I lost the passion for reef keeping - what I plan to do about it!

Рет қаралды 6,429

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 63

@Elliott23232323 5 ай бұрын

yeah, I hear you, I've been reefing for 30+ years, have a 1000 gallon reef, my interest comes and goes, as does the required maintenance, and the reef tank suffers accordingly, thanks for making this video, I like your approach!

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Thanks dude! I feel yah. Luckily large tanks are a bit more forgiving :)

@kennethwilliams4966 5 ай бұрын

So sorry you are going through all of this. I hope someone can help you with this issue. I’m stumped like you are. I enjoy your video’s! We can all relate with not being happy with how our reef tank looks at the moment. I look forward to an update, soon!

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Thank you so much! It’s all apart of the journey. I’ll definitely come out the other end more knowledgeable!!

@Fish_Ventura 4 ай бұрын

Yes it sucks when your fav dies. I screwed up and lost my orange passion. I look forward to getting another and not messing up and killing it. Thx for great advice.

@viking_reefing 4 ай бұрын

Ah man. That’s rough on such a nice coral!

@marcuswong1797 5 ай бұрын

It happens when u achieve such beautiful tanks and maxed out on all the equipment, there is nothing else to look forward to, but to maintain and let things grow slowly.

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Yeah, that’s definitely also a factor that plays a large roll.

@GwonkReefkeeping 5 ай бұрын

As a 30+ year reefkeeper, I can only say, STAY THE COURSE. You will have both highs and lows with this hobby. It will come back. You seem to have a fair plan for digging out of this hole. I hope things work out. I will be watching with confidence that you will succeed.👍🏾

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Oh I will. As we both know the passion will come back in due time. Appreciate it man!

@RogueAquariums 4 ай бұрын

You’re right, this hobby requires patience especially when there are other things you’d rather be doing. At least having a larger tank they are a bit more forgiving. I’ve lost corals in the past but then you try to learn from your mistakes. Reefing is definitely a labor of love. Your tank looks great.

@viking_reefing 4 ай бұрын

The flip side of the coin is that if you let a large tank go for a bit it’s going to be hell to course correct that MF hahaha

@RogueAquariums 4 ай бұрын

@@viking_reefing lol.. 💯% agreed. It just gives you more time to remedy a situation.

@josgraha 5 ай бұрын

wow man, this hit home so hard. first let me say i'm a newbie reefer and have only been at it 1.5 years so i got no business telling you what to do but i will ask if we can rule out the possibility that whatever pest this is that's blooming is outcompeting your biological filtration. my first experience with reefing was pretty horrible with over 5 months battling a massive dino problem and one thing i learned is that these pests are exceptionally good at outcompeting biological filtration because they can reproduce so much faster. nitrifying bacteria can take weeks and weeks to stabilize and who knows how many of those evolutions to reach a point of equilibrium (stability) with all the things going on in one's tank. anway i sure feel you 100%, there have been times where my mood, motivation and even happiness was somehow tied to how well my tank was doing (now i have 2) but because i have a family, kid, dog, old busto house with tons of things going wrong all the time and let's face it _way_ more enjoyable hobbies like moutain biking etc this can be soul crushing. luckily ADHD and all these responsibilities have taught me to decouple motiviation from doing and that's where you seem to be at. you got that mental toughness man!

@josgraha 5 ай бұрын

in short i was suggesting that maybe dosing nutrients and bacteria is the answer, i don't know, but if your biological filtration is on life support, competition may be one way to get there

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Thanks man! Yeah, luckily I have a fairly obsessive personality that won’t let me give in haha. I heard somewhere that “if the tank is bad you get sad” which is an apt description lol. I’m not a big believer in dosing bacteria but hey, why not try it!

@calebbowen3433 5 ай бұрын

The microscope image looks like possibily a type of lyngbya. Maybe majuscula. Its a type of filamentous cyano. Usually cutting back on filtration and water changes seems to help. The stuff can be a plague.

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Wow, never even heard of that crap. Did a quick search and you might be on to something. That would also explain why uv and ozone does jack. Definitely going to be exploring this further.

@lorenzospina3174 5 ай бұрын

I'm living a moment like this with my aquariums, i understand you very well.

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Keep pushing mate and you’ll get through it!

@lorenzospina3174 5 ай бұрын

@@viking_reefing 👍

@gsander4837 5 ай бұрын

I have been doing this for many years, and yes, there have been times i have considered getting out of the hobby, but haven’t. I have enjoyed it to much, even when a tank has issues. I had a larger system planned and everything purchased, but decided to sell it off before set up, as my life has become very busy due to work and aging parents. I downsized for ease of maintenance and time, but still allowing me to enjoy my hobby. As a thought…You might check your equipments magnetic seals for cracks. Same for heaters. You have been doing this for some time, so I’m sure you check those items on a regular basis. BTW, Love the butterfly! It’s stunning.

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

That was a really responsible decision on your part! You can always get that big tank in the future but it could cause some major issues if you went ahead at that point. Yeah, I have and ICP shows no increased levels of metals :)

@FatherFish 2 ай бұрын

Welcome to the world of fresh water fish. Look into my natural systems, the cousin to the reef.

@pingu8666 Ай бұрын

Freshwater is dull

@cezar050681 5 ай бұрын

Stay strong, brother! When did you change your RO filters last time ? Start looking at them first when trying to resolve the brown sand bed. Best of luck!

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Thank bud! I changed them out about 3 months ago as well as added another DI chamber. I don’t think that’s it but as a part of the ICP MS test I’ll be doing I’ll also be testing my RO water which should tell me.

@CoralMan24 3 ай бұрын

it happens been doing this for over 30 years just don't get rid of anything or shut things down you'll regret it so much for doing it. I had a greenhouse and shut it down I had a huge fish room shut it down then restarted them it happens to all of us. best thing to do is join an aquarium group in your town and hang with like minded people and it helps you get over that funk :)

@viking_reefing 3 ай бұрын

Thanks mate! Yeah, I’m not planning on going anywhere. I’ve taken a 3 year break once and that was the wrong play for sure

@NBurgReef 5 ай бұрын

If you don't think it's diatoms or dinos, look into "golden algae" or chrysophytes. I had it for a while. It was ugly and almost looked like dinos like it gets slimy but doesn't hurt anything. How did I get rif of it? not sure, it went away on its own. Not sure if it coincided with running a UV, but look into chrysophytes.

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Interesting. I think I had that crap once a long time ago. I my case it almost looked like Dinos with long snotty stuff on the rocks.

@OnkelStonkel 5 ай бұрын

I have a freshwater tank and had issues with brown algae all over the glass, sand and plants for the last 2 months or so. S**t like that really kills the motivation. Finally it went away and the passion is back. Its not fun working on a tank thats not going as planned but when you see the light at the end of the tunnel its all worth it.

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Yeah bud! Stuff like that really kills your passion but one just has to push through the bad times :)

@lindseykarres1990 5 ай бұрын

Have you changed your lighting intensity?

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

No, I have not

@allfather5972 5 ай бұрын

If you have really low nutrients, have you considered dosing ammonia?

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

I have. However, I’m a bit iffy on that as algae has a great mechanism to uptake ammonia. Before I get a positive ID on what I’m dealing with I don’t want to do something that can possibly make the situation worse.

@allfather5972 5 ай бұрын

Sounds like a plan! I noticed that the growth rate of chaeto increased as well, and was probably able to keep the main display free of algae. Keep us updated what was the outcome of IDing the stuff 🙂

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

@@allfather5972 will do mate!

@mubeenamjad3619 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for making such a video, i am sure you will get back on it as soon as the first snowfall occurs 😂

@viking_reefing 3 ай бұрын

Hell yeah haha

@skinnerjw5525 5 ай бұрын

Every time I’ve dozed Nitrates after a month or so I always would get weird algae like that even with ultra low nutrients I don’t dose that shit anymore I just feed double amount of food haven’t had any issues for months and it went away after about 3 -4 weeks after I stopped dosing

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Interesting. What nitrate solution have you been dosing?

@MACNTOSFAM 5 ай бұрын

i sugges sharing those images to the macks dino group on fb. it looks like some kind of bacteria, not dinos

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Good point. Will do!

@buruskeee 5 ай бұрын

Those slides look like there’s Dinos in there. Need to see video of the scope to for sure ID it. The cells I saw that were also in the algae you have has a chance to be Dinos (especially if your nutrients bottomed out).

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

Yeah, there’s definitely some Dino’s in there but anytime I’ve taken a sample there will be some present in the tank. However, based on the samples I don’t think that is what causing the brown stuff as it seemed to be a very small part of the total volume.

@buruskeee 4 ай бұрын

@@viking_reefing Dinos appear to look like a brown algae when they are in a tank, even if it doesn’t seem like there’s many in a given surface being sampled. Get rid of the dinos and you’ll see the brown vanish.

@fostee1 5 ай бұрын

Still thinkin Dinos. Coral death, system changes, low nutrients, in sand bed. Consider prorocentrum

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

There’s definitely some Dinos in the tank and always will be but that doesn’t appear to make up the bulk of the brown stuff that covers the surfaces. But I’ll revisit it some more!

@robertward6813 4 ай бұрын

I feel it aswell.

@viking_reefing 4 ай бұрын

Fairly common during summer. Keep pushing!

@sunnygoold9449 5 ай бұрын

Coralavore tank sounds amazing

@viking_reefing 5 ай бұрын

I think so as well hehe

@晴雨池 4 ай бұрын

your fish is much better. mine always get ich, that don't feel good

@viking_reefing 4 ай бұрын

I would imagine mate

@TheJohnny220 4 ай бұрын

It's trying to tell you it needs coral by going after the torch. I doesn't know how else to tell you

@viking_reefing 4 ай бұрын

No. All research shows that corals contains no special nutrients. Also, analysis of stomach content from other common species of butterflies in the hobby shows that a majority (90is %) of their gut content consists of corals in the wild but they do fine for years and years in a diet of prepared foods :)