This hobby is getting out of control with costs

[HomebroodExotics]

The cost of coral has gotten stupid. Torches used to be $25 not $300. And hobbyists are selling frags to other hobbyists for similar prices. Why are we adding to the price increases instead of trying to bring them down by selling amongst ourselves are reasonable prices?

Cuz we broke

 

[alain Bouchard]

mainly marketing doing its job, making you believe that a 1500$ ecotech radion light, a 1000$ wavemaker, etc. is a gage of success in hobby and that buying cheap chinese made stuff (sometime made from exactly the same factory...) is dangerous at best, that it will fail and cant grow corals.

 

[workhz]

Just remember it’s still a niche hobby. Does a cyclist need a $10k carbon bike when they a) don’t race for money and b) are 50 lbs overweight? Do people need fancy sports cars on the street? Anything niche, slightly high end and prices follow

There’s plenty of ways to do it on the cheap equipment wise. Livestock/Corals are a bit harder unfortunately and requires more effort than spec’ing out or tracking down cheap equipment.

 

[DIYreefer]

I think you could go back to the above 5 steps with cheaper version of those components than what's currently promoted and have major success at a significant cost reduction.

I've been in the hobby for a very long time and is (still) my approach. I like to keep it simple, and just stuck with what works for me.

If I were to start in the hobby now, I most likely wouldn't. There's far too much contradictory information, way too much tech (IMO), and I just feel like the hobby has become far more complicated than necessary in recent years. It would all be too much of an information overload if I were to try to start brand new to the hobby today.

I honestly do feel like we are not only pricing a lot of people out of the hobby, but we're also making it seem as though it's far more complicated than it really is (or needs to be). Good husbandry, and a little but of knowledge and experience will achieve pretty much any goal one could set for themselves in this hobby.

 

[DIYreefer]

If it was your first day with a saltwater tank and you come to a forum you would think the hobby was about aquarium equipment instead of keeping fish and corals alive. You have a to have a completely clean sterile tank so you can show off all the expensive equipment you bought in order to be considered an expert, and then they dose nitrates and phosphates. It's comical when you step back and see it.

The n&p dosing thing blows my mind.

 

[DIYreefer]

Find someone who knows what they are doing selling coral out of their home

This is the way. I have a tank loaded up with nice, "name brand" corals. All of which have been purchased from the classifieds here. I've found that not only do you tend to get MUCH better deals, it also seems to me that you are far less likely to acquire pests as well. Don't get me wrong, there are vendors out there that I would 100% trust and buy from, but the vast majority... not so much.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Just remember it’s still a niche hobby. Does a cyclist need a $10k carbon bike when they a) don’t race for money and b) are 50 lbs overweight? Do people need fancy sports cars on the street? Anything niche, slightly high end and prices follow

There’s plenty of ways to do it on the cheap equipment wise. Livestock/Corals are a bit harder unfortunately and requires more effort than spec’ing out or tracking down cheap equipment.

mainly marketing doing its job, making you believe that a 1500$ ecotech radion light, a 1000$ wavemaker, etc. is a gage of success in hobby and that buying cheap chinese made stuff (sometime made from exactly the same factory...) is dangerous at best, that it will fail and cant grow corals.

Correct...as an avid bike rider( mountain bikes) not professional whatsoever just leisure...I can tell you this exact thing.

All name brand bikes like Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, Giant etc are made in Taiwan....only bikes those manufacturers don't make over there are the serious racing bikes both mountain and road...the ones that cost over $10k.

This same factory produces all the different makes and models for the name brands, then the following year those same bikes with high end gear are rebranded and sold under names like Motobecane, Gravity and Windsor for literally less than half price of name brand stuff.

And the name brand gets new designs and models, then rinse repeat every year.

Even the highest end products in the reef business are made in China for the most part, and if you look closely at products like Chinese black box stuff, Wave makers etc...designs are very similar...and there's a reason for that.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I find some of the equipment costs baffling, especially because one of my local stores make a ton of there own equipment out of acrylic and polycarb and sell it WAY cheap!!!

where at?

 

[MoshJosh]

where at?

Colorado?

I did talk to them about this and they said recent acrylic prices have made it difficult. . . they still made me a custom aquarium (small like 7 gallons) to my specs with lids and foam on the bottom for like 110 bucks! They make hang on refugiums, hang on ATO reservoirs, simple LED set ups (and will make you custom ones too).

Don't think they ship though, only local sales

 

[djf91]

If it was your first day with a saltwater tank and you come to a forum you would think the hobby was about aquarium equipment instead of keeping fish and corals alive. You have a to have a completely clean sterile tank so you can show off all the expensive equipment you bought in order to be considered an expert, and then they dose nitrates and phosphates. It's comical when you step back and see it.

Bingo. These sterile tanks today are like an aquarium simulation out of a Sims game.

 

[NATE1979]

What gets me is some of the live sales say 80 percent off but then the price of the coral regularly is couple hundred bucks and then the names of the corals they say are high end looks the same as low end.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

What gets me is some of the live sales say 80 percent off but then the price of the coral regularly is couple hundred bucks and then the names of the corals they say are high end looks the same as low end.

Its funny, when there is a live sale, every body trips over themselves on the next coral coming up, I just wait for a while and clean up on all of 5.00 frags left behind. I'm just as happy with them and anyone seeing my reef have no idea how cheap the coral in there is. They are just as impressed and I'm happy. That is all that counts. My last order were 11 coral under 100.00 shipped

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Its bad enough we have reached the age of $800-$1200 lights, Ive seen test equipment approaching the $200 mark, 110 gallon Tanks for $4000-5000 and now another skimmer released by Adaptive reef starting at $769.00 !!!
Add the cost of fish and coral which is out of control and it questions Who can afford this and the impact on a new hobbyist that wants a reef tank

Its funny, because I have wanted to start reefing since I was a kid, in about 1997.

We were dirt poor growing up, and then I had kids right out of highschool.

So I just now, got to the point in my career where I can afford it and started a tank last year.

Now its gonna price me out

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

The n&p dosing thing blows my mind.

I got Dinos 6 weeks into having my tank because my phos was sitting at 0 no matter how many pellets I tossed in, then when I started dosing phos, my nitrates were dipping fast.

I've had to dose both to get things working right.

Most of it is my fault for starting with pods and a chaeto in the fuge.

At least, the bottles of phos and nitrates are cheap.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

I got Dinos 6 weeks into having my tank because my phos was sitting at 0 no matter how many pellets I tossed in, then when I started dosing phos, my nitrates were dipping fast.

I've had to dose both to get things working right.

Most of it is my fault for starting with pods and a chaeto in the fuge.

At least, the bottles of phos and nitrates are cheap.

You could just not grow the chaeto until you actually need it. This is the other problem with the hobby is people buying equipment to solve problems they do not have yet and may never have.

 

[Crofty]

You could just not grow the chaeto until you actually need it. This is the other problem with the hobby is people buying equipment to solve problems they do not have yet and may never have.

You're new. You're excited. You read some forums. Maybe you watch some BRS or other videos on setting up a new tank. You think you are being clever by getting the gear up front so you don't have the same problems you see others having.
Only after you're in it, and can see things first hand, do you realize what's more important and what's not so much with a new setup

If I were starting again, knowing nothing, I think I would try to find a good build thread for a tank similar to mine, then copy them minus whatever pitfalls they encountered lol.
OR just go with the Sticky guides on this forum and ignore Youtube and the rest of the internet. That would have been good too

 

[Reefing102begal]

It's really taken a price hike. One laughable example: MP60 for more than $800? I'll be sticking with my Jebao for now.

Lol facts I love my Jeabo for 1/6 the cost

 

[Eric R.]

Its bad enough we have reached the age of $800-$1200 lights, Ive seen test equipment approaching the $200 mark, 110 gallon Tanks for $4000-5000 and now another skimmer released by Adaptive reef starting at $769.00 !!!
Add the cost of fish and coral which is out of control and it questions Who can afford this and the impact on a new hobbyist that wants a reef tank

Have you heard about reefi lights? dang good lights, especially for the price. Better than an XR30, half the price. https://www.reefi-lab.com/reefi-uno-2-0-pro/

As far as coral, stick with the good old stuff that looks better as colonies under full spectrum lighting than as 1" frags in macro shots on forums. Can still get plenty of stuff for $50-80 a frag. Check out the stuff reefbum has on his site as an example.

 

[dstockwell]

So glad I have a source for corals, granted he does have higher end stuff, but that’s not what I’m buying.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Have you heard about reefi lights? dang good lights, especially for the price. Better than an XR30, half the price. https://www.reefi-lab.com/reefi-uno-2-0-pro/

As far as coral, stick with the good old stuff that looks better as colonies under full spectrum lighting than as 1" frags in macro shots on forums. Can still get plenty of stuff for $50-80 a frag. Check out the stuff reefbum has on his site as an example.

Doing this 4 decades , Ive heard of every light and I use Orpheks- not in the market for any lights but was used an example. The point was the pricing of everything has reached the $1000 mark . . . . . lights, skimmers, controllers - You name it.
As for coral- I have many sources and just packed a 400 gal for under $500- all giant colonies of high end stuff