Are you proud or embarrassed of your reef tank?

[daileyo]

We talked about build threads yesterday and today I wanted to press you on something else I was thinking about pertaining to sharing build thread photos or just how you share your tank in general with others. More specifically how do you feel about your tank and does that play a factor in how you share it via photos on the forum or LIVE with people visiting your home. Let's talk about it!

1. Are you proud or embarrassed of your reef tank?

2. Does how you feel about your tank play a role in whether or not you share it with others and should it?

How about sharing a current photo of your reef tank in this thread?

Here is my current 400g, no skimmer, no water changes, no cleaning in well over a year. Just the glass. See how I'm making excuses??

I am officially neither proud or embarrassed.

Your tank looks better with no skimmer, cleaning, or water changes than mine does WITH a skimmer, daily glass cleaning, weekly water changes (was 2x a week to get a hair algae issue under control.)

Despite not being proud of mine, I am happy with it and love sharing it with people that come over. So I definitely fall in the neither proud or ashamed camp. I am on recently getting to share mine here on the forum.

I think everyone should share, even if they are ashamed. What I love about this forum, is I haven't found any replies that shame someone... only help. Sharing ones struggle can both get them the help they need as well as help others who might be struggling.

Here's the most resent pic of my tank.

 

[G Santana]

Getting past the uglies is an achievement unto itself

 

[Not an IT guy]

I’m proud of it but my scape is an embarrassment

 

[Thunderrap]

I picked other because I'm both proud and embarrassed by my reef tank. I am proud because I have part of an ecosystem in my home that many other people might not ever see in their lifetime and that is pretty darn cool. I am, however, a little embarrassed because I seem to be having a few issues that are making my tank not as beautiful as I would hope. Also, I would love to rescape my tank and I would have chosen some different corals as well but being my first tank this has all been a learning experience!

 

[Mmar2385]

I'm quite proud of the current iteration of my little piece of the ocean

How beautiful and soothing your reef tank is

 

[spacedcowboy]

Generally kind of proud of it, including the stick-out-of-the-wall design, but right now it's embarrassing.

Went away on a 3-week staycation to the relatives, and the very nice lady who came to look after the koi, cat, and tank didn't really notice that the skimmer stopped working. By the time I'd figured out what was wrong remotely, I had a bad case of GHA, and I've been wrestling with it for a few months now. The skimmer was one of the few things I didn't plug into an EB832 because I thought "it'll always be on". Lesson learnt: alarms are useful.

It's slowly getting better (why do things only improve *slowly* when they can go wrong so quickly...) and I'm using Reef Flux to get rid (added a lawnmower blenny as well) but the extent of the outbreak in a large tank... well it's taking time.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

A little bit of both! Anytime people come over and look at my tanks they're amazed, but all I see is every flaw

 

[jsker]

Dumpster fire for the past three years, but I am not excited that I am working and learning from all of the issues that I have had in the past.

 

[LPS Bum]

Proud, but I wish it didn't take this much time and effort. Even with some automation, keeping corals alive and thriving is a time-consuming hobby.

 

[Mmar2385]

Im proud of what I've done to make these soft corals come back to life! I'm super new to the hobby. But I made this happen and they grew back! These are before and after pics of my Waving Hand Anthelia and Fireworks Clove Polyps which are much healthier and prettier in person. I'm doing much better at the hobby and giving my corals and livestock the best reef tank possible that they deserve to live in. These corals grown like crazy! I'm proud of this.

 

[King_Acidic]

To be quite honest, I'm a little embarrassed by my tank and it's probably the largest reason for actually upgrading to a larger tank. There are certain choices I made from the start of my tank that I wish I had thought through more and done a little differently.

I started on the small side (10g) to begin with as it was my first saltwater system and I wanted to see if it was even going to remain interested in. At this point, I've started to downsize my freshwater systems and am planning on going to a much larger tank (75g sumpless) and am building on the successes that I've had in my 10g and learning from the mistakes I've made along the way. While I eventually want to work up to a 125g I'm not sure that anything larger than a 75g is appropriate for a second floor apartment.

 

[DaMenace]

Both are work in progress.
If you find yourself bored and want to follow yet another YouTube mainly reefing channel, by all means follow. Queen City Reefs

https://youtube.com/channel/UC8JCbrfD7vmsUefQ_SfXjoQ

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

How beautiful and soothing your reef tank is

Thank you very much for the kind words

 

[AVVITT]

I put proud but not because my tank looks amazing because it really doesn't in comparison to most of the amazing tanks I've seen which are 2 years + BUT I've worked hard, been really stressed, learned a lot and I've only had a couple of losses but no major issues or crashes so that is the bit I'm proud of. I've only been reefing for 10 months and this tank is 5 months
If things keep progressing as they are then I will have a beautiful tank in the next year or 2 !

 

[kagisexton]

Proud of all my kids

 

[Jlew766]

I would say I am very proud of my tank. Especially when something goes wrong and I'm able to work through fixing it. Just weeks ago had a huge cyano out break that when solved cause dino out break but now this is what it looks like. Now if I could just get my corals to grow and my RBTA to come back and go to original color after the 72 hour black outs.

 

[Nhjmc]

Used to be proud of my tank but not so much anymore. Two years into it I thought it'd get easier but it's the total opposite and only gotten harder (speaking on keeping corals, my fish are doing great). For the life of me can't get the Alk, CA and Mg levels in a good range or to stay stable. I've spent countless hours researching and watching videos online but I still can't get it right. I don't get what the heck I'm doing wrong. So frustrating.

 

[chaoticreefer]

Embarrass, but turning into proud. Especially ever since I became a moonshiner. I still have a ways to go but my tank is getting there.

Picture wise, yes, of course, it plays a role. But...it doesn't when I am trying to get info to get things fixed.

 

[LRT]

Used to be proud of my tank but not so much anymore. Two years into it I thought it'd get easier but it's the total opposite and only gotten harder (speaking on keeping corals, my fish are doing great). For the life of me can't get the Alk, CA and Mg levels in a good range or to stay stable. I've spent countless hours researching and watching videos online but I still can't get it right. I don't get what the heck I'm doing wrong. So frustrating.

All for reef may be a decent tool for you. Once alk,cal,mag are at acceptable levels im finding all for reef is pretty good at keeping them there for me.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Been doing it a long time so mostly proud never embarrassed. Started with freshwater then saltwater back in the 80s. Down sized recently to a 100 gallon on a budget.