Has The Economy Downfall Affected Your Plans ?

[427HISS]

Has the economy affected your plans from starting a new tank (like mine) buying something new like lights etc,...slowed you down or completely stopped you from continuing your build or products ?

I have a new 125g tank that I'm planning on building it into the Livingroom wall. I have a lot of products to get started, but not knowing will the war end soon or may take many months or even years to end, I don't want a 6' long hole in the drywall to look at for the instead of a beautiful reef tank.

 

[FrugalReeferJon]

Not really. I continue following the same routine, buying the same products, etc. I have a small Waterbox nano cube, inexpensive Nicrew light, simple Bubble Magus skimmer, inexpensive Jebao powerheads. I do water changes but not the traditional one of replacing old saltwater with new saltwater. Every week I replace 1-2 gallons of old saltwater with fresh ATO water. I do this because of the salinity rise that my tank experiences over the course of a week from dosing ESV 2 part and I count this as a water change. Keep it simple and inexpensive when it comes to reefkeeping is my motto.

 

[OrchidMiss]

It squashed my plans to make it to all 3 RAPs this year.
Round trip flights from Philly to Orlando skyrocketed from $~300 to $550+. Luckily I can drive to the NY show and will be there for both days. Fingers crossed to be able to get affordable flights to LAX in August. I've never been to the west coast before, so I'm looking forward to the trip.

 

[rtparty]

What economy downfall?

 

[56longroof]

What economy downfall?

Exactly.

 

[exnisstech]

The only thing affecting my plans is having to replace my Gals hot tub because our other one crapped out after 15 years. It was still less $ than my WB 330.7 when I bought it lol.

 

[obanarama]

Politics has entered the ring!

I own two smallish technology companies, one that operates in a small town and another that operates nationally and in a limited capacity, globally. Both with thousands of customers. Neither business has seen a drop off in business from the war, yet, but both have seen the cost of electronics skyrocket, which started when the new tariff policies went into effect. So I'm not seeing an economy downfall, but it is certainly more expensive to do business.

Still buying too many corals tho!

 

[Biokabe]

What economy downfall?

Depends on what part of the economy you interface with.

I'm in the gift industry, adjacent to the tourism industry. We've definitely seen a falling-off in the last 2-3 months, as both the small business owners I sell directly to and the tourists that they depend on have become scared to part with their money, leading to downturns in their sales (and thus, downturns in mine). What we sell is mostly discretionary spending, and people are using their discretion to save their money for a rainy day.

The same can't be said for our online sales, which have stayed mostly the same. Shifting around a bit since we're no longer selling directly to Amazon, but if you normalize the numbers they're mostly the same as they have been the last 2-3 years.

People are traveling less, and so they don't spend as much in the gift shops we sell to. But they still like our products and use them in their personal lives, so they shift their spending online.

But I would agree that calling it a downfall is overstating the general problem.

 

[CHSUB]

uptrend now from 4th quarter. But reef is overgrowing now so nothing of significance to purchase.

 

[MasterClassReefs]

Has the economy affected your plans from starting a new tank (like mine) buying something new like lights etc,...slowed you down or completely stopped you from continuing your build or products ?

I have a new 125g tank that I'm planning on building it into the Livingroom wall. I have a lot of products to get started, but not knowing will the war end soon or may take many months or even years to end, I don't want a 6' long hole in the drywall to look at for the instead of a beautiful reef tank.

Hasnt effected anything for my build at all and I have been importing some items from Germany and other countries because no one in the states carries them.

 

[ryudo80]

I heard acrylic prices are going up by as much as 25 percent from a acrylic tank builder on Facebook. So I may have to order one quicker than I had originally planned.

 

[Boehmtown]

Definitely have trimmed back the spending in my mind. But may not have trimmed back in reality . I stopped my frivolous spending before the war. But if I hadn't, I would be. It's expensive to use carbon anymore

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I removed the political bent to the original post. Please remember our terms of service and keep the politics out of the forum...Plenty of other places to debate those things. Let's keep it to fish tanks here.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

I mean, I'm broke because my wife wanted to go to a fancy birthing center that requires I pay up front and our insurance wouldn't cover it. I could have had a nice 300 waterbox but nooooo she wanted to have a baby in a bath tub.

I own a bath tub.

I bought a house with a bath tub and she needed to do use someone else's bathtub.

 

[hart24601]

I just got a tariff bill from FedEx today so this is timely!

I shut down my reef and am out of the hobby atm as I would rather spend the money on other things. No, the costs are not the only reason, but it sure is A reason.

 

[UncommonSense]

I’ve had this tab pulled up since Jan, 2025 when I ordered several lengths of this extrusion to trim out some tile work, just as a reference point for the price of aluminum….

The price was $14.92 then, and has gone as high as $54.36 since..

 

[BryanM]

Has the economy affected your plans from starting a new tank (like mine) buying something new like lights etc,...slowed you down or completely stopped you from continuing your build or products ?

I have a new 125g tank that I'm planning on building it into the Livingroom wall. I have a lot of products to get started, but not knowing will the war end soon or may take many months or even years to end, I don't want a 6' long hole in the drywall to look at for the instead of a beautiful reef tank.

Everyone has to deal with life their own way with their own means.

Thankfully it has not affected me, but this hobby was expensive before prices went up.

 

[Freenow54]

Has the economy affected your plans from starting a new tank (like mine) buying something new like lights etc,...slowed you down or completely stopped you from continuing your build or products ?

I have a new 125g tank that I'm planning on building it into the Livingroom wall. I have a lot of products to get started, but not knowing will the war end soon or may take many months or even years to end, I don't want a 6' long hole in the drywall to look at for the instead of a beautiful reef tank.

I would say yes in a round about way . A lot of people don't really understand the entire scope of what is happening . A cute question just saying " economy " Its too bad we cant speak the truth anywhere anymore . Not here because I try to remember the goal of this community. Lets just say a small group of people are making lives miserable for us all . Anyway the costs of everything add up , and you have to adjust to the PRESENT situation so yes I have held off on continuing to build my new Tank for now . Hopefully those that are benefiting from stock market swings ( the same greedy people ) may decide the money pile is high enough

 

[Freenow54]

Interested to see if I get censored

 

[427HISS]

It squashed my plans to make it to all 3 RAPs this year.
Round trip flights from Philly to Orlando skyrocketed from $~300 to $550+. Luckily I can drive to the NY show and will be there for both days. Fingers crossed to be able to get affordable flights to LAX in August. I've never been to the west coast before, so I'm looking forward to the trip.

That's expensive, but have a great trip anyway !