How many times have you "thrown in the towel"?

[vgliha]

Issues with hitchhikers and stress from unforeseen circumstanced led me to the decision to restart my tank from ground zero. It was mostly an emotional decision that I regretted fairly quickly. I debated for months after if I was going to downsize, keep my current set up or get rid of it all together. 8 months later, I was at a LFS and realized how much I missed my DT. It was then that I decided to hunker down and put my set up back together to give it another shot. I'm about to start slowly adding my current livestock to my DT (rock has been cycling in a Brute trash can for over 6 months). Hopefully going at a snail's pace with more consistent QT practices and better diligence overall will help.

My questions are:

1. What was the "final straw" that was the deciding factor to break down your tank?

2. What led you back to the hobby again?

I know there is a love-hate relationship with reefing for all of us.

 

[shakacuz]

i have not had this moment, yet (fingers crossed i never do). always remember with this hobby patience is the key factor in longevity.

for you in this current moment, i believe you have learned that consistency and dedication are what will keep things in order so that whatever happened previously, wont happen again. obviously you now know what to expect, and what to avoid. good luck on your return!

 

[Tamberav]

Over 10 years and I have never thrown in the towel.

I have found every problem fixable, it just takes time and sometimes a lot of patience or work. Doesn't matter if it's Aiptasia, bubble algae, dino, cyano, bryopsis, ich, flukes, RTN, brown jelly.... I have dealt with it all at some point. You come out the other side with way more knowledge.

 

[Goaway]

There are times I have a nasty temper tantrum and think about breaking everything apart.... 110g of water is a quick way to change that thought process. There are a lot of things when it comes to any form of pet keeping. From dogs to fish and coral tanks. We get emotionally invested in our furry friends, but some don't with their watery world. We should be emotionally invested. They are living, we may not know what they feel or even how they feel. But why does that matter? We need to treat our aquariums like we would our cats, birds, dogs. To the best of our abilities and make what right we can. Harsh topic. When we can't provide proper care, find someone who can.

1. Moving. I never tore a tank down out of frustration with the hobby, other reason in life make me rather destructive. I think, somewhere it has helped me "rationalize" more than I would without it.

2. After 2 years of being without my old reef tank, my husband saw I was missing my aquarium. He out on a whim bought me a new setup. He's already learned more than I know about reef keeping.... I have been doing this for over 15 years. ;Sour

Disease, pests, ruin it for a lot of us. But as you stated "quarantine" really takes a lot of that stress away.


I did have one nasty worm though. 15+ lb rock and a hammer and screwdriver. Ate my florida ricordea mushroom. That drew the line and a fight it became.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

1. What was the "final straw" that was the deciding factor to break down your tank?
There has been 3 occasions where I felt like quitting; when I had a velvet outbreak, when I was working 60hrs a week, when I removed my algae scrubber and sent my tank on a rollercoaster ride of imbalanced po4 and nitrates.
2. What led you back to the hobby again? My love for coral viewing and fish keeping. I love my fish as much as any pet.

 

[McPuff]

Never. I have considered taking the tank down for other reasons (extended travel, cars, etc.) but not because of tank issues. If nothing else, I have learned to take things slow and be deliberate in any changes I make.

 

[sp1187]

divorce.

 

[WVNed]

On my worst day keeping an aiptasia from the sea was better than keeping nothing from the sea.
Periods of forced overtime, working out of town 5-12 days at a time and then health problems.
Circle the wagons and keep the tank going. Most everything can be fixed.

 

[Silverfish]

Moved to a third floor condo and then a hair algea outbreak. Couldn’t keep hauling the water up 3 floors. It was time to take a break.

 

[elcapitan1993]

Does almost throwing in the towel count?

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Never thought about breaking down, but had two life events that put a stop to it making ne think I'm done. One was in august of 2016 our town was flooded and my house took on 31/2 feet of water. and September 2019 diagnosed with cancer and treatments made it impossible for me to maintain tanks.
but keeping marine fish for pass 49 years its in my blood.

 

[vgliha]

There are times I have a nasty temper tantrum and think about breaking everything apart.... 110g of water is a quick way to change that thought process. There are a lot of things when it comes to any form of pet keeping. From dogs to fish and coral tanks. We get emotionally invested in our furry friends, but some don't with their watery world. We should be emotionally invested. They are living, we may not know what they feel or even how they feel. But why does that matter? We need to treat our aquariums like we would our cats, birds, dogs. To the best of our abilities and make what right we can. Harsh topic. When we can't provide proper care, find someone who can.

1. Moving. I never tore a tank down out of frustration with the hobby, other reason in life make me rather destructive. I think, somewhere it has helped me "rationalize" more than I would without it.

2. After 2 years of being without my old reef tank, my husband saw I was missing my aquarium. He out on a whim bought me a new setup. He's already learned more than I know about reef keeping.... I have been doing this for over 15 years. ;Sour

Disease, pests, ruin it for a lot of us. But as you stated "quarantine" really takes a lot of that stress away.


I did have one nasty worm though. 15+ lb rock and a hammer and screwdriver. Ate my florida ricordea mushroom. That drew the line and a fight it became.

That is one mean looking worm!

I understand and agree completely about responsibility to the creatures we choose to take into our care. I was struggling with a severe marital issue coupled with the loss of my father that spiraled me into a depression that I almost didn't come back from. My DT was so overwhelming that I needed to downsize just so I didn't kill my fish and a handful of small coral colonies by accident.

I moved all of my livestock into a smaller tank and have made sure that's been doing well. It's been humming along without issue since the day I tore down my DT months ago and everything seems to be happier then ever. I couldn't part with my fish (I only had a few gifted corals that I would have been more then happy to rehome) which is what kept me on the fence for so long and choosing to recycle the rock just in case. When I recently went to my LFS to kill some time, I couldn't stop looking at the display tanks. They pulled at my heart strings and I realized that I truly wanted a thriving reef tank that was as large as I was financially able to afford. I didn't realize how much I missed the pride that came with the blood, sweat and tears.

I've been researching, cross referencing, connecting with local experienced reefers and even have one that's become a friend and is willing to help me set up the DT so it's done as properly as possible from the start. It's been a journey but I most definitely feel more prepared now. I'm much more healthy, I'm in a better place and much more knowledgeable

Does almost throwing in the towel count?

Absolutely!!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I quit for a few years once in my 30's. I had broken up with the wife, had child custody battle, lawyers fee's, court dates, too much drinking at the time, and was also advancing in my career and getting more responsability at work. I just did not have the funds, time, or willpower to maintain my tank, so I started using tap water for water changes and slowly killed my tank that way

 

[vgliha]

Never thought about breaking down, but had two life events that put a stop to it making ne think I'm done. One was in august of 2016 our town was flooded and my house took on 31/2 feet of water. and September 2019 diagnosed with cancer and treatments made it impossible for me to maintain tanks.
but keeping marine fish for pass 49 years its in my blood.

Oh my gosh I'm so sorry to hear about those! Congratulations on almost 50 years of marine aquariums!! That is amazing!

 

[G Santana]

The only reason I left the hobby was due to a move and then my career got in the way of a restart but leaving for me is not an option, I will plug along regardless of setbacks until I get it right.

With all the information, experience and hobbyist success today, reefing is a different animal then it was back in the 80s when I began.

 

[Goaway]

I understand and agree completely about responsibility to the creatures we choose to take into our care. I was struggling with a severe marital issue coupled with the loss of my father that spiraled me into a depression that I almost didn't come back from. My DT was so overwhelming that I needed to downsize just so I didn't kill my fish and a handful of small coral colonies by accident.

i don't blame you. We get hit hard at times. We get demoralized, our pets get caught in the crisis. It's not their fault.
I could go into detail of my last "crisis". Having someone you love around, really helps. Having my aquariums in my life has helped. When you view your hobby (any hobby) as work. It feels draining and condemning.

When I sift the sand, change the water, feed the fish and coral. I watch them on how much trust I have earned from these fish. I can mess with my rocks and they are over there investigating. I bring out the camera and see who poses for me.





it's part of life, try to enjoy tank maintenance. testing water, you can trick yourself into thinking it's fun. be a mad chemist!
I hope you find the joys of fish/reef keeping.
Plenty of friends to be made on here. Hopefully you find more locally.

 

[LPS Bum]

I think about throwing in the towel every Monday morning, when I'm still battling red turf algae the day after my weekly water change.

But it's like the empty threat our moms used to give us when driving the car. "If you don't stop fighting, I'll turn this thing around right now". She never did, and I won't either.

 

[reddevilant]

There's been three times that I quit the hobby. The first two was kinda out of my hands. The first time was with a 75 gallon freshwater tank and I was just too young (15 years old at the time) and I couldn't keep up with the cost of maintenance and my parents had no interest in the hobby. The second time was my first saltwater tank that was doing well for a few months.... until hurricane Sandy hit. Lost power for a week and I was still young and not equipped to handle the power outage. The third time was about over 5 years ago when I decided to get back into the hobby and was dead set on doing a pipefish tank. For whatever reason, even though parameters were good and I had a decent population of pods, the first two pipefish I got didn't survive past a month. I was so heartbroken after all the work I put in to do everything right that I gave up way too easily.

But now I've had a 90 gallon tank for nearly a year and I could not be happier with it. I've always liked doing stuff that is a little out of the ordinary stuff you see (and I knew I wasn't going to do corals) so, when I randomly started seeing macro algae display tanks on instagram I was utterly inspired. I hadn't really seen any done with tanks larger than ~30 gallons so that's what I wanted to do. And now I'll be starting a second grow out tank over the holidays for my macros to go along with my display!

 

[fish farmer]

Never. I've had a complete 55 gallon tank overheat and crash after an upgrade. I just recured the rock and tried to rebuild...brown palys and a green mushroom survived and I still have them....19 years later. I've had many issues over the years to algae struggles, aiptasia, upgrading, then downgrading, but now back to where the reef tank is more enjoyable and growing.

 

[Soren]

The only time I throw in the towel is on laundry day...
But I must say it was pretty discouraging to lose some of my favorite fish in QT with no obvious reason for death other than being quite thin though they appeared to be eating normally.
I think my key is to have multiple set-ups (though this can be a management challenge) so I have a fall-back when I am discouraged with one aspect/tank.