Hi again, back for another round of fun (or frustration?)

[HappyGuppy]

Hi all my fishy friends.  You may (or may not) have noticed that I've been gone for a loooooong time.  Well I finally logged in for the first time in well over half a year.  I even found a "new" PM message waiting for me... sent on April 12 (LOL). 

I needed some time away from the hobby.  I kinda grew frustrated with a few things.  After investing good money in better lighting and buying corals & stuff I got discouraged by the death of lots of my corals.  Over the summer I neglected my tanks some more, and of course some more things disappeared.

Well, time heals all wounds, including emotions, and I am ready again for another round of fun (or another beating... we'll see which happens).

I've shut down multiple tanks, and am currently shutting down three more.  I'm just keeping two saltwater 20g nanos.

Regarding corals I've decided to stay in the basic (easy) end of the spectrum.  Over the next couple of weeks I plan to solicit and trade/buy several different colors of mushrooms and then propagate them all over my tanks.  Yeah, that's right, I'm going back to just mushrooms... that's how basic I'm gonna keep it.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE my friends, please... if, IF, I should happen over the next 6 months start talking about any other corals then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE remind me to ***STOP***.  I admit, I have a weakness for lovely colorful corals, and I could easily succumb to acquiring these lovely though frustrating creatures.  If I turn insane and think about other corals then please help me come back to my senses and remind me to remain monogamous to mushrooms... (and sponges - I've had great success with sponges and am trying to re-grow my sponge forests).

My goal this time around is to enjoy lovely tanks, and feel good about them.  I don't believe that taking antidepressants should be a requirement in this hobby (JK).

Anyhow, this post is just to say "HI" to all my fishy friends who remember me from the past, and a "hi" to all the new people that might soon become friends.

I'm baaAAAaack! 

[HappyGuppy]

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Thought I should add why my corals didn't do too well, which turned into a good lesson for me:
Keep one focus per tank
So I had a variety of corals, plus my beloved macros, plus my interest in sponges.  Keeping everyone happy in one tank was not a good plan.  To keep one group happy I'd swing parameters one way.  Then noticing a decline in another group I'd swing parameters another way to rectify them, but that causes another group to be unhappy.  You  get the idea.  Corals being the most sensitive to the swings were worst affected.  Lesson learned.

[daworldisblack]

Welcome back! 

[xenon]

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Thought I should add why my corals didn't do too well, which turned into a good lesson for me:
Keep one focus per tank
So I had a variety of corals, plus my beloved macros, plus my interest in sponges.  Keeping everyone happy in one tank was not a good plan.  To keep one group happy I'd swing parameters one way.  Then noticing a decline in another group I'd swing parameters another way to rectify them, but that causes another group to be unhappy.  You  get the idea.  Corals being the most sensitive to the swings were worst affected.  Lesson learned.

If you stick with a dedicated system full of softires or LPS it will be much easier.

Having a mixed reef will always be challenging.

It's hard to make everything happy when they all come from different environments.

[HappyGuppy]

LOL Xenon, yup begun to understand that too, about mixing different types of corals... but again I went super advanced, (LOLOLOL) trying to create a surface & deepwater, low nutrient & high nutrient, low particulates & high particulates, clean & dirty water... to satisfy all sorts of ocean zones within a tiny glass box.  My schizophrenic tanks are now history.  Lesson learned.