What makes the hobby so important to you?

[Alexraptor]

I'm honestly not sure I can truly quantify it in any meaningful way.

But in a nutshell, the hobby is my entire world. My whole late-teen/adult life has honestly been pretty sucky dealing with personal issues and family health problems.

The hobby hase been my one constant and anchor-point in life. Without it I would most likely have lost grip of my sanity a very long time ago.

 

[SaltyCabbage]

Honestly just knowing the tanks are at home waiting for me to come watch. Nothing makes a bad day bearable like knowing I have something truly special to me to enjoy when I get home.

 

[Rubymoon286]

For me I think it's a combination of the challenge and the payoff. I spend hours looking into my tank and watching the fish just be. I get to see cool relationships my fish build - like my Scopas tang has paired with a starry blenny, and they not only share a cave, but are rarely anywhere in the tank without each other.

I have always loved the water. being able to keep slices of different aquatic habitats has been a pleasure over the years. Some of my favorites are the oddball set ups, like pea puffers, or my dwarf seahorse refugium that fuels a very low fish nano reef (the system itself is around 60 gallons total both connected to the same sump with a 15 gallon display and a 7 gallon macro algae display.) My other hobbies (bonsai, fiber art, painting) also speaks to my tendency to prefer hobbies with delayed payoff, so I really do think it's a personality trait of mine.

 

[ravila101]

I like to grow things but I hate yard work and heat outside (I live in TX)

Same here brother, this texas heat ain’t no joke

 

[Waynerock]

For one thing it is a big-time stress reliever even though I have to come home from work and do some stuff or water changes or feeding or cleaning the glass it gets my mind off the day and I get to relax. the second thing is being able to show my kids and teach them About the ocean and biology because there’s a pretty good chance They will never see stuff like this in the ocean. Heck I’ve gone diving more times than I can count and I’ve really never seen stuff like this in the ocean. Quite honestly, it’s pretty dang hard to spot these little corals when you’re diving and you’re looking at fish and fighting the current unless they’re monster sized, I usually swim right past him not even seeing The last somewhat important thing is that it is a piece of living art in my living room and everybody loves it and everybody thinks I’m some kind of magical wizard for being able to keep it.

 

[RichReef]

I am not sure I understand the question in it's context but I am not sure why it is important. Maybe it isn't important in it's entirety as far as my life priorities go. It wouldn't kill me if I had to give it up. What is important is my responsibility to my livestock since I made a decision to keep a reef tank.

All I can reply with is how I got here. I got my first goldfish at age 5 and by age 6 I was keeping a freshwater tank with critters I caught in the creek near my house. It was a 30 gallon slate bottom tank that an uncle gave me. I've had everything from crayfish, large mouth bass, piranha's, an entire freshwater system with over 80 inhabitants, lionfish, to a baby barracuda. From there it's just in my blood now.

Reef tanks are the pinnacle of the aquarium hobby. Other than large exotic pets it may even be the most difficult of all pets.

I think I like the challenge. My interest in aquariums has grown from the goldish to the "I wonder of I can do that" thing.

What I can tell is it's not a satisfying to me as it is everyone around me. Every time I look at my tank I am looking to improve. I see a the issues. People see the beauty. It's like when I renovated a large portion of my house. When everyone sees it they love it. When I see it I see the mistakes.

 

[Propane]

It's important because of the endless wealth of learning it has provided. And torch corals relax me.

 

[lil sumpin]

I remember having this toy aquarium as a kid. It kinda resembled a snow globe, it was something you’d shake around to get movement going and all the contents inside (tiny foam bits that resembled fish, jellyfish etc) would fly around in a storm of bubbles and whatever fluid was inside. It gave me a lotta amusement as a child!

… fast forward 30 something years and now I’m getting a different, but equally great kind of amusement seeing the pod population establishing and zooming around my first nano reef