Throwing In The Towel...

[Crustaceon]

I think many people hop into the hobby because of the "cool" factor and assumption that keeping a reef tank is incredibly difficult and requires lots of technology to do so. They buy the expensive stuff, read every science publication-level post on this forum and constantly fiddle with their tanks according to said science publication-level posts because that's what they assume is required. Of course, that causes A LOT of instability and they have all kinds of problems, which becomes frustrating, which drives them out of the hobby. I know this will tick some people off but I have to be honest. This hobby isn't hard but we certainly do our best to MAKE it hard. For example, if you start a cycle in your tank and leave it alone aside from topping off water occasionally, it'll be far better off when you finally come back to it a few months later than if you fussed over ammonia levels every day trying to "optimize" things. I see this ALL THE TIME. Sometimes you just need to chill out and just let the tank do its thing naturally. We really don't have to overthink things to find success in most cases.

 

[Megaloptera]

It seems like this question suffers from survivorship bias. It reminds me a lot of this story.

The responses you get on this poll are not going to be from people who quit. If someone really fully quits the hobby, they'll almost certainly stop reading these forums.

So the people that are responding are either people who took a break and came back, or people who ran into issues that made them think about quitting, but then they ultimately decided to keep going.

If a catastrophic event exists that has a 100% chance to drive a person out of the hobby, no one would report it on the poll because they would already be gone.

Thank you for pointing this out. I am aware that this could add to bias. I do have an end goal in mind for this poll and that specific bias is one that should not really effect the overall outcome of my goal. That's why I tried to add "made you want to quit or take a break" in the description. I really can't state my end goal of my assignment due to that adding a new bias. Also it was really hard to find a Death2Reefing forum to inquire with this poll.

 

[Megaloptera]

+1 on "not good at it" or difficulty level as being a likely reason many people quit. Speaking to fellow reefers at lfs' over the last few years and having a friend or 2 who started reef tanks after being in fw for years, this seems to be a common reason people get out of the reef/sw hobby, or switch to fowlr. I have heard many new sw hobbyist say "I just can't keep coral alive" or .. "fw is so much easier, all I have to do are regular water changes and feed my fish". I selected algae, as this was a huge problem for me in the beginning and very frustrating. It was a close tie with pests as my only tank crash, so far, was due to red planaria flatworms and treating it too fast killing off half my livestock. The algae was an ongoing issue and the flatworms were a one time event. I did not throw in the towel, but it crossed my mind.

I have been out of the hobby for almost a year and a half now due to moving. I did just drill a 125g and broke out the endless boxes of equipment I had in storage, so will see what challenges I run into starting from scratch.

Thank you for your post. I think you hit the nail on the head with "difficulty." However, the question is "why was it difficult?" I'm sorry I have only allowed one vote because it seems like you could vote multiple times. I hope you enjoy your 125g.

 

[ThaBeast]

I broke down my 400g reef and sold everything, swearing I would never re-enter due to the lousy livestock from suppliers. I had an entire quarantine room in my shop and still had 50% mortality in 2019. My local vet retired and I had a terrible time obtaining US manufactured meds for a few months. The worst was an entire batch of fish that came in with uronema and I couldn't save them. Since the recent entry of quarantined livestock into the market I've decided to try again, currently setting up a 185

 

[Megaloptera]

I think many people hop into the hobby because of the "cool" factor and assumption that keeping a reef tank is incredibly difficult and requires lots of technology to do so. They buy the expensive stuff, read every science publication-level post on this forum and constantly fiddle with their tanks according to said science publication-level posts because that's what they assume is required. Of course, that causes A LOT of instability and they have all kinds of problems, which becomes frustrating, which drives them out of the hobby. I know this will tick some people off but I have to be honest. This hobby isn't hard but we certainly do our best to MAKE it hard. For example, if you start a cycle in your tank and leave it alone aside from topping off water occasionally, it'll be far better off when you finally come back to it a few months later than if you fussed over ammonia levels every day trying to "optimize" things. I see this ALL THE TIME. Sometimes you just need to chill out and just let the tank do its thing naturally. We really don't have to overthink things to find success in most cases.

Ah..but we love control, and tinkering and lack patience. Great post, thanks.

 

[Megaloptera]

I broke down my 400g reef and sold everything, swearing I would never re-enter due to the lousy livestock from suppliers. I had an entire quarantine room in my shop and still had 50% mortality in 2019. My local vet retired and I had a terrible time obtaining US manufactured meds for a few months. The worst was an entire batch of fish that came in with uronema and I couldn't save them. Since the recent entry of quarantined livestock into the market I've decided to try again, currently setting up a 185

Woohoo. Glad you are back. You bring up a great point. I think this is exactly why aquaculture can help our reefs and the survivability of our reef tanks. Now, if those pesky reef fish wouldn't have such challenging larval conditions to recreate we'd all be raising our favorite fish.

 

[fish farmer]

I voted pests/disease/mortality event would probably be a factor at this point. If my 15 year old clowns pass, that may be a deciding factor....but it would give me space for something different.

But looking at the list.
Cost = downsize/ DIY
Routine maintenance = downsize/automate
Nuisance algae = fixed it
Pests/mortality event = getting a handle on pests and have had major mortality events...time to rebuild/rethink a new system.
Tank failure = been there, time to rebuild/rethink system.
Bored = so many pretty corals and fish...

 

[EugeneVan]

I chose "Other". Reefing restricted my fish selection. 15 years on the saltwater side now and have found way more satisfaction on bigger non-reef safe fish than corals. I admire the beauty of reefs through others tanks. My multiple tanks each ended up as fowlr tanks now.

Totally agree. I miss all those beautiful angelfish fish and those cute trigger fish.

 

[EugeneVan]

I think many people hop into the hobby because of the "cool" factor and assumption that keeping a reef tank is incredibly difficult and requires lots of technology to do so. They buy the expensive stuff, read every science publication-level post on this forum and constantly fiddle with their tanks according to said science publication-level posts because that's what they assume is required. Of course, that causes A LOT of instability and they have all kinds of problems, which becomes frustrating, which drives them out of the hobby. I know this will tick some people off but I have to be honest. This hobby isn't hard but we certainly do our best to MAKE it hard. For example, if you start a cycle in your tank and leave it alone aside from topping off water occasionally, it'll be far better off when you finally come back to it a few months later than if you fussed over ammonia levels every day trying to "optimize" things. I see this ALL THE TIME. Sometimes you just need to chill out and just let the tank do its thing naturally. We really don't have to overthink things to find success in most cases.

Very true. People are running out of patient just like you said. Putting bottles of chemical in to the water everyday just to make the cycle go faster. I lost count of hearing how many time people are saying it is safe to put fish into a one week old fish tank. What are they doing, they want to sell you more fish, more chemical....... A proper cycle of a fish tank take months and this is just the beginning of the journey of this hobby.

 

[ReeferHD]

Dinoflagellates. enough said.

 

[Megaloptera]

I voted pests/disease/mortality event would probably be a factor at this point. If my 15 year old clowns pass, that may be a deciding factor....but it would give me space for something different.

But looking at the list.
Cost = downsize/ DIY
Routine maintenance = downsize/automate
Nuisance algae = fixed it
Pests/mortality event = getting a handle on pests and have had major mortality events...time to rebuild/rethink a new system.
Tank failure = been there, time to rebuild/rethink system.
Bored = so many pretty corals and fish...

Thanks for the vote. You are definitely in it to win it. Keeping that "positive opportunity to learn attitude" will get you more than just success in reefing.

 

[Megaloptera]

Very true. People are running out of patient just like you said. Putting bottles of chemical in to the water everyday just to make the cycle go faster. I lost count of hearing how many time people are saying it is safe to put fish into a one week old fish tank. What are they doing, they want to sell you more fish, more chemical....... A proper cycle of a fish tank take months and this is just the beginning of the journey of this hobby.

This is a journey - not a sprint, not even a marathon. I loved the advise I heard to not even turn the lights on for 6 months. I think that helped establish some decent heterotrophic bacterial levels in one of my tanks that kept major algae outbreaks from being an issue. I still have some algae issues but most of that is my fault I'm finding.

 

[sfin52]

A friend left hobby time. He changed jobs and getting married.
Another left because heater malfunctioned and left the hobby after the heater cooked his tank

 

[Megaloptera]

Dinoflagellates. enough said.

True. True.

 

[Crustaceon]

It seems like this question suffers from survivorship bias. It reminds me a lot of this story.

The responses you get on this poll are not going to be from people who quit. If someone really fully quits the hobby, they'll almost certainly stop reading these forums.

So the people that are responding are either people who took a break and came back, or people who ran into issues that made them think about quitting, but then they ultimately decided to keep going.

If a catastrophic event exists that has a 100% chance to drive a person out of the hobby, no one would report it on the poll because they would already be gone.

My opinion is based on talking to actual people who have left the hobby and are not on this forum.

Very true. People are running out of patient just like you said. Putting bottles of chemical in to the water everyday just to make the cycle go faster. I lost count of hearing how many time people are saying it is safe to put fish into a one week old fish tank. What are they doing, they want to sell you more fish, more chemical....... A proper cycle of a fish tank take months and this is just the beginning of the journey of this hobby.

I always found that strange. We all know this is a game of months if not years, so why the hurry in the beginning?

 

[EugeneVan]

This is a journey - not a sprint, not even a marathon. I loved the advise I heard to not even turn the lights on for 6 months. I think that helped establish some decent heterotrophic bacterial levels in one of my tanks that kept major algae outbreaks from being an issue. I still have some algae issues but most of that is my fault I'm finding.

It is me. I didn't turn on the light for the first 5 months when I start my reef tank. I may be lucky but I think my waiting has something to do with the ugly stages. I never experience the ugly stage. I am now a happy reef keeper. Patient is everything in this hobby. No SPS until the tank past 1 year old birthday. All my SPS, soft coral and my wallet are so happy because of the waiting game.

 

[chousecat]

Currently thinking about throwing in the towel or at least taking a break. I have a 34 gallon AIO that is dealing with a bad phosphate problem. No matter how many water changes I do, it still creeps to 0.6-0.7. I have tried lanthanum chloride but it irritated my LPS. I feed mysis to my 4 fish and blood worms to my mandarin. I recently just got a macroalgae reactor from Tunze dialed in this week and hopefully it works soon. My tank was looking pretty good until last December, I have yet to see any growth since then. Even having some zoas close up and retract.

 

[Megaloptera]

It is me. I didn't turn on the light for the first 5 months when I start my reef tank. I may be lucky but I think my waiting has something to do with the ugly stages. I never experience the ugly stage. I am now a happy reef keeper. Patient is everything in this hobby. No SPS until the tank past 1 year old birthday. All my SPS, soft coral and my wallet are so happy because of the waiting game.

Great success story

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Thanks, I'm going to refrain from adding that option since I feel that is related more on the challenged person rather than a challenge from the hobby. So, I guess the current poll should be the answer to why the person wasn't good at it. Example: too cheep to spend on necessary items like test kits or "pests" because they wouldn't set up a quarantine tank.

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[((FORDTECH))]

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