Leaving hobby???

trilinearmipmap · #1 07-31-2006, 11:09 PM

It is hard to take vacations with a reef tank at home.

A few weeks ago my house-sitter e-mailed me, there were lots of bubbles in the tank and the return pump was making a noise.

I was able to trouble-shoot it over the e-mail and the auto-topoff had failed, the house-sitter added some water and everything was fine. But a little problem like that could wipe out the whole tank.

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #2 07-31-2006, 11:36 PM

When we went to Keremeos & the Okanagan for 4 days this summer, I had my wife's cousin tank-sit for us. Thank goodness he did a good job, although I did lose some pipefish, but that was not his fault. It does seem so risky to plan to go for much longer than a few days with so many tanks (up to 560+ gallons of sw & fw tanks).

Most of the time, when newbies ask me about starting a sw tank, I ask them point blank whether they like having money in the bank because this hobby is a killer on the old bank account.

Anthony

marie · #3 07-31-2006, 11:42 PM

Luckily my husband was in to mudbog racing for awhile, it makes my hobby seem cheap in comparison

Buccaneer · #4 08-01-2006, 12:22 AM

Well since I am one of the " Albertans " that is shutting down a tank maybe I can shed some light here from my perspective.

My intention was to go " larger " not shut down the tank ... however Mitch at IA once again did NOT come through as he promised and I missed a window of opportunity to build the big tank while I had some time off

... he promised a 2 week delivery back in March and still had not even cut the glass 10 weeks later ... I was off the whole month of May ( I wanted to build the tank in that month ... get it plumbed and running 100% ) and when I did not have the glass at the end of May it was pointless ... wanted a refund because he was so late and he told me to pound sand

...

moral of the story ...

always pay with Visa as they will backcharge retailers that are completely incompetent like Mitch at IA is

The tank I have setup now is not as automated as my old 330G and I really did not spend the time to automate it because the intention was to go bigger

Because there is no tank to transfer everything into I now have to sell it all so that I can develop the space it is occupying in my basement ... once that is done this winter I will then be on the hunt for more 3/4" glass to build the big tank once again.

I will still have my dual beckett skimmer, calcium reactor, MH & VHO lights etc to drop onto the new tank

So if anyone knows where to reliably and honestly get 3/4" glass please let me know ( front must be starphire in that size )

end rant

OCDP · #5 08-01-2006, 12:33 AM

After today and the previous jumping fish, I am considering leaving the hobby. The tank gets too hot in the summer which I think is why my fish are jumping. I am working too hard/too much to keep the tank running stable and successfully and I am seeing barely any desirable results. See my recent post in the Reef forum. I don't think my tank is meant for summer weather, and if that's the case I'll have to say goodbye to saltwater.. it's taking too much of a toll on me and my wallet.

Yeah if I had a cover they'd most likely be alive.. I know. Covers other than egg crate just seem to lead to more problems and egg crate is quite the eye sore. I dunno, frustration is building up .

albert_dao · #6 08-01-2006, 06:51 AM

You know what they say:

"If you wanna drive a Ferrari, you better be able to pay for a Ferrari."

EmilyB · #7 08-01-2006, 06:54 AM

When the hobby gets you down, just make some changes. Usually they are there right in front of your eyes.

Can't wait to attack the 230g and get the rest of the sand and egg crate out, and give Trig what he deserves.