I thought I was the only one that was going the wrong direction in this hobby.
When our second child was born, I downsized from a 90gal reef to a 23gal/20sump. Now that we are expecting again, I sold that and am now left with my 2gal nano.
A smaller tank costs very little to run and takes up hardly any room. My little nano is still big enough to amaze me with its life; plus, it's my passkey into a club of really great people, can't give that up. :smile:

My saltwater is 65g.. .and I've been thinking I'll sell the high maintainence corals... the montipora which takes up too much space, and the pineapple coral that requires feeding.. (gorgeous but takes too much work to feed..)

Well... I kinda have a "small tank" by the standards of most people on this msg board... I can't really afford to downsize as I'll have to get strong lights for the new smaller tanks...

My frog spawn melted today <sighs> everything looks droppy and unhappy, except the clams.. Maybe its my water...

My fish have ick and I feel its all my fault. like i"M a bad mother for not doing something super amazing to cure it. So helpless. Yes its my first time with Ick... It's like if I earned more money I could buy more equipment which would maket he tank run better... I could afford the actinics. I could afford a proper UV sterilizer... etc...

So an option would be to get rid of the 4 FW tanks... right? well they are all a set up for my breeding FW angels.. need to find people who would be willing to take them and take care of them well...

I have a hard time giving away/selling livestock because I feel accountable for their lives...

yeah I sound like I'm complaining. Thanks for your support.. just a difficult time that I have to work through... I know you've all been here.

If you get out I may be interested in your lighting.

Nice, Ryan :rolleyes:

Xtasia,

I totally hear you. Practically all the spare money I have goes into my tank, whether it be for normal maintenance (ie. salt, reactor media, food) or big ticket items ( I just got an Euroreef and it was worth every penny :wink:). The inside of a mall?? Haven't seen it in months! My shoe collection has taken a hit over the past few years and I've been buying alot of my clothes at costco, hey if I get that $20 pair of jeans I'll have more money to spend on fish right??


I don't know how long you've been in the hobby but having the best equipment etc isn't necessarily the answer. Its just having equipment that does its job well. I didn't *need* a Euroreef skimmer, but the skimmer I had previously just wasn't cutting it. My tank is faring much better since I made the switch. Eventually you will come to a point where you'll have all the equipment and then you won't *need* to buy it (well unless you're like me and buy it anyway :razz:). I know I've been at the point you are for the better part of a year, waffling on whether to just sell everything and go to Mexico. I've had horrible algae problems and huge livestock losses (corals) but I stuck it out. And, well into my third hour of pulling caulerpa out of my tank, I'm still shaking my head and wondering why I didn't get out while I had the chance :wink:


Ok as for your ick situation. I don't know what kind of fish you have but if you aren't already feeding garlic (kent garlic extreme stinks up the place but it works). You may want to get yourself down to J&L and buy a couple of those neon gobies they have on sale there (I think they're $14.95 each). They're darn cute and they do a pretty good job of picking all the ick off your fish. I had a couple and they were simply amazing! For the longest time I couldn't figure out why they were the only ones that had ick until I saw them eating it off all of the other fish. So make sure you keep feeding the garlic. This is just an idea I had off the top of my head, you may not want to introduce any more fish to your tank, especially in an ick situation

Remember, hobbies are supposed to be fun, at least thats what it says in the books so it must be true right? :wink:

Christy :)

Yeah Ivy. Hang in there. Some of us locals can give you a hand getting things back under control so you can enjoy this addiction again. BTW, I know what you mean about all your $$ going into the tanks. And I sympathize with the space issue, but that's why its called an addiction.

Ryan, your "oh so thoughtful" words of encouragement are beyond belief. :rolleyes:

Anthony

Thanks for the encouragement..

The tank took a dive today... but SeahorseFanatic, Tigger and Griffin were over at my place lickety split to help me fix the problem... Lost the green pinkFrogspawn I FELL IN LOVE WITH that I bought from Pocilopora (first coral to die by my hands) and am feeling pretty down... Still have the ick problem to deal with once I get my water levels fixed up... But I have to admit.. it's pretty nice to have friends to count on... 4 hours of help from people who have little to nothing to gain from helping me... now that's pretty incredible....

Would be a shame to see another member quit. That ick thing is so frustrating, eh? Seems like you try so hard to provide a healthy environment, and it can still happen. Not sure if anyone does this much here, but have you ever tried the freshwater bath? It has helped in the past with our ick situations. none the less, it sucks to treat safely.
I always kinda thought that the bath was maybe "inhumane" for the fish, but they all felt better afterwards. Just a thought.

We were in the same boat. Debating getting rid of the marine system. Sold it all for a good price, and now regret it. So, we are going to buy again! Don't quit all together, you will most-likely regret it! Maybe a 25 gal or 33 gal?

I am quite surprised though that so many others have thought of quitting in the past-but it can be frustrating to say the least!

Hang in there, and good luck with the ick!

reply
 

Ryan said, Anthony said, Reminds me of another member from the Taber area from a while back. :confused: Anyone guess who?

Casualties... so far...

4 inch Blue Maxima Clam
7 inch Purple Monti cap
1 yellow sun coral, baseball sized.
1 orange sun coral, baseball sized.
3 hairy mushrooms
1 sinulara
2 small colonies of Zooanthids.
1 Greenish Ricordia
2 Frags Kenya Tree
4 x 6 patch of GSP
4 head (10 branches) Frogspawn
Green Caulerpa
Potters Angel.. (probably mort tonight.. he was laying flat panting on the sand this morning)

(sighs)

Whats going on?? That ain't right. We gotta fix this. Is it algae? water?

Can you post a rundown of your tank specs?

Are you using RODI?

Additives??


Christy :)