Why are reef tanks not more popular?

[ZoWhat]

To the original question.... bc this is happening in our hobby:

 

[S2G]

To the original question.... bc this is happening in our hobby:

Add 1 more Ben Frank and you can get the skimmer with the cup holder. That might get you a nice sump though without the shark emblems those are an extra 50

I really think they need to kill some of these useless classes in school and teach managing money.

This new generation of keepers has access to info like no other before it but the answer to every problem seems to be throw money at it. Dude you need an apex.

 

[S2G]

Not to be a downer, but I can’t help it. If you were around 15 years ago, you would not think that. I’m certain, from my observation being around long enough, that the hobby has shrunk considerably and continues to get smaller. It’s not growing. Active user count or member count here is no indicator of anything other than that. Sorry I’m a negative nelly but I’m trying to be realistic and honest more than anything.
The hobby has a high rate of attrition due to fish disease and parasite hurdle, plus time investment required for success, long term costs of maintaining, just plain losing interest.
Barrier to new hobbyists is high cost of entry, lack of good LFS to help educate and stock tanks, lack of LFS with salt display to inspire new hobbyists which is key. People see reef tanks and they want reef tanks. No LFS, no hobby. People don’t look at Live Aquaria and get inspired to start a reef. Not even YouTube video can match seeing a mature healthy reef in person.

Truth hurts. You're right though it can't compare to 15yrs ago. I do think things are picking up compared to the bad times not long ago. Failure rates are absolutely insane right now. I don't know if people are getting in over their heads or what. I see setups for sale all the time.

 

[Sorcha2]

Most people don't have the space, time, patience, or money for a large tank and the small ones are only just starting to become popular. Honestly if you want to get more people into reefing I heard of a great way that someone did at a college. They did a free reef tank event. Basically it was a Mason jar with water a little sand, maybe a tiny sliver of live rock and an aptasia anemone. They had a huge turn out and when they checked back with the students involved quite a few still had the little tanks in excellent condition and a number of them had gotten larger tanks or were planning to.

 

[Streetdoc77]

There are so many factors involved it's mind boggling .... Everyone who looks at my tank are like WOW ! Must be super expensive huh ? followed up by that must be a ton of work ??? I think those two factors on the front end turn people off ...

Then you have the the people and organizations that publicly denounce our hobby as cruel and that we take away from already declining ecosystems not realizing we as a group hold a vast amount of knowledge and experience dealing with marine fish breeding , coral propagation ext. Especially ORA Biota and so forth . I believe we are the hope not the enemy . We need to be louder ..

I have taken it upon myself to educate my children the future ls with them . Exposure to young people through our home reefs public aquariums and school reefs will spur the fascination of beauty and science and they will want to get a reef tank of there own .

The louder the groups are that speak out against about what we do and the more legislation these groups get passed the less popular our hobby will become . Anybody want to start a Reef Academy ???

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

Not to be a downer, but I can’t help it. If you were around 15 years ago, you would not think that. I’m certain, from my observation being around long enough, that the hobby has shrunk considerably and continues to get smaller. It’s not growing. Active user count or member count here is no indicator of anything other than that. Sorry I’m a negative nelly but I’m trying to be realistic and honest more than anything.
The hobby has a high rate of attrition due to fish disease and parasite hurdle, plus time investment required for success, long term costs of maintaining, just plain losing interest.
Barrier to new hobbyists is high cost of entry, lack of good LFS to help educate and stock tanks, lack of LFS with salt display to inspire new hobbyists which is key. People see reef tanks and they want reef tanks. No LFS, no hobby. People don’t look at Live Aquaria and get inspired to start a reef. Not even YouTube video can match seeing a mature healthy reef in person.

I began keeping saltwater fish in the 80s. Then tried reef keeping in the 90s. But it was primitive. Airstone skimmers. Metal halide lighting. And nobody knew what they were doing as far as nutrient export. Horrible advice from LFS. There was no online community. Seemed like only Julian Sprung or Delbeek had any long term success. Then was out of the hobby for twenty years. Now I have been back in for several years, and advancements and success rate are amazing. I personally know at least twenty people who have thriving reefs and are very knowledgeable. Online is amazing. Tons of great videos, the BRS series, etc. No comparison, today is much better.

 

[reefwiser]

The rising cost of corals is currently a high factor. I have a lot of friends that are coral sellers. They have had to raise prices because their wholesale prices have doubled since the indo coral closure.
People just can not afford the cost of corals anymore.
The increasing high tech nature of the equipment causes people to get into the hobby to take pause. One can see with the new auto testing equipment some new would say. I have to spend a grand on testing equipment. An that is just one small part of the high tech equipment.
So when a new hobbyist spends so money and still fails they will bail on a hobby that costs a bunch of money and can have a high failure rate for a beginner.

 

[Montiman]

The major depression in the hobby happened in 2008 with the financial crisis. When things are tight people start to remove luxury items like aquariums. The hobby numbers have been slowly increasing since 2008 but not to pre-crisis levels.

 

[Ashley Kekua]

comes to money always money money make world go round

 

[Borg]

$$$$
Plain and simple

 

[Spydersweb]

I’ve had fishtanks for about 22 years now in some form or another, never was tankless but NEVER considered salt until a few weeks ago.
This is just my opinion from the other side of glass so to speak.
I was convinced from reading lightly and from word of mouth of others that it’s expensive, it’s super hard, and takes tons of time to maintain. I was under the belief that anything under 40 gallons wasn’t even worth trying.
Some of my planted tanks had systems way more confusing than my current setup I’ve started, and my last planted tank cost more than I’ve put in so far, not including corals ect.
Had I realized that doing that is similar
Pricewise and time wise, I would have done salt YEARS ago.
There is also a different attitude about reef keepers and salt water hobbies in general.
For planted tank community, everything is very “save at any cost”, diy co2 whenever possible and a decent but inexpensive system for the bigger tanks.
With reef keepers it’s a lot of “if it’s not the best it’s trash” mentality. (this is a generalized comment based not on here but my life’s personal interactions, I mean no offense here guys and gals, y’all are stupid chill and I love this place!) it can be offputting to someone that doesn’t want to sink 1k into a new hobby they they already think will fail.
That said you guys are also way more chill and there seems to be a general better knowledge pool for saltwater keepers.
People just gotta branch out, but they don’t know they can, or Atleast some of them don’t, because everyone says it’s harder and more expensive.

Very, very similar situation. Had freshwater aquariums all my life. Always wanted a SW aquarium, but never pulled the trigger because it’s very intimidating to start off with. I have just about everything I need now, (I was only able to do that by slowly gathering my equipment piece by piece, and working a ton of OT at my job) and I’ve read up on everything I could find on the pros the cons, the successes and pitfalls(probably read too much honestly) and to be honest, I’m still extremely nervous that I’ll end up failing, BUT that’s not gonna stop me from trying.

 

[tony'stank]

I started my 1st saltwater tank 37 years ago and my first reef tank 5 years later. I had three or four friends that started at the same time I did. None of them have saltwater or reef tanks now and haven’t had them for many years. The main reasons they quit were because of tank crash, unwilling to spen the time and failure to learn from their mistakes. I believe I stayed with because I’m stubborn, love the hobby and enjoy learning new things even if it takes some effort. I am also fortunate in being able to afford it

 

[Dan_P]

Why are reef tanks and heck saltwater fish tanks in general more popular?
Plus here is a quick look at my reef...I think that in order to grow the aquarium hobby, our social media presence has to be more noticeable so check out my youtube channel.

Do you think the aquarium hobby will grow exponentially or decrease with time?

Keeping exotic pets does not seem like a hobby that will grow exponentially. Part of the reason is that people are unlikely to stay in a hobby very long. The number of entrants into the hobby might just be able to maintain a steady state number of saltwater systems. Another reason is the upfront investment of time and money. The saltwater aquarium is not a hobby just anyone can take on.

Another reason for avoiding the hobby is the very high standard of appearance set by hobbyists and vendors of saltwater aquarium products of how a saltwater aquarium should look. A saltwater aquarium has “high fashion” requirements. Let one microorganism get out of line and it is a crisis. What a gut wrenching nightmare if green hair algae shows up. What will the neighbors say if they see a film of cyanobacteria in the corner of my sand bed. I exaggerate, but you get my point. It is pretty stressful to be in this hobby. What fun is that unless you are the type of person for such an adventure?

This hobby requires a certain type of person that “gets” animal husbandry and I am pretty sure it takes practice to become good at it. Owning an exotic pet may translate to needing to kill some before learning how to keep them alive. I don’t think we necessarily want this hobby to grow exponentially since that would entail an increase in the number of organisms subjected to suffering and death. I often wonder how the aquarium business would survive if every fish bought lived a normal life span. Would they go out of business?

 

[McPuff]

It's expensive. It's difficult. People don't have the patience to do things the right way. Some jump right into saltwater (and even reefs) without ever having any kind of tank before. Experience with other types of systems is not totally necessary, but it certainly helps!

My opinion is that you have to be 1 of 2 types of people:

1) Have the money to pay someone else to do all the work; enjoy the aesthetics
2) Have a strong interest in aquarium husbandry and everything related to it.

 

[rkpetersen]

Would the next question be how to we increase the hobbies size?

Would that be a good thing? Are fish and coral prices not high enough for you already?

 

[rkpetersen]

I began keeping saltwater fish in the 80s. Then tried reef keeping in the 90s. But it was primitive. Airstone skimmers. Metal halide lighting. And nobody knew what they were doing as far as nutrient export. Horrible advice from LFS. There was no online community. Seemed like only Julian Sprung or Delbeek had any long term success. Then was out of the hobby for twenty years. Now I have been back in for several years, and advancements and success rate are amazing. I personally know at least twenty people who have thriving reefs and are very knowledgeable. Online is amazing. Tons of great videos, the BRS series, etc. No comparison, today is much better.

This describes my experience exactly.
Had my first reef tank in 1988-92. Successful with zoas and leathers, etc; keeping SPS just wasn't a thing yet.
Many concepts have changed and our understanding has advanced tremendously.
See a lot fewer large coral specimens for sale now though; most everything decent gets fragged these days.

 

[LisaMarie]

Money may play a small role, but almost all hobbies are expensive. I think the biggest issue is that we live in an instant gratification era. I see many trying to speed things up with disastrous results (who end up quitting) and others who quit under a year.....well before their reef has a chance to mature. There's nothing instant about a reef tank so I don't think it will ever be a HUGE hobby but it will hopefully continue to attract those with the patience and perseverance to pass it on to future generations.

 

[Entz]

Cost is definitely an issue, seems that everyone is moving higher and higher and higher. Well if company X can charge 1000$ for a 300$ light lets join them, forget helping the hobby.

Where I am at, lack of local options is a huge issue as well. Can get some fish and inverts but not coral (short of GSP). Decent Equipment or test kits or food variety is an hour away. So basically everything has to be shipped in and our online options are kinda limited (yay Canada) and expensive to ship.

Coral prices are bad enough as is. You know its bad when your happy to get a 2 head hammer for $75 and pay 45$ to ship it..

 

[PlasmaBoy]

Expensive to the other hobby you take up when your not a reefer, like dirt bikes, jet skis, cars, boats, travel, junk you don’t need like drones and endless comput bits! I’ve found the hobby can be cheaper with some elbow grease. My MP40s all secondhand, 6 years and still going,skimmer,, ai primes second hand, leds blackbox, plasma second hand, diy scrubber, diy Sms alarm system for temp, water level etc. I’d say I’ve scrapped through ten years saving at least 40% retail. It can be done cheaper.

 

[S.Pepper]

The hobby has been increasing in sophistication and number of hobbyists for years.
It's not bigger still because it's difficult to be successful; huge numbers of people try it and then drop out.

No different than a lot of "hobbies." You could replace with the word golf and your thoughts would work for it.