Hobby Depressed: What gets you FIRED back up?

[MnFish1]

Hobby Depressed: What gets you FIRED back up?

As a new hobbyist I was excited all the time. It really didn't take much. But as time goes by the excitement can wain and the passion can run lukewarm. But what if you want to get motivated again? What if you want to be passionate again? What does it take and what do you do to get there? Start with a cup of coffee and then go from there.

For me lately it doesn't take a lot to get me down and out in the hobby. YES I struggle at times. When you battle a dinoflagellate outbreak for a year and then now a super hair algae villain it can really get you "hobby depressed" so to speak! But just as quick as I get down, something comes along to get me fired back up again and next thing you know I'll be performing water changes and pulling loads of hair algae and I'll be on top of the mountain again.

For me it's simple. Beautiful reef tanks. All I need to do is start looking at other people's success stories knowing that it's not an impossible task and anything worth having, at times, faces adversity. So yes a beautiful FTS normally gets my passion engine revving and rolling again!

So what about you? Let's talk about that today! Answer me this:


What does it take to get you from "hobby depressed" to excited, passionate and fired back up again about your reef tank?

Just went through an issue with this - lost 3/4 of my coral due to a new 'additive' designed to get rid of 'nuisance algae'. Many of the corals I have had for several years - so - I took out the rock cleaned it - did water changes (to reduce the nitrate which spiked from 10 to >100) - and waited. After 2 months - there are literally things I had in the tank 5 years before that are suddenly 're-growing'. The thing that keeps me 'not bored' is things like this that are totally unexpected

 

[MnFish1]

I’ve been stuck in hobby depression for awhile, had a heater malfunction and never could figure out why my corals were looking awful for awhile, thankfully didn’t lose any. But my corals still haven’t full recovered, and everything look bleh in my tank. And im working three jobs didn’t help. No time at all for my tank basically, so just trying figure out why my tank won’t pick back up. I think once my corals start coming back and I finally able keep my dream fish (blue stripe pipefish) which I know ain’t easy. I think I’ll start getting out of it hopefully. But about try make some changes to help my tank hopefully.

The good news is that often coral come back quickly - I know this is not the 'current thinking' - but after a problem - carbon - and water changes seem to help - good luck

 

[MnFish1]

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

Buy a new fish -

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

I knew hobby depressed vote would be low, because if you were actually hobby depressed you would be less likely to be on this site at all

 

[Back where it all began]

For me it’s the death of a fish. It happens, but some are worse than others. The good and the bad are the constant struggle to keep everything running smoothly and enjoying the smooth times while working through the bad times.

 

[X-37B]

Been fired up since my 120 came online 8 months ago.
Minimal maintenance bare bottom system.
Clean the glass, blow off the rocks, and clean skimmer cup once a week. Suck out accumulated detrius every week into filter sock.
Got fired up just over 2 months ago bringing carx online.
Taking the time to plan and implement "a no water change method" has given me the time to enjoy watching everything grow and stay " fired up".

 

[Peace River]

What gets me fired back up? Hope. It may be connecting or reconnecting with reefing friends at a show and the hope of the next new thing that is highlighted in the conversation. It may be the hope of a new batch of fish babies, frag cuttings, or anemones appearing. It may be the hope that comes with a new tank, a new piece of equipment, or a re-aquascaping. It is the hope of that next thing that keeps engaged and excited about making a difference in this space!

 

[Han]

Pretty depressed I guess, lost a $500 fish 2 months in recently and I’m so done that I’m just going to leave my lionfish alone in his new 75g. Don’t feel like losing more fish. And everything is so expensive that I really only get corals when I can get them for free at this point. On top of that I feel like I have too many tanks to maintain, it feels like something always needs to be done and I never get a break.

 

[Quietman]

I'd be more excited but in a lack of progress phase due to GHA and cyano. Lost a couple birds nest frags and a cyphastrea. Treatment is proceeding but slowly. But even with this I'm still planning for what to get after and a new tank I want to start...gotta roll with the punches.

 

[brandon429]

I'm totally fired up. This year I will expose bottle bac makers and sellers for using sham science to oversell us bottle bac. your whole circus is about to get smashed by hundreds of live time work examples proving no cycle has ever stalled in reefing.

If you make or sell bottle bac, keep shying away from actually posting in our fix threads it's been a handy trend to have you fail to defend claims that get you thousands in sales. I know you read the threads, lurkers!

The moneymaker: take a false concept they know everyone believes, tie key word searches + a buying recommend/bottle bac ad and bam, ten thousand unneeded bottles of bac are added to aquariums already full of bac. They don’t tell us on bottle bac labels that we don’t have accurate ways to test for ammonia and nitrite in the hobby (unless seneye, those always prove a cycle cannot stall)

nitrite doesn’t factor in a cycle completion at all, we have been told it matters when it does not matter, only ammonia control matters.

not one single tank here was stalled or needed the bacteria recommended on the right. @BRS how about it, do a video on stalled cycles, use seneye. show bottle bac in its accurate light, sell it for dry rock starts don’t allow false stalled cycle biology to sell any extras, you are known for fair evaluations and you have thousands of subscribers. Send out accurate microbiology to them, make a new video seeing if rocks and sand blasted with ammonia and bottle bac can stall. Any brand of cycling bac.

 

[Morbidaarvark]

I lost one tank to velvet before I could do anything and now I think I’m losing another one, that’s why I’m hobby depressed.

 

[DEWreefing]

Bought the new hydra 64hd my apogee 510 will be here monday I'll get excited then hahahaha.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

I'm brand new to the saltwater side so you bet I'm fired up! New fish species, corals, challenges, and issues to overcome. Everything is exciting. Once I get my tank up and running it'll probably get even better. Of course like most everything else in life, the initial excitement might wane over time so then it'll come to trying new things or improving what I already have.

 

[FishTruck]

What gets me excited is finding a way to eliminate a nuisance chore or seeing my corals recover after a regressive period.

 

[H3rm1tCr@b]

I get really excited when I buy new creatures! Shrimp are my fave. One thing getting me down right now though is my last Peacock shrimp seems to be dying and my new bubble tip anemone is bleached I know why though. Unknown salinity spike to 1.030ppm and to high new light made it pretty mad. It’s doing a little better though!

 

[Casket_Case]

I'm currently dry with the hobby. I just can't find motivation. I'm so sick of dealing with detritus, and algae, not being able to keep a clean up crew, and putting all this money in. I still love Marine Science and the Ocean it just seems my tank isn't where I want it and I kinda feel hopeless. I've had this feeling once before in this hobby but it just lasted a few days. I guess the only thing I can do is keep trying and hope it'll go away.

 

[amazongb]

I've had it all - cyano, hair algae, brown slime, aptasia, the works. What fires me up is slowly working on solutions and fixing them - this adds to what we call "experience". The more you know, the more experienced you get, the more exciting it becomes. And when the hard work pays off, you say "wow".

I've persisted along, and now, like many more that are way more experienced than me, I can look at the tank and spot quickly when something might be wrong. It's exciting.

 

[guysmiley]

problem in new Zealand is nice corals are realy expensive like around 600 for a rainbow acan colony a lot of corals and fish inverts arnt even allowed to enter the country so it puts a damper on the hobby its disheartening seeing pics of peoples tanks full of corals iv never even seen lol still love the hobby but yea

 

[Reefnsail123]

Since my reef is only 3 months old, I’m completely fired up. Just seeing the new life from my Tampa Bay love rock and sand were a constant fascination. Now that I’m gradually adding fish and coral I’ve completely stopped watching TV. She watches TV while I stare intently into my tank. Sometimes I feel a little guilty

 

[krash7172]

Fired up. I accomplished all my winter reefing goals. Tank looks great.