Negatives to owning a reef tank

[Salty Lemon]

I'm extremely lucky. My husband is 100% percent supportive of the hobby. Although he did get irked recently when I walked into the garage and told him I spent more than I should have on an online coral auction. What I really have issues with is that I don't have a single close non-cyber friend who is in the hobby. When I start talking about corals and water changes, my co-workers' eyes start to glaze over.

 

[Carlon]

Wait!! Is it time to go buy salt again, already. What!! Another live sale. I need to downsize my tank.

 

[LMDAVE]

All I can say is if you have more negatives than positives than you need to rethink doing it. I would hate to even focus on the negative. Finally, for me, after years spending so money on others, I finally decided to do something for myself and fortunately my wife is on board with it and loves it (its for us). My house could a use a new privacy fence, but I took that $3000 and put it towards a new tank upgrade. Life has been real fun over the last year of reefing, its exciting as well as expensive and time consuming. But keeps my mind occupied to not think about other negative things.

Only real negative I could agree with for this list is what the other poster said above. What am I going to do during a major hurricane? I can plan vacations and make those work, but the idea of being forced away and the inevitable long term power outage that can come from a hurricane, I would hate to have that destroy everything.

 

[Carlon]

Oh. Mounting frags after a live sale then looking in the tank a week later going " I know I had a another frag on that rock".

 

[Royce White]

I think all of the negatives have been stated, I would like to add one of the pluses that it has taught me. "Patience", not totally but some.

 

[fishybizzness]

Definitely unhappy partner. My wife wants to budget me at $100/month, between coral, fish, and any other needs (foods, additives, etc., etc.) Doesn’t matter if it’s a fish or coral I’ve wanted all my life, the answer is no! Has anyone ever gotten divorced over spending money on aquariums is another question? I’m a little tired of being told what I can spend money on or how much I can spend! I’m not a big spender, but she’s certainly a tight *** with money. Are we rich? No, not even close, but we’re not broke...sorry, a little rant .

Maybe you should take over the budgeting and budget her a $100 a month and see how that works out for her.

 

[JeepTj]

only real negative I got is the.. I WANT BIGGER thought in my mind..LOL
plus side.. wife wants to get and spend more on it then me..LOL and yes she knows the *REAL PRICE* of things.. like the large sailfin tang I got bent over for that she had to have LOL

 

[lapin]

No negatives I can see.

 

[Mike1995]

As much as I love my tank and everything in it.. It gives me stress a lot because I'm always trying to find new things to fix. I have a hard time leaving things alone

 

[sfin52]

we need a poll

 

[Kit_Kat]

I don’t really worry about any of that. If I did it would drive me crazy. I do however worry about drive by shootings. I live in an unincorporated area where people shoot guns all the time.

 

[sfin52]

To control.cost my wife who is a saint(she may read this) goes with me to the lfs. If I go alone my cc and dc stay at home. I love softies and buy coral 20 or less. I always look for the diamonds in the rough. Ended up with a few gems for free because they looked so bad. I love my tank.

My most peacefully tank is my fresh water planted tank. All the green and the fish swimming through the leaves is just so relaxing.

 

[stacksoner]

Expectations vs Reality

 

[JBKReef]

Oh. Mounting frags after a live sale then looking in the tank a week later going " I know I had a another frag on that rock".

Or coming home from a vacation to find your urchin has upended some of your acros into the sandbed

:mad:

 

[Mudder]

no real down side..My biggest problem is keeping the wife from spending my reef tank budget for the month on her seahorse tank..

 

[JFD]

Being poor because of things I want! Hahahaha

Definitely less money in the wallet!! ;Greedy;Greedy;Greedy;Greedy LOL

 

[ca1ore]

Time and cost. If either becomes overly arduous, reefing will become a former hobby for me. Can imagine this would be a frustrating hobby for those that skew OCD though.

 

[sawdonkey]

My biggest negative is the stress my tank causes:

If one coral looks bad, even if the rest look great, I’m stressed.

Haven’t tested parameters in a while, I’m stressed.

One fish acts kinda funny, I’m stressed.

Tank needs some maintenance but I don’t have time for it, I’m stressed.

Luckily, my wife likes the aquarium and sees how happy it makes me, so she doesn’t get on me about it. Plus, I don’t watch sports or spend a whole lot of time in bars, so the time I spend on the tank, while significant, is pretty small compared to some hobbies....and I’m at home when doing it.

 

[Shredder99]

LOL! I'll add eye rolls from people who compliment your tank or one of it's inhabitants and you launch into a 20 minute explanation that was not really asked for.

I'll also second the spending and budget negotiations with your spouse!

 

[Laith]

IMO there are always negatives linked to wonderful things.

For a reef tank it could be spending money, time, frustration when things don’t go quite right, disagreements with partner about the tank, emergencies that stress you and take more of your time to solve, worry when you are not there to take care of things that could go wrong, etc.

But compare this to having children: spending money, time, frustration when things don’t go quite right, disagreements with partner about handling the children, emergencies that stress you and take more of your time to solve, worry when you are not there to take care of things that could go wrong, etc.

In the end, both give you a sense of wonder .