Sierra_Bravo
Valuable Member
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2017
- Messages
- 1,898
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- Location
- San Antonio, TX
- What state or country do you live in
- Texas
I was musing this morning with the help of a cup of coffee and thinking about the time scale our hobby requires for progress. We don't feel instant gratification and the choices we make may take months to determine if they were correct ones. Not everyone reaches a mature and successful reef tank. I was trying to partition the stages of progress for a reef tank and came up with my list of six distinct periods that I could define:
Stage 1: Planning
The note-taking, graph paper, and daydreaming period. Determining the type, size, style, and placement. Putting together a stock list. Purchasing initial equipment.
Stage 2: Initial Setup
This starts with the build and continues through achieving completion of your planned livestock purchases. For many, I think the most exciting portion of the experience and why people start so many tanks.
Stage 3: Adjustments
The period in which we are tinkering and tweaking what we originally envisioned and executed. Re-evaluating our initial plan, changing the aquascape, the stocking list, adding equipment.
Stage 4: Stability
Everything is in place. Things are growing out. Maintenance becomes easier. The thrill of "new" - new fish, new equipment, new corals - has tapered off. For me, this was when I started to feel like I was tending my "garden".
Stage 5: Upgrades
Now it becomes about how to do it "better". Adding a calc reactor, adding or changing lights, automating processes, incorporating a frag tank. You find yourself searching for problems and issues not so much because they are there, but maybe just so you have something to "fix".
Stage 6: Maturity
Your vision has been achieved. There's not as much to do anymore; its harder to see the week to week changes. The tank is its own little world and requires only guidance and occasional interference. People outside the hobby have no idea the amount of time and work went into this, but you do.
Right about now is when work will offer that promotion that requires relocating or the wife will want to move into a new home. . .
Stage 1: Planning
The note-taking, graph paper, and daydreaming period. Determining the type, size, style, and placement. Putting together a stock list. Purchasing initial equipment.
Stage 2: Initial Setup
This starts with the build and continues through achieving completion of your planned livestock purchases. For many, I think the most exciting portion of the experience and why people start so many tanks.
Stage 3: Adjustments
The period in which we are tinkering and tweaking what we originally envisioned and executed. Re-evaluating our initial plan, changing the aquascape, the stocking list, adding equipment.
Stage 4: Stability
Everything is in place. Things are growing out. Maintenance becomes easier. The thrill of "new" - new fish, new equipment, new corals - has tapered off. For me, this was when I started to feel like I was tending my "garden".
Stage 5: Upgrades
Now it becomes about how to do it "better". Adding a calc reactor, adding or changing lights, automating processes, incorporating a frag tank. You find yourself searching for problems and issues not so much because they are there, but maybe just so you have something to "fix".
Stage 6: Maturity
Your vision has been achieved. There's not as much to do anymore; its harder to see the week to week changes. The tank is its own little world and requires only guidance and occasional interference. People outside the hobby have no idea the amount of time and work went into this, but you do.
Right about now is when work will offer that promotion that requires relocating or the wife will want to move into a new home. . .
