Hobby Depressed: What gets you FIRED back up?

BeejReef · Feb 27, 2020

Something terrible happened to my tank.
After the aptasia were eaten, the dinos conquered, and the bubble algae beaten back it.......... Stabilized

Now there's really nothing to do except feed the fish and watch the corals grow. Kind of a bummer

Silverfish · Feb 27, 2020

sde1500 said:
Took me a while to get my tank to where it is today. Algae, algae, and algae was the theme of my tank. Four years later, there is barely any algae in the tank, for the first time ever I'm actually testing super regularly, and dosing to keep things dead on where I want them. For me, that is new, it is awesome, and keeps me super fired up. The wife has even noticed, I spend a little time every day working with the tank, and at least one day a week of some solid work. It shows. Now, I am also trying to redo like my entire house, and have a two year old, and have another due in 3 months, holy crap just three month what the heck I'm not ready. So, I need to keep with it, but need to make sure it is SUPER dialed in for when I inevitably have no free time and no sleep with two kids. And that is why I am doing it now.

Oh I also tinker constantly, add a skimmer, take it away. Socks, no socks. Algae reactor, then not, then use the skimmer section as a fuge, now back to a skimmer. Now replumbing the whole tank because the sump is in a stupid location under my tank that totally doesn't utilize the space well, and I want a bigger GPH overflow. Adding automatic dosing as I switch from AWC to no water change, and connecting a frag tank, because who doesn't want another tank?

A lid is a must with little ones. Cheerios n fish don’t go! Where do u get your energy!?

Kevan Sharp · Feb 27, 2020

what gets me fired up is finding new corals to add to the tank. I hate buying small one inch frags that never grow, or die. I have a few of those. I bet I have spent over $2000 in corals that have not survived, especially the frags. I hate it when something starts to go downhill for unknown reasons.

Also, when life gets busy, I get preoccupied with other things and my regular maintenance goes down, something suffers - which wakes me up to get back to routine maintenance. My most disappointing days are when I look at my tank and see that something is bleaching out and nothing I can do but watch it die.

I am very excited about opening up of Australia, and supposedly we will see a lot more variety very soon. I stopped purchasing anything a few months ago, waiting for the new corals from Austrailia - supposed to hit in March.

HeinritzReef · Feb 27, 2020

Currently hobby depressed... high nutrients got us down. Followed by losing one of our largest, favorite corals...
Obviously I know we are to blame not getting a large enough skimmer right away... mistakes you make in this hobby tend to show up months later. I currently feel a love/hate relationship with the hobby. If only I had a few more $$ to do all the upgrades as once...

but love = all my fishes who are doing great. Even my Midas Blenny who got slashed by a tang (very deep) made a complete recovery.

fishguy242 · Feb 27, 2020

too much to put in words LOVE IT ALL

Drao05 · Feb 27, 2020

What depresses me in this Hobby are all the people who are in it to just make a quick buck, take advantage of new reefers, and who cause major drama in our local reef clubs. This is a HOBBY. Calm tf down.

But what fires me up again is talking to reefers who have been in the hobby for many years and who have amazing tanks. They help and motivate you to get your tank there too.

sde1500 · Feb 27, 2020

Silverfish said:
A lid is a must with little ones. Cheerios n fish don’t go! Where do u get your energy!?

I borrow it from future me.

littlebigreef · Feb 27, 2020

Talking with folks and working through their stuff always gets me fired up.

For my part not a week goes by when I don't have a box coming or going. Stuff is in a good place. At this point it's more about sitting in my chair with the kid and feeding the fish or catching up with other reefers. Naturally hunting down those last entries on my ISO list still brings joy.

Treefer32 · Feb 27, 2020

I'm tired.. of fighting my tank. I've got all the equipment and automation I could think of around my 350 gall in wall display. Heck, i Have an in wall display!

My fish love me, come to me anytime I view the tank. They're like puppies. But, that doesn't get me excited... I even got a copperband butterfly almost eating frozen food out of my fingers. Biggest puppy dog of them all! Well, I could drag my clown fish out of the tank with a piece of frozen food. They latch onto the food and I lift up on it and they just hang there wiggling to get more food...

It's funny..

A'las, that doesn't excite me anymore. Why? I have thousands of reasons.... Tens of thousands.... Called Aiptasia. It got out of hand. I didn't control it, and now, not even the cool copperband is helping. He may be some... Pulling out some out of the sand bed here and there.. Maybe a small tube out of a rock crevice here and there.

A'las. . . it's not enough. The tens of thousands of aiptasia I have are killing my corals and consuming the food I feed for the fish and corals. I've lost several coral frags to aiptasia. And more will surely be killed.

It's frustrating and sad. Could be so beautiful. . . The solution has me intrigued but it's going to cost me money, and lots of time and effort to do. . . I'm going to have to get a 40-50 gallon tank, plumb my return to it, setup a hang on back overflow that dains to my sump. And slowly, put 2-3 rocks at a time in the remote sump from the display. Get some pistol shrimp and a couple Berghia and see which takes off... Transferring a couple aiptasia infested rocks back and forth every couple months.

I can't do this in the display because I've got a malicious dragon wrasse (and two other wrasses) that would devour both shrimp and Berghia. Setting up the additional tank, somewhat excites me. I might make it into a frag tank and put a small light in it to try to grow out and save some of my corals away from my Dragon wrasse that likes to carry them around the tank. . . So, building out a new system to simply kill aiptasia...

Mickey · Feb 27, 2020

Drao05 said:
What depresses me in this Hobby are all the people who are in it to just make a quick buck, take advantage of new reefers, and who cause major drama in our local reef clubs. This is a HOBBY. Calm tf down.

But what fires me up again is talking to reefers who have been in the hobby for many years and who have amazing tanks. They help and motivate you to get your tank there too.

This hobby is not cheap. Not sure who you run into that only gets into the hobby to make a quick buck. How do you make a cheap buck with a reef tank? Selling frags can help offset ongoing costs but it's got to be almost impossible to recoup initial investment costs.

For me, I get fired up reading some of the long threads on the forum, particularly those by fellow reefers who are researching some topic. I learn something new every day. I also attend conferences when I can.

sfin52 · Feb 27, 2020

Just up sized to a 90. I'm looking forward to new fish. But what gets me reved up is see progress or seeing my pistol and ywg working together

livelifelow · Feb 27, 2020

I feel like I’m in a never ending cycle of hobby depression. I have been in this hobby since March of 2018 or 2017. My corals finally look great and are doing well and I am thrilled with the way things are going on that end. I have a 75g that NEVER has fish. Every time that I think I’m starting to get semi-close something happens; moved and lost both dwarf angels coming out of quarantine along with a dottyback; lost a flame angel 2 days before the carbon was supposed to go in the filter on the qt tank; had my cat catch a flame angel through a 1”x2” gap by the filter on the qt tank; had a new fish kill a resident fish 2 days after going into the dt; finally got sick of being attacked by my clown and took him to the lfs; just now had my yellow assessor basslet vanish. 2-3 years post cycle and I have a 75g with 1 engineer goby and 1 pink spotted goby, both of which live under the rocks. I’m beyond tempted to just buy fish and stick them straight in the dt so I finally have fish in my tank.

Jenuvio · Feb 27, 2020

Bump!

Jenuvio · Feb 27, 2020

BeejReef said:
Something terrible happened to my tank.
After the aptasia were eaten, the dinos conquered, and the bubble algae beaten back it.......... Stabilized

Now there's really nothing to do except feed the fish and watch the corals grow. Kind of a bummer

Overdose ALK until the water is white, and try to recover XD

nkyreef · Feb 27, 2020

Going to frag swaps usually gets me in a pretty good mood. Being around other hobbyists who are equally excited brings me contentment. I'm currently deciding if I want to make a 4 hour solo trip to LEAR. If I decide not to go I'll have to wait a whole 3 months for another swap. Oh no...

Rich V · Feb 27, 2020

When I get hobby depressed, something new always seems to cheer me up and get me back to how I need to be. This could be a new coral, fish or even a piece of equipment.

CenlaReefer · Feb 27, 2020

I have been giving away frags as well selling some at a discount for new folks who are just starting-out in the hobby. This gets me excited.

C. Eymann · Feb 27, 2020

There is a thread on a certain forum called " the best sps tanks from around the world"

Nandos old tank always gets me. ;Drool

damselindistress · Feb 27, 2020

Been in the hobby since Sept 17 and have been close to throwing in the towel many times with the same tank stabilization issues all new reefers experience - hair algae, bryopsis, dinos, aptasia and bubble algae. Not to mention learning several lessons on fish compatibility the hard way, as in the immediate death of a new inhabitant - my tomini tang has racked up quite the hit list.

I was my own worst enemy in managing my parameters by way over complicating the whole process, dosing multiple supplements and not having my dosing pump dialed in tightly. Problem after problem.

Two key things that helped my tank finally achieve stability - scoff if you will but since making these two changes my tank has never looked better and even my dead goniopora that was pure skeleton has returned. One - switching to Polyp Labs "One" for dosing, and I dose manually, daily at my evening feeding. Second thing was I stopped mixing my own saltwater and started purchasing actual sea water.

Seeing my corals actually come to life and not just grow but begin to thrive has made me fired up to come home every day and check out my tank, I continue to see improvement almost daily - I hope most of my bad reefing days are behind me, I know I'll still face plenty of challenges but I'm optimistic about the direction my tank is going finally after 2+ years. That has me fired up!