Hitting that brick wall....

[Flippers4pups]

Human nature, in our DNA, change is threaded into us. Daily life teaches us and encourages change. This doesn't bode well with reef keeping as stability is paramount.

Speaking of my life, in the here and now, has become more demanding than I could ever have imagined at my age. With all that has come at me, my escape from all of this is my reef tank.
Without the hobby, I'm then like so many people, searching to fill in the holes.

Hitting a wall, in anything in life, is in our minds. Much like placing our minds in a cage. To break free is to have goals, obtainable, reachable goals. Something to look forward to. Gives us hope, gives us focus.

@hybridazn, if reefing is in your blood and you have a love for it, then break the chains and focus on goals. One step at a time.

Don

 

[Syed123]

Hitting the brick wall is inevitable. Everyone gets it to a degree. For me it was working long hours at work that got me. 10-12 hour work shifts per day aren't fun :/ I was spending less time enjoying the tank. Manually doing things like topping up water and dosing daily was becoming a chore. As well, algae was becoming an issue which was making me loose interest in the tank. I found that time management was the problem. So I automated the dosing and water top offs and simplified the tank so that my "tasks" would be water changes every two weeks, refilling the water reservoir every 5 days and cleaning the tunze pumps, skimmer every 3 or so months. Only thing I would have to do daily would be to feed the tank. I even eliminated my algae issues once everything became more consistent. Now I can enjoy the tank and it isn't a chore to maintain it.

 

[Mical]

"Re-arrange the rockwork". Takes on a whole new look and spurs ideas of corals and inhabitants... next thing you know you figuring flow patterns, what works where, etc... It's like starting over but at alot less expense

 

[Servillius]

I do have a 2x2x2 cube just sitting in my garage hahahaha.

Good size. I’ve gotten like this before but it’s always because I’m not as happy as I want to be with my tank. I’ve spent the last two years tracking down every killer I can find and am finally, fingers crossed, making headway.

Never give up. Never give in. Okay, what I really mean is don’t let frustration get you. If you need a break you should take one, but do it on your own terms. Figure out what perfect conditions are then make them happen. When it’s all glorious, ask yourself if you are still at the same Wall!

 

[NanaReefer]

Boy oh boy and how! Still considering tearing it all down and selling.

 

[Koi Obsession]

Been here done this, This is the best way to fix this problem as it`s a mental burn out.. Hire a Maintenance guy to take care of it for 3 months. At the end of three months then decide if you want to leave for a longer period or your now refreshed enough to want to start taking care of it again. Your reef tank is like your job. You need to take a vacation once a year or you will bet burnt out and it will become a job.. I have been reefing for 30 years. I take a vacation from it every year.. I still love my tanks....

 

[genetao]

I know you love metal halides and acros a lot just like me but since you have a 2x2x2 tank, have you thought of a NPS tank only. Its a lot of work and different beast all together to successfully keep NPS gorgorians, dendronephthya, balanophyllia, dendrophyllia and other NPS with species like crinoids.

Its a whole different ball game together and will make you do everything different than an acro dominated tank. But at the end, the beauty is undeniable and most importantly will keep you crazy busy with new ideas and new reefing ways.
I have the same dream to set one up with automated food dosing using a freezer but currently just happy to be back in the hobby with my dear acros and would take on NPS once I have managed to grow the acro frags to decent sized colonies.

Just to inspire you here's links to 2 of my most favorite NPS tanks of all times :-

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/1/aquarium

https://reefbuilders.com/2012/11/12/sun-coral-tubastrea-aquarium/

Regards,
Abhishek

I think the answer is right in front of your face and you're not even seeing it. You said that you've got fish older than ppl got cats and dogs, so letting them go isn't going to work, right? Well I've got one question for you. "Will they fit/live in that nano tank of yours?" If so, then there's your answer. From here on out, you've got a few decisions to make:

1. Do you have enough time to take care of fish? If so, then sell off your corals, and just keep a FOWLR tank.
2. If you've got time to take care of corals also (e.g. water test, dose, etc, etc) then move some of your most prized coral and live rock pieces into the nano. But instead focus on it being the most bad@$$, most insanely sic looking slice of coral heaven anyone has ever seen!!! If you don't have the time resources to make your current tank look decent, why not not just down-size and make your new nano look "Tank of the Month" worthy???

By setting up a nano, water changes and cleaning will be reduced significantly. You could even be smart about it and store a large vat of saltwater ahead of time. You could also break up the maintenance of it. Scraping the glass down could be done on one day, and water change the next day. It'll be a lot easier doing a 5 gallon water change twice a week, because it's only one bucket per water change. You might not even need to dose nopox if you do two slightly larger water changes.

Now back to the nano tank itself. Are you happy with it? Or do you have to squint for it to look pretty to you? Because if its not a home run right out the gate, then why not treat yourself to a shiny new tank. Perhaps a nice all-in-one, or you can even splurge and get one with a stand and sump. Whatever you get, just make sure that you're honest with yourself and are happy with it.

As for your large tank, you don't even need to break it down, at least not just yet. You can leave it running and slowly take out the choicest pieces of live rock and corals for your new nano, and then slowly sell off/ trade / give away the remaining live rock and corals. By moving your current live rock and rubble/ sand/ etc into the nano, you'd avoid a cycle altogether. INSTANT GRATIFICATION!!!! Once you've emptied out the tank's contents, you can wait for a long weekend to decide to breakdown the tank. Hold onto to the tank for about a year and figure out what you want to do, whether it be to set it up again somewhere down the road, or sell it altogether because you enjoy the smaller nano which is easier to maintain.

My point is, you can go slow and easy and break it up into small, bite-size pieces. You don't need to go all-in all at once. Just keep it simple and be honest with yourself as to how much time you truly can devote to the hobby and what will make you truly happy. After all, this is a hobby in it's essence, and if it don't make you happy, then why keep banging your head against a brick wall?

Good luck!!

 

[Diesel]

Hitting that brick wall is only if you build one,
If you don't go into the fashion rage of this hobby you'll sail forever.
I've done some reading on some forums and the % is high for hobbyist that take this hobby by storm and when the blue sky appears they long gone.
Not to mention the money spend.
I always wondered and yet to find out but have my notes that IMO I think many hobbyist make it a hobby to be attach to a forum more than to the actual hobby.

Any Comments....

 

[Grey Guy]

Are the successes worth all the failure. After several years in the dumpster, my tank became alive with life and color. It just sparked and made me say wow. Then, a pump burned out and that was over. Eventually I quit for a while, then had to get back into it. Money was tight and things went slow. During this period I started and stopped a few times, But then more recently, I was able to afford a lot of high end stuff, and believed that that would be the answer.

I killed off all the corals that I put in the tank, and now without having any success, my high end stuff either quit working or broke. It is stories like the above that has made me give up on corals. Sure it is possible to have success, but for how long and at what cost in money and time? Then one simple, unforseeable thing comes along and wipes everything out. I Believed that I could be successful, and do what others couldn’t do, for a long time, saying, “This time around will be different.” But it’s always been the same. More death, more failure, more money wasted.

I believe that multiple growout tanks, and quarantine tanks can lead to consistent success and provide lots of stock for the main display. That’s all fine and good, but I just wanted to have a successful reef tank, and not a whole production program, taking up a whole room or rooms.

This hobby is very deceptive. Not, always intentionally. I went into a reef store and said, wow, I want that. I was told that there was no reason I wouldn’t be successful. But that was a long time ago. I quit listening to the LFS and read and researched and studied. The results were all the same, failure after failur. Now, if I had a mentor who could keep me on track, and help me perfect one method and stay with it, that would have probably worked. Without a lot of endorsement for a particular method, it is hard to stay with it, when faced with failure or disastereous results. I thought over and over again, “Why should I stay with something that failed so badly?”. Off I would go to find the method that was really going to work for me (this time).

I blame my personality for my failure asmuch as anything. I am not cut out to plod along, staying in one place waiting for something good to happen. The first signs of failure, I’m trying to figure out what to do differently.

I’m not knocking the hobby, or the much good advice that is out there, I only wish that I could have known myself and the hobby well enough to know that I was unlikely to succeed. This is it. No more corals. It’s the FOWLR life for me now.

 

[mps026]

I just lost almost all my sps due to unknown reasons. There are so many variables. I recently upgraded to a 125 from a 50. Building everything was a pain i wont do it again but i do enjoy sitting watching the fish and corals. I made this setup easier than my last. No reactor for chaeto to clean every month. No reactor for carbon to change out every month. Carbons in a mesh bag. Chaeto is in the sump. My dosing is automatic and im thinking of buying an auto feeder. Im not buying any more acros...too sensitive. Sticking with all the other non needy corals this time luckily there are so many to choose from. Simplify things...

 

[vlangel]

I think any of us that have been in this hobby for a fairly long time have felt what you are going through. I know I have. It sounds like 'burnout' to me. Burn out can result from different things and its important to decide why you are feeling it. Are you spread too thin and lack time? Are you bored and/or frustrated? Is it it a little of all of this?

If you are spread too thin and lack time, I would simplify your reefing experience.
Maybe its time to move away from sps and keep lps and soft coral. There is a resurgence of these tanks and they are quite beautiful without the diligent watching for alk swings, and keeping an eye on the nitrate to phosphate ratio. You could keep your current tank and as you sell current colonies you will have money to buy new coral for the new direction your tank is moving in. Buying new coral can be very rejuvenating, along with researching what is out there and what you would like to try. It allows you to dream again. There are RFAs that can spawn. There are biotope tanks, there are macro algaes that can be explored. The possibilities are many. This could even be the remedy for being bored and frustrated. And yes, maybe even consider setting up a seahorse tank. And if you cannot totally part with your beloved sps, you can keep a frag of each colony and set up the cube as a sps specific tank.

What you definitely do not want is to watch a slow painful decline of your tank. I think you are already comparing your tank's current state with what you remember as being your tank's hey day and that is causing you regret. It is hard to sell creatures but it is way harder to watch them die and that is usually the end result when a person is burn out for too long. It is far better to see them go where they will get the care they need. I know, I was there. There is no shame in making a change. When what you are doing is not fun anymore, its time to stop and do something different. Life is too short to do otherwise.

 

[LoneStarReef]

Didn’t read everyone’s response (so I apologize if this has been said already) but I would automate as much as possible. I decided early on to automate water changes and top offs and I will automate dosing when I need to. Automating the routine tasks has really helped and all I have to do on maintenance days is to make sure my saltwater reservoir is full, scrape the sides of the glass and blow off the rocks. No hauling large buckets and the tank stays more stable with smaller more frequent water changes.

Hope you find a way to get your mojo back!!

DISCLAIMER: I am a noob.

 

[sullyman]

A nice reef tank can be hard on your freedom. Someone's got to feed the fish and coral, empty skimate. It can make it hard to get away.
I had a very nice mature Acro/sps tank but I also have a very bad back. My back flared up, tanks were on auto pilot for a little over a week and something happened, not sure what but slow and steady die off ensued. That was 4-5 years ago. I have a 60g cube running with a pair of Akindynos clown fish and a yellow tang that got beat up in my 210g fowlr. I see a nuerosurgeon Weds. about surgery L3-L4, L4-L5 disectomy and fushion, surgery will be asap but how long to be back to better? I've never been happier not to have a reef running but I'm getting the itch, sent a couple of radions in for service, they sent 2 bnib Gen 4 lights.....................

 

[Nothead59]

I feel the same way. Been reefing since 2004. I have built several tanks always wanting my reef to look a certain way. Most of my issue was money. I still managed to upgrade slowly. When I wanted a metal halide light I bought an unbranded one. For the next 3 years my tank grew and became my ideal. Then I decided to purchase led lights. I don’t know for sure that was the cause but my tank crashed. I’d had the lights for 3 months and within 2 days all corals died. All but one of my fish survived. So for the last 8 months I have kept it up. I even tried to bid on corals. They have all died now. I have decided to get out of the hobby but I don’t know what to do with my fish and equipment. So I am in the same place and have no answers but feel your pain. Just don’t enjoy it anymore

 

[tutmatt3]

Didn't flip thru the thread, but what salt are you using?
I ask because salts like IO have a real high alk. If you went from an 8% WC to 16%, there is a chance ur alk got bumped up more than ur tank is used to.

(on 180 water volume, 16% wc (30g wc) would bump an alk of 8.0 to 8.64 instantaneously.)
Can't wait to see ur tank recover to where it used to be!

 

[PopaSmurph]

Don't be stumped, get sumped lol. Convert to the triton method to eliminate water changes and buy a shiny new trigger or synergy sump to drool over.

 

[Forsaken77]

Have you ever hit that brick wall when it comes to your reef? I think I just did recently...

Since the holidays I've been spending less and less time doing things that I would normally do with the glass box, water changes have even become a chore. I hate changing out carbon, filter socks and heck, even dosing nopox is starting to be a drag.

A little back story...

If you aren't familiar with my build thread this is mostly for you. The early years of my tank were awesome, I never met an sps frag I couldn't grow into a colony. I was even growing acropora frags into colonies sitting on my sand bed! Then within the last couple years the wheels literally fell off. I had a total loss of corals at one point and ever since then it's been an uphill battle. I've tried different things over time and quickly realized that I needed to go back to what worked prior, and that is what I've been trying to do recently.

Fast forward to now. Sps is "ok" some grow well, Others not so much. Every time I look at the tank I feel exhausted, yes just looking at the tank makes me feel this way. I know most ppl would look at my tank the way it sits and think it looks good. Since October I've been working a lot of OT at work so I decided to change my water change schedule. I normally do 2x15 gallon changes per week, I changed it to 1 30 gallon. This seemed to make the biggest change in my tank for some reason. Sps started to rtn and lose color. Algae grew on the glass at an alarming rate. The last couple weeks I made myself go back to the old schedule but it's tough.

I want to put nopox on a dosing pump but I'm afraid of another dosing pump failure and overdosing that would be catastrophic, so daily dosing continues. I've completely rid my tank of filter socks recently because I am tired of cleaning them. I also removed carbon from my tank because changing it out of the reactor every few weeks annoys me.

I'm tired, exhausted, whatever adjective you want to use to describe this. The last couple years reefing wise have been rough.

So my question is, if you have experienced this same thing how did you get over it? Was it buying new frags? Equipment? What else? I'm stumped.

I'm trying to think of ways to get over and around this, I'm trying to simplify anything and everything dealing with the tank as well.

Help!

Sincerely yours,
Disgruntled reefer

It may just be time for a break. I took a 15 year hiatus from keeping saltwater fish. I got back into it because I remembered how stress relieving it was too watch my fish. Now it has added to the stress. It seems the tank I had years ago that was neglected, had way less algae, less fish sickness, and less maintenance. Go figure.

You have the equipment, so you can always start it back up at a later date. Because once you lose the joy of it, it's hard to get it back.

 

[Tommy's Reef]

Dang George don't give in.
Take a minute and think of what u put in your reef wene it was perfect.
And what u put in it today that makes it mehh!
And to speak from experience after a crashed tank what survied with empty tank space left me mehh, it will take forever to regrow, and find my Groove, so I down sized to a sleek 65 g tank and got that feel good again. Your answer is down size but keep your tank for wen everything grows back :)

THE ANSWER IS DOWN SIZE!!!!!!

 

[Tommy's Reef]

THE ANSWER IS DOWN SIZE!!!!!!

 

[Asif Iqbal]

I feel your pain, after 5 years I found myself in the same situation. Heck, if my wife didn’t talk me out of it I would’ve tore it all down and exited.

My advise, automate everything you can to minimize daily maintenance. And change things up a bit. Everything including nopox on my tank is on dosing pump now... water change, once every two months .. might go even longer slowly... things are looking good

When we are really into it in the beginning we tend to tinker too much and add unnecessary chores