If we think equipment prices are high . .. . . . .

[vetteguy53081]

Many of us especially very long timers have seen pricing evolve from very affordable to exorbitant. We old timers have seen Metal Halides, the evolution of LED starting with Marineland LED at affordable costs to now $600-$900 lights. This is one component of the cost of Reefing. We now see Algae scrubbers at $600, Skimmers at $500-800 and Sumps at $500-$700

What does everyone believe will be the costs of essential items such as lighting , water flow, sumps, tanks, skimmers and such?
Do you also see our equipment going completely WiFi ?

I have near $5000 in Orpheks and there is no way if I go to sell them used that I will recover half of that, making it a high depreciation item? Our equipment investments may not be investments Afterall.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I’ve never heard anyone call a money pit an investment! I commented somewhere the other day about looking for a new toothbrush the other day. First one online was six hundred bucks! For a toothbrush! Oh, but it has an app so it must be worth it. Things are crazy everywhere

 

[lynn.reef.nerd]

Just like cars, you can always look for equipment that has better resale value. Ex: radions seem to keep their value well and seem to last a long time.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

To me, I would rather spend more money up front on an "expensive" piece of equipment if I know it is going to be reliable and worth the cost over time; vs buying a cheaper equipment piece and have it go out on me sooner than I wanted it to

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

To me, I would rather spend more money up front on an "expensive" piece of equipment if I know it is going to be reliable and worth the cost over time; vs buying a cheaper equipment piece and have it go out on me sooner than I wanted it to

I feel the same but swapping the quote expensive with quality, which are not always the same.

 

[vetteguy53081]

To me, I would rather spend more money up front on an "expensive" piece of equipment if I know it is going to be reliable and worth the cost over time; vs buying a cheaper equipment piece and have it go out on me sooner than I wanted it to

Often called Buy it once, Ive seen too many buy a $50 china light and had issues, was unable to get parts or support, then got irate and bought a kessil or Ai Prime. Would have been best to buy the kessil or prime up front

 

[ronnie]

If money was a big concern, I don’t think I’d be a reefer LOL

 

[cdnco2004]

Yeah I have never seen or considered anything in this hobby to be an investment. Just keep pouring more and more money into it and the only thing I get out of it is peace and tranqulity.

 

[Enderg60]

Ive been around for well over 20 years now and yes, prices are getting WAY high.

BUT resale values of aquarium equipment has ALWAYS been crap. If you can get 30-40% of what you paid selling items used you are doing very well.

LED's have a life and used ones are a crap shoot of how much life is left on them. Everything else, if Im gonna pay anywhere near full price I want the warranty.

This hobby was never cheap, and has always had a horrible depreciation on equipment and livestock.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I’ve never heard anyone call a money pit an investment! I commented somewhere the other day about looking for a new toothbrush the other day. First one online was six hundred bucks! For a toothbrush! Oh, but it has an app so it must be worth it. Things are crazy everywhere

LOL. I hear EVERYONE calling our money pits (our tanks) as an investment. Luckily, the word investment is the term we use to keep our spouses out of the money trail.

 

[TinyReef522]

LOL. I hear EVERYONE calling our money pits (our tanks) as an investment. Luckily, the word investment is the term we use to keep our spouses out of the money trail.

My husband is painfully aware of the costs and unhappy about it...unfortunately investing is his hobby. If only it was reefing instead.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Still curious on everyone's thoughts:

What does everyone believe will be the costs of essential items such as lighting , water flow, sumps, tanks, skimmers and such?
Do you also see our equipment going completely WiFi ?

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Prices when I started or rather left the hobby 20 years ago was pretty much affordable. The biggest expense for me back then was using an ice cap ballast and that was technology that nobody else really had at the time. Additives and nice full colonies of coral were cheap.

Fast forward to today and prices in Canada are just ridiculous. It's very rare that I even support any company up here anymore. I wish I could but I can't so I won't!


Like buying salt for instance, unless you live in a large city where you have different options then it's not too bad but if you live where I live and the only bring in one brand it makes things pretty difficult. I find that I would sooner buy from the United States from BRS and even paying the exchange rate and their ridiculously low fast flat rate shipping to my US address I'm saving more than 50%. But when it comes to buying hardware it's pretty much dollar for dollar but they still want to rip you off with shipping charges in Canada.

I've retired my Fluval 13.5 and I've got a thousand bucks into it and I can't even give it away locally at $250 which includes pretty much every single upgrade you can think of. But times are tough and people just don't have the money these days.. I'm just fortunate that my job takes me into the United States every week so I can take advantage of the cheaper prices.

 

[Troylee]

Buy used… problem solved.

 

[ronnie]

Still curious on everyone's thoughts:

What does everyone believe will be the costs of essential items such as lighting , water flow, sumps, tanks, skimmers and such?
Do you also see our equipment going completely WiFi ?

Prices won’t go down much, if at all. We can likely plan for a 5-10% increase in retail over the next 5 years as new “features” like wifi and other innovation takes hold.

I do think wifi is a nice feature, but tying it all together in an app like mobius or the apex interface is where the low hanging fruit is. If/when someone creates an app that can handle all things wifi/Bluetooth, that will really drive the value for those kinds of features.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Yeah everything's going Wi-Fi these days, the price tag is going to be attached as well but at least the direction I'm heading is I want everything to be connected through Wi-Fi so I can control everything from anywhere in the world. Do I like paying more for the option? Absolutely not! But will I, yes absolutely!

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Seems like there are some companies not ripping heads off right now. I know its just a nano skimmer. But the Bubble magus mini Q skimmer is an incredible nano skimmer and at $69 USD its nearly half the cost of the closest competitors.

Conversely, are reefbreeders still budget lights?

 

[Fishy888]

Many of us especially very long timers have seen pricing evolve from very affordable to exorbitant. We old timers have seen Metal Halides, the evolution of LED starting with Marineland LED at affordable costs to now $600-$900 lights. This is one component of the cost of Reefing. We now see Algae scrubbers at $600, Skimmers at $500-800 and Sumps at $500-$700

What does everyone believe will be the costs of essential items such as lighting , water flow, sumps, tanks, skimmers and such?
Do you also see our equipment going completely WiFi ?

I have near $5000 in Orpheks and there is no way if I go to sell them used that I will recover half of that, making it a high depreciation item? Our equipment investments may not be investments Afterall.

This is where going back to basics can actually be a good thing. There used to be a lot more DIY happening but anymore people have no attention spans and they want everything yesterday. They’re willing to pay ridiculous prices to do it.

The Neptune Apex is one of the few higher cost items that might be worth investing in if one has money burning a hole in their pocket. At least it can help monitor things if a person has to be gone several days or weeks at a time.

I refuse to buy a lighting system or any other critical reefing system component that requires a subscription service. I’m more than capable of wiring my own. I don’t need thunderstorm mode to be happy or programmable schedules.

I started my first reef tank in 2009. Admittedly I was a bit of a latecomer because many, probably most, R2R members were reefing well before I started my first tank. MH was king, and people were still building their own custom fixtures, carefully choosing each component after researching them first. That was (still is for me) one of the most exciting aspects (and of course one of my favorite aspects) of the reefing hobby, second only to the creatures we keep and watching the newly established ecosystem come together.

Don’t get me wrong. I love technology more than most. I was building and troubleshooting computers and using telnet before the first internet browsers were a thing. I was also (and still am, though not actively anymore) a ham radio operator. But my love of technology, especially where electronics and computer science are concerned, has waned mainly because it has been twisted and warped to create the world we live in today.

I’m using T5s these days. It’s a six lamp, unbranded fixture like the ones a certain dealer on a certain online auction site sells. The only difference is that the dealer in question only sells the four lamp version. I’m going to spruce up the fixture, which has a surprisingly good reflector in it. Its only problem is a lack of gaskets, especially around the moonlighting. Once I drill out all the broken screws on the sides I’ll get some rubber and cut out some gaskets. I’ll also get waterproof sockets for the lamps themselves. No subscriptions, no issues. That’s just one component but I’ll save 500 bucks. I might be getting a 125 or so in the near future. If so I’ll build a custom lighting solution using a combination of MH and T5s. I’ll also build a stand for it if I get the right tank at the right price.

Reefing is only this expensive because we’ve become a throwaway society and these companies take advantage of it and of their customers. That and everyone wants a turnkey solution. I don’t have to look any further than the multitude of Red Sea tank blowouts to know that these $2000 and up systems, which are often are 75 gallons and under, are anything but a value these days. In fact it’s the exact opposite, especially when the cost of dead livestock and any other damages resulting from these blowouts.

 

[TinyReef522]

Still curious on everyone's thoughts:

What does everyone believe will be the costs of essential items such as lighting , water flow, sumps, tanks, skimmers and such?
Do you also see our equipment going completely WiFi ?

As for costs I would imagine that they will steadily increase over the years as everything seems to. Provided we do not see an economic crash.

I do see a lot of equipment going completely wifi at some point. Apps have gotten better over the years and made it more feasible for things to be wifi.

 

[apb03]

The equipment costs definitely inhibit the growth of the hobby, that's for sure. Just about every aquarist wants a reef, but the equipment requirements and the complexity that comes with it are just too great for the average person that just wants to keep fish.

On the wifi question, I think we're pretty much already there. Wifi is built into most devices with the exception being the holdout, Ecotech. While I'm generally on board with the Bluetooth network idea to avoid dependence on a device outside of the tank, I'm not so sure the tradeoff of connection reliability is worth it.

Physical ethernet or no remote control at all is definitely on the way out. Wifi is so cheap and easy, and with cloud software taking over, it's an easy decision.