Keep it Fresh
For many experienced aquarists there comes a time when the interest towards reef keeping starts to decline. Many just reduce the amount of time they use to communicate about the hobby (clubs, forums, blogs etc) and others start to reduce the daily interactions with their reef aquarium.
There are many reasons for this but some I’ve observed are the following. When you start to gain more knowledge about the inner workings of a reef aquarium it’s understandable that you’ll start to get more and more annoyed about the ramblings in most of the reef forums and this can really get you down. Or maybe you have had the same fishes and corals so many years you can’t even remember. Or the lack of new directions in hobby is getting so boring that you are just so sick of hearing the same things over and over again. Well, I think it is still possible to keep things interesting. Some of the things that have helped me:
- Take a break from internet! I did just that, I was almost completely disconnected from the various forums and websites a couple of years. And guess what? The forum posting community didn’t come up with any big breakthroughs during that time. And it’s no wonder since I now see the trend where people might have more than a thousand posts but still has not grasped the most basic principles of reef keeping. Some of these people might not even have a reef aquarium.
- Change those live rocks. Remember how entertaining it was to find new organisms when you started your last tank? Sell half of your existing live rock to be used as base rock and replace them with some fresh reef. And if you haven’t done so in years you’ll find that the average quality and selection has only gotten better.
- Sell or give away some of your corals and fishes – there is absolutely no need to keep the same specimens year after year.
- Try some difficult or “impossible” species. The idea that no one should keep certain animals because someone can’t keep them alive is totally flawed. We would not be keeping marine fish or corals if that was the best way to advance the hobby. You are an experienced reefer and there are no one better to find out how these species should be taken care of in captivity. The “experts” giving these “impossible” labels are most likely worse aquarists than you anyway. On the other hand, remember to correct any egomaniac newbie in the forums if they should try the same species.
- Start another hobby that supports reefkeeping. Microscopy, photography, woodcraft and creating things from acrylic are just a few examples.
- Be creative. Think outside of the box and create a new “method” – we have had far too few pioneers in this hobby for a very long time. I don’t think there have been a single major invention since the 80′s. Just be prepared to receive some flaming as people who have read one little book about reef aquariums are going to tell you that you are completely ruining your aquarium.
Of course you can also quit the whole damn hobby.