I'm going to be brutally honest with you. Everyday I come on Reef Central I see a new thread by a new member about how you have done a hack job on your tank. Usually with the equipment setup itself, but most often it's the fact that you fail to do any research.
The result is YOU kill off a few or 10 fish and another dozen or so corals before you finally come to your senses and start to research and learn what it takes to take part in a hobby like this or you simply drop out of the hobby altogether. Which for the sake of the animals is probably a good thing. However, collectively you all have done your damage.
First, let me tell you this thread isn't a "How to Setup a Ornamental Marine System", that's already been done and if you "research" you'll find that information. No, this is a thread on "How to be a Successful Ornamental Marine Hobbyist."
There's some questions you need to ask yourself.
1) Do I have the money to partake in an expensive hobby like this?
This hobby isn't cheap. We're not collecting stamps. We're collecting fragile marine organisms that require expensive equipment and consumable products to insure that these animals not just survive, but grow. If you're scraping every little dime together to buy products, you're doing yourself a disservice. Hobby money is excess money you have after bills are paid and savings have been made. So before you consider getting into this hobby you need to make damn sure you can afford it. I'm sure everyone would love a ornamental marine system in their living room, but for many they just can't afford it. There is nothing wrong with being humble and realizing you simply can't afford a hobby like this. If a fish tank is a must, setup a freshwater tank. There's nothing wrong with freshwater and it will at a minimum prepare you when you do have some money to transition over to the saltwater side of the hobby. Don't be ignorant or selfish and force the impossible. If you have to wait two weeks to save up money for salt mix, don't get into this hobby. You will fail.
2) Do I have the time to commit to a hobby like this?
A hobby is a way to spend your excess time for personal enjoyment. Well this hobby not only requires a lot of time, it's also a permanent "COMMITMENT." This is not your stamp collection that can sit on the back burner for weeks or months. Plain and simple, it's a job! Albeit a fun and rewarding job, it's still a job nonetheless. It is going to require daily attention. The way you design your setup will definitely dictate how easy or not it is to complete these daily tasks. But you need to recognize how much time is involved. From feeding, to cleaning glass, to dosing, to water changes, to maintaining equipment, to replacing media, etc. If your spouse or significant other is already complaining that you don't spend enough time with them, this hobby is a sure way to help send you to the front of the line at divorce court or your local watering hole while you drown yourself in 12 ounces of sorrow wondering why they left you. And let's not forget about your other commitments. You know, like raising your children. The bottom line is, does your schedule afford enough time everyday to maintain a marine system? If not, this hobby isn't for you and you will fail.
3) Am I willing to do the research required to start and maintain a ornamental marine system?
To the average person that walks in a local fish store they see saltwater and fish and think, "Oh how simple, water and fish, I can do this." NO! It's not that simple. If you're on here asking why do my fish keep dying and we ask you how did you cycle your tank or did you quarantine them and your reply is, "What's that?" My guess is the answer to the question is, no. You need to spend a significant amount of time reading what it takes to have a successful system. This hobby is full of challenges, even for the seasoned hobbyist and if you don't have the basic education of a marine environment you are going to fail. Again, I'm not going to detail what the marine environment is, that's already been done. It's your responsibility to seek out that information and educate yourself. I can assure you your time spent in this hobby will be much more rewarding if you have the knowledge and can be proactive to your system rather than reactive. I cringe every time I see a "ID This" thread and the corresponding picture is a pineapple sponge or a vermited snail, etc. This tells me you have not done your research. At the end of the day, if you're not willing to do the research, you're going to fail.
4) Am I willing to learn from others and accept the information I have gathered?
This seems like a no brainier, but I constantly see new hobbyist unwilling to heed the advice of those with experience. Dammit, if we tell you tap water isn't going to work in a marine system or a blue hippo tang is not suitable in your 12" cube or that large angel is going to eat that clam, you need to listen and act accordingly to that advice. Check your selfish know it all ego at the login screen. Their are seasoned hobbyist with decades of experience that are here to help you. Watching you write them off like they know nothing because so and so said this at Petco or you're just too damn stubborn to listen or admit you're wrong is only going to do yourself a disservice and you're going to fail. Many people have already made the mistakes your making. If you do #3 in this thread and accept that information (aka, willingness to learn) your chances of success in this hobby are going to increase substantially. You are not going to change an animals instinct, you are not going to change the laws of hydrodynamics, nor are you going to change the laws of physics, etc. If you're going to try and prove us and nature wrong, you are going to fail.
5) Last but not least. Do I understand the consequences of my actions in this hobby?
This hobby involves LIFE. Delicate life. Limited life. The fact that some of you look at these animals as just trophies in a tank sitting on a stand is going to hurt not only the existence of the hobby, but the existence of the species themselves. There is not an unlimited supply of these animals. We are not capable of breeding them like cats and dogs. Every time I see you fail at the first 4 questions in this thread, the result is you have unnecessarily killed these animals. Our hobby already has a public image problem and you're thread about how all your fish died a week after you added them to your two week old tank is just fueling the fire for law makers to impose more regulations upon us, to outright bans. You need to change your perception of captive marine life. You wouldn't go buy a dog and keep it in a 2 foot cage for the rest of its life. You wouldn't buy a dog and not get it its shots. You wouldn't buy a dog and feed it lettuce. You wouldn't (shouldn't) buy a dog without the commitment to keep it as long as it lives. The same goes for our marine animals. They are pets, not inanimate objects, not trophies. If YOU make the DECISION to BUY a marine animal YOU are making a COMMITMENT and now have full RESPONSIBILITY to insure that it LIVES! We can insure that this hobby is here for our kids and grand kids, but that is only going to happen if you understand sustainability. The thinking that if one fish dies, I'll just buy another is flawed. The thinking needs to be, "I'm going to do everything possible to insure this animal will not only survive, but thrive and live a complete full life while under my care." If not, not only are you going to fail, but your going to fail all of us, including the species we love.
In conclusion, I ask that you ask yourself these 5 simple questions. And if you can't honestly answer yes to all of them, choose a different hobby.
The result is YOU kill off a few or 10 fish and another dozen or so corals before you finally come to your senses and start to research and learn what it takes to take part in a hobby like this or you simply drop out of the hobby altogether. Which for the sake of the animals is probably a good thing. However, collectively you all have done your damage.
First, let me tell you this thread isn't a "How to Setup a Ornamental Marine System", that's already been done and if you "research" you'll find that information. No, this is a thread on "How to be a Successful Ornamental Marine Hobbyist."
There's some questions you need to ask yourself.
1) Do I have the money to partake in an expensive hobby like this?
This hobby isn't cheap. We're not collecting stamps. We're collecting fragile marine organisms that require expensive equipment and consumable products to insure that these animals not just survive, but grow. If you're scraping every little dime together to buy products, you're doing yourself a disservice. Hobby money is excess money you have after bills are paid and savings have been made. So before you consider getting into this hobby you need to make damn sure you can afford it. I'm sure everyone would love a ornamental marine system in their living room, but for many they just can't afford it. There is nothing wrong with being humble and realizing you simply can't afford a hobby like this. If a fish tank is a must, setup a freshwater tank. There's nothing wrong with freshwater and it will at a minimum prepare you when you do have some money to transition over to the saltwater side of the hobby. Don't be ignorant or selfish and force the impossible. If you have to wait two weeks to save up money for salt mix, don't get into this hobby. You will fail.
2) Do I have the time to commit to a hobby like this?
A hobby is a way to spend your excess time for personal enjoyment. Well this hobby not only requires a lot of time, it's also a permanent "COMMITMENT." This is not your stamp collection that can sit on the back burner for weeks or months. Plain and simple, it's a job! Albeit a fun and rewarding job, it's still a job nonetheless. It is going to require daily attention. The way you design your setup will definitely dictate how easy or not it is to complete these daily tasks. But you need to recognize how much time is involved. From feeding, to cleaning glass, to dosing, to water changes, to maintaining equipment, to replacing media, etc. If your spouse or significant other is already complaining that you don't spend enough time with them, this hobby is a sure way to help send you to the front of the line at divorce court or your local watering hole while you drown yourself in 12 ounces of sorrow wondering why they left you. And let's not forget about your other commitments. You know, like raising your children. The bottom line is, does your schedule afford enough time everyday to maintain a marine system? If not, this hobby isn't for you and you will fail.
3) Am I willing to do the research required to start and maintain a ornamental marine system?
To the average person that walks in a local fish store they see saltwater and fish and think, "Oh how simple, water and fish, I can do this." NO! It's not that simple. If you're on here asking why do my fish keep dying and we ask you how did you cycle your tank or did you quarantine them and your reply is, "What's that?" My guess is the answer to the question is, no. You need to spend a significant amount of time reading what it takes to have a successful system. This hobby is full of challenges, even for the seasoned hobbyist and if you don't have the basic education of a marine environment you are going to fail. Again, I'm not going to detail what the marine environment is, that's already been done. It's your responsibility to seek out that information and educate yourself. I can assure you your time spent in this hobby will be much more rewarding if you have the knowledge and can be proactive to your system rather than reactive. I cringe every time I see a "ID This" thread and the corresponding picture is a pineapple sponge or a vermited snail, etc. This tells me you have not done your research. At the end of the day, if you're not willing to do the research, you're going to fail.
4) Am I willing to learn from others and accept the information I have gathered?
This seems like a no brainier, but I constantly see new hobbyist unwilling to heed the advice of those with experience. Dammit, if we tell you tap water isn't going to work in a marine system or a blue hippo tang is not suitable in your 12" cube or that large angel is going to eat that clam, you need to listen and act accordingly to that advice. Check your selfish know it all ego at the login screen. Their are seasoned hobbyist with decades of experience that are here to help you. Watching you write them off like they know nothing because so and so said this at Petco or you're just too damn stubborn to listen or admit you're wrong is only going to do yourself a disservice and you're going to fail. Many people have already made the mistakes your making. If you do #3 in this thread and accept that information (aka, willingness to learn) your chances of success in this hobby are going to increase substantially. You are not going to change an animals instinct, you are not going to change the laws of hydrodynamics, nor are you going to change the laws of physics, etc. If you're going to try and prove us and nature wrong, you are going to fail.
5) Last but not least. Do I understand the consequences of my actions in this hobby?
This hobby involves LIFE. Delicate life. Limited life. The fact that some of you look at these animals as just trophies in a tank sitting on a stand is going to hurt not only the existence of the hobby, but the existence of the species themselves. There is not an unlimited supply of these animals. We are not capable of breeding them like cats and dogs. Every time I see you fail at the first 4 questions in this thread, the result is you have unnecessarily killed these animals. Our hobby already has a public image problem and you're thread about how all your fish died a week after you added them to your two week old tank is just fueling the fire for law makers to impose more regulations upon us, to outright bans. You need to change your perception of captive marine life. You wouldn't go buy a dog and keep it in a 2 foot cage for the rest of its life. You wouldn't buy a dog and not get it its shots. You wouldn't buy a dog and feed it lettuce. You wouldn't (shouldn't) buy a dog without the commitment to keep it as long as it lives. The same goes for our marine animals. They are pets, not inanimate objects, not trophies. If YOU make the DECISION to BUY a marine animal YOU are making a COMMITMENT and now have full RESPONSIBILITY to insure that it LIVES! We can insure that this hobby is here for our kids and grand kids, but that is only going to happen if you understand sustainability. The thinking that if one fish dies, I'll just buy another is flawed. The thinking needs to be, "I'm going to do everything possible to insure this animal will not only survive, but thrive and live a complete full life while under my care." If not, not only are you going to fail, but your going to fail all of us, including the species we love.
In conclusion, I ask that you ask yourself these 5 simple questions. And if you can't honestly answer yes to all of them, choose a different hobby.
