Here we go.. It is what it is. I get it. This new generation sees everything differently in regards to what they should aim for, in my opinion. I mean... everything!!!! The big difference is that back in the day, in the 90's and 2000's, we had knowledge from serious authors and great books. There was a common sense and shame was still a thing. During the last 2 decades we had a movement that shocked reefing! The marketing started to tell people how to behave and what to buy when they wanted using videos. The number of newbies is way bigger than anyone that is reefing for a long time. Those old fellows are ignored and they simply get out of the internet. If they stay online and are still active is because they agree with the marketing and actively participate. Videos are made to boost sales and to remove products in favor of other new products for more ca$h!! The manipulation also goes with the more expensive brands and the wide spread number of sponsorships! The sponsors represent such a heavy weight on opinions today in all ramifications Their money is the law of information! It's disgusting!!!!! They choose old folks as the main target, then the younger ones who make videos. Give free stuff to promote that way. Whoever sees this as a hobby takes it lightly and gives to the new ideas of this era. I don't see it as a hobby, but a great activity that should bring respect for the animals we keep and give them the very least they diserve. Lighting is one of the main subjects of urgency today in my personal opinion. 95% of the tanks have less than favorable lighting to their organisms, period! Corals suffer and grow distorted! People complain about the growth and having headaches looking at their tanks with LEDs... It's bad for our eyes too! They use those stupid orange glasses and think it's cool, or normal? The manufacturers must mock those customers!!! Unbelievable! I don't think using halides or T5s is a sacrifice in any way, but they should be the minimum we should do to keep shallow water corals to boost their health. Time to wake up!
The tiny frags deal for the large amount of ca$h is attached to Blue LEDs. Almost all of those "colorful corals" aren't colorful at all under the sun, or under normal lighting. So they keep them struggling under the Christmas tree lights to boost fluorescent pigments and call it that $1000.00 rare frag with a cartoon name. It's a money machine invented around 2012! Those guys are rich now. That drives the market today and will for a long time.
They can't grow large colonies because the majority of the tanks simply can't maintain large colonies due to the lack of proper/quality lighting to start with! Truth spoken!!!
We used to call it a hobby, but in reality it was way more important to all of us... we knew more than scientists in the 90's! Believe me on that! Today we are influencing scientists to use cartoon names for their corals. How do we expect the general public to respect reefkeeping when they listen to what we say???? Anyone in their right mind also will see that to light a system with mostly blue LEDs are the most absurd thing ever! Don't believe me? Ask your dear grandma!
I respect whoever chooses LEDs because they really believe what this market has been preaching and this money machine created, preaching that what is happening today IS normal. The fact is that "normal" means what most people do. That way, we achieved, within the relativism, what can be accepted by the majority! They don't know better! Whoever knows and lies to themselves need to analise their priorities and tell the practical truth. The priorities should be the biological needs of the organisms we keep, not what money dictates what we should do.
I'm sorry for the rant.
