What a hobby! the expense, the time, the investment, the disappointment. About five years I have been at this saltwater game and it started innocent enough. I won the door prize at the local fish clubs semi annual fish auction, awesome a 160 litre bow front tank, stand lights everything I needed to get me feet wet in saltwater. Fast forward five years, I'm not going to bore you with the trials and tribulations inbetween but I will say I wish I never bought that ticket five years earlier. No one and I mean no one gets through this hobby unscathed, even the most grizzled veterans and smartest minds have tales of torment, disappointment and great losses. No one can ride this horse for long without falling off, no one can ride this horse into the sunset smiling. One thing is for sure at the end everything in your tank will be gone. Dead, sold, given away,some just vanishes into thin air. When ever I see a newbie introduce themselves to the board they get tons of welcomes and encouragement..... I want to tell them to sell everything now and cut their losses
That being said I still plod along, not with the same intensity in finding the best corals I can and have come to cross roads. Standing there, I wonder will the next big disappoint be my last...... Likely not, the thought of staring at an empty tank seems harder than moving forward trying to find the tanks sweet spot again even though I know when it's found it won't be found for long.
Chin up. Have a good evening.