Jestersix

Coming back to the hobby.. maybe?

jepoy

jepoy

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Hello BAReefers! So long story short my tank crashed December of last year, i decided i was done, then last few weeks the reef bug started nibbling on my hobby heart once again!

Long story version.. we were able to purchase a home late 2020, it being right around the holidays plus the totally insane housing market, the buying of our home and selling of our condo was just a blur and happened so quickly. So quick that i failed to plan the move of my reef tank. I ended up moving my reef tank very clumsily, with just my nephew, on the day before i had to give up the keys to my condo. Needless to say there were a lot of casualties.. corals and fish alike. I was so discouraged that I ended up giving away all the fish and corals that survived the move to a friend. I was going to be too busy moving in to the new house anyway and i figured i had more than enough renovation projects on my plate (plus a 2 year old to chase around) that I wouldn't have any time to revive my tank. So i quit the hobby.

Well now after almost a year has passed and with 80% of my renovation projects complete (and my almost 3 year old finally potty trained).. i started peeking at reef youtube videos again. At first i thought about switching to koi pond keeping, but with the current drought, i couldn't get myself to putting a couple thousand gallons of water into a hole in my backyard. So now i'm thinking about going back to reefing, but this time downgrading to a smaller tank than what i had last. I want to keep it simple with the fish selection and corals. I give up on SPS's.. maybe just zoas and LPS. All that said... i am still on the fence about coming back into this expensive hobby... I can't believe how much money i saved while i was out of it lol. We'll see.
 
Simpler is nice!
It is easy to get burned out on the hobby when too many things go wrong.
I gave up on high end pointy stick corals, and never regret that.
There are plenty of easy enough SPS corals, so you are not as restricted as you might think.

I would not say smaller is necessarily simpler though.
Stability becomes a problem, and you have to be very careful with fish choice.
And usually it means almost no herbivores.
Then there are the hassles of the tiny stand: Finding space for all the equipment, dosing tanks, and whatnot plus
contortions needed to clean things.

Smaller saves money in lighting and heating, but really not that much in other equipment costs.
 
rygh said:
Simpler is nice!
It is easy to get burned out on the hobby when too many things go wrong.
I gave up on high end pointy stick corals, and never regret that.
There are plenty of easy enough SPS corals, so you are not as restricted as you might think.

I would not say smaller is necessarily simpler though.
Stability becomes a problem, and you have to be very careful with fish choice.
And usually it means almost no herbivores.
Then there are the hassles of the tiny stand: Finding space for all the equipment, dosing tanks, and whatnot plus
contortions needed to clean things.

Smaller saves money in lighting and heating, but really not that much in other equipment costs.
Click to expand...
Yeah i'm thinking of just doing a pair of clowns and a bunch of small other fish.. no more hervibores or anything that chomp on shrimps, snails, or corals.

As for the tiny stands.. another reason why i want to try out the cade aquariums, their cabinets actually allows you access to 3 sides (front, left, and right) so this would be a dream as far as working on your sump.

Lastly, other than the aquarium and stand itself, i pretty much still have all my equipment from my last tank. Some may be too big for my upcoming tank but i can alway sell them.. so hopefully that'll save me some money.
 
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