What's wrong with me?

I just ordered some new lighting, cover, and powerhead, for my 20 gallon QT. And I feel so ashamed. That's right, I know it's wrong but I've done it anyway, I've slowly turned my quarantine tank into another aquarium. It started when I added a few rocks from my 55 because I thought that I had gone overboard and put too much rock in there, and it couldn't hurt to have more bacteria in the QT, I could always pull them out if I needed to treat the fish. And a little sand. Then I had to add some clean up critters, a few hermits and a shrimp and a few snails to keep it clean. What's wrong with me? I have enough to look at with the 55 gal, why did I do this? I know where I went wrong, I put this QT in the hallway where it's actually in a spot that I see more often than the 55 gal. I should have put it in the spare bedroom or something. I'm afraid my family will think I'm crazy next time they come over, now I have three fish tanks. The third is a 5 gallon beta tank that I bought for my 7 year old niece but they didn't listen to my advice and added more than one fish and overfed so they kept dying. So I couldn't let that tank go to waste so I bought a beta for it (that was before the 55 gal). Anyway, thanks for listening, I had to tell someone how crazy this hobby has made me. But now I'm done spending money, I swear, nothing else now except salt mix. And more electricity of course.

 

This forum is for the addiction we all have.

 

Thanks, I feel a little better. I know there are plenty of people on this forum with multiple tanks, and hopefully they don't get offended if they read this. I just didn't see myself getting another, especially so soon after I got the original one. But as my boyfriend says, if it makes me happy why not? I don't buy $100+ shoes like some girls, I actually hate shopping for clothes and shoes, so I spend money on this instead. I guess there's no reason to feel guilty, to spend money on a hobby you enjoy so much. Everyone has to have something.

 

welcome to reefs anonymous, my gf sometimes askes me how i can spend so much time on thinking of buying 20$ shoes at walmart and yet not buy them , but when it comes to buying $100+ on my tank i dont even think about it lol

 

Hahaha...welcome to the club...we're all "reef heads".

 

Thanks everyone, glad to know I'm not alone. It's all good. Only thing is now I know I definitely cannot give my boyfriend a hard time for having two cars (one being the never-ending "work in process"). He calls me fish head, but he's a gear head.

 

yeah...It can get pretty bad. I have a 150 gallon, a 125 gallon, & have a 220 gallon on the way. I've easily spent over $12,000 on tanks, fish, corals & equipment so don't feel bad.

 

i have a 37 gallon reef, 55 cichlid, 10 baby cichlid growout tank and a 26 gallon endler tank

 

Hmmm....I will have to find out what an endler is...

I have to ask you guys something else. Is it also normal, maybe especially when first getting started, to feel the urge to re-arrange my rocks all the time? I never feel I've got it quite right and can obsess for an hour or more how to make it better. Hope this is not stressing my fish too much, I have done it a few times now.

 

i guess its normal haha, and a endler is a relative to the guppy, i breed black bar endlers and snakeskins

 

I've re-scaped my tank twice, but with over 200 lbs of live rock (LOL!!!), I'm less inclined to want to keep moving it around & idk if you're stressing the fish by re-scaping all the time, but I know that it's prolly not helping any. When those fish "divvy up" the real estate & have there little territories, it makes them feel more @ home I'd imagine. So when you keep re-scaping the tank, they're forced to fore go the whole process all over again. It's just my opinion, but idk if that's really fair to the fish.

 

they breed like mad, maybe ill make you a pair of snakeskin endler boots for some frags? haha

 

Dont feel bad dood. I spent 400 the last two weeks. If it isnt corals, its equipment...

 

i spent alot too, im buying that reef octopus within the next few days 100 bucks, 200 bucks for 32 3 watt leds, new koralia 750 30 bucks, 3 ora sps frags 60 so im down 390 in the like last 3 weeks, but alotta new equipment

 

Yea I jus dropped 95 on corals 140 on a skimmer, 70 on a ATO. 20 on some arm length gloves. 15 on superglue. 20 on two more timers. Lets see, I still need 4 new ATI bulbs,it's about that time...80+$.....then I need to buy stuff for the upgrade, we're talking another 1,500 there at least...yes. It's a horrible horrible additction. Especially for us poor folks.

When it's all said and done tho, my tanks are my pets. I come home everyday to greet them and make sure everything is ok. Some people like dogs...I love the ocean....

 

It is an addiction, that's for sure. It reminds me of what you hear about alcoholism, how they ask is it straining your relationships, affecting your work life? My boyfriend seems jealous of all the time I spend on it now, he says some days it seems like I look forward to seeing the tank more than him. And affecting my work? Where do you think I am right now? I should probably be saving more money in case I get fired for surfing the web too much (there's so much to learn, so many questions to find the answers to, who can focus on work?) LOL But it's all your perspective. Some people spend so much money and time with their dogs, at least we don't have unpredictable vet bills right? Well I have two cats but that's on another post Oh well anyways, I love my tank(s) I can spend an hour just looking at them, it's better (and definitely no worse) than spending time in front of the tv.

 

I have a friend who studies reptiles!