What Do You Find The Most Challenging About This Hobby?

Beausoleiljacob · May 12, 2016

Hey Reefers!
For an English project I was assigned to create a product to help others. Empathy by Design was the theme. Anyhow, I need sources for the assignment and who better to ask than actual reefers them selves. Thus, what aspect(s) of the hobby do you find the most challenging? What type of product would make it better?
Thank you in advance.

lauderdalestunner · May 12, 2016

Common vs Scientific names for a "English" class assignment. Or just get rid of nitrates and water changes

john.m.cole3 · May 12, 2016

Doing regular water tests.

A product that would be a all in one test for Alk, Calc, Mag, NO3, and PO4, or a constant monitoring system. Testing my water takes about 1.5 hours a week (I test every other day)

Beausoleiljacob · May 12, 2016

Keep them ideas coming... Loving the 2 so far.

ibob991 · May 12, 2016

Fish compatability, identifying algae and hitchhikers, and keeping up with regular maintenance. Reefing isn't a science as much as it is a hobby. We do not truly 100% understand how to mimic a natural reef nor do we have the capability. Your project could be just on the uncertainty of the hobby itself

Alucard · May 12, 2016

Keeping my credit card bill low

DereksReef77 · May 12, 2016

Definitely testing. Reliable and accurate is what I'm talking about. Make test kits that are color coded with more distinguishing color values. Test kits today are too hard to decipher what color it matches up with. Or almost everyone has some sort of controller on their reef tank so why can't probes be designed to monitor your nitrate,phosphate,alk,calcium,and magnesium. With today's technology I don't know why such things don't exist. Jmo but that is what I would like to see in the near future.

KingBlingTX · May 12, 2016

PATIENCE. This is the most difficult thing in my opinion. It's always tempting to do something just because it seems easier than waiting for things to naturally work themselves out.

ibob991 · May 12, 2016

Alucard said:
Keeping my credit card bill low

Omg yes this x100000

james983 · May 12, 2016

I definitely find the toughest part of this hobby is that it is so demanding and unforgiving. If you slack off in any way your tank definitely suffers.

Deapite having a generator I always fear power failures and worse than that is a vacation.

This hobby is not one you can do in your "spare" time like normal hobbys. But I have been doing it for more than 20 years and I can't help myself. LOL.

ou12004 · May 12, 2016

Best way to introduce new purchases into the tank without my wife catching me

Pdandy · May 12, 2016

Keeping my hands out of the tank. Every time I walk past it I think to myself, "That coral or rock doesn't look right where it is. I'll just move it a little to the left." 20 minutes later, my hands are back in the tank moving something else or picking something up that a fish knocked over, or scraping the glass, or smoothing the sand out from my goby. lol

Waters · May 12, 2016

Solving difficult problems.....such as diagnosing and ridding the tank of an unwanted nuisance, whether it be algae, parasitic, etc.

brandon429 · May 12, 2016

I think the hardest part of the hobby are the unspoken rules people assume and apply immediately and sustain whether they are correct or not, various impacts result.

rules such as: if you expose live rock to the air it will die

Anytime you see algae, a nutrient problem in the water caused it

Bacteria will die from making X move or action in the tank

When you see algae, don't hand remove it immediately and thoroughly. Leave it in place to take over, and start an ID thread.

if api says .25, you can take it to the bank. your tank is mini cycling even though its 1.5 yrs old and you've done literally nothing to it and all your animals are fine and the corals look great, must be death of bacteria making the ammonia. (knowing when not to trust a test kit is massive info)

Salty1962 · May 12, 2016

Stability of my system.

Duke4Life · May 12, 2016

Finding information on fish I'm interested in. The ones I like there is typically little on, nothing costing more than $70.

Kcstoker1 · May 12, 2016

Balancing the tasks from the "hobby" with the rest of life. Products/resources that have helped are forums like this, apps that track tasks and schedules and affordable automations/controllers.

A heater controller is one of THE BEST investments I've made in 12 years of reefing.

Local reef clubs need help, especially small, non-metro ones. It's always a couple reefers keeping the whole thing going.

I also +1 things already mentioned. Patience, credit card bills, "rules of thumb."

Good luck with your project.

mmw64 · May 12, 2016

john.m.cole3 said:
Doing regular water tests.

A product that would be a all in one test for Alk, Calc, Mag, NO3, and PO4, or a constant monitoring system. Testing my water takes about 1.5 hours a week (I test every other day)

Agree on the water tests. What a pain!

AdamPhe · May 12, 2016

Water testing. Accurate testing is hard to do and time consuming.

smh254 · May 12, 2016

Salty1962 has it right. The hardest thing for me is keep in my system stable. A lot of this has to do with the test kits that are out there. It would be nice to have something that could read your taint parameters and dose as needed.