Contemplating getting out.
- Thread starter yoggi58
- Start date
Arc Katana
New member
Check out some of the early "Natural" systems - lots of live rock, shorter photo periods, just running a skimmer as filtration (and live rock) and monthly 10-15% water changes. I think the gentleman's name is Eng who pioneered this back in the 60's, 70's. Low bio-load certainly helps.
This hobby is almost like buying a car - when you buy your goods they lose value right away. What they don't lose is the memories, the smiles, the heartbreaks. These are where the real value lies.
This hobby is almost like buying a car - when you buy your goods they lose value right away. What they don't lose is the memories, the smiles, the heartbreaks. These are where the real value lies.
I have had aquariums beginning in high school through having our 3rd child. I gave up the hobby when I got busy with raising a family. When older, each of my kids had an aquarium in their rooms, one at a time. Then no more aquariums for 10 years, but my stuff was saved in the basement. Now that 2 are in college and 1 in high school, I've gotten back into the hobby. Taking a pause doesn't mean quitting, but waiting until you have more time and money makes sense. I know that from experience.
goldenseal
New member
..well first off, you have to do whats right for you, that said, here is my take on things...
I raise, breed , show and sell quarter horses. My policy has always been to have 5-6 of the VERY BEST horses I can afford to purchase and keep. It costs the same to feed a good one as it does a junk horse. They eat the same, crap the same, take the same training etc.
Yes I could have a herd of 25 that I have to buy feed for, are marginally bred, not trained and essentially worthless, or I could have a couple High caliber show horses to buy feed for. I pick the latter.
how does that translate to aquariums? It seems many folks who are baling ( literally and figuratively) have big systems. I have a 55. Id rather have the BEST 55 gal I can afford to maintain, with the BEST livestock I can afford to purchase, than have the stress of a tank I can not keep up with.
Ive had this salt tank, 4 and a half years or so. NO SKIMMER, NO SUMP, NO FUGE. I use live rock and live sand and water changes.
I just to water changes, and have the mixed water in a tub in my basement. The hardest part is carrying the 5 gal pail up the stairs LOL
no stress, no mess, total enjoyment. AND VERY COST EFFECTIVE.
no, I cant brag about all the latest up dates, super cool equipment, awesome sumps and skimmers that could fly the space shuttle.
But I like my little tank, my fish, corals...everything. it is total joy. no worries.
I raise, breed , show and sell quarter horses. My policy has always been to have 5-6 of the VERY BEST horses I can afford to purchase and keep. It costs the same to feed a good one as it does a junk horse. They eat the same, crap the same, take the same training etc.
Yes I could have a herd of 25 that I have to buy feed for, are marginally bred, not trained and essentially worthless, or I could have a couple High caliber show horses to buy feed for. I pick the latter.
how does that translate to aquariums? It seems many folks who are baling ( literally and figuratively) have big systems. I have a 55. Id rather have the BEST 55 gal I can afford to maintain, with the BEST livestock I can afford to purchase, than have the stress of a tank I can not keep up with.
Ive had this salt tank, 4 and a half years or so. NO SKIMMER, NO SUMP, NO FUGE. I use live rock and live sand and water changes.
I just to water changes, and have the mixed water in a tub in my basement. The hardest part is carrying the 5 gal pail up the stairs LOL
no stress, no mess, total enjoyment. AND VERY COST EFFECTIVE.
no, I cant brag about all the latest up dates, super cool equipment, awesome sumps and skimmers that could fly the space shuttle.
But I like my little tank, my fish, corals...everything. it is total joy. no worries.
I'm relatively new, but, I agree, and whomever mentioned RC planes, I used to fly them as a teenager a number of years back. They were fun and I considered getting back into them. But i have plenty of summertime hobbies ... e.g. camping, biking, grilling, etc..
I was looking for something I could do in the winter and not have a lot of summer maintenance. SW was it for me. I had tried SW a few years back and totally screwed it up and wasted a lot of money accomplishing nothing.
I don't have any fish in my tank yet, and I still can't wait to get home and see how the corals are doing.. I'm going on 6 weeks tomorrow with my 55g. To keep things even more interesting, in around 2 or 3 weeks I want my first fish to be a marine betta.. So far not a lot of people seem to be trying them out, and from what I've read on it, it's a reef safe, trainable fish to eat mysis instead of other fish. So, if / when I get him, I will need to spend time training him to eat mysis so I can have other smaller fish. in there with him.
I love the Soft and LPS corals I have seeing them open and close and wave in the water, is pretty neat to me. As far as electricity, I'm running a small sump and PC lights, but, I think my electricity bill this month was $1.00 more than last month.
And now with spring, not having to run heat as much, I should see my electricity drop significantly and the aquarium should be negligable for me.
I'm trying to find local people to buy corals from. There's always someone selling off frags for cheap.. I just picked up an ACAN frag from a $500 acan for $50. I don't know if it'll be worth $500 when it grows up, but, it could actually be profitable if I could even sell of it's frags in a year or two for more or the same amount.
With SW it seems like there's so many possibilities. I was just thinking how neat it would be to have a small tank with a DSB, with some sand dwelling critters all over in it.. Themed tanks would be a lot of fun and could be relatively low cost if buying used setups here and there.
I got my 2 year old established LR from a 90 gallon aquarium. He didn't like his coral setup so he was selling off all the rock and buying new rock. I got it for $1.00 - $1.50 a pound..
There's tons of possibilities in this. And in this economy, a lot of people selling used stuff. Makes it a lot more affordable for us to stay in the game if we don't have to have new all the time.
Got my skimmer for $50.00 it's a $200 skimmer at the LFS. Bak-Pak 2.
It works perfectly for my tank. I do sometimes get frustrated with having to do water changes, but, as long as the benefits outweigh the negatives, to me, it's good. If I were having a $50.00 fish die every week, I would have to reconsider at some point. Doing things right though, should help save money in the future.
I was looking for something I could do in the winter and not have a lot of summer maintenance. SW was it for me. I had tried SW a few years back and totally screwed it up and wasted a lot of money accomplishing nothing.
I don't have any fish in my tank yet, and I still can't wait to get home and see how the corals are doing.. I'm going on 6 weeks tomorrow with my 55g. To keep things even more interesting, in around 2 or 3 weeks I want my first fish to be a marine betta.. So far not a lot of people seem to be trying them out, and from what I've read on it, it's a reef safe, trainable fish to eat mysis instead of other fish. So, if / when I get him, I will need to spend time training him to eat mysis so I can have other smaller fish. in there with him.
I love the Soft and LPS corals I have seeing them open and close and wave in the water, is pretty neat to me. As far as electricity, I'm running a small sump and PC lights, but, I think my electricity bill this month was $1.00 more than last month.
And now with spring, not having to run heat as much, I should see my electricity drop significantly and the aquarium should be negligable for me.
I'm trying to find local people to buy corals from. There's always someone selling off frags for cheap.. I just picked up an ACAN frag from a $500 acan for $50. I don't know if it'll be worth $500 when it grows up, but, it could actually be profitable if I could even sell of it's frags in a year or two for more or the same amount.
With SW it seems like there's so many possibilities. I was just thinking how neat it would be to have a small tank with a DSB, with some sand dwelling critters all over in it.. Themed tanks would be a lot of fun and could be relatively low cost if buying used setups here and there.
I got my 2 year old established LR from a 90 gallon aquarium. He didn't like his coral setup so he was selling off all the rock and buying new rock. I got it for $1.00 - $1.50 a pound..
There's tons of possibilities in this. And in this economy, a lot of people selling used stuff. Makes it a lot more affordable for us to stay in the game if we don't have to have new all the time.
Got my skimmer for $50.00 it's a $200 skimmer at the LFS. Bak-Pak 2.
It works perfectly for my tank. I do sometimes get frustrated with having to do water changes, but, as long as the benefits outweigh the negatives, to me, it's good. If I were having a $50.00 fish die every week, I would have to reconsider at some point. Doing things right though, should help save money in the future.
I totally understand where you are coming from. After six years and five different tanks I finally hung it up last week. I posted my stuff for sale and it was gone by the next afternoon.
The $300 electric bill for December was my "last straw." I LOVE looking at fish/corals and watching them grow, but what I hated was:
The never ending trips to the fish store. I don't think I ever went a month without spending at least $100.
Algae -- scraping it, looking for something to eat it, wondering if I would ever conquer it.
The nerves I'd get every time I went to plug/unplug something wondering if there was water nearby/on the plug -- shocked twice in the beginning, and had a vortech flare out once...never got over it.
The guilt for killing anything that belonged in the ocean instead of in my living room
Never looking at my tank and thinking "perfect" -- there was always something wrong - aiptasia, algae, a sickly looking coral, a rock that was out of place....I just got really sick of sticking my hands in water to fix things.
I think this is a very demanding, costly hobby. I give a LOT of credit to the people with great looking tanks because I know it just doesn't come easy.
I was really depressed the day of the sale thinking that I'd miss the fish/corals, but I've been amazed at how FREE I feel -- not having that nagging "is it time for a water change/to dose something/to feed the fish/to scrap algae/go to the fish store for something" feeling. I hadn't realized just what a drain it had become.
The $300 electric bill for December was my "last straw." I LOVE looking at fish/corals and watching them grow, but what I hated was:
The never ending trips to the fish store. I don't think I ever went a month without spending at least $100.
Algae -- scraping it, looking for something to eat it, wondering if I would ever conquer it.
The nerves I'd get every time I went to plug/unplug something wondering if there was water nearby/on the plug -- shocked twice in the beginning, and had a vortech flare out once...never got over it.
The guilt for killing anything that belonged in the ocean instead of in my living room
Never looking at my tank and thinking "perfect" -- there was always something wrong - aiptasia, algae, a sickly looking coral, a rock that was out of place....I just got really sick of sticking my hands in water to fix things.
I think this is a very demanding, costly hobby. I give a LOT of credit to the people with great looking tanks because I know it just doesn't come easy.
I was really depressed the day of the sale thinking that I'd miss the fish/corals, but I've been amazed at how FREE I feel -- not having that nagging "is it time for a water change/to dose something/to feed the fish/to scrap algae/go to the fish store for something" feeling. I hadn't realized just what a drain it had become.
igot2gats
Deeeetroit Basketball!
I agree.
LPS_Blasto
New member
At this time last year I had the 180g mixed reef, a 125g FOWLR, the 55g SPS tank, the 55g mushroom tank, a 30 tall sea horse tank, a 40 breeder LPS tank and a 10g frag tank.
Today I have a 29g frag tank, the 55g SPS tank and the 180g mixed reef. I'm debating on getting rid of the SPS tank and convetting the 180g mixed reef to a frag tank. The SPS tank is the most expensive tank to operate due to the lights and big pumps. I have been wanting to sell off the livestock in the 180g and turn it into a farm. At that point I'd get rid of the 29g frag tank and just have the 180g frag tank.
The 180g tank is in the living room on my wifes Australian cypress floors. So far I've not had a flood or spill of more than a few cups of water. But I have nitemares about it. She'll kill me if it floods on her floor. I'd feel a whole lot safer and probably sleep a whole lot more if that tank was in the basement about 10 feet from the floor drain.
I hate to cut back so much, but work has not been as steady over the last 24months. I'm self employed and times are tough. I've been keeping salt water fish for over 20yrs and corals for about 5yrs. I still have passion for the hobby. It's just so expensive to maintain a house full of tanks when work is so slow.
Today I have a 29g frag tank, the 55g SPS tank and the 180g mixed reef. I'm debating on getting rid of the SPS tank and convetting the 180g mixed reef to a frag tank. The SPS tank is the most expensive tank to operate due to the lights and big pumps. I have been wanting to sell off the livestock in the 180g and turn it into a farm. At that point I'd get rid of the 29g frag tank and just have the 180g frag tank.
The 180g tank is in the living room on my wifes Australian cypress floors. So far I've not had a flood or spill of more than a few cups of water. But I have nitemares about it. She'll kill me if it floods on her floor. I'd feel a whole lot safer and probably sleep a whole lot more if that tank was in the basement about 10 feet from the floor drain.
I hate to cut back so much, but work has not been as steady over the last 24months. I'm self employed and times are tough. I've been keeping salt water fish for over 20yrs and corals for about 5yrs. I still have passion for the hobby. It's just so expensive to maintain a house full of tanks when work is so slow.
jason12345
New member
Id downgrade, or invest(if possible) in a frag or coral growing tank (if not already) to make some money back.
