I GIVE UP. So frustrated. Im forced out.

Im almost positive every reefer has been here when they started, i know i did, i spent thousands on equipment, thinking if i get the best, the rest is cake right?? Not at all this hobby is demanding, troublesome, but to me having the luxury of watching my fish swim around my tank, chasing one another and watching everything grow and multiply is a great feeling, ill admit i never left my tank alone i always moved my rock, corals and guess what? My tank was terrible, ive lost alot of money but who in this hobby hasnt when starting up? Learning from my mistakes was the most important aspect of this hobby, and just take it all in as an experience on what not to do, thats what ive done left my tank alone for 2 months just top offs and water changes and everything is taking off, if only i listened to these guys before, but it was all the learning from mistakes that make these reefers experts, and today, im still no expert, stick with it, just set a reminder in your phone to change water, top off daily and i feed every other day. Good luck hope it works out for you

 

This is a great thread. It shows the love for a hobby and those who support it. With passion comes attitude sometimes.

I too quit the hobby due to financial reasons and messing with things too much. Sometimes we try too hard. As mentioned once a reefer always a reefer. I will be back but with more knowledge and hopefully more patience. The original poster has a passion for aquariums and it appears he will be back if he even leaves.

This is a great group of people, sure wish I had this forum years ago.

banthonyb71, you have a wealth of experience that will make things that much better next time.

Good luck,
Rick

 

Automated items?

How,where and what would one need for the automated stuff? I'm really interested in that, thanks

 

Any of the bigger websites sell the auto stuff. I know marinedepot does. Keep in mind that this stuff is all electronic, and hence very expensive.

 

You need a controller first. Best money you can spend on a tank. With that you can program and run everything. Then you get dosing pumps and atos... blah blah.

 

Sorry to hear of your problems, and without reading every post in this thread, and focusing on what you originally posted, I can say that many people go through exactly the losses you have gone through, but they would never say a word about it. So you might think that because you haven't read anyone with your problems, that you are a poor reef keeper.

I beg to differ. For one, I've seen people get a problem and go to a larger forum, ask a question, and get ripped apart by members. They never ask questions again, and probably suffer because of a poor experience asking in a forum. What I like about this forum, it's like a national local forum, where people don't look down on others, they try to help out. No super egos here, and it's why I like it. So you have a wealth of support here. Just like a local forum, where you don't get the keyboard tough guy, because everyone in the club lives locally, and can actually come over and see how tough you are...

Anyway, I'm going to just tell you that a lot of your problems may be the health of your acquisitions when you buy them. Obviously you can keep fish alive, but maybe you got lucky. Maybe it was the one time you got a healthy fish from the store you buy from. I don't know where you live, but maybe it's an area where livestock isn't as available as it is in LA or in the SF Bay Area. Even here in the BA, there are stores with livestock, that I know dies 90% of the time. Is it 100% their fault, absolutely not, because in the end, you are the one making the purchase. Luckily for me, there are other stores that sell healthy stuff only. But maybe for you, you don't have that luxury to buy from other outlets.

You say that anyone who can kill a zoa colony is a $^%**& reefkeeper. That is not true, Most who only collect zoa/palys, have had many of them die under their care. Some will thrive for months and all of a sudden die/melt overnight. I know Yumas are tough, most ship horribly, and don't live long. I used to collect them, spending thousand plus on many beautiful morphs, I had one live, it is exceptional, but only one. It wasn't because of me, it was the condition of the yumas from shipping. I see people post pics of their exceptional morphs, on reef2reef and Reef Central, I'd say 90% of those are dead now, because of what I learned collecting myself, from the pictures you can see they are showing these sick yumas.

My suggestion, is to just let the stuff you still have grow, don't mess with them. Keep your tank, do water changes weekly, and that's it. And in 6 months, you will see that yes you are successful in this hobby. Watch the corals and fish you have successfully kept, thrive, and grow. That will be satisfying, and give you the confidence to try new corals, and fish. You will realize, that maybe that livestock you bought was destined to die. Not because of you, because it was handle improperly, stressed beyond help, and unfortunately, you bought it and it died under your care....

 

I would jump out of bed in the mornings to see the new additions to my tank only to be greeted with fish that were belly up, dead coral, and on many occasions, milky water. Many times I was on the verge of tears seeing my precious babies dying. It got so bad that when I brought a new fish or coral home, I would call the kids and tell them to hurry over to see it as it would probably be dead by morning.
My tank kept crashing and I was so disgusted but was determined to continue. The more my mother and husband asked, "are you ready to give up yet?", the more determined I was to make it work. "I'm gonna win", became my favorite saying when they brought up the subject of saltwater and the kids thought I was going crazy.
I started adding more rocks, snails, and crabs... after all, that was all I could keep alive anyway. I went about 6 months with just the clean up crew and one day, I noticed a tiny pink feather duster in the sand that hadn't been there before. It must have been a hitch hiker on one of my rocks. I took this as a sign to start addding fish and bought myself a Dog Faced Puffer which wasn't a great idea on my part....as I think he ate my little pink duster. But my tank was right and nowadays, I take pleasure in knowing that I wanted it so bad and I didn't quit when everyone told me I should. I have 2 tanks going with fish and coral and a hospital tank with rocks and a clean up crew. If I can do it, anyone can.

 

I almost quit this hobby for this exact same reason as quoted. I went over to swf.com (thier phone in store support & forums) and was treated like utter ass. I was actually gonna surf some forums to post up for sale adds for all my stuff. Found this place and its been a total turn around for me & my tank. I went from giving up and selling everything to adding my first piece of LPS the other day. Yes there was some time lasp. lol.

Moral of the story, keep you head up and this forum is a best meeting of the minds in this hobby imo.