People thinking about starting their first reef tank see gadgets and get intimidated by the cost and complexity. You can certainly be successful with a simple tank, and most of what they are intimidated by is stuff they don't need. But there is a lot of knowledge, complexity and cost that they aren't aware of either - so if they get intimidated by fancy gadgets, they probably won't be successful anyway and are better without starting a reef tank.
I've always said this hobby requires 3 things - time, money and knowledge. And you can make for a deficiency in any one by increasing the other two. But it is almost impossible to make up for a deficiency in any two no matter how much you invest in the other one.
I've always said this hobby requires 3 things - time, money and knowledge. And you can make for a deficiency in any one by increasing the other two. But it is almost impossible to make up for a deficiency in any two no matter how much you invest in the other one.