What qualities do you view as being most important in Reefing?

[damsels are not mean]

I'd say patience, ability to research and use the internet, and by extension the ability to sort BS from useful information. I think nowadays one could create a really nice looking system with very little experience if one knows how to use the internet properly. Money is important but really depends on your goals. You could build a nice budget reef especially a nano.

 

[Goaway]

People are going to hate me.

1. Knowledge: dig dig and dig some more. There's tons to learn in multiple categories. The more you know the easier you can play the coral games and perhaps sell frags to fund the hobby. I don't do this anymore. I don't want to try and build a frag store again.

2. Money: Your budget will decide everything. Size of tank, equipment, livestock.

3. Relationships: this could also be number one. Your friends in the hobby can do wonders no matter your budget.

Then you have potential costumers. You want to be able to sell frags? Try not to make enemies.

 

[polyppal]

No surprise that ‘patience’ is the most voted answer

 

[polyppal]

Bump!

as of now the results are:
Patience (no surprise)
Knowledge (no surprise)
Experience
Testing (surprising answer to me)
Planning

personally, I think I’d rank ‘planning’ (@90's reefer add) over ‘testing’ by slight margin

 

[damsels are not mean]

Kind of shocked at testing tbh. I don't think it's that important if your tank is not an acro forest and you do regular water changes.

 

[Jordan Stone]

Patients, planning, and knowledge are my three votes.

You spelled patience wrong.

 

[SHINYSuccubus]

Good poll! I went with patience, knowledge and planning - those are the three qualities that have helped me the most.

I learned the hard way that all the patience and knowledge in the world will do you no good if you don’t have some sort of coherent plan! (although: the best laid plans of mice and men… lol)

 

[polyppal]

Good poll! I went with patience, knowledge and planning - those are the three qualities that have helped me the most.

I learned the hard way that all the patience and knowledge in the world will do you no good if you don’t have some sort of coherent plan! (although: the best laid plans of mice and men… lol)

Same!

 

[muzikalmatt]

Great poll! We all have different reefing philosophies so it's always interesting to hear what other people prioritize.

I chose patience, knowledge, and other...with the other being perseverance.

I feel like patience and knowledge are a given in this hobby. For long term success you have to do your research and you have to have patience, but the one thing that I think separates long-term reefers from the fly-by-night hobbyists is perseverance.

No matter how good you are. No matter how much research you do. No matter how much patience you have. You are going to fail in this hobby. It may be on a small scale like losing some corals or a fish. It may be on a large scale like crashing your entire tank. But on a long enough timeline in this hobby, you are going to fail in some form or fashion. And the ability to take those hits and stick with it is a trait I think most long-term reefers need to have.

 

[jcolliii]

Not being lazy.

 

[Miami Reef]

I think patience and knowledge are the most important.

You can have all the money in the world, but when your tank sprouts a problem and you begin to rapidly throw bombs at it, you get left with ashes and wished you were more patient.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I choose patience, knowledge and planning. I think planning your tank and vision and even budget is key and with that comes the building of knowledge as you research your vision which includes. Patience follows. Other choices imo follow those three.

 

[-XENOMORPH-]

Ocd

 

[Dburr1014]

Knowledge, patience, and testing.
At least I have, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. RIP meatloaf.

 

[bnord]

surprised that relationships did not score higher, as mine with my LFS, family, knowledgeable friends and relationships in this forum have made a big difference for me

What are 3 things you wish someone had told you when you started....

in this post Patience won out clearly - as it does here

 

[bnord]

People are going to hate me.

1. Knowledge: dig dig and dig some more. There's tons to learn in multiple categories. The more you know the easier you can play the coral games and perhaps sell frags to fund the hobby. I don't do this anymore. I don't want to try and build a frag store again.

2. Money: Your budget will decide everything. Size of tank, equipment, livestock.

3. Relationships: this could also be number one. Your friends in the hobby can do wonders no matter your budget.

Then you have potential costumers. You want to be able to sell frags? Try not to make enemies.

agree with the relationships, no hate here

 

[Arego]

Simply someone who loves and truly cares for animals. The rest will catch up with time.

 

[design.maddie]

"Other" There is a certain understanding of the life as a mechanism that needs to be easily grasped by the individual. It isn't a knowledge thing, but an understanding of cause and effect in regard to a biotope.

 

[HuduVudu]

Let’s add that as Ingenuity

*edit - I guess it won't let me edit the original poll any further

I would pick this over all others.

 

[fish farmer]

I voted for patience, knowledge and experience.

Patience because things take time to develop and set backs can be hard to recover from.

Knowledge can be had from research as well as previous fish keeping or science background. Knowledge is what you use to determine many of the other things on the list, like equipment/testing goals.

Experience doesn't necessarily need be reef related. It can be animal and plant husbandry, water quality monitoring, other science based hobbies or relatable work experiences qualify.