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

Do you actively promote reefing to your family and friends? How would you describe your outreach:

  • Shhh! - I don't talk about reefing

    Votes: 28 8.0%
  • Easy does it - I talk about reefing when it comes up in conversation

    Votes: 185 53.2%
  • Did I ever tell you? - I actively bring up reefing in conversation

    Votes: 111 31.9%
  • Reefing is life!!! - From my clothing to the stickers on my car, my life revolves around reefing

    Votes: 24 6.9%

  • Total voters
    348

kinetic

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Once in awhile a friend will say "I want a tank like yours!" -- after about 10 minutes of describing the setup they've changed their minds. If they're OK with constant maintenance and work, the initial cost may not be much, but if they want an easy time of it, then you REALLY have to spend a lot initially (time and money). I can leave my tanks alone for a month at a time without any issues, but it wasn't easy to setup and extremely expensive.
 

DannoOMG

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They hate that I got into this hobby. However I have settled down yapping about it quite a bit over the past year.
 

AquasKy

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My wife once used this line on me. I told her "My fishtank doesn't get more love, just more attention."

I don't know how I've been married to her for 26 years...
I’ll have to try that one next time, though I’m sure she won’t appreciate it as much. lol. I usually just tell her it’s a different kind of love.
 

Dizzle26

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It seems like I talk and people act like they're listening. I'm a hobbyist. I like to try all kinds of differnt hobbies, so when I get into a new hobby, I get really into it. My friends and family know me so they just deal with me when I talk about it. Lol.
 

bakbay

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I helped "fund/seed" my family and my in-laws with my old tanks and got them into aquarium/fish keeping years ago. Now three other families have reef tanks and they're in the process of upgrading to bigger tanks! Hey - instant support from the wifey since the in-laws have tanks! :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:
 

flagg37

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I rated myself in the ‘easy does it’ category but I asked my wife and she said I’m really in the ‘did I ever tell you’ category. No hesitation.
 

TheoScapes

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I talk to my wife about reefing to the extent that she's told me to shut up or leave.
I feel sorry for her really. Being bombarded by pics of coral s gobies clowns tangs and inverts isn't really someone who couldn't care less about reefing appreciates I don't think haha.

But I will say this: since we got the tank up and running with corals she has definitely shown more interest and supports me 100%.
 

Reefvision

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My wife does ask questions about inhabitants ect. So that’s about the extent of explaining. When visitors look at tank usual first question “Is that alive?” I don’t try and get too much into what,why ,how.Not many follow up questions from most people.
 

exnisstech

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I can't believe how similar all our personality are. Its that OCD gene and wanting to learn and master something in us all
Uh... Don't think so :)
20220719_112800.jpg
 

Bobbyvelvet

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Lol.. Just built my first large reef tank in the basement... One friend cares, my buddy that got me into the hobby and my two kids. Wife is just happy it looks not ugly...
 

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Sink_or_Swim

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My tank is in my office at work and I regularly have clients in the office. Most conversations are general in nature and usually begin with “oh you have a Nemo”. Few clients do get into the specifics if they also have tanks. Lot of questions about the difficulty level of fresh vs salt.
Unfortunately my family at home have just about zero interest in the home tanks.
My husband actively despises my tank and hobby in general (he thinks it takes up too much of my time and also just has zero interest in fish or coral or anything aquarium related). But thankfully my boss has a reef tank in his office and has kept them for 40+ years - so he and I geek out about it all the time and I get the bonus of being able to look at the tank every day and get advice from someone way more experience. My coworkers get annoyed when he and I discuss anything reef-related at lunch or during meetings though, lol.
 

Gary67

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yes i talk about my tank family not thrilled with or without it unless your into keeping saltwater fish and enjoy the hobby i guess i did iit for myself always wanted to and i finaly did for me if they like it great if they don't i do
 

Sink_or_Swim

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Although it comes with the caveat that once you get to how to culture rotifers, most of them choose the bullet.
Once I spent at least 5 minutes talking AT my husband about amphipods (after I spotted a big one scuttling across the sand). I'm sure in his head he was thinking "just put me out of my misery now". :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:
 

Fin

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We used to have an active group of reefers here. A couple of really nice LFS. Now there are no stores, no local club and nowhere to run into others in the hobby. My friends aren’t in the least bit interested in my hobby and I could have goldfish for all they care. At least there are folks here to chat about the hobby with.
 

Sink_or_Swim

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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... :face-with-tongue::rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:
 

hockeyhead019

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Like most people here, I just talk to people when they ask about it or bring it up and try not to over do it lol I have one buddy who has a tank and we chat from time to time about how our tanks are doing and other than that it's just discussion on here
 

e3pillereefer

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Used to be my wife would ask "whatchya doin?" and I would answer in detail while watching her eyes roll to the back of her head. Now when she asks that question I just say "fish tank stuff".
When I get the 'ol, watcha doin', I tell my wife I'm reefing. Covers all the bases and she just goes away.
 
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