Life after reefing

[Animal-Chin]

Well its been a few months without a tank, gotta say the adjustment has been weirdly difficult. There are good things and bad, ups and downs. Here are some thoughts...

Firstly, my electricity bill went down 47% a month since the tank is gone. 47%!!! All those years I told my wife it didn't make a big difference I was full of... But ya holy moly!

Secondly, its super dry in my place. My wife and daughter both quicky had the skin on their face dry up as I wasn't sending 2.5 gallons of evaporated water in the air. Didn't see that side effect coming...lol

I miss having something to tinker with in the evenings. I always had this thing that would temporarily make me forget about work or life or whatever, gotta find something to replace that, it left a hole for sure.

Maintaining a mixed reef was a challenge and doing it right gave me this sense of accomplishment, that's gone now, sure my life has other things in it but looking at that box of awesomeness every day and seeing everything happy in there really felt good. Flip side, I haven't had a coral die in a long time! lol I do feel better about that, I always had this little internal moral dilemma about keeping these animals in a tank. Small thing but...

I really miss trips to J&L, King Ed Pets, Fish Addicts, ect. Nothing like finding that coral you've been missing or that one fish you've always wanted. Talking to the staff about how your tank is going, all that fun stuff. I drove through Burnaby on Saturday and it really hit me, I have NO reason to ever go to J&L again, I went there regularly for 8 years. Are they worried about me? lol Should I check in and let them know its nothing personal?

I don't have to make water, change water, spill water, test water, dose water, put my arms in water... this is nice, when I get the feeling like I made a mistake taking it down I remember the maintenance I don't worry bout now and it changes my mind.

Is this gone forever? Hard to say, with the rising prices of everything in the hobby it may be. Maybe a nano creeps back into my life someday. maybe FOWRL, maybe a 300 gallon all sps monster tank...guess time will tell...

Oh and the internet, I don't look at fish sites, post on fish boards, shop for coral/equipment. I've had to unsubscribe from a zillion things and seeing reeftanks on instragram makes me low key angry? Its weird, its like you have to go cold turkey, you can't want videos from MrSaltwater Tank anymore...

Anyway, just some thoughts from an ex reefer trying to figure out if he made the right decision. Hope you're all well and still love your tanks.

Your friend, Animal Chin.