Whats the next trend in the hobby?

[TangGang]

Well thanks to all those BRS video's every tank these days is started with all dry rock, all dry sand, and god forbid if something hitchhiked a ride in to the tank. "OMG WHAT IS THIS AND HOW DO I GET RID OF IT!!!!" we all know the threads of just common bristle worms, peanut worms, vermetid snails, etc. which is all part of owning a reef tank, and part of the beneficial life that makes up a reef tank. But everyone wants to get them out of their tank because "I don't like it, and I didn't put it in the tank". Owning a reef tank is not a sterile eviroment, and if it is, you have a dead tank!

So with all these sterile tanks being started up, whats the next trend going to be? No sand, no LR, just a bare glass box with water and biomedia in the sump? We already have many threads about negative aquascape and the lack of rock this creates.

Maybe I'm just old school, but I happen to like a tank packed with rock, and on those rocks are many well grown in colonies, not just a few rocks here and there with a hundred tiny frags on them. Tanks these days seem to be like an epenis for most. Very sterile tank with minimal rock, and 100 tiny frags glowing all sorts of weird colors cause all I run is a windex tank. No one ever lets these poor frags grow to colonies. God I remember when what is called a mini colony now, used to be a frag! I've had flem balls bigger then some of these so called frags!and it didn't cost me $500 for a booger.

OOh don't forget all the dino threads we see now, we'll be seeing more of them now too.

Anyways, whats everyones thoughts? Am I just too old school to embrace change? Or is the hobby headed in the wrong direction?

This hobby is just going to continue to get more elitist. It’s just simply not cool anymore to own GSP or a Kenya tree, you have to buy the most expensive acro that has the most extravagant name in order to have a “amazing” aquarium. Seeing these “sales” on Black Friday and cyber Monday are truly horrifying, the sellers jack up the prices and then advertise them as huge price reductions. Granted that’s in every market for Black Friday, but it hurts a little more when done in our hobby. Also the prices for corals are outrageous, an sps frag with 5 polyps should not be going for a thousand dollars, especially when it looks suspiciously like a 20 dollar acro.

 

[Soren]

This hobby is just going to continue to get more elitist. It’s just simply not cool anymore to own GSP or a Kenya tree, you have to buy the most expensive acro that has the most extravagant name in order to have a “amazing” aquarium. Seeing these “sales” on Black Friday and cyber Monday are truly horrifying, the sellers jack up the prices and then advertise them as huge price reductions. Granted that’s in every market for Black Friday, but it hurts a little more when done in our hobby. Also the prices for corals are outrageous, an sps frag with 5 polyps should not be going for a thousand dollars, especially when it looks suspiciously like a 20 dollar acro.

I've wondered as I got into this hobby whether the hobby as a whole is truly elitist, or if we just mostly see what is marketed (which is what makes money and seems elitist) instead of the simpler, more natural reefs with common items that probably many people actually have.

Of course, everyone that gets into the hobby does so for personal reasons, so there will be differences. What is most commonly advertised are the things that make money (this is true with all marketing).

My plan for my reef is definitely toward "old school" methods that more closely mimic and appear like natural reefs. This includes more rock than negative space, sand instead of bare-bottom, and more hardy, common, cheaper corals. Fragging will be done when I need to limit growth, not for a profit motive.

 

[Stigigemla]

To me elitist has nothing to do with expensive corals or fish.
To me it is someone who tries (or succeeds) with figuring out something difficult.
It can be keeping Octopuses several generations or figuring out when and why some Acroporas change color. Or something else we dont know yet.

 

[Paul B]

I don't know what the prices of corals are as I have not bought any in many years. You buy them, they grow and fill your tank and that is the end of it. I am quite sure I don't have any expensive corals and I don't care. I just want corals growing because for me, thats all I care about, like my kids, just being healthy is enough.

Except for some acropora, montipora, frogspawns, hammers and gorgonians, I don't even know that the names of my corals are and I am not going to look them up. Who cares?
My tank is filled and so far no one came to my house and said, "Your tank is lousy because those corals are to cheap or common"

I am sure I can keep expensive corals, but why?

As for all that electronic stuff people add to their tanks, I am old and old people don't know what any of that stuff is. We just sit back and watch our tanks overgrow with corals and fish while never having any problems.

 

[tjensen]

I have a terrible feeling that the next trend might be people shutting down tanks and leaving the hobby. We are teetering on an economic disaster and if evictions are allowed to happen and 3/4 of a million people file for unemployment a week, then it could get bad. Like 2007/2008, expect to see the people in it for the long haul suck up all of the nice things and expect to see the people getting out get 10 cents on the dollar for their so-so stuff and maybe 25 cents for their good stuff. Vendors will be closing doors and basement-frag sellers with no market, or slashing prices.

I want to be totally wrong, but it has somewhat already started locally. I wonder what the numbers on this board look like for daily participation.

I could never evict my tenants during a pandemic and live with myself.

 

[spasmolytic13]

Does anybody nowadays actually start a reef tank with the purpose of growing corals to look at or is it mostly done to make money off fragging? unfortunately i think it is the latter, I have never fragged a coral in my life and the only time i would is if i had to trim a certain coral because of its size.

I like to grow everything in my tank. I start out with the smallest piece of coral and actually grow it. Same with fish, I grow my fish. I love it. That is part of the fun.

 

[Greg Gdowski]

There are some things on my wish list:

1) a good treatment for Ich that doesn't require pulling and quarantining your fish for months.
2) a good treatment for brown jelly so that I don't lose those expensive corals.
3) a glass coating that does not impact viewing corals but has a regenerative O2 layer that serves as a antimicrobial so that I no longer need to scrape my glass.
4) better skimmers that don't require constant monitoring.
5) a better way to remove phosphates without completely or accidentally stripping the tank of all phosphates and impacting corals.
6) reasonably priced lights --- OR --- warrantees that back up the so-called claims of longevity.
7) chemical sensors that DO NOT require titration and additional chemicals (that evaporate over time).
8) more efficient power friendly mechanisms for heating water.
9) better more efficient DC pumps with higher head specifications.
10) cheaper, more rapid, ICP water testing.

Feel free to add to this list!

 

[Jax15]

while technology can be a good thing, i think the attitude of alot of people is more focused on wanting to buy and show off their equipment rather than their tank.

You think so? I think it’s more trending towards showing off the tank, and also the equipment. Nothing wrong with a display sump if you have the cheddar and are willing to spend it.

I never went into this hobby with the mindset of selling frags. Coral growth is what gets me excited. Feeling that I’m doing something right.. especially with acropora.

In the end it’s a hobby, people can do what they want. The more frags for sale, theoretically the lower the price should become for all of us (have yet to see this happen though, holy cow frag prices are ridiculous.)

 

[jakestubby]

I like the old school ways. all this new technology is overwhelming and way to pricey! When I first got into the hobby I was told by someone or read somewhere that there should be a minimum of 1 lb of live rock per gallon. I have always liked my tanks with tons of rock and a bunch of sand. The way I look at it is that my tank is it’s own little ecosystem and should be able to dang near run on its own without any help from me. That means I don’t like to dose anything, I don’t like to do water changes every week, I don’t pick anything out of the tank or off the rocks. I like to just let it be and do it’s own thing. I had a 72 gallon awhile back and I bet I did less than 5 water changes a year and I know I didn’t check any parameters ever. The tank was thriving in fact it seemed like whenever I tried to give it a hand by doing a water change it would have a negative effect. All that being said I do think the new equipment like the crazy sumps/refugiums and protein skimmers that are out now are pretty dope