Why are people so lazy?

[gbroadbridge]

Or are they just sooo busy with life they don't really have time for a reef tank I see so many post about automating this that and the other. People hate doing water changes. Hate cleaning the glass. Hate changing socks. The skimmer stinks and is a pita to clean etc.
Maybe I'm weird because those are things I enjoy. It helps be observe things and look for potential problems or just enjoy checking the life forms out, even the nasty bristle worms that I love
To me a hobby is something to occupy some of my time and clear my head. I focus on the hobby and all other thoughts are gone for a short time. Isn't that what hobbies are supposed to be for or am I looking at this the wrong way? I guess it could be because I'm older and more people on here are younger and look at things differently or are more busy than I have ever been even when I was raising 3 girls and working 11 hour days. Then I really enjoyed that time working on the tank.

Some of us do a lot of work related travel, but still like to enjoy the tank when we're home.

I'm away for 6 out of every 8 weeks.

Without the automation, the tank would never be able to run itself unattended for 6 weeks as it does at the moment.

All I have to do is clean the glass when I get home and tinker around for a couple of days (which I enjoy) and the tank is pristine again and sure beats what's on TV.

 

[SnazzyUrchin792]

I don’t have any automation and will be starting my first job cleaning tanks at my LFS tomorrow, so I’m definitely not lazy about tank maintenance!

 

[rtparty]

I’m lazy and love technology. Automating as much as I safely can is 100% the way I will go. So many other things I’d rather do than clean the glass on a 6 foot peninsula. But I don’t trust any automation for that so I automate other tasks to free up time for the manual stuff.

 

[exnisstech]

Are you trying to be the next vetteguy? The last thing this dying platform needs is another person acting like they're special.

Is this directed at me?

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Are you trying to be the next vetteguy? The last thing this dying platform needs is another person acting like they're special.

 

[revhtree]

Is this directed at me?

He won’t be able to answer you.

 

[zheka757]

He won’t be able to answer you.

Lol, I was gonna say, what was his problem?! Good catch

 

[exnisstech]

He won’t be able to answer you.

Thank you

 

[flyfisher2]

Let's take it outside our own box and try and understand that not everyone sees keeping a reef aquarium in the same manner. To some it's a hands on DIY hobby, We have the time and desire to deal with everything pertaining to reefing and live on R2R seeking out the answers to whatever we don't know or may have forgotten. Others just want to have a piece of the ocean in their home because it's beautiful and relaxing and they don't want to take a car, plane and an uber to get to the public aquarium everyday to enjoy it.
Others are in between and may like to do certain things but may be overwhelmed or perhaps physically unable to perform certain tasks. Others simply do not have the time to do these things faithfully and prefer to put it in the more capable hands of an aquarium maintenance service.
I've been keeping aquariums for over 50 years. I'm no longer able or willing to lug five gallon buckets around so I recruited my wife.
Key to success, Have a younger significant other. Words of wisdom...

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Or are they just sooo busy with life they don't really have time for a reef tank I see so many post about automating this that and the other. People hate doing water changes. Hate cleaning the glass. Hate changing socks. The skimmer stinks and is a pita to clean etc.
Maybe I'm weird because those are things I enjoy. It helps be observe things and look for potential problems or just enjoy checking the life forms out, even the nasty bristle worms that I love
To me a hobby is something to occupy some of my time and clear my head. I focus on the hobby and all other thoughts are gone for a short time. Isn't that what hobbies are supposed to be for or am I looking at this the wrong way? I guess it could be because I'm older and more people on here are younger and look at things differently or are more busy than I have ever been even when I was raising 3 girls and working 11 hour days. Then I really enjoyed that time working on the tank.

This reminds me of surf travel. Once upon a time you really had to be dedicated to hunting down uncrowded waves in places like Indo. No internet forecasts, no websites, just a rumour or some loose talk at the pub. If you wanted the prize you had to slog it out in malaria ridden jungles, dig in for a month at a small village somewhere, sleeping in a bamboo hut, eating rice and dry fish. Diarrhoea, discomfort and disorientation was par for the course.

Now it’s all pretty easy, charter boats and resorts with air con, cold beers and wi fi. It used to bother me but how can you look down on the guy with a family and two weeks holidays a year? He wants the same thing we all want. I’m good with it.

If you use a maintenance service to keep your tank looking good it shouldn’t exclude you from the hobby. I can’t judge someone for that.

I still slog it out onto the reef platform with a 20 ltr drum because reefing to me has always been an extension of a life spent in and around the ocean. It’s not that way for everyone though and that’s fair enough.

 

[FrugalReefer]

Something I do that most reefers don’t do is manually dose 2 part to their tank. I’ve been manually dosing ESV 2 part for several months now with syringes and I enjoy doing it. I especially like it when I find I have to dose more to keep up with cal/alk demand because that tells me my animals are growing. Definitely no need to worry about over or under dosing my tank with cal and alk.

 

[exnisstech]

I just want to say I should not have even brought automation into the original post. I came accross as saying people that use automation are lazy. Automation should not have even been mentioned. For that I apologize. If anything bringing automation into reef keeping adds an additional level of difficulty. You still have all the manual labor involved but now you also have equipment to maintain not to mention the possibility of failure that can be devastating. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to stay home 24/7 if they choose so automation is necessary for many.
I was just in a crappy mood and read one too many posts about someone freaking out over some gha that that aren't even trying to remove.
I know, no one forces any of us read threads. If we don't approve and have no assistance to offer shut up and move on or skip the post all together. Mistakes are made and I'm pretty sure I made one with starting this thread.
Happy reefing

 

[GARRIGA]

Why carry a bucket to the river when you can just turn a faucet and still enjoy fresh life saving water? Assuming both won’t kill you.

Rather enjoy my live art than slave over it. Fishing my hobby where still I go on a boat vs swim out to the fish. Yes. Automation is awesome

BTW, we filter out ammonia vs tackle it with water changes. Seems silly we still do that for nitrates/phosphates or replenish trace where only that removed is being replenished. Only reason to waste my time doing that if something can’t be removed via filtration and I’ve yet to see facts to support that. Although some go AWC and solve that. I unfortunately don’t have the space to accommodate AWC.

 

[Wolf8895]

You just reminded me I need to test my water.

I automate what I can because I am forgetful and would kill everything if left totally to my own devices.

 

[Rmckoy]

I prefer no automation at all .
I got into this hobby for the love of reefing and at that time apex wasn’t available .
I don’t think ato was either but many diy ideas were starting

The reason I have never added any automation is I don’t want the new device to take what I love the most. The hands on part of it .
I love testing , and manually cleaning everything when I do water changes . But … as the system matured maintenance has slowed a lot.
The need to do large water changes to lower nutrients has faded
Cleaning glass , emptying the skimmer

I have added a ato ( which for the record is almost always empty which forces me to manually dump water into the sump to bring the level up

When Water changes happen . I still prepare 32 gals of rodi water ,add salt and mix with a pump .

siphon water out by the 5 gal bucket and carry them to the drain .

 

[Dburr1014]

I love tinkering in my system. I love to figure out why something is or is not happy. Why some parameter is low or high. But, I don't want to check that my rodi is low, so it automated to fill up when the 30 gallons is gone.
Some automation is good.

 

[Rmckoy]

I love tinkering in my system. I love to figure out why something is or is not happy. Why some parameter is low or high. But, I don't want to check that my rodi is low, so it automated to fill up when the 30 gallons is gone.
Some automation is good.

I live in a small apartment .
Rodi water is hooked up in my kitchen sink . And hauled by buckets to my living room .
If I could automate a way to always have rodi water on hand it would be nice but again .
It’s part of the hobby and tasks I enjoy

 

[fish farmer]

I just want to say I should not have even brought automation into the original post. I came accross as saying people that use automation are lazy. Automation should not have even been mentioned. For that I apologize. If anything bringing automation into reef keeping adds an additional level of difficulty. You still have all the manual labor involved but now you also have equipment to maintain not to mention the possibility of failure that can be devastating. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to stay home 24/7 if they choose so automation is necessary for many.
I was just in a crappy mood and read one too many posts about someone freaking out over some gha that that aren't even trying to remove.
I know, no one forces any of us read threads. If we don't approve and have no assistance to offer shut up and move on or skip the post all together. Mistakes are made and I'm pretty sure I made one with starting this thread.
Happy reefing

It's all good.

Maybe the poster shouldn't have even been freaking out about the gha...

It's like the cyano that's growing in patches since I shuffled some rocks around... it's not getting any worse...I'll get to it next week....

 

[Wolf8895]

Well nitrates are up to 50, Phosphates down to .25. Green algae on my rocks is going away but diatoms are increasing.

Everything is still alive = WINNING

 

[Wolf8895]

Well nitrates are up to 50, Phosphates down to .25. Green algae on my rocks is going away but diatoms are increasing.

Everything is still alive = WINNING

I also just realized i forgot to turn off my auto feeder from when i was out of town this weekend so they just got a bonus meal.