Biokabe
Valuable Member
I've been a reef keeper for ten years. In all that time, I've seen my share of catastrophes, big and small. Some were self-inflicted, like deciding to add macroalgae to the display tank and watching as, within days, a cyano bloom overtakes everything. Others were chance, like a heater failing and cooking everything alive while I was on vacation.
And then there was last night, when the bottom seam on my tank sprang a catastrophic leak that necessitating pulling everything out of the tank into temporary holding containers, draining the remainder of the water, and scrambling to come up with a replacement tank before everything dies in the completely inadequate holding facilities.
Went from this:
To this:
Literally, in the space of two hours.
Thankfully, my tank was just a bog-standard Aqueon 55g, so finding a replacement wasn't too hard. Of course, I say, "Wasn't too hard," and my aching body laughs at me... but I digress.
In the course of dealing with everything, there was a part of me that wanted to just throw in the towel on it all. Wash my hands of it, give all the livestock to the LFS, and find another hobby. For now, at least, the wife and I will keep at it, but this was the first time that the thought of giving it up was actually seriously entertained.
So, moving on from my tragedy... how do you cope with disasters? What keeps you going? Is there a line where you would finally decide to be the next person giving good deals on used equipment because you're getting out of the hobby?
And then there was last night, when the bottom seam on my tank sprang a catastrophic leak that necessitating pulling everything out of the tank into temporary holding containers, draining the remainder of the water, and scrambling to come up with a replacement tank before everything dies in the completely inadequate holding facilities.
Went from this:
To this:
Literally, in the space of two hours.
Thankfully, my tank was just a bog-standard Aqueon 55g, so finding a replacement wasn't too hard. Of course, I say, "Wasn't too hard," and my aching body laughs at me... but I digress.
In the course of dealing with everything, there was a part of me that wanted to just throw in the towel on it all. Wash my hands of it, give all the livestock to the LFS, and find another hobby. For now, at least, the wife and I will keep at it, but this was the first time that the thought of giving it up was actually seriously entertained.
So, moving on from my tragedy... how do you cope with disasters? What keeps you going? Is there a line where you would finally decide to be the next person giving good deals on used equipment because you're getting out of the hobby?
