# bye bye to the hobby



## reefsahoy (Jul 16, 2010)

it's been 17 years in the making and now i've decided to hang up my reef gloves. Gonna be traveling more with my wife since the last child is out of the nest. I won't be able to keep a full blown reef when traveling so much so I end on a positive note and i've donated all my live stock and all my hardware to the local museum who just got a $100 million grant to build a huge reef aquarium and was looking for aquaculture corals from the pacific.. It's been a great hobby and i've met many friends. so now i say good bye to a hobby i love. here's a couple videos of my tank at it's ultimate peak.





 




 
:lol::lol:


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## InvertPlanet (Mar 25, 2011)

ohhh wow!!

that is sad and fantastic at the same time. Maybe in the future you could share your travel adventures here on the forum for us to live vicariously through them.


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## reefsahoy (Jul 16, 2010)

InvertPlanet said:


> ohhh wow!!
> 
> that is sad and fantastic at the same time. Maybe in the future you could share your travel adventures here on the forum for us to live vicariously through them.


why sad? i already travel tons in around europe, asia, hawaii, canada, alaska and love that too. i could post some pics here if you'd like. i got pics of many places ive been.


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## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

Good luck to ya. :thumbsup:


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## Boredomb (Feb 21, 2011)

Best of luck to ya on your new journeys!


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## Romad (Jun 28, 2009)

Beautiful videos reefsahoy :thumbsup: 

I suppose if you have to give up something you enjoy, what better place to have it than a museum?


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## BarbH (May 23, 2011)

Beautiful videos :-D Good luck on your traveling plans, are you guys planning on doing traveling around the US? My parents are planning on doing more traveling themselves after my dad retires in the next year or so. They already have their RV which they purchased a few years back and making plans on places that they would like to go.


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## reefsahoy (Jul 16, 2010)

BarbH said:


> Beautiful videos :-D Good luck on your traveling plans, are you guys planning on doing traveling around the US? My parents are planning on doing more traveling themselves after my dad retires in the next year or so. They already have their RV which they purchased a few years back and making plans on places that they would like to go.


I'm not retiring from work just the hobby. While we are young, We travel a lot to other countries for pleasure and as we get older we will opt for USA. btw tell your parents if the go to Florida via rv to try nova campground. That's one of the nicest ones in fl that we've been to.


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

Reefsahoy, 
i know we have not interacted much over these last few months since i took my break from the salt. but i feel its important for me to say thank you for all of your advice and knowledge. you are part of the reason i decided to work on my build in progress and for that i am grateful. your tank is an inspiration to those of use just starting out and you will be missed. 

thank you for all that you have done to help me on my way the first time and for the references i consistently go back too moving forward.


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## reefsahoy (Jul 16, 2010)

bearwithfish said:


> Reefsahoy,
> i know we have not interacted much over these last few months since i took my break from the salt. but i feel its important for me to say thank you for all of your advice and knowledge. you are part of the reason i decided to work on my build in progress and for that i am grateful. your tank is an inspiration to those of use just starting out and you will be missed.
> 
> thank you for all that you have done to help me on my way the first time and for the references i consistently go back too moving forward.


Thanks to all well wishers and thanks for the compliments bear. My most successful tank, the one in the video, was actually the simplest setup I've had. There are many different ways to skin the same cat. IMHO To be successful in reef keeping I'd suggest the 4 main tools are a good skimmer, good lighting, live rock and good water movement. Some say the more rock the better but aesthetics is important and I don't necessarily believe that theory. If you keep your bioload low then you will need less rock, if your skimmer is oversized you will also require less rock.

That tank had the above 4 tools plus other tools to keep maintenance to a minimum. Low bioload, only a few fish in 100 gallons. A ca reactor for upkeep of ca, alk, and mg, a auto top off for evaporation replacement, an auto feeder, and phosphate chamber. That's all I had in the tank. Then check your big three and adjust as necessary mg, ca, alk. Everything else should fall into place from there. Then from there do you monthly water change and success should be there. If you look closely you'll see that I had 2 small island of rock and not the usual wall of rocks along the back glass. That was all the rocks I had in the tank.

Cheers and thanks again
Reefs ahoy


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## reefsahoy (Jul 16, 2010)

Romad said:


> Beautiful videos reefsahoy :thumbsup:
> 
> I suppose if you have to give up something you enjoy, what better place to have it than a museum?


Yep, I'm going to volunteer some time in helping the marine biologist at the museum. There's plenty of work there to be done and he needs help with the maintenance of the show tanks. He suggested I get scuba certified so I could be one of a select few who would be able to dive in the show tank and help to move/maintain the tank once it's built. I don't know about that but it does sound interesting! But it's definitely nice to be able to go back to the museum and see my other " children"!:lol::lol:


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## trukgirl (Jan 28, 2010)

Your tank is still to this day one of the most if not THE most beautiful SPS dominant tank I've ever seen. Great work and very noble of you to donate it all to the museum!

Happy travels!!!


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## reefsahoy (Jul 16, 2010)

trukgirl said:


> Your tank is still to this day one of the most if not THE most beautiful SPS dominant tank I've ever seen. Great work and very noble of you to donate it all to the museum!
> 
> Happy travels!!!


Thanks for the compliments, I just just found out that the museum is building a new stand and that they are going to put up my/their new tank and display all the livestock I just donated. That's pretty awesome! I'll go back just to see how they chose to do it!


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

reefsahoy said:


> Thanks for the compliments, I just just found out that the museum is building a new stand and that they are going to put up my/their new tank and display all the livestock I just donated. That's pretty awesome! I'll go back just to see how they chose to do it!


thats awesome but im sad to see you leave the hobby but just as happy to know your off to new adventures.

when you return to your tank please snap some photos and dont forget your friends on TFK from time to time ;-)

even if its a year from now, i would love to see your colonies grown up.


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