Reef Conversations: Do you talk to your friends and family about your reef?

[-XENOMORPH-]

Try explaining what a sump is. And.... Nope. End of conversation. Hahhahaha

 

[ScubaShane]

Only on Reef2Reef!

 

[neo1738]

My family/friends who visit and see my tank usually do the asking for me. They are into it until I get into the nitty gritty of dosing, water testing, etc. That's when they get overwhelmed and just enjoy the view.

 

[exnisstech]

I'm really bummed. My Gal is watching a movie while I'm working on "fishy stuff" which is cool. I decided to try out my new bone cutters. Been using all kinds of tools not meant for the job. I try using thin bladed knife to remove a TSA Bill Murray frag off the plug so I can glue it down. The knife isn't cutting it so I'm like, hey let's try the new bone cutters. They snipped that frag of flush with the plug leaving nothing behind. Sweet! I'm excited so I go in to tell her how cool they are. She pauses the movie to listen so I start to tell her how sweet a tool they are and she just looks at me and asks "how much were they"? I tell her they were only $17 she just kinda snorted and unpaused the movie and even turned up the volume. Guess I get to spend the rest of the night doing fishy stuff
The frag

 

[MexiReefer]

My 30 yo daughter loves the tanks, but she does not live with me anymore, my other son probably once a month aks how is it going. My wife couldn't care less.

90% just passes by the tank without saying a word (is in the open space dinning room), if the stop to say something is to inquiry about the time I spent in maintenance.

My dad likes it a lot.

 

[MexiReefer]

I've found that hardly anyone you'll come across in day to day life gives a flip about aquariums in general or reefing. My dad is interested only because he has had fish since before I was born and is the one who got me into fishkeeping as a little kid. Other than him and my boss (who has been reefing 40+ years and keeps a tank in his office), if I want to talk about it, I have to resort to other means: Reef2Reef, a women-only reefing Facebook group I love, my local reef society, hanging out at my favorite LFS, and going to frag swaps and events. I recently bought a frag from one of the board members of the reef society and spent probably 30 minutes just hanging out at her house checking out her tanks and chatting, which was great. I'll chat up people in the saltwater aisle of my LFS and when I take a quick peek while I'm in Petco picking up dog food, lol. Struck up a convo with a couple guys once and discovered one was a board member of the local reef society and we became friends - when I went to their house to pick it up, we spent around 2 hours geeking out over all things reef. I love looking at other people's tanks and seeing what they do, how they run their tanks, what fish they keep, how they scaped and selected corals... It's really nice to find people who "get it" and enjoy the hobby as well. I came from freshwater and still love that as well - I just love all things aquarium related in general.
I see it like this - not everyone will understand or care about my hobby and I'm fine with it. (More people are interested when I talk about my other one, kayaking). If I can tell they are asking questions with genuine interest, I'll go into more detail. My husband doesn't like my reefing hobby or having a tank in the house, but I consider him literally a captive audience so he gets to listen to me talk at him about my tank pretty much every day, lol. But to be fair, MY eyes glaze over when he talks about his hobbies (CrossFit and comic books) so...

Women only facebook group....never imagined that was a thing

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

Women only facebook group....never imagined that was a thing

Well, in a historically male-dominated hobby, we ladies honestly often aren't taken seriously by the men... and most I've talked to have even been on the receiving end of a lot of judgement and snarkiness from them too when asking questions online. I mean I've also seen it from the women too, it's not just a male thing, lol. But the group being just women feels like a "safer" place to share for many of us. Also, we don't feel like we're annoying the guys with our "look at my adorable fish" posts, lol.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I'm really bummed. My Gal is watching a movie while I'm working on "fishy stuff" which is cool. I decided to try out my new bone cutters. Been using all kinds of tools not meant for the job. I try using thin bladed knife to remove a TSA Bill Murray frag off the plug so I can glue it down. The knife isn't cutting it so I'm like, hey let's try the new bone cutters. They snipped that frag of flush with the plug leaving nothing behind. Sweet! I'm excited so I go in to tell her how cool they are. She pauses the movie to listen so I start to tell her how sweet a tool they are and she just looks at me and asks "how much were they"? I tell her they were only $17 she just kinda snorted and unpaused the movie and even turned up the volume. Guess I get to spend the rest of the night doing fishy stuff
The frag

TSA and their coral names, lol. Fun fact: my little brother got to have dinner with Bill Murray a few years ago (his ex fiance was doing some PR for Bill's charity). I was so jealous!

 

[LisaMarie]

The minute I start "reefsplaining" my husbands eyes glaze over.

 

[pulpfiction]

I've been slowly trying to convert a couple coworkers. They're interested in starting a tank but are intimidated by the complexity, time, and cost. One day I'll convince them.

Friends and family have no interest other than that looking at my tank for a couple seconds whenever they visit.

I talk way too much about reefing because I like to and I'm overcompensating. I want to talk about reptiles too but most people get creeped out by the mere mention of them.

 

[OrchidMiss]

Not only do I talk to my friends and my family about my reefs, I also talk to my reefs about my crazy friends and family.
Fish are good listeners.

 

[lonepalm99]

No one in my family really cares. When everything is looking nice they love to look at it but otherwise nothing is really said.

 

[glennf]

Most are amazed at first glance, but loose interest quiet fast.
It's not their kind of hobby. It take a reefer to get a conversation going.
So hold you horses and only reply what they ask. It seems that we reefers kinda get carried away when we start talking about out passion.
We need kindred spirits to share our hobby with.