Back to the Future: Out of the hobby and then back again is shocking!

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

1. If you were just getting back into the hobby after a long hiatus what do you think would shock you the most?

I took a long hiatus, what shocked me most was the bacteria in the bottle (specifically Fritz Turbo Start). Who would have thought someone could cycle a tank in a few days rather than a month +

2. What do you think is the next biggest trend or shocking change in reefing in the next 10 years or so?

I don't know lol. I can't predict the future.

 

[Pistol Peet]

I voted other because I've only been r e e f i n g two years so everything is kind of just normal to me so don't know how it would be if it were something I started a long time ago quit and then came back to

 

[Biologic]

Actually, I took a break in 2008, decided to get back in around 2014 (created my R2R account), and that never happened.

FINALLY, got back in August 2020. My first thoughts — “what the heck is going on with euphyllia prices?!?”

 

[eyesolator]

Yes I am shocked!! My tank has been in limbo since about 2017. I did water changes every now and them checked parameters once in a while and things survived but no longer thrived. At that time I was pretty aware of local and online coral prices. About a month ago I decided to get things back in order and the tank is coming around nicely. So I decided to look online for some new corals. What a joke?!?! $1000 sticks, $100+ an inch for nice but average sticks, $100 single head zoas. Looks like it's time for me to start selling coral...... I have an Ice Fire colony darn near the size of a vollyball maybe I'll sell it and buy a new car!

 

[tricky_tran]

I thought things were expensive in the early 2000's and back then, I thought the Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Elite was a pretty fancy controller. Now everything is online and more automated.

 

[sas226]

When i stepped out of the hobby in 2012, torches were the price of weeds. I came back last year and they're now super expensive a lot of the time. That and the overall price of corals seems to have increased 3 fold.

 

[vlangel]

For me if I were out of the hobby and now getting back into it, what I would find hard to adjust to is not having much access to coral colonies and to quality live rock in LFSs. When I worked at a LFS in the late 90s I started my first salt water tank with quality live rock. It was exciting to see what could grow on it. We did not fret about hitch hikers. Also for $50-$60 very nice colonies of LPS could be purchased and softies could be gotten for $30 or less. Most of the time those coral survived. Family owned LFSs in general are struggling these days and I miss that.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

LOL, everything listed here! Example, the year 1979, I bought a 15" Elegance coral for $15.00 (buck an inch sale), and I thought that was expensive.

 

[Ksull72487]

Prices go up!!!! The Technology has gotten better. The Nano is not much of a Jail cell for Nemo anymore. Hahahahah. I started reefing in 2010. I was doing Nanos. It’s all I do. I have gotten out 2 times. This is my third time back in. Sold it all off each time. This is my first R2R account although.

Got back in during Covid. Noticed all my old stores had less stock. Snails were hard to look for.

 

[Ksull72487]

LOL, everything listed here! Example, the year 1979, I bought a 15" Elegance coral for $15.00 (buck an inch sale), and I thought that was expensive.

I just picked a fairly decent size one up for $39 bucks. Back in 79 Elegance was bullet proof. Today lol. I did get one out of Australia tho. That price is dropping again due to the fact they could be hard to take care off. I’d almost classify this as an anemone too.

 

[klownfizh]

Anything that is rainbow colored is called a "ULTRA" and cost a arm and 4 legs lol

 

[ZiBiReef]

THE SHROOM PRICES! Been out for 7 years, came back and now shrooms that had cost 15-20 are going for 50 now. But the addiction never goes away

 

[Roytrolls247]

Walking into a LFS like World wide coral and Top shelf aquatics (Because I live in Orlando)

 

[ffiren]

Haha. First post today after 15 years...

LED lights - no more chillers
DC pumps
Auto-younameit
Bacterial/algae in a bottle
Suprised at the lack of live rock. Hoping for less aptasia!
Better glass
Viable AIO options
Predrilled tanks

Oh my god it's so expensive. Perhaps autonomy = accessibility = higher profit margins :/

 

[Sticker shock]

I had a small reef that I took down about 20 years ago. I got back into the hobby just about a year ago. Was I surprised when I started up again...well just check my user name!

Seems everyone still hates aiptasia though!

 

[SebastianReefer]

I seriously got into the hobby in my 20s had all the best of everything and every coral that was available at the time after 5 years and several moves that was enough for me and a couple kids later 7 I had no time for it so my live rock the kind you can’t get anymore went to my father now to fast forward 17 years to 2017 I decided to make the leap got my live rock back and a 75 gallon tank and me and the wife headed to a lfs and the guy basically tells me everything I’m asking is outdated I mean everything I was amazed at what they now call a colony back in my day that’s a frag and this was a colony

 

[kritquilt]

I have returned twice to this hobby...left in 1980 when I moved ( had 3 salt and 4 fresh tanks) too much to move
Returned in 2001 when my son started at 16..left after Hurricane Ike wiped out the tanks in 2007
Came back last year...my son is currently growing out corals to sell later and we have both been tracking all the changes. What a change both times I came back! So much available, some stuff that used to be super expensive now affordable. And no one was really growing reef tanks in the 70's, fish only or inverts only, maybe a clown and anemone.

 

[ID-Reefer]

Im just getting back into the hobby after 8-9 years so this hits home for me...

1. If you were just getting back into the hobby after a long hiatus what do you think would shock you the most?

What has shocked me the most as I work through my 240 gal. system build is easily how automated and controlled everything has become. Not that it exists as I had heard about it a decade ago but that its so readily available and relatively affordable. 8-9 years ago it seems like was something a few people talked about and an occasional person in the hobby was playing with but now it almost seems all new builds have at least some of that technology implemented. As I started getting back into things a couple months ago I had no plans in getting a controller or automating anything... 8 weeks later I have a full Apex system ready to install with automated water change, ATO,a mixing station, Trident, Dos etc.etc.

Oddly enough while Ive personally been out of the hobby for that length of time Ive designed about 12 large public aquarium projects across the country (Im an architect so more building design than actual tank system design). I have been aware of the level of automation/control for large commercial tank systems (the last facility I did has a 39,000 gallon ray/shark tank) but had no idea that so many hobbyists now use it.

2. What do you think is the next biggest trend or shocking change in reefing in the next 10 years or so?

Sadly I think its the availability of wild stock. Sad because we are losing our wild reefs at an alarming rate. The documentary on Netflix called Chasing coral is depressing. I think the demand will price out most hobbyists for certain types of coral/fish. Regulations are also likely to make obtaining them more difficult.

 

[SharkaThon]

1. If you were just getting back into the hobby after a long hiatus what do you think would shock you the most?

I'm getting back in after a 10 year hiatus and I'd have to say that the amount of technology that is available for our sumps, while still keeping it space-saving.

2. What do you think is the next biggest trend or shocking change in reefing in the next 10 years or so?

WC is not going to be too available, so our available livestock with all have to be captive bred.

 

[Tankkeepers]

I was little shocked after taking 2 years off that not much has really changed