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

[Little c big D]

divorce.

Same. But we are back now aren't we!

 

[rtparty]

I have completely left the hobby 3 times in my 17 years.

1) Move across country for missionary service.

2) While moving to a new house, I decided to "upgrade" my equipment. I completely measured some things wrong and it turned into a major problem that lasted weeks. It created such a strain on everything in my life at the time, that it was time to cut my losses and regroup. I went back and read that thread on my local forum not long ago. Brought back all the bad memories of that terrible move. I sure did learn a lot though. Mistakes I will never make again.

3) When my wife and I got married, we had to move 3 times in 6 weeks waiting on the house to be finished. I had no place for my tanks while bumming rooms off my friends. The tank I had at the time wasn't really worth keeping but I miss some of those corals big time. I had a lot of them for over 5 years. Many were rescues from the LFS I helped at. I would get them for super cheap and nurse them back to health.

Currently, I am in one of those ruts with my tanks. One is doing the best I have ever had in this hobby. Should be a good thing right??? Work and home renovation are sucking up so much time I can barely feed daily. I don't get to enjoy the tank one bit. My other tank is a ticking time bomb and needs to be sold off ASAP while things are still healthy.

Throw in my brand new Glasscages 250 peninsula just sitting there, and reefing is just bleh for me right now. Here have a shiny new toy but you can't touch or play with it! It is a strange hobby for sure LOL

 

[jmichaelh7]

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.

None so far . Had Dino’s but never thought of quitting. WOW What kind of fish I’m in love

 

[Karen00]

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.

Not to sideline this thread but I have to ask how big that monster is?! It looks like the pic was taken outside on a tarp (so not in a bowl on a table). Good golly that's scary but great that your resolve held up to fight the beast! That's so awesome of your husband to buy you a new setup! He's a keeper.

 

[jmichaelh7]

Not to sideline this thread but I have to ask how big that monster is?! It looks like the pic was taken outside on a tarp (so not in a bowl on a table). Good golly that's scary but great that your resolve held up to fight the beast! That's so awesome of your husband to buy you a new setup! He's a keeper.

The reality of it is he is into the hobby too

 

[Goaway]

WOW What kind of fish I’m in love

1st picture is Atrosalarias holomelas common name I think is golden sailfin blenny, I do not know for sure. She is wonderful! Can turn black or dusky gold based on her mood.
2nd is scopas tang
3rd copperband butterfly.

Not to sideline this thread but I have to ask how big that monster is?! It looks like the pic was taken outside on a tarp

It was over 1 ft long on a white plastic bag. This was unstretchered

 

[Karen00]

So far I haven't thrown in the towel, even through all the heartbreak of losses (natural or unnatural) or frustrations with a misbehaving tank. I had a tank as a kid but didn't know how to properly take care of it so there was always sorrow with that setup. I swore I would never have another tank again. Fast forward a few decades and now I have four tanks plus one for culturing live food. I maintain freshwater, brackish and now saltwater. Everyday I ask myself "what I done?". Then I stick my hand in the tank and a fish gives my hand a kiss (or maybe it's trying to eat me, not sure which) and all is right with the world.

 

[Lyss]

I'm barely even in and sometimes I think stuff like, what have I done setting up this tank. I'm still working from home due to covid -- we were set to go back to the office in September but that got pushed back to what will likely be January. So I'm in my home office all week and can easily see and check in on my tank. Sometimes when I think about going back to the office, and travel, I get really worried. The good thing is when we do go back we'll be able to take advantage of a hybrid policy where we can WFH 2 days per week. I have a camera that allows me to see the tank, but I'm not even sure that would allow me to de-stress about it -- I'd feel so helpless if something looked wrong and I was seeing it remotely in my empty apartment.

 

[Placenta89]

Cyano 3 years ago I threw down the towel, and that I found my lights couldn't handle any of the coral I wanted to eventually keep. After losing 2 nice ones and then never being able to deal with the cyano I gave up.

I just bought some very nice upgraded equipment about 8 months ago and started up again. Everything was going amazing until last week. Lost a 400$ torch and have no idea why.... I feel like something is wrong in the tank even when my levels have been stable and in a very good range (hopefully I can diagnose the issue soon) but I must push through! The end result is totally worth it when I see other people's amazing tanks. One day with the help of y'all I'll get it . A question for you is how long did it take for you not to worry every second you're away from the tank and thinking something is gonna go wrong . Its all I think about at work.

 

[Placenta89]

Once 3 years ago I gave up. Couldn't get a hold on cyano and lost a bunch of stuff.

Started again 8 months ago and everything was going amazing until losing a very expensive torch last week. I have yet to determine the issue but I am now constantly worried when I'm away at work that something is wrong. But gonna push through with it because the end result is amazing! When I see everyone's tanks on here it gives me the hope and patience to continue on.

 

[thewedge]

Over the past year and a half my tank became completely overwhelmed with mushrooms. That killed off most of my coral and I was so depressed about the whole thing as well as the general state of the world that I let my parameters slide and that took care of the remaining couple. I was ready to break the tank down and quit all together or reboot the existing tank but I was taking some time to figure out which way I was going to go. In the meantime my wife kept insisting I needed to get a bigger tank. She's actually been saying that for years. Well, this past summer she won. Lol
Since getting the new tank and the steady number of small projects it entails I will say that my excitement for the hobby has become reinvigorated. I'm very much taking it slow on this new tank. I started it up in early September and still only have my two original fish from my 65 gallon, 1 old leather and six new frags on a frag rack. So far, the ugly phase has been kept at bay.

 

[sp1187]

Same. But we are back now aren't we!

bigger and better.

 

[69cam]

Been in this Hobby since 2003 and have not thrown in the towel.. yet

 

[Goaway]

The reality of it is he is into the hobby too

yes he is, he loves what I do. Hes hands off though

Not to sideline this thread but I have to ask how big that monster is?! It looks like the pic was taken outside on a tarp (so not in a bowl on a table). Good golly that's scary but great that your resolve held up to fight the beast! That's so awesome of your husband to buy you a new setup! He's a keeper.

not in a bowl, was way too large. the rest of the pieces, guitar pic up on the top right. if the worm never ate my mushroom coral, it would be alive today.


Husband, he's not going no where either.

 

[Garia666]

Even with all the set backs I never quit,
There where moments tough,

1st big moment was my LFS burning down due to arson.
Second is this one here

A friendly hobbyist aloud me to park my corals with him and now after a year of set backs I am underway back

 

[sp1187]

yes he is, he loves what I do. Hes hands off though

not in a bowl, was way too large. the rest of the pieces, guitar pic up on the top right. if the worm never ate my mushroom coral, it would be alive today.


Husband, he's not going no where either.

whose the string slinger?

 

[Goaway]

whose the string slinger?

The husband
I keep my hands off his "gear" His favorite guitar is a mexican strat. Did I spell that right?

 

[Karen00]

Cyano 3 years ago I threw down the towel, and that I found my lights couldn't handle any of the coral I wanted to eventually keep. After losing 2 nice ones and then never being able to deal with the cyano I gave up.

I just bought some very nice upgraded equipment about 8 months ago and started up again. Everything was going amazing until last week. Lost a 400$ torch and have no idea why.... I feel like something is wrong in the tank even when my levels have been stable and in a very good range (hopefully I can diagnose the issue soon) but I must push through! The end result is totally worth it when I see other people's amazing tanks. One day with the help of y'all I'll get it . A question for you is how long did it take for you not to worry every second you're away from the tank and thinking something is gonna go wrong . Its all I think about at work.

To be honest I don't think you ever start worrying, even when you're at home! Every time I look at my tanks and start doing the obsessive livestock count my heart stops until everyone is accounted for and acting normal (I have small tanks so I can do a head count). I just got into corals so they're part of the count.

That's weird about your torch (sorry for your loss)! Maybe you need an ICP test to rule out stuff that hobby tests don't reveal.

 

[Karen00]

yes he is, he loves what I do. Hes hands off though

not in a bowl, was way too large. the rest of the pieces, guitar pic up on the top right. if the worm never ate my mushroom coral, it would be alive today.


Husband, he's not going no where either.

I love terrestrial worms and have no trouble picking them up but there is something about aquatic worms that strikes terror in my soul. I dipped my first ever coral this past Sunday and a bristleworm came out. I nearly passed out. Haha. The frag was super tiny so I have no idea where it was hiding. I think that freaks me out the most. Their ability to hide. LOL

 

[Explorer12]

I haven't had the urge to throw in the towel yet., but I'm contemplating adding a frag tank in the basement and at times I wonder if doing this would make it too much work where I'd second guess the entire addition. I haven't bought the supplies yet for that second tank because of this thinking. My 90 gallon tank is just over a year old which replaced a 40 gallon breeder. Doing well with LPS and zoas. Just added an SPS.