Need some advice

[SDA619]

how do you stay interested in the hobby once u cant spend anymore on the tank.

everyday i stare at my tank and see how far i have come and even though it has been a great experience im starting to see it as a never ending money pit. my tank has all the equipment i want but now the corals i want are $$$.

sometimes i think about giving it a rest and going through the fun of restocking a new tank somewhere down the line.

anyone else get these feelings ever?

i want to stay in the hobby but its just not as fun unless your buying and trading and such. I mean i go to the LFS and im like nothing in there is worth buying except for stuff thats is $$$.

i guess i could get another tank but my electricity bill is through the roof.

[dbrooks]

Get a better job.

Make more money.

If you don't have a college degree - get one.

If you have one - use it.

Just make more cash.

[suver569]

You can get a job a chip and dales up in orange county. Tips are good I hear :D

Heh, seriously, gotta find something small that gives you an extra line of cash. If your handy with construction area, you can always do that type of work on the weekends...Or you can sell drugs. J/K

[BrookR1]

Instead of going bigger and better, you could go smaller. I'm talking nanos or picos.

[obarrera]

Yeah I get that feeling all the time. But the good thing is that im upgrading so that's going to keep me happy for a while. If I were you I would sell your current tank and buy a bigger one(180g maybe?), I have heard of people that have this size tank and some of them don't pay more then $100 amonth for electricity, but most of them do(you could try to get some equipment that works good but doesn't use that much watts).
Or like others said, try to get a better job.:D

[Reefkeeper]

Nanos and minis cost money too. In fact, it feels worse because you look at the cost for what you are getting and just think that you could get something much bigger for that amount.

The key is getting your system stable and then letting it go on its own. Homeostasis is what any true hobbyist wants in their tank. If you are constantly having to buy animals, it means you are probably losing them somewhere.

If you are doing your initial stocking, trading is a good way to save money. Dont forget, when you get small animals, they grow so base space constraints on the full size that it will get.

[MrKrispy]

wow, I don't understand why this comes up. I take the complete opposite approach. Just this week I was all excited because

1) this month I didn't have to find a place for a new coral when my tank is already too crammed
2) only really have to test my tank for calcium/alk once a week at most
3) finally found a bulb that works for me
4) haven't had to worry about my tank all week

I felt I finally reached the point that the hobby is no longer stressful or work, just enjoyment.

Then last night I had to move the tank.

[Daniel]

Originally posted by MrKrispy
I felt I finally reached the point that the hobby is no longer stressful or work, just enjoyment. that's where i want to be :D

i figure ... whenever i get "bored" of reefing, i'll try my hand at setting up a prop tank, and trying to captively grow out and frag a few corals here and there, after all... xenia comes in handy once in a while when you trade it for a little store credit, all it takes is a little time to grow it out! ;)

[brynboy]

multiple hobbies.......

i've got the reef and snowboarding over the winter.

over the summer i've gotta split the time betweeen rc cars, my real car, and the reef.

i also like to mix up a little tea time w/ my daughter between all these hobbies

the less i concentrate on one hobby the less i spend on that one hobby. forces me to stay away from the more 'exotic' corals. plus all these hobbies also help to keep my adult adhd in check.:D

[BrookR1]

Nanos are great because you take them down and rebuild them without spending a fortune on LR, corals, electricity, equipment, or fish. No calcium reactors to mess with, no snails getting stuck in the overflow, less time scraping algae, no buzzing skimmer (unless you decide to add one), 2 gallon water changes (instead of 20 gallon water changes).

I've seen pics of nanos that I couldn't tell the size of the tank because they were aquascaped and stocked so well, they looked exactly like large reef tanks.

[lucubrator]

Originally posted by Reefkeeper

The key is getting your system stable and then letting it go on its own. Homeostasis is what any true hobbyist wants in their tank.
Homeostasis is the endpoint we all strive for. We get timers so we don't have to switch the lights on and off at the same time everyday, and because it's better for the corals. We make auto topoff containers so we don't have to add water to the tank every day and the sg stays stable. calcium reactors, once tuned, make it so you don't have to worry about Ca or alkalinity nearly as much as when you're dosing. Sure, these things are all better for the corals, but in the end, like that I can leave the tank alone for a month and not worry about everything being dead when I come back.
On the other hand, I'm a bit of a gadget geek, and any toy I can build is that much more fun.

[nalbar]

keeping reef tanks involves two different facets, building a system and keeping a tank.

when a tank first goes up its quite addictive, buying and filling and staring and wondering which way to go. not unlike tattoos or 'modding' a car. many people get 'stuck' in this phase, and get used to the 'high' of change. so they constantly 'rebuild' and 'upgrade'. these are the types who have 50 different corals in their tanks, and their tanks are usually far to crowded and 'fake' looking.

but there is the second phase, the actual keeping of a reef tank. in this phase, there is really nothing to 'do' beside normal (read 'boring') maintanence. corals fill in, and the tank becomes very self preserving.

to be honest, i dont consider the first type to be true 'reef keepers'. they are more like coral 'collectors'. most are VERY knowledgeble about individual corals and equipment, but miss the big picture, which is keeping a 'picture' of the ocean in their house.


if you ever saw david m's tank (i think it might have crashed) that he set up for a very special fish you would know what i was talking about. it takes a certain kind of patience to allow a tank to 'grow in', to become a view into a world.



you have to decide which type you are, and what makes you happy.


nalbar