People Getting Out Before They've Really Gotten In

[crew]

You can pretty much relate it to dogs. Everyone sees the 3 year old, perfectly behaved lab and wants one of their own. They don't see the 3 years of training that it took to get there. They go buy a puppy, the puppy destroys something very expensive. People give up.

I think the difference is people don't consider fish a part of the family the way people do with dogs. It's much easier to return something that can't cuddle you.

 

[crew]

andregarcia_73;1067009 wrote: ]Are we not here to help and inform?

Of course we are - but 90% of the folks leaving the hobby probably don't know about ARC. If they did, they wouldn't have suffered all of the financial hardship that come with mistakes early on in a fish tank's life.

 

[crew]

That's something we've discussed in the past. I'm sure we could find proof that it would be in the stores best interest. In theory, the store is going to lose money on the customer because of the discount, but at the same time, anyone that's active here is much less likely to leave the hobby.

 

[snowmansnow]

Everybody is an expert. Just do what works


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

ElitheLion;1066877 wrote: I think this hobby can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be. One thing that contributes to the complexity/simplicity is the amount of cash you have available to put into the system.

The first fish tank I ever had was a 55gal reef my parents got off a guy on craigslist. I was 13 at the time. I only had the knowledge I'd read off the internet, and my parents had and have no clue about fish tanks. The tank thrived with anemones, SPS, lps, multiple fish and a variety of inverts. Did I have a $600 led? Nope. $300 protein skimmer? Nope. GFO, carbon, phosban reactors? Nope. No ATO, no vortecs, not even a light timer. You can go a long way with a coralife HOB protein skimmer, 4 bulb t-5 and an occasional water change.

That being said, I often envy how neat, and matinence free a lot of the community's tanks are, but I think for a new reefer the amount of equipment you CAN have is daunting. Should I run?, do I need a led with automated light cycle? Do I need a wave maker for my coral to grow? Etc. I think it's better for beginners to have the simplest, most hands ON system possible to begin, then add all the fancy expensive equipment.

Just my 0.2¢

As a newbie to the hobby myself, converting from super easy cichlids, I would love to see more of this. I could not get past the fears of all the expensive equipment to set up a used 90 gallon used tank I bought... so I bought a used 29 gallon biocube to start. Plans are to see just how expensive this gets and decide if I will build the 90, and if I stay, make the biocube a qt. I just put my first fish in the buicube and all is well.

The core basics are what newbies need to hear, not the 5 and 10 thousand dollar setups that veterans of the hobby have buiot up or the 500 dollar drops on new equipment. I love hearing about the large expensive systems and that knowledge is very important, just like I like reading about expensive sportscars....I am not driving an expensive sportscar either, but I do enjoy reading and learning. It just gets hard to diferentiate between high performance luxury and basic nuts and bolts. I would love to reach that 400 gallon system with all the complexities and tools to make it work right....I am many years away from that.

I suspect this would be a large contributing factor to the arc membership discussion elsewhere in this forum, unless the goal is to recruit only vererans to the hobby.

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[saltwaterwannabe]

SaltWaterWannabe;1067124 wrote: As a newbie to the hobby myself, converting from super easy cichlids, I would love to see more of this. I could not get past the fears of all the expensive equipment to set up a used 90 gallon used tank I bought... so I bought a used 29 gallon biocube to start. Plans are to see just how expensive this gets and decide if I will build the 90, and if I stay, make the biocube a qt. I just put my first fish in the buicube and all is well.

The core basics are what newbies need to hear, not the 5 and 10 thousand dollar setups that veterans of the hobby have buiot up or the 500 dollar drops on new equipment. I love hearing about the large expensive systems and that knowledge is very important, just like I like reading about expensive sportscars....I am not driving an expensive sportscar either, but I do enjoy reading and learning. It just gets hard to diferentiate between high performance luxury and basic nuts and bolts. I would love to reach that 400 gallon system with all the complexities and tools to make it work right....I am many years away from that.

I suspect this would be a large contributing factor to the arc membership discussion elsewhere in this forum, unless the goal is to recruit only vererans to the hobby.

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Sometimes I can be quick to type something and leave an unintended misunderstanding. The folks here have been great and are a help when there is a response. I think the most important part of what I said above is that it is often hard to figure out what is high performance luxury vs. what are the crucial nuts and bolts.

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[redstang]

I always wished we could post a thread in the New Member Q&A section that would list suggested setups.

For instance, for a 120gal tank, you have option a, b, and c for lights, skimmer, return, powerhead etc... Provide details on how to plumb up the sump and provide rough new and used prices on all equipment. Do this for about 10 different sized tanks.

The main problem is most people find us AFTER they've bought something but it still might help some people get a more clear picture of what they're faced with. Pretty sure that I was a rarity who found and joined the ARC before I bought a tank.

 

[camellia]

SaltWaterWannabe;1067136 wrote: Sometimes I can be quick to type something and leave an unintended misunderstanding. The folks here have been great and are a help when there is a response. I think the most important part of what I said above is that it is often hard to figure out what is high performance luxury vs. what are the crucial nuts and bolts.

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Agree with all said above! The folks here are great and it's often hard to figure out what is the high-performance vs crucial...
There is a good reason it's hard to fiqure that question out! It's because it's different for every tank depending on its contents and how the person is going to maintain the tank itself.

Saltwater reef tanks can be a simple or as complex as YOU make it. This however isn't "common" knowledge. It's something that's understood after educating yourself by either studing up or.... the old "trial and error" which the error = failure part is what would be nice to change in this hobby.

How would that best be done? IDK :unsure:

Edit:

Also a factor that got me was "nature" itself! I decided I was going to go SPS. Set up the right lighting... Then nature "occurred" in my tank (corals spawned) and changed my thoughts and needs. Now I'm just plain messed up again, lol

Great idea Jason!
Yes, I'm sure there are NOT many as lucky as you!
I found this club when I was trying to buy coral from the president at the time, Gary. He wouldn't sell me anything after I was at his house and we started talking. When he found out how new my tank was and what I was running he said, "join ARC and will talk about corals later", ha

 

[fishlips]

For me.What has kept me in the hobby for ten yrs. 1.The love for the hobby.
2.The challenge.
When I started.didn't know nothing about saltwater.
With my tank being mostly acros. Its always got me looking for ways to improve the heath of the coral.
When you mix love and challenge.it's going to go one or two ways.I guess that's why I have been married for 35 yrs.LOL

 

[mcphock]

LSU_fishFan;1066848 wrote: I think part of it is that a lot of people see tanks, like what they see and want one immediately. Most don't wait to learn and plan out what they need to do to prepare, and how much everything costs. They go to the store, buy everything they are told they need, go home, and add a product to cycle the tank quicker. They may wait a week or so, then go out and buy fish and coral. Everything does well for a little, then something happens and things start to die. Then they just give up.

Really nothing you can do for people that are inpatient.

This is precisely it.