are we nerds?
 

For being in this hobby,and finding it so neat.Guys at work moch me for liking this hobby

I wouldnt go that far, but my friends ridicule me about "wasting" so much money on this oh so great hobby.

Matt

I had a work associate over and I was picking the mini-bristle worms out of the cleaner magnet and putting them back in the tank.

She was :eek: and I think I officially attained geekhood :mrgreen:

Ever notice at reef meetings how spouses sometimes gather together to talk about how ridiculous their husbands are? They have a phrase for us: "fish geeks."

Yeah, we're geeks. Big time. :cool:

If your reading this... nerd maybe , fish geek for sure! (proud of it)
But blaster using the phrase 'so neat'... well just maybe your a nerd :eek:

Dave

Bah...

Some people waste all their money on Booze, or something to smoke / sniff... Some people blow thousands on their car (and all the spiffy stickers they can fit on the darn thing), Some people keep 23 cats...

Though I do think the internet does make us geekier... when you see the 1 in 10,000 who actually keeps 10-20 tanks... Suddenly, adding another 2 or 3 to try something new, doesn't seem so bad. Then suddenly you're the guy with 50 tanks... And the cycle continues.

Andy

Fish Geeks (Reef Geeks) of Canada Unite :exclaim:

But if the most of my students or our visitors ohhh and ahhh :eek: over our tanks, does that still make it geeky or nerdy? Yes our spouses may complain over our obsession with this hobby and all the technical and living components that go with it, but they would complain about almost anything that takes that much of our time, attention & resources away from them anyways :mrgreen: At least our hobby is healthy and provides us with inner peace and tranquility. Oh, oh. I hear the geek-o-meter ringing.

Yeesh, will you look at the time. Just finished tutoring another fish-geek & it's 1:30am & I'm posting on Canreef. Yup, it's official. I've ascended/descended (depending on your point-of-view) to fish-geekiness status.
:lol:
Anthony

120 gallons of freshwater a day...200 a day when all the breeders are going...

About 1.5 hours a day devoted to feedings, cleanings, bbs hatchings, sanitizing equipment...

My wife riding in the bed of my brothers half ton under a blanket for 20 blocks between furniture so 4 buckets of fish/corals could make the move to the new house in the heated cab...whats even worse is her offering so they didnt get cold in the bed at 5 degrees below...incidently...only because i couldnt fit in the hole between the furniture :redface:

Pulling 3 all nighters over the past few years to be able to clean tanks and prepare enough water for the thousand dollar fish orders coming into the airport at 8am

Needing 200lbs of live rock for a new tank and cleverly disguising it as a 3 day vacation to vancouver...which turned into a group order for 700lbs of rock and 1500lbs of salt...

No hair on the knuckles of my left hand from scraping inside the clownfishs tanks when i wasnt invited...

Your 300lb buddies that drive forklifts all night come over and as soon as they walk in the door "got any new fish?"

Any and/or all drinking/gambling/general dumbassing around must revolve around water change night

Geek? Damn Right.

I definitely consider myself a reef nerd :cool: Most of my friends have no idea how much work goes into keeping one reef, never mind three, so they have no idea how much of a nerd I really am :razz:

Ya they do ridicule us but as soon as they see our tanks it is all good then. Or when they are having problems with there pond or fish tank then were their best friends. Sure mine ridicule me for liking this hobby u just have to find somthing of theirs that is not that popular and hit them back.

Power to the people!!!

I am proud to be a geek of the reef. The boyz in my warehouse just see all the hardware i bring in for it and wonder what kind of nuclear reactor i am building. The looks you get when you want in with 40 feet of piping and $200 of 1 1/2" ball valvues.

I would not trade it for anything in the world. The never ending project. what more can a man wish for?

I think Anthony said it best so far :)

I've managed to drag 1 friend into the hobby... my other friends think I am crazy but all really enjoy the tanks so....

it's funny the first time i met rob i went to his office and asked to see him. the receptionist asked me which rob i wanted to see, she gave me the once over and said, i bet you want to see rob the guy with the big fish tank right? haha, they can see us coming a mile away, there is no use disusing ourselves we can't hid!

lol yup and those 2 float switchs are one of the best score i ever got!!!

OMG, I do that too. :redface:

I figured we all did that. You know when you're cleaning things and the pods jump into the sink. You all pick them up and put them back in a safe place in the tank, right?

Its funny my wife says drinking lots and smoking dope would be cheaper then this hobby.

so true ..

Now I am worried, I do that too. :redface:

Ah ... if it's worrying you Bob ... let me put your mind at ease: You Are A Nerd. (No need to worry about it)

(and... I really do mean that as a compliment in the highest esteem :mrgreen: )

Yeah, I always do that :cool: Pods, itty bitty hitchhiker snails.... husband wonders what the heck I'm doing :agrue:

Im the same. You just never know what that pod might meen to the ecosystem!!!

:)

Yup, pods and live mysis are our friends. :biggrin: Giant bristleworms - another story :evil:

One other thing though, I've noticed that even though my wife doesn't share our passion for this addiction, she still likes the tanks & creatures because I've come home and seen her with her piano students in front of the tanks explaining what everything is and what everything eats. And she got it all right. :eek: Blew my mind. She paid attention, even when I didn't think she did. Just hope she doesn't expect me to reciprocate and relearn piano :redface:

Anthony

anthony i know what you meen!!!!

My wife was in edmonton for a week. wile she was gone i got some new rock and zoo's and stuff. Was sure she would have no idea when she got home. Man she pointed out each new rock and zoo. as well she also noticed each little rock i had moved and that i had changed my bulbs!!!

I was blown away. I know my kids would as they sit in from of it more than i do.

-Rob

Geeky and pround of it. Mind you the girlfriend is very interested in it all too so she's got the geek potential.

Doug

geek
 

$5000 for a picture of mountains on my wall or $10000 on an always changing, perfect ecosystem full of so much life and color that you would gladly use the $5000 painting to wipe up the water you spill while cleaning your tank? Everyone on the board knows the answer to this question. I figure I could spend all night staring at a television or I could stare at my own art. I agree the only crazy thing about this hobby is the money spent on it, but another glance at my creation, no matter what's going wrong this week, and still no regrets here.

My main problem seems to be the endless upgrading needed to sustain everything I want to keep :rolleyes: Already told the wifey that we'll need to move so I can get the 200g+ tank for the growing fish.

Conversation went something like this...
Irene "We're moving because of FISH!!!!"
AS "Yes dear. The fish need more space so I have to upgrade."
Irene "So sell the fish or give it away."
AS "Can't do that. Just need a bigger tank."
then I duck an invisible thrown pan and leave the room.

Yup, fish geek. I tested my blood & I'm at 1.026 :biggrin: :lol:

But I'm not the only whose planning to move or has moved in order to upgrade their tanks RIGHT? Right? I don't care what you told the spouse, you needed more space for a bigger aquarium. Admit it. :biggrin:

Anthony

uh .... :redface: :lol:

Yes Josh...your a nerd. :mrgreen:

Im not though, i think its completley normal to renovate my house to fit in a very large fish tank.

If my knee was double jointed, I would kick my own Nerd ass.

I was always asked by the g/f - and how much did that cost???? or i could say i went to the pub after work and she would say " you lie - you stopped by a fish store didn't you " lol - so i did the next best thing - i gave her a 20gal up and running tank with rock and fish (spare stuff around the house) and now its "can we go to J&L's on the weekend??? I just want to see what they have - really. lol I always say - if they question it - i can bring them down to my level. To date its Fish Geek and Computer Geek. At least this hobby is full of great people :biggrin:

Rich

Yup. My wife just told me that when we have our own place, she wants me to set up a s/w & f/w tank just for her to stock (with my VISA) & take care of (yeah right, heard that one before). Fish geek in the making. :biggrin:

Anthony

I set up a lovely 15g nano for my betterhalf 4 weeks ago:). She also has 3 FW tanks that i have setup for her over the past couple years. I tend to all of them with her... I dont like FW personaly. dealing with those tanks seems to be much more of a chore tho its only 20 min every 2 weeks.....

:)

Just because I have 6 tanks on the go right now does not make me a geek

(yes it does! <sob>)

Okay I win. I'm taking a fish to the vet for minor surgery. :eek:

They have fish vets/surgeons or this just another name for a sushi chef :lol: :lol:

Deb, just gotta one-up everybody again, eh. (jk) Never heard of cutting open a fish to "fix" it. For Asians, we usually only do that to prepare dinner, usually with a little soya sauce, sesame oil & chives. :biggrin: :eating: By the way, how big is this fish if it's going in for surgery?

Emily B - Queen of the fish geeks!!!!

Anthony

:lol:

My vet is a pretty big geek himself I figure, because he never even batted an eyelash. He's talking to the exotics specialist this week to see if he will "pop" a popeye for me.

My red sea butterfly got popeye last year and the bubble never deflated. Apparently very fixable, but I don't really have the hands of a surgeon. :eek:

I wonder if you can convince the fish to make it to the appointment on time :confused:

A few years ago my loving wife asked me to take up a hobby that would keep me around the house more . "OK" I said. The rest is history and I'm sure she wishes she never said that. :mrgreen: In all honesty my wife has been very supportive but isn't keen about the $$ it has cost. My friends don't seem to care either way but their kids love it. Now I have new friends ( Canreef friends ) that I can share this hobby with, and I am thankful for that. I have met a few so far and I don't think anyone is a nerd by my standards. ( is it normal to drink beer and stare at a fish tank for hours ?) This is a great hobby with great people IMO. If I'm a nerd for loving this hobby......well I guess I'm a nerd. I rather stare at my fish tank than waste my time watching hours of TV etc. But thats what I like.

Have you hugged a NERD Lately?

Agreed. Don't think i've ever met a group of people so willing to help eachother without hesitation. Props to all of you.

I second that. Its one of the first things Zerandise said to me. 'Reefers are amongst the most giving/helpful people you'll find'. I have to agree. Aside from tons of support, advice and general comraderie<sp?> I have had people that I have never met, give me frags, loan me lights (well traded for a hard drive now), go into a Discovery Computers store in another city so that store could ship things to me on my purolator account, offer to pick up goods from J&L and bring them back to Namaimo, the list goes on.

I definately will be paying this forward. This has to be the most rewarding hobby I have ever tried.

I'd be willing to try - even though my track record is 0-1. :biggrin: Lay the fish in a shallow container, grip firmly but gently with one hand, and with the other.... Bingo!

Save you a few hundred dollars, maybe? :smile: