Back in the day...

vetteguy53081

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Changes:
Prices
Type of livestock
Lighting
Filtration
Pumps
Controllers
Test kits
Tank design
Knowledge
Dosers
Reactors
 

X-37B

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I was in for a few years in 08-12 and I'm just getting back into it now. Acan and Duncan prices have come way down. The elegance coral issues seem to have been resolved. I think the prices on torches is insane but hey they have cool names now so that makes them worth it.

Holy poop the prices of some of the mushrooms. Some of them look like a cheap st. Thomas mushroom that grows like a weed, just under insane levels of blue to bring out the fluorescence.

Absolutely plan to go with local club sources frags. As previously stated you can find premium stuff much cheaper.

This hyper blue LED lighting trend is not my thing at all. I'm sticking with some 250w14k phoenix bulbs.

Everyone can do what makes them happy buy I feel like many people now have neat looking frags for Instagram and Facebook likes but I'd bet their tank is underwhelming in person.

If there is one thing I'm really happy about it is the increase in CB Fish and Aquacultured or dry rock. I miss the prices and diversity of fijian etc. but I think deep down we all know that pulling tons of reef rock out of the ocean is a bad idea and I'm happy Fiji and others ended it.
Well said about underwhelming, lol.
Many local reefers wont show you their tanks unless your in the group in my area.
Not even pics and when some do well you know.
Same goes for the lfs who has tanks that look well you know.

Biggest change for me is that I run a no scheduled water change system with good results.
Not possible back in the day, lol.
 

MONTANTK

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6-7 years ago I remember Aussie Orange torch colonies going for $150. Similarly, the first frag swap I ever worked in the same time period we were selling orange hammers and frogspawns for $25/head. Todd’s Torch was $50/head.

Dosing programs also seems to be the new trend in the hobby. Started with KZ but seemed to have really taken off with NoPox, at least in my area. That quickly followed with dosing aminos and really emphasizing the importance of trace elements. For the hardcore hobbyists there really seems to be a more scientific approach to keeping tanks and I’m all for it.
 

Tired

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How does maricultured live rock compare to the old stuff? The rock that's been tossed in the ocean for a few years and then hauled back out. My LFS has some of that rock in, pre-cured, and there's some nice stuff on it. A few stony corals (though nothing too flashy, mostly starlets), few soft corals, couple little gorgonians, and a good handful of macroalgae. I've found all kinds of life on the rock I bought from them, and I bet if it had been shipped directly to me in water, instead of having to cure, it would have brought even more stuff.
 

RobinV

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I started my first tank when I was a teenager in 1990. Learned everything from a book I took out of the library. 50 gallon tank with real live rock, an under gravel filter, a cheap HOB filter with a carbon cartridge thing, and a light I rigged up from parts from Radio Shack. It was beautiful, I had fish that I absolutely loved and never had a problem.

Just got back into the hobby with all the new gizmos and gadgets. I like the ATO and the app operated LED lights but man... so many battles I've fought and am fighting.

Genuinely considering starting a small cheap 10 gallon tank the old school way just to see if I'm crazy and remembering incorrectly how easy it was.
 

Tiger Brown

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Much like @RobinV in 1989 when I started my first salt tank I devoured all the book and magazine reading I could get my hands on, the internet was unheard of then of course. I went state of the art for my 55 gallon, which meant:

UG Filter with powerheads not airstones for uplift
Triton marine fluorescent bulbs (replaced every year, of course!)
A Whisper 3 HOB filter with carbon

That's about it. I kept no coral in that set-up, but I did successfully keep shrimp, crabs, starfish, anemone, and fish that now a days are thought to be way too big for a 55, but they sure seemed happy - Yellow Tang, Copper Banded Butterfly, Coral Beauty, etc.

The good ol' days.
 

fish farmer

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Back in the day.....it seemed like no one catered to small tanks, nanos weren't a thing when I started in 2000. Reef ready tanks were 75 gallons or better. I don't remember seeing AIO tanks for salt and the forum recommendations for new reefers were 75 gallon or bigger tanks. I started with a 38 gallon and eventually downgraded to a 29 gallon.
 
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polyppal

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How does maricultured live rock compare to the old stuff? The rock that's been tossed in the ocean for a few years and then hauled back out. My LFS has some of that rock in, pre-cured, and there's some nice stuff on it. A few stony corals (though nothing too flashy, mostly starlets), few soft corals, couple little gorgonians, and a good handful of macroalgae. I've found all kinds of life on the rock I bought from them, and I bet if it had been shipped directly to me in water, instead of having to cure, it would have brought even more stuff.
Id think its pretty much the same in terms of filtration, Id imagine the nicer stuff has been in the ocean for a year or more. I heard the reason this didn't really take off on a large scale is because hurricanes/storms in the gulf can dump several feet of sand on the rock piles, leaving them inaccessible (in which case the company looses everything)
 

BizarroKeyLargo

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First FOWLR 2012 first reef 2014 but I think the single biggest difference is the quality of live rock and no more wet dry filters. I think that tasty rock we used to get already covered in different colors of coraline and critters everywhere. The live rock is what hooked me from the start, all the ecology you had from day 1. I think the rock did a lot of the work for me at least with the first reef. You see a lot more open and minimalist rockscapes as opposed to the piles of rock that went more than 2/3rds up the back glass. This may play into the lower diversity as well, you do still see tanks filled with feather duster and brittle stars like all mine used to. The biggest positive I see to reefing today is that it's not as much of an elitists hobby. I was always putting together all my setups from used tanks and maxijets as a broke teen and now I've found there to be a lot more middle ground in the market for people who want something better than jeabo but can't afford tunze.
 

kingjoe

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I started my first tank when I was a teenager in 1990. Learned everything from a book I took out of the library. 50 gallon tank with real live rock, an under gravel filter, a cheap HOB filter with a carbon cartridge thing, and a light I rigged up from parts from Radio Shack. It was beautiful, I had fish that I absolutely loved and never had a problem.

Just got back into the hobby with all the new gizmos and gadgets. I like the ATO and the app operated LED lights but man... so many battles I've fought and am fighting.

Genuinely considering starting a small cheap 10 gallon tank the old school way just to see if I'm crazy and remembering incorrectly how easy it was.
I set up my first marine tank at about the same time. 110 gallon with an airstone-driven under gravel filter, big Eheim canister filter, a couple of aquarium fluorescent tubes that probably weren't much beyond standard shop lights. I recall paying ~$35 for an Achilles and having no ectoparasite issues. My zebra moray was about 3' long ($50, I think-pricey!), and I fed him prawns, as I did my Spanish Hogfish, who just relished them. My decor consisted of "pillar coral" skeletons tilted about on regular crushed coral substrate, and my cleanliness aesthetic was standard sterile. And, I put bioballs in my canister filter... heh.

I'm building a 180 now, with several notable improvements and upgrades.
 

OrionN

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Way back in the 80’s I used reverse flow under-gravel filter bright fluorescent NO light and grow Caulerpa in my DT. Begging for some bristle worms from a LFS (Fintique in San Antonio) so I can grow them in my gravels.
my tank was very stable with thriving fish and a few invertebrates
 
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polyppal

polyppal

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First FOWLR 2012 first reef 2014 but I think the single biggest difference is the quality of live rock and no more wet dry filters. I think that tasty rock we used to get already covered in different colors of coraline and critters everywhere. The live rock is what hooked me from the start, all the ecology you had from day 1. I think the rock did a lot of the work for me at least with the first reef. You see a lot more open and minimalist rockscapes as opposed to the piles of rock that went more than 2/3rds up the back glass. This may play into the lower diversity as well, you do still see tanks filled with feather duster and brittle stars like all mine used to. The biggest positive I see to reefing today is that it's not as much of an elitists hobby. I was always putting together all my setups from used tanks and maxijets as a broke teen and now I've found there to be a lot more middle ground in the market for people who want something better than jeabo but can't afford tunze.
I agree with the thoughts on elitists, though more from a personality standpoint than equipment. So many people on 'the other forum' have always been so hostile or straight up jerks, you'd get assaulted for posting anything there. It even affected the local reefing clubs here in Colorado. That attitude actually took me out of the hobby for many years because I didn't want to be around all these hostile reef jerks anymore...

A welcome change to say the least now that the hobby is much wider in outreach and scope
 

Mical

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It's like everything else these days, "what the market is willing to pay".

IE: Cars back in the day were made of actual steel, assembled by a labor force and you could buy a full size car for under $10k (ask Paul B and his Oldsmobiles) now they're more plastic than metal (of any type) assembled by robotics and $30k will get you an "econo box".

Heck look at your music collections - back in the day you bought physical albums, cassettes, 8 tracks... but had something physical - now you buy "copied air". (Artist records a song which is digitally recorded) and you buy the digits.

I can remember buying an 8" Queen Angel for $40 and the LFS through in pellet & flake food...
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 73 37.8%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 66 34.2%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.0%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 14.5%
  • Other.

    Votes: 1 0.5%
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