Long term success?

[hyoib]

At what point do you think you’ve achieved long term success in this hobby?

[Tamberav]

Never...!! Maybe when the fish die of old age 15 years+ later? 

 

I suppose a tank running 5 years and still going is doing pretty good. I think most peoples tanks have their up's and downs though. 

[Clown79]

There is always ups and downs, nothing is perfect always, it would be too easy if it was😁

[Coinee]

26 minutes ago, hyoib said:

At what point do you think you’ve achieved long term success in this hobby?

I mean there's no real point of "success" since your tank can come crashing down at any moment if you neglect it. But success meaning you know your tanks needs and can take care of it, well some people have been doing that for years upon years...this sounds more reasonable for the hobby IMO. I would say if you can keep everything well balanced for a few years, then you're successful. 

[A Little Blue]

By minimizing failure point, keep up with maintenance, follow the basic knowledge of successful reef keeping, your chances will increase dramatically. 

However, over time we become more ignorant and cocky which puts us in dangerous and deceiving comfort zone. That usually ends badly. 

[Coinee]

1 hour ago, Tamberav said:

Never...!! Maybe when the fish die of old age 15 years+ later? 

 

I suppose a tank running 5 years and still going is doing pretty good. I think most peoples tanks have their up's and downs though. 

I went to the LFS today to get some GSP I saw they had a couple weeks ago. In that span of time, the tank crashed and they lost a lot of coral and other livestock despite the tank being up and running for years...it just happens sometimes even with people on top of things (especially with idiots touching things like the public)

[seabass]

For me, long-term success means a tank that you know and is stable.  One that supports a variety of life, and that you are not battling any major problems.  A mature tank that has been running for awhile, in which you haven't just added a bunch of livestock.  A tank which has notable growth and no uncontrolled pests.  Something that you are happy with as is.

 

I'm not sure that I have ever totally achieved this.  I wish that I had more money and time to invest in my reef interests.  I've certainly achieved success on a number of different levels.  I'll take my wins when I can get them, and try to learn from my failures.  The nice thing about this forum, is that we get the opportunity to help others achieve success.

[Snow_Phoenix]

I find this very subjective. Each person has their own version of what 'success' is in reefing - this even translates to other real-life goals (eg. careers, relationships, finances etc.). For me, I categorize success as long-term stability. There are so many beautiful tanks on various reef forums, but if you dig deeper, you'd realize how 'young' these tanks are - meaning, some of them have only been up and running for a year or two, maybe even less. They look amazing because of the stocking choices and the aquascaping - but I think older, mature tanks above five years, which require minimal effort to run, simply because they're so *stable, are the truly successful ones. Once again, different people have different parameters for success. Someone else might look at a six-month-old mixed reef with premium corals and rare, expensive fish and immediately call that successful. To each, his or her own, I guess. 

[hyoib]

For me I think it'll be when I'm in a position where I'm not between 'feast or famine', not having to make big changes to keep things on track and running on autopilot. And when I'm not worrying when I'll have my next algae outbreak 😂

 

I think that's why i prefer reef keeping so much more to fresh water. In fresh water, you just do your water change and regular feeding and your likely to have success. Whereas, I love the complex physiology of the whole reef system and how much attention to detail you need to maintain  to keep our fragile systems from crashing and burning.