What frustrates me the most

[dandelion]

I'm sure this is no news to any fellow reefers. I think what frustrates me the most is witnessing a downturn in the health of our pets and not being able to do anything. We follow people's advices: Use RO/DI. Get a reliable heater/controller. Cycle the tank. Quarantine and acclimate new fish. Test frequently. Tank has been running successfully and then one day you find your fish on the sand bed gasping for air. Your corals bleaching in the matters of hours. You did all you can, but nothing seems to work and they die right in front of your eyes. The helplessness is one thing. The worse thing is still not knowing what went wrong so there's no way to prevent it from happening again. Several months down the road you have another fish on the sand bed. Another mass of corals necrotizing. History repeats itself.

 

Sorry I just needed to vent. My favorite clownfish is not going to make it and I am still baffled as to what I did wrong. I'm not done with this hobby yet. Im sure everyone has some sad stories to tell.

[ml86743]

Oh everybody has been down this path before! There are times when this hobby is so discouraging it seems easier to give up. Hell, I know I've been there a few times. My most recent setup went through a phase where I suffered alot of coral loss for no apparent reason, to this day I still do not know what happened...But after that I find enjoyment in everything thats healthy and well, even though its tough! Such as the way my pistol/wheelers goby share a mutualistic relationship..or the few reamaining corals I have that are still kickin'. This hobby ain't easy...lots of time...trial and error...research..and luck! Ive seen extremely succesfull tanks here on NR that run the most expensive equipment..and some with the LEASt expensive equipment...Some folks just have the "green thumb" for reefkeeping...All we can do is learn from previous short-comings and continue to learn and build on what we know! Paiteince goes a looong way in the hobby...Just proceed with the proper footwork and eventually the desired results will be rewarded!

[fishfreak0114]

Sorry to hear things haven't been going well. We've all hit rough patches, mine has definitely been Qt'ing fish. No matter how hard I tried, every fish in QT would die of something even as I was treating it. I almost gave up! The first few fish went fine, but then it took me 7 (yes 7) tries before I bought fish with no weird problems and managed to get them healthy (they had ich but that's an easy fix) and into my tank. I felt so bad that I had failed those fish that I consider giving my tank to someone else, but I didn't give up, and less than a month ago I added two healthy fish to my DT! Things may not be going quite the way you want now, but if you keep going and don't let yourself get too down you'll be successful whenever I feel like something's my fault (even if it was out of my control) I just gotta glance at my decorative throw pillow that says it all, "shit happens"...

[malacoda]

Sorry to hear you're going through a rough, frustrating patch right now.

 

If you really think about it, this hobby can be downright ironic...

 

We all strive to have the most beautiful, trouble free, no-worry systems we possibly can (at times to the extent of even throwing some pretty crazy sums of money into our systems).

 

And yet, if you really, really think about it - rather than stability and ease, it's often the challenge and uncertainty that truly keeps going. Without it, it wouldn't be long before our tanks became about as boring and uninteresting as a dusty old picture hanging on the wall that brought us little, if any, real intrigue or enjoyment.

 

It can indeed be a rough roller coaster ride at times. Hopefully you'll reach the top of this current uphill climb fast so that you can enjoy the next fun set of thrills that lie ahead.

[Clown79]

Yes, it definitely has its frustrating moments. It also has great moments.

 

My first tank was a 55g reef. I learned a lot from it.

 

1. Don't listen to everything everyone else says because there are so many things that work that many don't do or never attempted to do.

 

2. Less is often more

 

3. Don't over stress because its nature and things aren't completely in our control.

[Lawnman]

I'm sure this is no news to any fellow reefers. I think what frustrates me the most is witnessing a downturn in the health of our pets and not being able to do anything. We follow people's advices: Use RO/DI. Get a reliable heater/controller. Cycle the tank. Quarantine and acclimate new fish. Test frequently. Tank has been running successfully and then one day you find your fish on the sand bed gasping for air. Your corals bleaching in the matters of hours. You did all you can, but nothing seems to work and they die right in front of your eyes. The helplessness is one thing. The worse thing is still not knowing what went wrong so there's no way to prevent it from happening again. Several months down the road you have another fish on the sand bed. Another mass of corals necrotizing. History repeats itself.

Sorry I just needed to vent. My favorite clownfish is not going to make it and I am still baffled as to what I did wrong. I'm not done with this hobby yet. Im sure everyone has some sad stories to tell.

I have read so many of these stories in my 7 years here. Been there before and that's why I wrote my try a soft coral reef before hanging up your hat in my TOTM write up. My last waterchange was 3 weeks ago on my soft reef and all I have done is feed the fish.

[Nano sapiens]

Tough one, for sure. Just remember that even the 'experts' have their trials-and-tribulations (although you may not always here about them). By it's very nature any hobby that includes living creatures has a certain amount of unpredictability and reef keeping is certainly no exception. The best we can do is try to provide the best conditions for the animals that we can and hope for the best.

 

As time goes by, experience becomes the best teacher so don't give up!

[dandelion]

No I am not giving up yet. Knock on wood it's not even a catastrophic event. It's just that it is my favorite fish. It was not even 1 inch long when I got it and now it is almost 2". Right now it is bobbing up and down in the QT head up and can't seem to right itself. I wonder if it is some sort of swim bladder issue. At least it is not just lying on the bottom. I'll leave the tank as dark as I can for the rest of today and hope the darkness can ease its stress and maybe it can bounce back. I'm not optimistic though.

 

On the bright side, I did get a green bubble tip anemone from a local reefer today. Acclimated into my tank 30 minutes ago and it seems to be doing alright.

[Alexraptor]

Heh, I know exactly how you feel.

I'm having to tear down my reef of 5 years after some bad luck and stupid decisions.(one of them being dumping in a huge rock I "thought" I had picked clean of bubble caulerpa! >.<)

Although I don't know wether or not to feel a sense of success or failure, as this summer I culled a lot in the tank and pulled out 75% of the old rocks and softies corals and started a new tank with them, so while the main system itself kind of went belly up for me, the reef in a way survived.

[dandelion]

My fish finally died. I basically watched him take its last breath, then twitched a little bit then became still. I checked its body there're no apparent lesions. Gills do not look red or abnormal. I still don't know what killed my favorite clown fish. ?

[Clown79]

I'm sorry.

 

Sometimes we never know especially if its something internal.

 

Know that you tried and did your best

[Newstead]

So sorry about your clown. I have a 4.5 year old that has a tumor on her face, and in researching and talking to knowledgeable fish health people, I found out that fish can have cancers, etc. just as people do, so it may have been sonething similar. You did all you could.

[uwphoto]

Sorry for your setback. I guess we have all had similar issues because we are dealing with a closed system. So no matter how hard we try we just can't recreate a truly natural environment.

If you haven't already, I would consider sending a water sample to Triton. You will at least know all "easily" available measurements of your system.

It is hard to start again. I left the hobby for ten years, but the bug never goes away!

[dandelion]

I have two systems at home, a pico coral-only tank and a nano fish + anemone tank. I'm definitely way more attached to my fish. If my favorite coral died I'll be like damn all that money and hard work. But with fish it is certainly closer to dogs and cats as pets.