What qualities do you view as being most important in Reefing?

[polyppal]

Just an interesting thought I had, what qualities would you view as being most important in Reefing?
I know its a tough choice, but you can only select your top 3 options in the poll!
Will be interesting to see with some data what we view as being most important!

• Equipment (Quality products/equipment in the tank build)
• Experience (Having spent time in reefing and learning from past mistakes/success)
• Knowledge (Doing research on aspects of the hobby)
• Money (Having substantial money to devote to the hobby)
• Patience (Taking things slowly, not 'being in a rush')
• Planning (Having an idea in mind what your expectations for the tank will be long term)
• Products (Specific foods/chemicals/tank treatments/media that leads to success)
• Redundancy (Having backups [particularly in terms of equipment] should something fail)
• Relationships (Friends/clubs/communities of fellow enthusiasts)
• Support (Family/spouse/children who also enjoy hobby and involvement in it)
• Technology (Utilizing latest equipment/methods to maintain tank and tackle problems)
• Testing (Regularly utilizing testing methods to know parameters of your aquarium)
• Other: Comment (Let us know if there's another quality (ideally in a single word) you could sum up as being essential to success)

*edit: added 'Planning' option

 

[PeterC99]

Great poll! I picked experience, knowledge, and patience because I could only pick three. Wanted to also select Testing & Redundancy! Funny how all Reefers have all of these qualities in some degree.

 

[polyppal]

Great poll! I picked experience, knowledge, and patience because I could only pick three. Wanted to also select Testing & Redundancy! Funny how all Reefers have all of these qualities in some degree.

yeah wanted to make the selections hard lol

I went with patience, equipment and knowledge

 

[90's reefer]

The quality of your PLAN goes hand in hand with your experience, knowledge, and equipment, imo.

 

[polyppal]

The quality of your PLAN goes hand in hand with your experience, knowledge, and equipment, imo.

That's good, im gonna add Planning to the poll

 

[polyppal]

So far its Knowledge and Patience (about what I expected)

 

[MnFish1]

I picked experience and patience - because - if you have experience - almost by definition you will have knowledge - but - I didn't read the definitions before I voted. I think research - both here - and elsewhere is important to gaining experience as well.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Experience is hands on knowledge but was still hard for me to not vote knowledge. I originally checked 5-6 of the boxes

 

[shakacuz]

patience, redundancy, and consistency!

patience because it is required to succeed in this hobby,
redundancy for fail-safes,
consistency to keep succeeding.

everything else noted as choices in someway fit into these 3 categories.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I’m big on testing to zone in on tank trends. I used to just look at my coral and do a water change if they looked unhappy. But that was back when a water change was only 5 gallons now it’s 25

 

[workhz]

I'm not a huge fan of too much testing but without some data, some basic testing every once in a while ..... you can have everything on the list and still fail without testing. Mind you, without knowledge you wouldn't know what to test so maybe it's subset of knowledge.

 

[Dvanlier05]

Patients, planning, and knowledge are my three votes.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

id go for competence, knowledge & research. ive been in the hobby for about 6 months but i have done a lot of research & deep dives. i have a pair of cardinals & the female is gavid, i am going to be the 1st person to spawn O. angustatus

 

[Radman73]

More money than sense can work out surprisingly well.

Otherwise I picked Testing, Knowledge, and Equipment. Water quality is everything. Once you accept that knowledge life becomes easier. I started out with the buy once cry once theory. As such, I really haven't wasted much money. Patience was a close third choice though.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I voted money and DIY handiness (Other).

 

[polyppal]

I voted money and DIY handiness (Other).

Let’s add that as Ingenuity

*edit - I guess it won't let me edit the original poll any further

 

[czoolander]

Great poll! I picked experience, knowledge, and patience because I could only pick three. Wanted to also select Testing & Redundancy! Funny how all Reefers have all of these qualities in some degree.

Money and Patience and more money .......... in that order LOL

 

[PeterC99]

Money and Patience and more money .......... in that order LOL

Is money a reefer “quality”??? If so, I’m not going to do so well…

 

[czoolander]

Is money a reefer “quality”??? If so, I’m not going to do so well…

Well consider yourself lucky then " Money" is about the only thing I have to offer my reefing hobby . I do not have any other skills or talents . So don't take " money" away from me hahahahah or I have literally nothing

 

[PeterC99]

Well consider yourself lucky then " Money" is about the only thing I have to offer my reefing hobby . I do not have any other skills or talents . So don't take " money" away from me hahahahah or I have literally nothing

You make a very good point - this isn’t an inexpensive hobby!