Are the Instagram and YouTube cultures bad for the reef keeping hobby?

[ABQ_CHRIS]

I'm newly returned to the hobby. I REALLY appreciate learning from the problems that others have faced. I will do my best to post the good with the bad to help others (and to maybe encourage those more experienced to point out when I am making a huge mistake! ).

 

[Reefer Matt]

I dont really browse instagram, but the one social media that really grinds my gears is facebook. I absolutely hate all the reefing facebook groups doing "wraffles". I am in reefing because I like to look at nice corals and fish, not because I want to gamble.

Our fb group does free raffles, and gives away coral to local reefers. Not all groups are bad.

 

[Reefdiculous22]

The problem with YouTube is people want to make money. And quick vids of awesome tanks is what people want to see so that’s what YouTubers post. It’s economics. The other problem isn’t really YouTube at all but people wanting things right here right now so they don’t really care how you got there. They just want to know that can have it. People like myself who really is interested in the hobby can’t get real videos and real results because of this .

Sorry I think that was meant for the previous

Green red and brown are pretty colors.

Green red and brown are pretty colors.

That’s exactly my tank right now. Lol under lighting it’s green red and brown.

 

[Slocke]

I love posts like these because it reminds me that we all screw up and its better to ask for help than to hide it due to embarrassment.

This is why I deleted social media. It is too often a place for people to find an opinion echo chamber or blatantly show off. Though I do watch a lot of YouTube I don't feel the same about that. I feel like the people I watch are humble and honest about their failures and happy to help others. But I guess I found a good spot in the Algorithm.

 

[Reef and Dive]

I do not think they are bad. But as a frequent youtuber (I post daily care of my reef every single week no matter what), and I post near daily on instagram.
Here in Brazil people know me pretty well and that gives me the guts to post any uglies without a problem. People know I study a lot, take extreme meticulous care of my animals and do whaterver it takes to keep them healthy.

As some of my instagram posts get a little viral I pretty often receive hate comments that are not always easy to digest.

As an example, I built a nano for my son (yeah the one with glass hermits some people have seen). I recently came out of the ugly phase when it was pretty ugly covered on diatoms. Even though I posted on yt and insta this 4 week evolution, it getting worse and worse and right after the worst week it just got pretty clean (we recognize the silica consumption phase pretty well). I even posted live microscopy analysis showing it was for sure diatoms (did this all 4 weeks).



And even after this ultra detailed description I believe very very few have done before I receive coments such as: “this is bad skills, not a phase sort it out”.

I’m amazed how often people come aggressive like that knowing near zero about a suject…

Well, nevermind, I just keep my track that here in Brazil is about showing what believe to be good care and helping other reefers.

 

[Reefdiculous22]

So this is a prime example I feel. I am literally new to the hobby. I had a 55 gallon fresh water tank YEARS ago. This is my first salt water tank though. Anyway. As you can see in the pics in my previous post that I have a horrible algae/bacteria bloom. Which I’m fine with. It’s a new tank and it’s part of the growing pains I get it.
i have corals. Should I have corals, probably not, this is also part of the learning curve.
This is the problem that I am seeing though. I have this algae/bacteria bloom, and I’m looking at my tank and basting the rocks. I see my Aussie Lord coral has some white hairy like things coming off of it so I grab my tooth brush and start to clean it. As I’m cleaning it I notice that it’s not happy. I’m not experienced but I can tell it wasn’t happy. Slime was coming off and tentacles were coming out of its mouth. Hind sight I think he was trying to defend himself. ( can’t blame him) moving forward I thought maybe it wasn’t algae but possibly new growth so I try to look it up. There is absolutely nothing about new growth on YouTube or the net.
There are all these videos about how to care for corals , every last one are consisting of water parameters , flow, and feeding. Nothing about the anatomy of corals, I literally ripped the flesh off my coral because I thought I was scrubbing the frag plug. Am I an idiot, possibly but I’m new and need information. Real information. Not just water parameters , par , and etc.

 

[Auquanut]

Just going to throw my $0.02 in. I've combed through various YouTube videos. Not sure what an Instagram is (sounds kinda like a fast-food type of drug deal).

While there's quite a few very legitimate, respected Youtubers out there giving good advice, there is also a lot of trash. The novice reefer may not have the experience to determine the difference and make decisions based on the advice of another novice reefer or a farmer of subscribers. I think this can be detrimental to the hobby.

It has been mentioned that less than accurate, or advantageous advice is given in our community as well. This is absolutely true. We all have our own levels of experience and our own opinions and outcomes.

I think that the beauty of our community is that each thread is a discussion. For every opinion, there is hopefully someone else who will give their own opinion or experience. Ultimately, it's up to each reefer to decide what's best for their own system and wading through the opinions and information can be daunting. we all just do the best we can.

I like to think that within our community, we all give advice and opinions in an effort to help another reefer. Whether it's right or wrong, it's given in an honest attempt to help a fellow reefer. I think that in itself is pretty cool.

 

[Auquanut]

It's one of the reasons that I think it's important to have threads (LOTS of threads) that talk about the run-of-the-mill issues that people commonly deal with. It's why I'm so glad that we have people here who don't mind answering the same questions over and over...because sometimes...sometimes it's honestly nice to see that the issues we face have been also dealt with by so many people before us.

I couldn't agree more. I know that it's easy to get frustrated seeing the same common issues brought up regularly.

It occurs to me that we were all new to the hobby at one point, and while the search function is a great source of information, each reefers trials and tribulations are very personal to their own experience and worthy of questions and answers. It's kind of what we're all about.

 

[cancun]

Ok, so let me be clear what I'm talking about. I'm not asking or implying that IG and YT are bad for the hobby. I'm specifically thinking about the temptation toward misrepresentation that occurs in the world where picture perfection is the standard. Let's be honest, on IG the goal is to "stop the scroll" and rack up followers which is accomplished by having a tank that is picture perfect. This often leads people to post when the tank is doing well and avoid talking about pitfalls and issues where the tank is far less than perfect. The same can often happen on YouTube where videographers cover their mistakes before the latest video or choose to use quick fixes or even old footage to avoid showing issues. AGAIN, I am not saying this is true for all IG'ers or YouTubers. Some do take the painful step of sharing us their missteps or simply the normal problems of reefing, but I do feel that many times even those moments can get glossed over because frankly, people aren't drawn to look at lackluster images, so for example, someone might be less likely to show off a tank in a video in the middle of the uglies because it just doesn't seem like something people want to see.

My concern is that this ultimately can lead to unrealistic expectations for the average reefer, especially newer reefers who might get into reefing because XYZ YouTuber has such beautiful tank and makes it look "so easy." Reefing is tough, and a lot of times there are stages that don't get shown off but that are natural parts of tank maturation. Other times there may be set backs that could have been avoided, and a reefer may feel alone when going through those issues. What do you guys think? Is this a problem that happens in a culture that emphasizes perfection and gives less voice to struggles?

Where this line of thought leads me is back to the value of experiencing this hobby in community. It's why local clubs are so valuable and why even developing friendships in online communities that go beyond mere surface engagement can be helpful. It's one of the reasons that I think it's important to have threads (LOTS of threads) that talk about the run-of-the-mill issues that people commonly deal with. It's why I'm so glad that we have people here who don't mind answering the same questions over and over...because sometimes...sometimes it's honestly nice to see that the issues we face have been also dealt with by so many people before us.

Just some musings I've been thinking through today. What are your thoughts?

I totally agree, I think it helps new reefers to discuss the good and bad, and the hard work involved in keeping a successful tank. On my Youtube channel I do good and bad videos, from cyano issues, fish problems, to when things are going good....with hopes that people won't make my past mistakes.

IMO I think a lot of people unfortunately don't like to talk about their struggles with the hobby. I know I have had my share! LOL!

 

[hockeyhead019]

Interesting thread to read through.

A couple things: I doubt that the attrition rate is heavily affected by social media, people that wanna get into the hobby will be exposed at one point or another by one media or another (visiting an aquarium, seeing a friends tank, seeing something online, YT etc) so I don't think much of that has changed to be honest. I don't think the YT or IG algorithm will just push random reef content to somebody who hasn't shown interest.

As for whether or not social media is negatively impacting the hobby, that's a deeper question as most have pointed out. I think it comes down to how "influenced" the user is by what they're absorbing and whether or not they've realized that social media isn't real life 99% of the time. If they haven't realized that fact, they're in for a rough, and probably short ride in the hobby, and honestly anything else they're basing on YT or IG "realities". If they really want success in the hobby, they'll keep digging after a problem occurs and figure out a way forward and then realize "crap, probably should have done a ton more homework on this prior to starting" lol and that's in no way a knock on people new to the hobby. I think we can all say we've been there once or twice, whether it was buying gear, livestock or procedures that we just got caught up in. But those who want to pursue the hobby figure out the problem and solve it.

 

[officialreefbros]

My brother and I started a youtube and IG when we got into the hobby. We wanted to try to give a fun take of showing our adventure and have captured everything from coral and fish dying all the way to glamor shots of the corals that have been doing well. I agree some of the channels dont show much of the bad and really focus on the glory. But overall I think it is beneficial by getting more people into this great hobby as well are bringing in more attention to our reefs in general.

 

[jabberwock]

Ok, so let me be clear what I'm talking about. I'm not asking or implying that IG and YT are bad for the hobby. I'm specifically thinking about the temptation toward misrepresentation that occurs in the world where picture perfection is the standard. Let's be honest, on IG the goal is to "stop the scroll" and rack up followers which is accomplished by having a tank that is picture perfect. This often leads people to post when the tank is doing well and avoid talking about pitfalls and issues where the tank is far less than perfect. The same can often happen on YouTube where videographers cover their mistakes before the latest video or choose to use quick fixes or even old footage to avoid showing issues. AGAIN, I am not saying this is true for all IG'ers or YouTubers. Some do take the painful step of sharing us their missteps or simply the normal problems of reefing, but I do feel that many times even those moments can get glossed over because frankly, people aren't drawn to look at lackluster images, so for example, someone might be less likely to show off a tank in a video in the middle of the uglies because it just doesn't seem like something people want to see.

My concern is that this ultimately can lead to unrealistic expectations for the average reefer, especially newer reefers who might get into reefing because XYZ YouTuber has such beautiful tank and makes it look "so easy." Reefing is tough, and a lot of times there are stages that don't get shown off but that are natural parts of tank maturation. Other times there may be set backs that could have been avoided, and a reefer may feel alone when going through those issues. What do you guys think? Is this a problem that happens in a culture that emphasizes perfection and gives less voice to struggles?

Where this line of thought leads me is back to the value of experiencing this hobby in community. It's why local clubs are so valuable and why even developing friendships in online communities that go beyond mere surface engagement can be helpful. It's one of the reasons that I think it's important to have threads (LOTS of threads) that talk about the run-of-the-mill issues that people commonly deal with. It's why I'm so glad that we have people here who don't mind answering the same questions over and over...because sometimes...sometimes it's honestly nice to see that the issues we face have been also dealt with by so many people before us.

Just some musings I've been thinking through today. What are your thoughts?

They are bad for everything.

 

[Jedi1199]

Interesting thread to read through.

A couple things: I doubt that the attrition rate is heavily affected by social media, people that wanna get into the hobby will be exposed at one point or another by one media or another (visiting an aquarium, seeing a friends tank, seeing something online, YT etc) so I don't think much of that has changed to be honest. I don't think the YT or IG algorithm will just push random reef content to somebody who hasn't shown interest.

As for whether or not social media is negatively impacting the hobby, that's a deeper question as most have pointed out. I think it comes down to how "influenced" the user is by what they're absorbing and whether or not they've realized that social media isn't real life 99% of the time. If they haven't realized that fact, they're in for a rough, and probably short ride in the hobby, and honestly anything else they're basing on YT or IG "realities". If they really want success in the hobby, they'll keep digging after a problem occurs and figure out a way forward and then realize "crap, probably should have done a ton more homework on this prior to starting" lol and that's in no way a knock on people new to the hobby. I think we can all say we've been there once or twice, whether it was buying gear, livestock or procedures that we just got caught up in. But those who want to pursue the hobby figure out the problem and solve it.

A point here that hits me. I have a few co-workers that watch my videos. They have told me that after watching them, they want to start their own tanks even though "I have no idea what I am doing".

THIS part disturbs me to be honest. I believe this is also fully relevant to this discussion. If we as a community, only post the videos of our tanks when doing great, does this inspire others, who have zero background in aquaria to start a tank that is most likely doomed before it started?

I have no issue with inspiring others to get into this hobby. However, I am compelled to instruct them that what you see in my tank, is a result of over 30 years of aquarium keeping and countless hours and hours of research, plus more than a small dose of trial and error.

What I am getting at, and the novice reefers reading this thread need to keep in mind... What you see in those YT or IG videos or photos is a result of a LOT of hard work. Read through the "Reef of the Month" articles, see what these people are doing to get tanks worthy of this representation. I guarantee you that these are not people who watched a YT video, went to the LFS and grabbed whatever the guy said they should have and boom 'ROTM".

These people have invested a HUGE portion of their lives to create these tanks.

Funny part is it all comes full circle. Those "ROTM" tanks, went through EXACTLY the same process as your tank, my tank, his tank, her tank, grandma's tank, and on and on.

 

[amygetsalife]

Yeah I keep meaning to make some "struggle" threads for this reason. One of the hardest things I think in this hobby is knowing when you need to do something or when to seek out help. Like what issues are truly emergent and which might correct themselves with little intervention. I do a lot of documenting my tank with my phone, especially when I'm having issues so that I have them if I need to post a help thread or just for my own personal record keeping to see the progress and changes my corals and fish have. One very specific example is how bubble tip anemones look when they excrete waste. If you don't have experience with anemones and haven't seen them deflate and inflate you would probably see a deflated BTA and say its dying but then 10 minutes later its inflated again looking completely normal. I almost posted a thread about my green BTA the first time I saw it deflate but then decided to give it some time and sure enough it inflated back to normal. But I remember thinking are mine the only ones that do this or do others see this too and just don't talk about it on the forums.

I'm convinced a lot of these "HELPPP" threads that are posted and receive several responses but then become abandoned by the OP are because the issue the OP had resolved itself on its own and they did not go back to update everyone. I try to follow-up with posts that I have provided advice to but sometimes that becomes too much.

I remember being dramatic and thinking I was going to have to start over with my tank after I got back from vacation and it was drowning in GHA. But instead of freaking out I just did some research and reduced feedings back to what I was doing before vacation and started manually removing some GHA every couple of days and eventually the issue resolved on its own.

A similar phenomenon occurs in science and referred to as publication bias. This is also getting worse these days with the competitiveness of acquiring research funding. Publication bias is basically the idea that journals and researchers are more likely to publish manuscripts with data that has positive results instead of negative results. This creates an issue where you have an accumulation of unanswered questions on a topic because it is not seen positively to publish results of an experiment where your data rejects your hypothesis. While this may not be helpful data to you it might be helpful to others in the future who need this data to answer more novel questions. This also means that a lot of researchers repeat the same experiments and work just to answer the same questions someone else probably already answered but did not publish. It is something very frustrating but is part of the culture now in the publishing of scientific literature.

Yes! That moment when my lights turned off after adding coral for the first time, earlier that day.....and everything looked like crap. Never had I seen or heard anything about the corals closing up at night.

 

[Reefdiculous22]

A point here that hits me. I have a few co-workers that watch my videos. They have told me that after watching them, they want to start their own tanks even though "I have no idea what I am doing".

THIS part disturbs me to be honest. I believe this is also fully relevant to this discussion. If we as a community, only post the videos of our tanks when doing great, does this inspire others, who have zero background in aquaria to start a tank that is most likely doomed before it started?

I have no issue with inspiring others to get into this hobby. However, I am compelled to instruct them that what you see in my tank, is a result of over 30 years of aquarium keeping and countless hours and hours of research, plus more than a small dose of trial and error.

What I am getting at, and the novice reefers reading this thread need to keep in mind... What you see in those YT or IG videos or photos is a result of a LOT of hard work. Read through the "Reef of the Month" articles, see what these people are doing to get tanks worthy of this representation. I guarantee you that these are not people who watched a YT video, went to the LFS and grabbed whatever the guy said they should have and boom 'ROTM".

These people have invested a HUGE portion of their lives to create these tanks.

Funny part is it all comes full circle. Those "ROTM" tanks, went through EXACTLY the same process as your tank, my tank, his tank, her tank, grandma's tank, and on and on.

That’s the point though…isn’t it? Idk.. I mean I myself do not expect a tank from day one. I’m not that naive. The general consensus is passing down knowledge in the community to help up and coming reefers as well as get people to get into the hobby. Yes that guy with the reef of the month has years of experience, trials and error, but that’s where the discussion comes back to you tube and instagram. You have to get on the forums and read those article, trust me, I’ve read a few. Those ROTM are some gorgeous ecosystems. Which I think most of us noobs are trying to aspire too. Back to the point, those trials and errors are not on YouTube or instagram in their most natural forms. They are edited and biased towards marketing. And most new comers probably don’t know about the forums. And yes showing those tanks do aspire people to start the hobby but that’s where it seems to end imo. I’m just starting out though so maybe I just haven’t found the right algorithm. What’s your YouTube channel?

 

[MartinM]

Social media is highly addictive (on purpose) and all research on the subject has shown how terrible it is for the individual person and humanity at large. I avoid it like a plague.

 

[Reefdiculous22]

Social media is highly addictive (on purpose) and all research on the subject has shown how terrible it is for the individual person and humanity at large. I avoid it like a plague.

It’s a losing battle

 

[Reefdiculous22]

I look at my roughly 7 month tank, with a few little baby zoa frags and a couple clowns and my red slime algae, and LOVE EVERY SECOND OF IT!!!!!!!!

I know someday it will look like the Instagram posts, but I definitely am going to continue to post my pictures of my 17 polyp mandarin orange frag when it turns to 18 polyps... and 19... and 20...

Jealousy of other's DT is the first step towards making irrational decisions, purchases, and additives, and will just create a longer waiting period until you get the DT to look like theirs

I'm still patiently waiting for that first little spot of purple coralline...

Same here

 

[Jedi1199]

That’s the point though…isn’t it? Idk.. I mean I myself do not expect a tank from day one. I’m not that naive. The general consensus is passing down knowledge in the community to help up and coming reefers as well as get people to get into the hobby. Yes that guy with the reef of the month has years of experience, trials and error, but that’s where the discussion comes back to you tube and instagram. You have to get on the forums and read those article, trust me, I’ve read a few. Those ROTM are some gorgeous ecosystems. Which I think most of us noobs are trying to aspire too. Back to the point, those trials and errors are not on YouTube or instagram in their most natural forms. They are edited and biased towards marketing. And most new comers probably don’t know about the forums. And yes showing those tanks do aspire people to start the hobby but that’s where it seems to end imo. I’m just starting out though so maybe I just haven’t found the right algorithm. What’s your YouTube channel?

My YT channel is here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCWXsHYWEI5i_wzY8mYT-kCg

 

[Max93]

Yes and no. Those IG tanks are very expensive, and any really nice tank is really expensive let’s be real here.

but I think it brings more good because it exposes these amazing animals to viewers that have never seen them before or knew they could keep them at home. The more serious and successful hobbyists that we get/have, the better longevity and success of the animals. Once they’re gone from the ocean they’re gone… they’ll only exist in aquariums unfortunately but with global warming and all, it’s the inevitable. Also, the more aquaculture we will do over time with more exposure/education .