Why are people so lazy?

[7of9]

I’m a geek and I make a living tinkering with automation at work. Why wouldn’t I do that at home? For me, figuring out how to automate maintenance tasks is fun and likely takes more time to figure out than if I just did it myself.

Just like at work, it also brings me piece of mind that things are being done in a consistent way.

 

[Paul B]

Nothing in my tank is automated except the lights are on a timer and I use a DIY ATO. I love everything I do to my tank but I don't do much. I only change water maybe 4 times a year and I collect the water so I rarely do it in the winter.

I almost never test anything so that only takes up about an hour or two a year. I do have to clean the glass every day but if I don't have time, it just gets green. Who cares?

I feed the fish every day but again if I don't have time for 1, 2, or 3 days, nothing happens except they give me dirty looks when I show up.

I actually like it when something goes wrong. Something small, not like the tank bursting or the lights falling in the tank.

I am an inventor so I enjoy building things for the tank. I built my algae scrubber, skimmer, surface scrubber, ATO etc.

My fish normally only die of old age and I don't have to be concerned about diseases or quarantine and all the medicating that goes with that so if I buy a fish, I just throw it in after a few minutes of acclimating.

I enjoy finding something weird in a LFS that I have never seen before but that rarely happens. Many of my fish constantly spawn and I still get excited when I see that. It makes me happy when one of my fish dies of old age because I know that was a success and that fish lived out it's natural life " happy" and healthy. Thats all we can ask for.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I personally get into Zen mode when working on my tanks. I love to go into my fish room and take care of the corals and animals in the tanks. I love watching my tanks to see how things are growing. I do manual water changes because I want to do them.
I have some automation of course to make life easier (Ca Rx for one), but nothing is better than cleaning out my algae scrubber and getting really green wonderful algae and lots of pods and worms.

I could do without scraping the back of my tank, but hey, it does look better when I do it.

I think that everyone has a level of tolerance and time. I do not like to keep up with all then new tech, but that is just me.

 

[mrehfeld]

Automation aids in the monitoring of system parameters, Overall stability of the system and a more enjoyable experience for those who use technology to manage their systems. I knew a pool guy that had an ultra quiet pool pump for circulation and flow. He had beautiful systems. My point is some people like to use their skills outside of reefing to make it an even more enjoyable experience. I myself do everything manually incase your wondering.

 

[Someshmuk]

It's like dieting and exersize, ones way of doing things can definitely not fit another's lifestyle. I don't think anyone actively tries to be lazy, but life often comes at a priority and a tank can be "neglected". Then you come back in 1-3 months with a hair algae outbreak and give up.

I knew going in that I wouldn't be in this hobby for long if I had to be diligent and consistent with my water changes. So I spent my efforts learning how to build robust and stable systems. Easier for me to test dKH and tune a calcium reactor with a few clicks on a calculator than do a 10% water change on my 130. Easier to setup an apex with temp and ph monitoring with it feeding data to a server than to trust that my dosing equipment isn't shocking my system. Easier to have automatic feeders knowing that my fish will always be fed even when im not around.

Now that all that work has been set up, I can focus on the actual coral husbandry part and less of the maintenance part.

 

[Derrick0580]

We just live in a world where everyone wants “instant gratification”

 

[cwerner]

I hire people to manually wave their hands in the tank to create the necessary water flow the corals need. Just doing my part for the economy.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Why did we bring up a month old post?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I hire people to manually wave their hands in the tank to create the necessary water flow the corals need. Just doing my part for the economy.

who do you use? the guys I've been using have seemed to slow down considerably

 

[Fishy888]

Why did we bring up a month old post?

Actually it’s 2 months old.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Actually it’s 2 months old.

I was just looking at the last comment.

 

[Dburr1014]

who do you use? the guys I've been using have seemed to slow down considerably

Use a hamster and a ball with paddles on it. Just need to change out the hamster once a week.

 

[mijan]

Why did we bring up a month old post?

A post was recently brought back after 15 years. A month? That's child's play.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

A post was recently brought back after 15 years. A month? That's child's play.

I can bump some older ones if you like. Unintentionally, unaware is my thing. I'm the Michael Jordan of not paying attention to details.

 

[Paul B]

I can bring up my build thread, it started decades before they invented threads, or computers. Would that be old enough?