Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

You know all in all starting a reef tank is expensive, demanding (at least in the beginning) and often results in failure. We lose critters, we lose corals and spend alot of our free time and money on our tanks. I will tell you why we do this....
We recently went furniture shopping and replaced everything in our living room from Home Place furniture. Full setup, couches chairs, tables the works. Spent 4k I think, but sure wife will correct me. Also months prior spent a load of money on a 57 inch sony wide screen tv. Well after totally redoing the living room, guess what people notice ?
Had two people just "pop" in today that I havent seen in a while, when they peek in they say "wow nice tank, is that salt water?", I mean this is all the time, even the pizza delivery guy. Even people that come over on a regular basis still stare at it like crazy. Friends that come over and bring there kids never seem to have to watch them, they stay glued to the tank instead of the tube. People that dont speak of the tank or dont make a deal of it I think are just jealous they dont have the balls to set one up )
Anyway what I am trying to say is our tank are the center of our house and worth it all in the end.
But presently the tank is not much of an issue, I try not to poke around with it much. Seems to do better when I dont play with it. I just try to add topoff water and its cool. Comments appreciated on this

yeah same here, i catch myself watching the tank more than i watch the TV

I agree, but it is a challange also. You can say you have accomplished something and it makes you feel good.

Scott

Yeah keeping down hair algae is an accomplishment of life

Well I'm not sure exactly why I like keeping fish...reefs included. Definately that challenging nature of succesfull aquaria keeping is a key ingredient to making it exciting. The "wow" factor is a good plus. It also keeps you humble and on your toes, as it is ever changing and evolving...and can change with you and your likings as you grow.

Plus it gives me the chance to build something..(Insert Tim Allen grunt here).

I like it , because I am sort of an animal geek and gadget person. I also love to learn new things. My wife and I try and pay attention to the little things in nature. There's a lot to see. We've even went so far as to set up a wireless camera to watch one of our residing toads stalk bugs. I've been amazed at the amount of life that comes just on a piece of rock from the ocean. Tons of different stuff. I've only had a small reef tank set up for a couple of months now, and it has been an incredible learning experience for me.

god complex...gotta be the god complex