Getting out of the hobby.

[Leah]

I sometimes wonder what I would do without all the work and effort I put into my tanks!
Oh and the freedom!

[lorenz0]

Personally once you get by the start up costs its golden and worth keeping. I tried to get a nano thinking i could budget it in with school. yep that didn't work out lol. But i have thought about shutting down the 60gal and than i relapse about how its not worth shutting down. For the money you get back, its more a "why did i do that" than anything

I know of people who have followed me into certain hobbies and it really comes down to the love of it. It keeps me sain.

[Dez]

I agree with Lorenzo in terms of start up costs. When we had about 600 gallons of water in our condo the only real cost after the tanks were stocked was electricity. The frag sales pretty much covered the running cost of the tank as corals grew.

I did find myself missing the hobby for the 4 1/2 years that I got out. I didn't plan on getting out but kids happened.

I'm glad to be back in now. I've spent a few thousand getting my new tank up and running (even using a lot of equipment that I had from before). But now I'm sitting back and watching everything grow and enjoying it. The major cost was the cabinetry and livestock, so those costs aren't recurring.

Using cheap china bulbs helps too for the halides. I am fine with the colours and growth that I'm getting so for now I'll stick with those bulbs.

[mark]

Dez, guess I could flip over to your build thread, but wondering what you're using for bulbs?

[Dez]

I really don't know what bulbs they are. They are from Marine Aquaria. I think you can get them for $60 or something like that. I bought a whole bunch (I think 6 of them - so 2 years worth since I like the color and they were cheap). I asked the owner for a little bit of a break since I bought so many. I've thought about trying those $20 from Ebay.

[kien]

My personal opinion is that I think a lot of people get into the hobby with really high expectations and then when those expectations aren't met, they are crushed, demoralized and get out. Just over the past couple of weeks I have had a couple of people PM me telling me that they are just getting into salt and want their tanks to look exactly like mine. That's all fine and wonderful and I'm flattered, but my tank didn't just happen over night. As others have stated here, there was a lot of time and money involved.

It is fine and great to set goals but they have to be realistic and manageable. Really no different than any other hobby or endevour. You can't expect to go to the gym for a couple of weeks and then come out looking like a model (unless you are already a model :P ). Again, time, money and a commitment are requirements.

The hobby is also what you want to make of it. It doesn't cost that much money to have a tank full of salt water, some rocks and a clown clown fish or two. Very low impact on the environment as well. Or you can spend more time and money if you so wish to get some corals and more exotic harder to keep fish. Ultimately the hobbyist has to decide where to draw the line right? Again, too often I see new hobbyist coming in and going full throttle to get that massive nice looking mixed reef with expensive hard to keep corals and fish. That should be something to strive for in the long term, rather than a starting point. That's not what new hobbyists usually want to hear though. They want to hear how easy it all is.

Anyway, just my humble two pennies.

[Delphinus]

Possibly, but there are sometimes even positive "reasonings" to getting out too. The bottom line though, been at this long enough to see that it is cyclical and fairly bursty in nature. Just by coincidence alone, a number of people will get into the hobby and a number of people will get out. Sometimes it's burn out, sometimes it's just time to try something else or redirect the funds to something else. The reasons for getting out are as varied as the reasons for getting in.

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by kien

Just over the past couple of weeks I have had a couple of people PM me telling me that they are just getting into salt and want their tanks to look exactly like mine.

I said that in confidence man. Sheesh.