Has reefing become too complicated?

[poloreefer]

Hundreds of threads talking about parameters, dosing all kinds of wacky stuff, disease prevention, insanely expensive and complicated equipment, etc. and it has me wondering if reefing has just become too complicated in general - especially when it comes to new people entering the hobby.

Here I am, a reefer of almost 20 years who never doses anything, don’t test for anything, have zero automation besides ATO and a light timer and my tank seems to do a lot better than the majority I see on here.

Is it time that the hobby takes a step back and get back to the basics?


*Note that I am completely aware that there are many people striving to keep acros and difficult to keep critters like that and also hobbyists who are complete tech heads who love the automation stuff. I’m not really taking about the niche keepers like that. I’m just talking about regular everyday people who want a cool reef tank and not a whole lot more.

I think it’s easy , this is my first saltwater tank I change the water twice a week just added my first coral everything is going great , when I was first looking up saltwater tank it was a whole stuff they was telling you what you need but really you don’t need it when you first start , I had test kits , protein skimmer , refractometer , I threw it all out used marine test strips you drip in the water because Red Sea test was too crazy for me , just treat it like a fresh water tank and you will be fine all this other stuff will keep you away from saltwater tanks things will come up from time to time , maybe you have to dose your tank with some all in one once you add more corals start off with green star polyps they grow fast I like to be hands on all this automatic stuff takes the fun out of it

 

[ReefGeezer]

Is it time that the hobby takes a step back and get back to the basics?

There are all kinds of "reef" tanks. Some require more complicated processes. Some don't. I do think the posts here at R2R mostly address the subject of the thread where they reside. A post about the process to manage high alkalinity demand is probably not important to those keeping just soft corals. It is important for those posting in that thread. I don't think we need to step back. Maybe everyone needs to consider if the discussion in a thread applies to their processes.

 

[MnFish1]

Hundreds of threads talking about parameters, dosing all kinds of wacky stuff, disease prevention, insanely expensive and complicated equipment, etc. and it has me wondering if reefing has just become too complicated in general - especially when it comes to new people entering the hobby.

Here I am, a reefer of almost 20 years who never doses anything, don’t test for anything, have zero automation besides ATO and a light timer and my tank seems to do a lot better than the majority I see on here.

Is it time that the hobby takes a step back and get back to the basics?


*Note that I am completely aware that there are many people striving to keep acros and difficult to keep critters like that and also hobbyists who are complete tech heads who love the automation stuff. I’m not really taking about the niche keepers like that. I’m just talking about regular everyday people who want a cool reef tank and not a whole lot more.

complicated with no reason - yes

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

Imo the formula for a successful tank has not changed. Now there are more tools than ever to accomplish it.

 

[MnFish1]

Not a lot of people had success when things were simple.
Now with controllers and advances, many people have success.
Coincidence? I think not.

Actually - I guess I am not sure where the statistics are coming from. If you're trying to say that before when things were 'less complicated', it was more difficult to keep certain corals, etc, and now thats easier? I think you're correct. Because I've been doing this for decades - and plenty of people had success before the Apex (just one example) came out. IMHO - the main cause for success now as compared to 'then' is the recognition of how important Live rock is to a system. I guess the second biggest change is the use of a sump and or refugium. IMHO - people overly complicate things and chase numbers that do not need to be chased. I never tested water more than once a week (unless there was a problem) As long as temp and pH was good - the tank stayed good.

As an aside - I think one of the problems I see commonly here is people constantly adding more and more and more livestock.

 

[Dburr1014]

Actually - I guess I am not sure where the statistics are coming from. If you're trying to say that before when things were 'less complicated', it was more difficult to keep certain corals, etc, and now thats easier? I think you're correct. Because I've been doing this for decades - and plenty of people had success before the Apex (just one example) came out. IMHO - the main cause for success now as compared to 'then' is the recognition of how important Live rock is to a system. I guess the second biggest change is the use of a sump and or refugium. IMHO - people overly complicate things and chase numbers that do not need to be chased. I never tested water more than once a week (unless there was a problem) As long as temp and pH was good - the tank stayed good.

As an aside - I think one of the problems I see commonly here is people constantly adding more and more and more livestock.

I guess my thinking was with knowledge comes advancements and with advancements comes more knowledge and so on. The more knowledgeable we are the more success we have.
That's in its simplest terms.
More knowledge also creates better equipment with the industry.

 

[Sump Crab]

I guess my thinking was with knowledge comes advancements and with advancements comes more knowledge and so on. The more knowledgeable we are the more success we have.
That's in its simplest terms.
More knowledge also creates better equipment with the industry.

Just like anything “knowledge” is on a bell curve. We start out with none and slowly apex with a certain amount. Then as the knowledge becomes too great/complicated it does little more than add anxiety about irrelevant stuff that most ppl can’t control anyways lol.

 

[anthonymckay]

It's only as complicated as someone makes it. It's possible to run a low tech reef and be successful. My last tank was a biocube 29, that I never did any dosing of any kind, no sump, no skimmer, no auto anything. Just a single kessil light on a an old school outlet timer, and weekly water changes. I kept softies and had that tank running like that for ~10 years. My current tank I wanted to dive into the world of vibrant SPS. Fortunately, our understanding of the chemistry of reefing has come a long way in the past 20-30 years, and the progress of technology/gadgets to help us maintain that chemistry has been very beneficial. Im now at the other end of the spectrum and have a VERY complex setup with lots of automation/controllers/etc.

The thing is (and I think a lot of people in this hobby seem to forget sometimes), there's no single right way to be successful in this hobby. As the saying goes: there's more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[MnFish1]

I guess my thinking was with knowledge comes advancements and with advancements comes more knowledge and so on. The more knowledgeable we are the more success we have.
That's in its simplest terms.
More knowledge also creates better equipment with the industry.

I agree with you - I was responding more to the question 'has reefing become too complicated'. It's possibly too general a question to answer. If you have a Fowler, an APEX, trident, and all of the meters, etc. It may be more complicated than it needs to be. Many people keep (mostly fish only) Fish in a tank with live rock and a lot of flow. No sump, no skimmer, etc (a heater of course is probably needed). But - again - I agree with your feeling. I think that the equipment thats out there is generally of better quality, etc.

 

[mattdg]

I, for one, believe that options are a good thing. Go basic or go complicated. It is your choice. I have also been reefing for 20 plus years. The access we have to information now is so much better, than to when I started. I keep the kind of SPS heavy mixed reef, that would have been nearly impossible 20 years ago.

 

[Danjoethepirate]

Yes and no. If you want it to be it definitely can get crazy complicated. I'm middle of the road, I have radions and vortechs but no protein skimmer and dose all for reef. I can keep anything you'd like and don't test ever really, except alk occasionally when I'm feeling like it. It doesn't have to be complicated though, just have a plan and stick to it. Make a mountain out of a molehill every time something looks a little off and you end up with a never ending feedback loop of action/reaction. And here's the proof of keeping anything.

 

[slickreefing]

Yes and no. If you want it to be it definitely can get crazy complicated. I'm middle of the road, I have radions and vortechs but no protein skimmer and dose all for reef. I can keep anything you'd like and don't test ever really, except alk occasionally when I'm feeling like it. It doesn't have to be complicated though, just have a plan and stick to it. Make a mountain out of a molehill every time something looks a little off and you end up with a never ending feedback loop of action/reaction. And here's the proof of keeping anything.

Well said. Lovely, healthy system there.

 

[MnFish1]

Yes and no. If you want it to be it definitely can get crazy complicated. I'm middle of the road, I have radions and vortechs but no protein skimmer and dose all for reef. I can keep anything you'd like and don't test ever really, except alk occasionally when I'm feeling like it. It doesn't have to be complicated though, just have a plan and stick to it. Make a mountain out of a molehill every time something looks a little off and you end up with a never ending feedback loop of action/reaction. And here's the proof of keeping anything.

The question is - does the automation make a difference, Your testing algorithm seems great

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

dosing all kinds of wacky stuff,

Addressing just this sentence, I think that many additives may seem whacky when their composition and purpose is not understood by the person thinking them whacky.

There certainly are some bogus or falsely advertised commercial supplements, but I wouldn't call them whacky.

 

[Sump Crab]

Addressing just this sentence, I think that many additives may seem whacky when their composition and purpose is not understood by the person thinking them whacky.

There certainly are some bogus or falsely advertised commercial supplements, but I wouldn't call them whacky.

Are we just disagreeing over semantics lol?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Are we just disagreeing over semantics lol?

I don’t know.

What do you think is whacky?

I do not consider vinegar or vodka whacky, for example. Do you?

Lots of products that some might consider whacky are just chemicals we want but are sold for another purpose.

My problem is products such as Brightwell pH Boost + which cannot do what they claim. I don’t know if you consider it whacky. I just think it is a product spawned by ignorance on the part of the developer of it.

 

[Sump Crab]

I don’t know.

What do you think is whacky?

I do not consider vinegar or vodka whacky, for example. Do you?

Lots of products that some might consider whacky are just chemicals we want but are sold for another purpose.

My problem is products such as Brightwell pH Boost + which cannot do what they claim. I don’t know if you consider it whacky. I just think it is a product spawned by ignorance on the part of the developer of it.

So you just don't like the term "wacky"? I get it, you seem like the type of person who needs things to be a little more clear, concrete, and precise lol.

Some things that people do in this hobby are wacky, TO ME lol

I personally believe that pouring things into your tank such as "bottled bacteria" is wacky.

 

[DanyL]

It is complicated, and it is expensive.
However, for the most part /especially in recent years/ it is BLOATED.

Both the complicated and expensive parts of the hobby can be adjusted to fit the amount of challenge and budget the hobbyist is looking for, but maneuvering through the amount of conflicting, useless and completely wrong information for those who aren’t in-the-know is to my opinion the real barrier for new comers.

Let’s take a simple question we see often:
“I have cyano, what should I do?”

How many different answers would you get? How many of these actually verified the current state of the system and tailored their solution to the subject?
Most answers, and to that extant - YouTube videos and articles as well will fail to “teach the man to fish”, and instead throw sentences like “high phosphates”, “use chemiclean” or “just don’t use X because it’s addicting(?!)”.

And the problem only grows and gets bigger every single time a question is answered without the full explanation behind how the tools work and why it is a possible good solution to his specific problem, because next time someone finds that answer he’ll throw away the fact that his situation may be somewhat different than OPs and now would follow what could possibly cause additional problems down the road.

And when there are so many different answers, I get it - it becomes confusing.
Who do I listen to? To the LFS? To my reef-guru friend? To this guy in r2r? Or this famous YouTube channel?

What’s even worse about this all is that while those who give good answers are often experienced enough to understand and explain the process, I see A LOT of freshman years go on and show their “expertise”, sometimes they are correct but often have no clue WHY.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents with a lot of frustration from first-year-know-it-all fellas.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I personally believe that pouring things into your tank such as "bottled bacteria" is wacky.

Ok, thank you for clarifying what you mean.

 

[zoomonster]

I started about 33 years ago and let me say equipment has MUCH improved and so has the ability to actually keep stuff alive and growing. Sure, there is a lot of BS out there but aquarium tech has one purpose which is to achieve the highest level of stability possible and provide as near ideal an environment as possible. Of course, that automation also makes my busy life easier and allows more time for actual enjoyment.