Where is Our Saltwater Hobby today.

[piranhapat]

Where has our Saltwater communities gone. Why has so many people left the hobby. We have far less LFS we had 20 years ago. Do you feel saltwater is more expensive or still to difficult for average person. Maybe people are not patient or don’t have the time. How can this hobby grow like it did 15 years ago. It seems to me the hobby became more into business making money than having strong community that help one other. We become more educated with better equipment. Yet still to many failures. Is this just the beginning of the end.

 

[Geraud]

I don't know where that information comes from, but I often heard that people stay around 18 months in average.

But I am not surprised, since now the goal is to have a small collection of frags, and each time they get a polyp out of their dedicated area, cut it and try to make money from that.

Probably gets boring very quickly... (since it's probably not that profitable)

 

[jackson6745]

The equipment, livestock, and even the methods have gotten insanely expensive. IMO it's extremely tough for the newer hobbyists because they don't have the insight to see through what has become an infomercial of info from 'reef influencers'. Sneaky marketing these days. I can't see anything happening like it did 15 years ago, but these new ways will attract people that may have not otherwise be into the hobby. Is what it is. I stick to the old ways for the most part because it's more affordable, I like the look and simplicity, and I'm happy with the results.

 

[jcdeng]

Reef aquariums are extremely time consuming. We live in a world now where people don't have enough time on a daily basis, there is so much going on, gotta check email, forums, tiktok, ig, fb, stock profolio, crypto, etc. I think most just gave up after a while because they don't want to spend the time to take care of the tank.

 

[Geraud]

I actually disagree that this hobby is that time consuming. While things are in place, it doesn't take long. I remember timing myself when I was doing a water change: with the RO/DI ready (a couple of hours, but I am not watching the bucket get filled drop by drop) with ESV salt the water was mixed in about an hour (35 minutes if I wanted to push it) and then the water change itself was taking me exactly 15 minutes. So being active 15 minutes once a week isn't bad at all. Feeding takes only a couple of minutes a day.

Of course that's because I had automated a lot of things: dosing especially. And replaced filter socks by a Klir.

The only time where I did spend more time on my old tank was every 6 months a complete deep clean of all the pump, recalibration of the probes etc. And anytime I would see Aiptasia, prepare some kalkwasser paste and nuke them. But that's 5 minutes, and I had the Apex automatically restart pumps to full speed after an hour

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What I think the real problem is: lack of patience. In a world of "I need to have it all, right away" like in a video game, it takes time for corals to encrust, then branch out, and for the tank to look good. (at least look good in my eye: branching colonies fighting for space)

 

[Amado]

I think the money plays a big part. when you tell someone they have to spend 1k on lights and then you tell them they need to add supplement light bars for another $300. a yellow tang was $40 and now it's $400. you could buy a box of reef crystal salt for $40 shipped to your house now that same box of salt is $90.
frags use to cost $10-$40 a frag now frags are over $100.

I think we are all one tank crash away from being out of the hobby.

 

[oceanrealm]

I think the money plays a big part. when you tell someone they have to spend 1k on lights and then you tell them they need to add supplement light bars for another $300. a yellow tang was $40 and now it's $400. you could buy a box of reef crystal salt for $40 shipped to your house now that same box of salt is $90.
frags use to cost $10-$40 a frag now frags are over $100.

I think we are all one tank crash away from being out of the hobby.

I totally agree, the cost of everything has gone up so much. It’s difficult for the younger generation to get started . Purchase a torch ,few Corals a few fish your out 1500 and if you don’t have experience you could lose them all in a short period of time ,leaving the hobby discouraged… never returning.

 

[Geraud]

Something that I hate these days is that the most visible channels on Youtube are going to be the vendors', or "influencers" paid to push products.

As a result, imagine being a newcomer now, and seeing BRS showing you "hey it's very very hard, but it's fine if you spend a shitton of money with us! Oh, and by the way, buy our dry rock, it will look like crap for a year but after that, amazing, maybe".

When I started, in 2004, it was after seeing a couple of pictures of nano tanks and seeing that you could do it with a simple CFL bulb, a minijet for water movement, and some quality live rock. And guess what? After a month being amazed at all the stuff that was popping out of the rock (including a gorilla crab and a mantis shrimp... which were not that big of a deal to capture), it grew softies easily, and even Montipora. Then I upgraded to a 70W MH (over a one foot cube...) and then Montiporas and Acroporas were growing too fast.

These days, there are still old school people who try and sell frags for cheap (before my tank broke, I was selling 2"-3" frags for $5, and not a nub with one polyp). Because that's how you get people started, and hopefully staying long term.

 

[horseplay]

Something that I hate these days is that the most visible channels on Youtube are going to be the vendors', or "influencers" paid to push products.

Agree. Newcomers watch youtube videos and all they see are advertisements. Skill and knowledge has more to do with successfully keeping a reef than equipment. Then of course you have people want to show off after spending thousands if not ten thousands of $ buying equipment.

 

[Posglydu]

Agree. Newcomers watch youtube videos and all they see are advertisements. Skill and knowledge has more to do with successfully keeping a reef than equipment. Then of course you have people want to show off after spending thousands if not ten thousands of $ buying equipment.

Hello. I was watching youtube, but I realized it's better to interact with real people. So here I am

 

[nimbus]

I was a teenager when I got into the hobby, that was the late 2000s and I was lucky enough to get some freebies from my HS bio teacher... fast forward over a decade I still see the same energy from seasoned older reefers, always down to help and give you valuable insight. Problem is social media has exploded since the 2000s and that’s why nobody wants to pay any mind to the average Joe reefer, everyone’s obsessed with the windex lighting and wanting to become an influencer

 

[Wick]

imo its the price and dedication to the tank. Ive had my tank up since 2020 and I hate to say it but the last year i finally have corals growing. ( besides mushrooms )

 

[Geraud]

imo its the price and dedication to the tank. Ive had my tank up since 2020 and I hate to say it but the last year i finally have corals growing. ( besides mushrooms )

out of curiosity: how did you cycle it?

 

[Wick]

out of curiosity: how did you cycle it?

i used Fritz nitrifying bacteria, dry rock, and a clown fish.

 

[Geraud]

i used Fritz nitrifying bacteria, dry rock, and a clown fish.

I see. I wonder if that's related. I never had any issues when I started from live rock. So for my new tank I simply used some rocks from my previous one that was kept alive in my sump. Then added some cultured ones from Florida. I did buy some Marco flat pieces that are hidden in the sand, as a way to raise the live rocks above the sand level (as if it were resting on it). Where that rock is exposed, it did look awful for a while (diatoms)

 

[Wick]

i feel that it has to be related since i was relying on the clown to produced the ammonia for the bacteria. if i dosed ammonia with the bacteria i feel it would have cycled faster, and also having live rock i think so too. But i'm no expert with this stuff for sure.

 

[Geraud]

i feel that it has to be related since i was relying on the clown to produced the ammonia for the bacteria. if i dosed ammonia with the bacteria i feel it would have cycled faster, and also having live rock i think so too. But i'm no expert with this stuff for sure.

Ben from Reef Beef was mentioning recently that to kickstart a tank, he uses a genesis rock (PolypLab product) that he leaves in a mature tank for a while, then seeds new tanks with it. Maybe those who have older tanks should always keep a couple of these around in their sump to help newcomers. I will certainly do that in a couple of months since I have bacteria from many different places (original rocks from Bali, then 12 years of frag plugs etc, then some Aussie LR, and finally Gulf of Mexico then Florida Keys Atlantic side)

 

[Wick]

super nice of you to think of that for others.