I hate this hobby.

[Delphinus]

I'm sorry to hear that Brad.

[Bob I]

Originally Posted by Flatlander

Anyways, Tony, I still think there are ways to still enjoy the hobby, with less frustrations.

I am inclined to agree with the "simple" aspect. I have been at this for three+ years, and have tried to keep it simple. I don't have huge tanks. 52G semicube is the largest. I have no external things except for Fluvals to hold the Chemipure, which keeps me from doing many water changes. No RO/DI water, no Calcium reactors, no skimmers. Basically no nothing. I of course limit myself to things that are not too difficult ie. Zoanthids and LPS corals mainly with some digitata thrown in for good measure. I don't know what a Flatworm looks like During my time in the hobby thing have gone swimmingly (A pun ) And best of all I continuw to enjoy it.

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Flatlander

Although my tank is not having any problems at the moment, I still feel that way. As I have said before, the couple years of fighting flatworms and such, has just taken the wind from my sails. Seems hard to get it back, despite what direction I go.

I'm with you on this one Doug. Most of this year has been spent battling dinoflagellates which have yet again cropped up in my tank. In the wake of victory, comes a wave of yet another algae (somewhat like Brads, the type that the astreas ate) followed by a massive caulerpa bloom. The cycle just keeps on going. Prune back the caulerpa, tank looks good for a couple of weeks and I think I'm in the clear, add something, then the dinos are back, sps and snails die, kill the dinos, algae pops up, get astreas which eat the algae, caulerpa blooms, prune caulerpa, dinos arrive etc etc. I just can't win and I'm really tired of it.

I've tried everything in the books, spent alot of time on the tank, spent little time on the tank, spent no time on the tank, more skimming, water changes (yes I've checked my RODI), etc etc. Even when the tank does look good for that little time, I am still at a loss because I can't do anything with it without some sort of other algae problem popping up.

Lately I've been starting to calculate how much money I could get if I sold the whole thing. But then I'd probably be bored because I'd have nothing to fiddle with and feel lost without my constant depression and frustratedness about my tank

Christy

[Delphinus]

Respectfully, I should have said "I hate the frustration that comes with the hobby sometimes." I dont really hate the hobby or else I would be selling everything. I'm sure everyone has their moments of frustration. It wouldn't be an interesting hobby if it didn't have its challenges.

I think Christy nailed it bang on, I'd be lost without the tanks.

I don't know if it's really a question of priorities or even simple vs. complicated. I'm frustrated from a bit of bad luck that got compounded by bad calls on my part which made things worse. Whether I was home or not, or had a skimmer or not, my tank would still have sprung a leak. That part I couldn't influence, but what I could influence is what came after. I made a series of decisions which were meant to mitigate and contain risk, and yet despite this, either the risks came to fruition, or there were latent risks that weren't identified and and thus properly mitigated.

With each negative incident, you take away something you can learn and improve upon. It's just kind of sad that sometimes our learning opportunities sometimes cost innocent animals their lives. This is the part I have the most trouble coming to terms. Had I done better, they might not have died. So, even if it's bad luck that started something, in the end I still feel responsible. I am responsible.

I just hope that, wherever I go from here, I don't make the same mistakes again.

[Canadian Man]

I don't think we should all get too depressed when bad things happen.

I almost burnt my house down the other day because my frag tank overflowwed and i'm still happy. I kicked myself for putting a powerbar on the top of a bucket with a lid later and now the powerbar is in a more safe spot. There is also a screen on the drain tube.

BUT

I had a huge bout of anger when it happened. I was ****ed because I had to clean up 10 gallons of water off the floor but....

The next time I looked at my tank I was happy none the less.

I had one of my fav corals RTN the other day.... Oh well....Broke off the tips and start over.

It's just a hobby

[Buccaneer]

Where we are lucky though is that in the sharing of our experiences we all learn from the mistakes of our own and others ... keeping a small chunk of the reef in a glass box thousands of miles away from the nearest natural reef is a achievement in itself ... the trick is to find the right formula for success for the animals you choose to keep.

water changes vs no water changes
skimmer vs no skimmer

and on and on will likely depend on the individual reefkeepers combination of parameters ( size of tank/inhabitants etc plus whatever came in on our rock/fish)

I will say that there will always be the possibility of disaster which will test your resolve and I have had my share as well


but there are lots of examples of reefers that have done a magnificent job ( both low tech and high tech ) and have figured out what combination of factors keep their reef going beautifully year after year ( there is a article on RC of some guy with a 20 yr old reef and a " undergravel filter " as his primary filtration outside of live rock !

[MitchM]

I know this sound weird, but "great thread, Tony!"
I have had many frustrations with this hobby, and I've tried to look at the problem being with my perceptions, not with my reef.

I've noticed that flatworms bloom shortly before a cyano outbreak, that snails shells grow best when calcium is high, that for some strange reason, when my calcium reactor is shut down, the corals seem to do extremely well for about a week or so, that foraminiferans do great right in the middle of "everything going well", that my fish recognize me and are happy to see me and the food, not just some stranger, that the bigger the tank/system I have, the more predictible the fish behaviour is, the simpler and more maintenance free (read - bigger) my system is, the more time that I have for observing.
The list goes on.

I think that we make a mistake when we try to get perfection out of our mini reefs. Changes, evolutions happen, and we want everything to remain the same. Obviously, we can't make that happen.

The solution is to make a big, simple, mechanically stable system and watch what happens. What we expect, or are told what to expect, is usually what doesn't happen. That's what I love about it, and I try to make sure that I know enough to still ensure the safety of the fish and corals.
Get a bigger tank Tony, or give/sell that anemone to someone with a huge tank. There are big anemones in the wild and fish around them. I don't mean to be blunt, sorry.
I have never understood the thinking behind nano-reefs, relatively speaking. We don't need big expensive glass aquariums, but at least some serious water volume where all the various bacteria/macroalgaes/copepod/various pods can live out their life cycle and do what they do best.
In a smaller system, bad things will happen quickly and constantly.


Mitch

[MitchM]

Also..

Month after month I see Tank-of-the-month articles featuring tanks that are 50% water and 50% LR/fish/corals. Crammed full of "life". It's not representative of the oceans, so why would they be as stable and self-sustaining?

Mitch

[AJ_77]

Interesting points - imagine the size of tanks we'd have to get anything close to "realistic." I'm all for upgrading to make more room for water.

I think a jam-packed 75gal would look a lot better measured into a 120, for instance...

[Aquattro]

Lots of good points. None of them made me feel any better about coming home to more acros sloughing tonight. Green milli on it's way out now. All the blue gone, a new piece is completed RTN'ed.