+1 ^^^ Gotta totally agree with you Craig, I have my wife's complete support & she also has her own reef set up.

Yea, was slow to start but letting her pick some corals out and the sexy shrimp and now she's feeding the corals and scraping the glass more than I am some days

I have met you both input and I must say its great you both have beautiful tanks

Thank you hillegom, she is definitely more involved now also. I would have to say the forums have definitely taught me a lot, especially Canreef. We have met quite a few good people from here also.

Buying a RO/DI unit helped me with my algae problems which would have driven me out of the hobby. Looking back at various problems since it seems nothing is getting me out of this hobby....:rolleyes:

1. Quality live rock
2. Sulphur reactor
3. Understanding Wife

In no particular order.

What single thing...

Canreef, I'm sure I would have quit the hobby without this wealth of knowledge...

I think without 3, 1 & 2 might never be :)

I'm going to second Brad's plumbing the R/O in to the top off. The only reservoirs I need to worry about being filled now are my dosing reservoirs, and they're 4 gallons each so they last a pretty long time (though, less and less time recently. stupid sticks). In the last tank, going out of town meant hauling out a 20 gallon bin, filling it up with water in the middle of our living room, and re-plumbing the entire top off system so it had a bigger reservoir. It took over an hour to test it each time. My 'out of town routine' now consists of directing the skimmer drain hose to the sewer drain under the tank and opening the gate on the auto-feeders a little.

But also the internet and forums. I was groping in the dark when I started this. Books are helpful, but there's so many obscure "what about 'this' in 'that' application?" questions that you'll never be able to find a book that covers all the questions or problems you'll face. Without being able to ask people and get real and immediate feedback, I probably would have killed way more things than I have.

The internet has affected many aspects of our lives and not just reefing, so I don't know if it qualifies...

BUT having understanding wives who let us be reefing nuts in their everyday lives, that has to affect us being able to carry on our hobby :)