You ever feel like saying i quit?

[bignick]

Lately i have been thinking that way about my tank. It just hasn't been as exciting as it use to be. I mean everything is surviving but nothing is thriving. I still come home everyday and check out the tank and i keep up with the water changes and matenience and everythign but for some reason i feel like throwing in the towel. SPS is great but its so damn hard to keep. My 42 gallon is nice but i can't seem to keep a fish in there to save my life. My 210 is doing good too but i just look at it and i think about how much money and time i have sunk into it and i just don't see the return on it. I think the reason i feeling so discouraged is because i have had some equipment crap out on me lately and i don't want to spend naymore money on the tank.

Do you guys ever feel like throwing in the towel and getting out of the hobby?

[ShannHell]

Yes, because bryopsis has popped up in my tank and anyone who has had that before knows how difficult it is to get rid of. I guess I don't really want to "throw in the towel" but I am very frustrated and I hate looking at my tank and seeing that algae

[xreflux]

every couple months,

my issue is the time, and my disappointment in coral growth. i can keep fish, inverts, and an BTA fine. but I have trouble with zoas (my favorites), and even my GSP have only grown a few inches in a whole year. it's very annoying cause i do a lotta research on this stuff and that sucks up my time that i should be studying with. not to mention the $$$.

sometimes i wanna quit, but half the reason I stay in is that after all the work i already put in this thing, everything new is incremental.

the other half that I think saves the tank is that i've always been interested in weird animals, and man, compared to most other types of setups (reptile, small mammals, etc.), you can get so many more different types of weird animals in a coral tank than any other system i can think of. i also love it when animals just "appear" out of nowhere (now, if only i could get my corals to grow)

[mm949]

....take the good with the bad... and strive to be better..

[Mojo Jojo]

Nick dont do it! Last time I saw bad Karma being spread tons of people were quitting and what not.

[-=Efrain=-]

Some one, some where once said when all else fails go back to the basics..

[suliaman007]

I had the same problem and did quit, then i realized how big of a mistake it was and got right back in.

[RobTop]

When I feel like quiting I think about all the time it would take to sell everything off.
Holy crap I have close to 500 gallons running in 5 containers and another 8 tanks to still set up. a dozen pumps, a dozen MH, a bunch of pc, t-5's, dosing equipment, water storage stuff, misc bla bla bla. Then all the live stock. I get a head ache just thinking about the for sale thread it would take.

Stick with it. Need some help let me/us know. When things where really bad here and I tossed out a call people I barely knew where here in an hour and for the day. I owe the karma pool from that (though I do not believe in karma) still whatever help I could be I will be. As will many more here.

When I look back to the times things were not thriving to now one big differance is weekly and sometimes twice a week water tests and adjustments. Also I think my attention to RO/DI filter maintance is a big part.

And Shannhell, as for bryposis raise the mag up to 1500+ for a week or two and say bie bie bryposis

[N3gative Cr33p]

LMAO... I feel like quitting everytime that I see the annoying little sapphire blue damsel swimming around in my tank...

[pk1]

I have had that problem from time to time. For me, reef keeping is more than just the corals and the fish, it's the set up, equipment, the different methods and constant change. To be honest here...watching colored sticks grow and fish swim can only be fun for so long!

[svb57]

I agree with pk1......its about the "challenge" of the hobby that has kept my interest longer then any other hobby I have ever gotten into.

If it is "ease" that one wants then you can have a great FW tank with a whole lot less problems.

While I have not wanted to throw in the towel...I have had my intersts wane at times....and all it takes to get me back ontop is to see other "great" reef tanks others have in the area and say "Mine can be that way!"

My 2 cents.....

BUT NEVER GIVE IN...........

[N3gative Cr33p]

Originally posted by svb57
If it is "ease" that one wants then you can have a great FW tank with a whole lot less problems.

This is kind of a B.S. statement, in my opinion... my wife's FW tank has given her a thousand more problems than my SW tank has given me... which is part of the reason why she "shut down" her FW tank down the other night.

Please... don't paint with such a broad brush.

[ekrunch]

I almost quit the hobby last night! I was working on my new MTC PROCAL reactor and noticed a leak in the main chamber seal. I shut the reactor pump off and was fiddling around with those annoying little screws and decided to go ahead and pull it out of the stand.

Wouldn't ya know, I managed to find the only piece of tubing that didn't have a clamp on it! (Lesson 1 : Tubing is easy, PVC doesn't come loose) Apparently I neglected to go back and clamp that one piece of tubing on that end. What a dumb mistake and a testament to why one shouldn't get in a hurry when building a tank... needless to say, I knocked the drain hose off with a big reactor in my hands.

Water is now going EVERYWHERE. I scrambled to get the reactor back on the ground, grabbed the hose and got it back on the bulkhead. As i'm walking away to go get an army of towels, the pump runs dry. Enough water had run out of the tank to successful drain the pump chamber. And then... I start to hear the inevitable "sizzle" sound from a surge protector that had gotten wet. Any body want to guess where a large portion of my electrical was sitting? Fortunately, all of the GFCI actually worked and everything shut down. (Lesson 2 : GFCI. Always, Always, Always)

Now here's where it gets interesting. Just when I thought I had it back under control...

I get all of the affected electrical out of there and start soaking up water. During that process, I managed to KNOCK OFF THE CANOPY! Okay, so apparently, my canopy has no nifty piece of wood on the back to prevent it from sliding forward off of the tank! (Lesson 3 : If your canopy will slide off of your tank with just a push, FIX THAT ASAP)

What a mess... i'm standing there, wedged behind my tank, holding on to my canopy that's loaded with expensive lighting and reflectors. Anybody want to guess where I set my new electrical stuff that I was about to install? You guessed it! On top of the canopy! Seeing as the canopy is now at a 45 degree angle, everything has now slid off... into my ATO reservoir, which I just moved to the front of the tank so I could get behind there. (Lesson 4 : 12" from the wall is NOT far enough, you will need more space! Deal with the look of it or run a smaller tank that you don't need to get behind!)

So I have now managed to ruin my old electrical stuff as well as my new electrical stuff, gotten water all over the floor, and have no idea what equipment works and what doesn't. I got the circ pumps back up, set two of them to break the surface tension, tossed in a heater and WENT TO BED. (Lesson 5 : If you're that tired, you're probably doing more harm than good)

Insert 8 hour sleep break here

I have now spent the better part of the morning putting everything back together, all of the "core" equipment is working but I have yet to test the calcium reactor, ATO, etc... my 3 IceCap 660's survived the splashing and all of the bulbs survived. Even my moonlight LEDs made it. I'm not sure about the reactor pump just yet, but I consider that a minor loss if I have to buy a new one. That last piece of flexible tubing is now CLAMPED in place. (Lesson 6 : Using Flexible tubing as PVC elbows is a neat concept but turns out to be a big PITA in the end)

So, that's the end of my story. I was ready to start bagging livestock and taking it to the various stores. But ya know... i'm sooooo close. I can't help but love this hobby. I've invested all of this time and money to get it running, and now i've learned yet another lesson that will make my next tank even better!

I'm still in the fight, but wow did I want to quit.

- Ed

[N3gative Cr33p]

Originally posted by ekrunch
I'm still in the fight, but wow did I want to quit.

I think someone needs to be nominated for sainthood.

I would have been ready to kill someone after what happened to you... even before your eight hour sleep break.

[TropTrea]

Just rember 90% of people that buy there first aquarium give it up before one year is up. From these people 6% have 6 or more aquariums going 20 years later.

So it it either a but that bites you or you simply goves up before that first year up.

Dennis

[svb57]

I have had FW tanks from 1971 until I converted to SW in 2004. At the height of my FW days I was raising Angel Fish and Discus in (2) 200 gallon tanks and multitude of other tanks...so I think I know some things about FW. I can say I know 1/10 about SW that I do about FW. That being said the "UP" keep of almost all FW tanks is 25% of the upkeep in a SW reef tank. You can take any empty tank and have planted fish tank with fish it that will thrive in less then a weeks time if not over night.

I am not here to debate the dificulties or ease of FW over SW reef tanks but I will stand by my statement that FW tanks are easier and I wll add cheaper then keeping the same size SW reef tank.

ekrunch: I think you understand the passion why those that love this hobby are in the hobby.....its the challenge...and it is a challenge!!!!

Jim Mc

[pk1]

I think svb57's statement is pretty much right on. I've had discus tanks, rams, African cichlids, Betta's, angelfish, guppies, tetra's etc etc. lots of FW tanks. None of them were anywhere near as difficult to keep up as my 55reef or my 180. Still, could you not tell that statement was made tongue in cheek?

Originally posted by N3gative Cr33p
This is kind of a B.S. statement, in my opinion... my wife's FW tank has given her a thousand more problems than my SW tank has given me... which is part of the reason why she "shut down" her FW tank down the other night.

Please... don't paint with such a broad brush.

[Sara B]

Yes, lately I feel like quitting my large tank and just running my 92 gallon! I just keep thinking that the 3rd time is the charm!

[pk1]

Any particular reason Sara? Having troubles with the large tank or..?

[N3gative Cr33p]

Originally posted by pk1
Still, could you not tell that statement was made tongue in cheek?

Not really... you tell me how tough it is to detect sarcasm over an internet connection.

I'll say this much... everyone is going to have a difference of opinion on which type is easier to maintain. Which is exactly the reason why I started off my earlier post with an "in my opinion" statement.

[coffeenut]

let us know how your livestock is..

[Racenrich]

Hey all...i can relate to this statement..10 fold!

This year my tank has been doing very well...YET...ive had more things just fade away this year than in the last 4yrs combined!
WHO knows Y? I have my ideas, but thats all they are.

It can get to you really quick! Lately, i've just been saying do i really want to keep up with doing this?
Then there are the days you come home and everything looks as though it was on steroids...kind of changes your mind then?

You really need to weigh the pros and cons....which one wins?
The choice should be "somewhat" easy then.

Don't fret.....there are ups and downs with this hobby...BUT; to me the rewards outweigh the bad.

RK

[bignick]

Believe me i have lived through some disasters with my tanks. My 75gal salt that i started, had a fish disease in it that wiped out everything. I treated the entire tank with copper and since i had little to know money then to buy new crushed coral i had to clean it all in acid.

I then moved to a 90 gallon RR and i had that doing great but lost it all to an overheat in one day.

I then decided to go bigger and got a 210 and had it running well for 51 weeks before it cracked from corner to corner and i lost 70% of my livestock. I started back up and had my new tank running again a week later.

I can honestly say that i have lived through some of the worsts things a reef keeper can go through and i still kept going so i am a dedicated reef keeper. i just get so agitated when i look at my credit card bill and i see all this expensive equipment i bought that was suppose to make my tank do this and that and i only come to realize that it isn't guaranteed to do anything. I then think to myself what the hell made me think this would solve my problems. Then i look at the show tanks at the LFS around me and i can't figure out how they are doing it. I know that they are running more expensive equipment than me so i start to think that maybe if i buy that equipment my tank will look like theirs and i know in the end now that it won't.

[svb57]

Sara...what problems you facing?

[ekrunch]

Originally posted by coffeenut
let us know how your livestock is..

All live stock accounted for and eating. A little touch of Rod's food got my coris wrasse out of hiding. :-)
All pumps operating normally.
Sea Swirls on line.
All lighting operational.

The tank took an 8 degree water drop (down to 70), but the heaters are up and running again. Now i've got to get the PROCAL back online again. I'm going to go ahead and do a nice water change and dose some b-ionic to get the calc/alk back up.

Last but not least, I fixed the things that started this whole mess. That hose in now clamped in place and I added a few pieces to the canopy so it won't slide off the front again. Now if I could just pick the tank up and move it forward a few inches! Oh well... maybe that means it's time to lose weight. :-D