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Falling out of Love

C

Cd2021

Member
Joined
20 Feb 2021
Messages
90
Location
Hampshire
Hi Guys,

Looking for a bit of advise. Been in the hobbie of about 4 years now, but currently falling out of love for it at the minute. I can imagine a few of you have been through this, just curious to see what you did to try get the love of it back. Or stopped for a while then can back to it?

Currently have 2x EA900’s, 1 is a high tech planted tank not looking at its best. The other has Chindongo saulosi in (Malawi), which is currently my favourite tank. Looks best, less algae and fish are more interesting.

I started with a 27l tank, which quickly when to a 100l, then a oakstyle 230, then added a Roma 125 for the saulosi, terrible advice! Upped to a 900, then decided space would be better with 2x 900’s and put the 230 in the shed.

Thanks
Chris
 
We all go through it mate.

I find just leaving the tank empty until something sparks interest helps.

If you’re enjoying the Mbuna tank, why not try selling everything up for a large tank and going down the aulonocara / peacock cichlid route with a custom a background from AquaDecor.

I personally find fish more interesting than having a beautiful scape. Not that I don’t appreciate Aquascapes because I do. I just find fish hold my interest better.
 
seedoubleyou said:
I find just leaving the tank empty until something sparks interest helps.
Click to expand...
Exactly, give yourself some space, don't force it. It's a hobby after all, it's meant to be fun. Go with what interests you the most ;)
 
I find that to be a real detriment to our hobby.
It has an ability to be short lived because we often set systems up so quickly.
As time has gone on, I’ve found that having a longer term project that takes time and planning has prolonged the fun of the hobby.
I think most will agree that it’s the setup we enjoy most.
Then having a smaller project or two on the go keeps me entertained in the short term.
It doesn’t have to be anything fancy,
I’ve recently got into keeping roses in pots on my patio, I’ve enjoyed tending to them over the past few months.
I’m now building some raised beds to expand my new love for roses.
I have a small herb garden growing too which has been fun to harvest on the occasional evening whilst cooking.
 
There's a good example of as said not enjoying it anymore, George Farmers last Discus aquarium , George found it needed a lot of attention l suppose with his work involving travel, he moved on to another nature aquarium.
You could try a small planted critter free nano tank to keep the interest, a small planted barrell or even bowl in the garden, maybe a wabi kusa bowl or small terrarium indoors.
All of us go through this l am sure,so a hobby becomes a chore change it around a bit bring back the fun
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for your responses.

I think there's some really good points there especially around project length. When setting up the tank in a day then i think i'd agree but having the time with fish etc can be difficult. What do you guys do with your current fish when looking at closing down? @Witcher what do you mean emersed? pop in something else and grown them still?

I'm definitely thinking about going down the route of 1 larger tank, perhaps the 4ft- Oakstyle 230 i already have or a ea1200.

I think George's discus tank he was concerned about the welfare of the fish too, if i remember correctly.

Kind Regards
Chris
 
Cd2021 said:
@Witcher what do you mean emersed? pop in something else and grown them still?
Click to expand...
hey @Cd2021 I mean literally remove all the water etc, maybe rescape substrate and so on and grow aquatic plants in their emersed forms - actually lots (if not most) of plants we grow submersed have their emersed forms which are quite nice looking too. Not to mention that limnophila aromatica for example is a quite tasty herb (much tastier emersed than submersed), can be used in kitchen as a lime-like spice.
 
When I had a bad patch and thought about shutting down all my tanks, instead I just went all low tech over a decade ago, and have since managed to keep 4 of the 5 tanks low tech with very little maintenance, that enabled me to not stress about the tanks and just enjoy them for what they are and let nature take its course in these little ecosystems. Lockdown enabled me to setup a high tech tank, but in the last 18 months I have also tuned that down to just ephypides mostly and crypts, tuned down the CO2 and ferts, and just slow down things in this tank too! For me its long term the tanks, easy maintenance, and just happy with something that is heavy planted and looks nice in my living spaces.
 
Hi all,
LondonDragon said:
For me its long term the tanks, easy maintenance, and just happy with something that is heavy planted and looks nice in my living spaces.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing a lot of people end up there, I certainly have. I know it sounds a bit strange, but I really like having tanks and livestock where you feel that you are getting <"an occasional glimpse"> into their "world" and they are carrying on their natural behaviour (and hopefully breeding) with very limited intervention on your part.

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,

I'm guessing a lot of people end up there, I certainly have. I know it sounds a bit strange, but I really like having tanks and livestock where you feel that you are getting <"an occasional glimpse"> into their "world" and they are carrying on their natural behaviour (and hopefully breeding) with very limited intervention on your part.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...
Indeed, I have plants that have 10 year old leaves on them! Amano shrimp that lived for 7-8 years, all these weird and wonderful critters that show up in the tank (not the leeches lol) then once in a while change a plant here, add a plant there and it just evolves slowly, my 60cm tank has not had a trim on 5 years lol the Anubias in there still not had a trim since 2012. Also interesting how my Ramshorn snails developed all different colours over the years.
 
dw1305 said:
I'm guessing a lot of people end up there, I certainly have. I know it sounds a bit strange, but I really like having tanks and livestock where you feel that you are getting <"an occasional glimpse"> into their "world" and they are carrying on their natural behaviour (and hopefully breeding) with very limited intervention on your part.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of this

www.tuncalik.com

Natural Aquariums for Ecological Literacy and Ecosystem Modeling - tuncalik.com - Natural Aquariums and Sustainable Life

Natural aquariums: Sustainable, low-tech, low-maintenance, low-cost aquariums (ecological aquariums) This is a project idea that I developed in September 2021 to discuss it first with some organisations in Switzerland. You can use it, change it, improve it, and if you … Continue reading →
www.tuncalik.com
 
Hi Guys,

@Witcher i get what you mean now. Not sure if that’s something that I’d enjoy. Would be a great way with growing herbs etc though!

@LondonDragon i hadn’t even thought about the route of low tech. Everything you see is high tech this and that. I certainly think that’s the main reason I’m thinking away from that tank. It doesn’t look that great atm, and I cannot put the time into it. Where the Malawi tank I can water change in 20 mins, with cleaning the glass and syphon going poop out.

How would you suggest to potentially swapping to low tech. Could be good timing co2 ran out Tuesday. I can’t say I’ve really researched low tech before. Maybe this is why I’ve never mastered not having BBA.

@dw1305 i agree, I think that’s why I’m into the Malawi tank more. Watching their natural behaviour, chasing, mating, digging etc. it’s fascinating.
 
Cd2021 said:
How would you suggest to potentially swapping to low tech. Could be good timing co2 ran out Tuesday. I can’t say I’ve really researched low tech before. Maybe this is why I’ve never mastered not having BBA.
Click to expand...
It also depends on the plants you have, some will not react very well with the change and not all will survive, I find that easier plants are best on low tech, like anubias, crypts, buces, most ferns, most mosses, some stems will work also, but some plants won't look the same in a low tech or grow to the same size as they did with high power.

Also you have to watch the amount of light, in my low techs I only have lights one for 5-6 hours, mostly 5! for exampls my 60l has a 10w light strip on it and my small nanos only have 3w light! Most of the issues people have in low tech is too much light!
 
Hi Guys,

So i decided I’d try and give myself a kick up the blahblahblahblah and rescape it to make it look better and have a play too.

Happy with the result, removed all the sand out. Put some manzinata wood in and new layout. Only issue that I have is I don’t have enough aqua soil to root the crypts that once replanted. Would you recommend getting some black sand and go over the aqua soil (Tropica) or just get a bag of aqua soil? I’m not worried about cost, just ease of use going forward.

My plan is to drop back the co2 and light over a period of time, a lot of my plants are easy so I think will be fine in low tech, then drop off on the ferts, water changes. And go more natural. I like the hard scape of aquascaping, but don’t have the time to keep up with high tech. So I think this will work for me.

I don’t really like the idea of returning fish to the pet shop, they’re older now too so wouldn’t be fair for someone to have them, then they die.

Thanks
Chris
 
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