Do you "reef tank" your friends and family?

[amygetsalife]

Amy, sounds like you need to get a life.

I'm a work in progress!

 

[Gtinnel]

I don't really talk about it with co workers but they do know that I have one and ask when I take off if it's to get a shipment of "colorful rocks".
My wife and kids don't care and don't even pretend to care. After I constantly get told to shut up I've learned to quite talking about it...and that's why I spend so much time on this forum.

 

[Gtinnel]

@ColoredRock hey I just noticed your screen name. I had only heard a co-worker of mine call corals that. Maybe it's more common than I am aware?

 

[ColoredRock]

@ColoredRock hey I just noticed your screen name. I had only heard a co-worker of mine call corals that. Maybe it's more common than I am aware?

It was my "umbrella" domain I got back in 2005 when I had my my 180..felt it was even more appropriate now

 

[MrTPlush]

The worst is my dad, to be honest. He was in the hobby looooong ago, like 20+ years. When I talk about RODI or vigorous QT he looks at me like I am insane. The whole “making water” to mix salt is just a foreign language to him. He loves the tank, but just doesn’t understand modern time reef keeping. I’m pretty sure the hobby would put him on death row for how he kept his tank back then.

The wife enjoys the tank and talking about it…but she isn’t exactly a sponge and most of the details rarely stick. She also certainly doesn’t understand the utter excitement of a sea urchin hitchhiker on $500 live rock either. But at least she understands there are struggles and emergency spending for the tank. She appreciated the end result, not the process.

 

[OrchidMiss]

Before reading your post, my first thought was "I don't think that my friends and family are small enough to fit in my reef tanks, but I could try it out tonight and see".

And then I read your post, and my thought's pretty much stayed the same.

My first thought when I read the title was:

Do you correct your friends and family when they call it a "fish tank" and tell them it's a, "reef tank....see the coral?!?!?".

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

My first thought when I read the title was:

Do you correct your friends and family when they call it a "fish tank" and tell them it's a, "reef tank....see the coral?!?!?".

Of course, correcting them could just be an opener for talking at them about your tank!

 

[OrchidMiss]

Of course, correcting them could just be an opener for talking at them about your tank!

I like your style!!!

 

[A;exr54]

To be fair I did have one coworker who used to be in this hobby.
He gave me his tunze skimmer and his reefangel controller. Also a couple kessil lights.
I blame him for getting me into controllers. I have since upgraded everything to apex. And the lights to radions.
Unfortunately he no longer works at my company.
I am lucky with my wife. I buy stuff and she likes it. I always show her pictures first and ask for her opinion. Recently got a blue spotted jawfish, they aren’t cheap. And a RBTA. She was all for it. They are doing great btw.

She didn’t understand it. But when she notices something in the tank she is excited to tell me about it. My kids too.

 

[MaxTremors]

My GF is more into it now than she has ever been. In the past she had a passing interest and would name the fish. Since I set up my newest tank she’s taken a more active interest in the tank. She’s learning Latin names and learning how to do basic maintenance. My friends and family aren’t all that into it, they all think it’s cool but don’t want to get into the details. I got my mom into the hobby and she kept a tank for a lot of years but she passed away years ago.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Ha! this thread needs a meme! @duke62

 

[ColoredRock]

24 hours a day.. indoctrination ....they will comply.

 

[Sacrifice]

Or how about 3/4 through the reef tank educational tour ...when guests realize all “the colorful decorations” are actually real living corals.

haha, I tend to move that one to the beginning of the tour. But after that they're completely lost or don't believe me.

 

[ProxyAquarist]

... when you're talking to your spouse/co-worker/random acquaintance and their eyes start to glaze over and you realize they really don't care ,,,, but you keep telling them anyway?

Most co-workers have no idea we have tanks. Their eyes just "glaze over" when I discuss non-clinical medicine or hard core science.

All family, except but Chemistry/Earth Science major son, have eyes that "glaze over" when pests, tank chemistry, and build topics arise. Conversation is fine as long as it sticks to the cute and colorful that never fight or die.

May 2022 bring you great times with friends and great conversations,
Jim

 

[OrchidMiss]

My first thought when I read the title was:

Do you correct your friends and family when they call it a "fish tank" and tell them it's a, "reef tank....see the coral?!?!?".

These are the 2 examples of what goes through my head with this train of thought:

 

[duke62]

Ha! this thread needs a meme! @duke62

I made one of my dog snoring if that counts

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

I love it when people see the tank for the first time and all they care about are my cats. Some people think it's cool until they ask me how I'm able to keep corals and I start talking about calcium carbonate skeletons and mineral replenishment and.....that's when I lose them.

One of my first corals was a soft coral from LiveAquaria. I was taking daily pictures as it had daily growth. During the first couple of days, I'd show my coworkers and they thought it was cool too. By day 3, one of them said "Why don't you wait until it grows a lot more and show me then...?" That was the last time she got to see any pictures.

 

[UK softy bloke]

You know, when you're talking to your spouse/co-worker/random acquaintance and their eyes start to glaze over and you realize they really don't care about how the peppermint shrimp stole food from the candy cane again or how the GSP is finally starting to take off on the back glass but you keep telling them anyway?

I rarely mention my tank to non believers as I call them, you have to talk fast so you can bamboozle them with words they have never heard before. It could be worse, my brother is into cycling and once he talks at you about gear ratios there's no escape.

 

[Karen00]

Does it count that I tell my freshwater fish the dumb things the saltwater fish are doing and vice versa? I get the same glazed over stare so I think it still counts. Haha. Doh, I think I need more human friends to glaze over their eyes.

 

[Karen00]

I don't really talk about it with co workers but they do know that I have one and ask when I take off if it's to get a shipment of "colorful rocks".
My wife and kids don't care and don't even pretend to care. After I constantly get told to shut up I've learned to quite talking about it...and that's why I spend so much time on this forum.

Aaah, we love your salty side. You know we'll listen and I'm sure you will get a 40 page response that gets revived every year.