left back in 2006 with a 120 and now I have a 40 breeder since December 2015. A lot have changed since. Prices of the livestock (corals and fish) have gone so high since. Equipments have also changed a lot.

Maritimer · Mar 10, 2016

kimoy said:
Prices of the livestock (corals and fish) have gone so high since.

This is fascinating to me . . .

For most of the common fish, if I look at them, prices haven't changed a whole lot between my two reference points - late 80's and now. The $5.00 damsel is still a $4.99 damsel. The $40.00 tang is still a $40.00 tang. (Of course, $40 dollars doesn't buy you as much as it once did at the supermarket or the gas station . . . ) Clownfish, many of which were nearly as inexpensive as other damsels, are an exception - now the "cheap" ocellaris have climbed in price, and the more pricey maroons and clarkiis have come down a bit ... and they're all the same, until you get into morphs. What has changed - a lot - is the number of species that have become available, and can be maintained, in our systems!

~Bruce