Actually, if you go back far enough, the original trend here in the U.S. involved keeping fish with bleached corals. I still have some of the old dead chunks of coral wrapped up in plastic wrap tucked away in a cabinet somewhere . . . .
Reefkeeping Fads??
- Thread starter returnofsid
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Actually, if you go back far enough, the original trend here in the U.S. involved keeping fish with bleached corals. I still have some of the old dead chunks of coral wrapped up in plastic wrap tucked away in a cabinet somewhere . . . .
Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
You mean like these? Circa 1976
Or these, before Circa was invented? 
A fad that is before you guys were born was to keep pennies in the tank for copper to fight ich. Then of course we had spray bars on Wet drys, I liked those because they were so cool to look at. Someone on here said they name their corals. Like really? You name them? What like Alice and Johnny? I would never name my fish or corals. Now my bristle worms Elizabeth, Chartruce, Henrietta and Rosemary, that is different. :fear:
Last edited:
DaveMorris
MACNA2016 Co-Chair
My favorite fad is the lighting effects that people want in their LED fixtures. I laugh everytime I read about somebody getting all excited about it. I get the excuse of "Its natural and it happens in nature". Thats true, but if you are going to follow that thinking then you should also periodically have fresh water sprinkled over the top of your tank to simulate rain and you should create enough turbulance in your tank to break a bunch of your corals. Thats what happens in a storm. Why would you think it is good to only do lighting without the rest of it? Totally silly.
Mrfresh
Valuable Member
Things should be done with in reason...
If u really want to be like the ocean then is should be packed with fish, are the coral reefs not packed with fish?
If u really want to get into it why not pour some oil in the tank as well, we have oil spills all the time...
glb
7500 Club Member
I find this forum to be more about information and less about marketing. I trust the information on here far more than anything I hear from someone trying to sell me something. Information from vendors is clearly marked as such. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't love Reef2Reef. I do!!!
Kworker
Tang Lover
I can believe that... I could see some oldschool reefers as judging them as "deformed" I was speaking to a LFS owner a bit away from where I live and he referred to them as the deformed offspring (putting it in nice terms) of the clowns. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, i love my Picasso.
Kworker
Tang Lover
But I can not see a certain category of corals being considered a "Fad" like acans.. I happen to keep them because I like the way they grow and they have nice colorations. But dont get me wrong I do believe there are fads but even more strict, I do think there are "fads" within coral types. People who spend top dollar for a single polyp of X coral when there are others you can get a mini colony for same price..
-KC
-KC
Mike in CT
Valuable Member
My aunt picked up a huge piece of bleached coral on vacation somewhere and gave it to me when I started a saltwater tank. Man was I proud of that sucker for about 5 years in the 80's. Lol
eefan
Community Member
+1
Coming from the reptile hobby, I can appreciate the effects of "fads" causing prices to sky rocket. One of my friends even called this the "idiot tax", meaning to keep people who have no idea how to take care of the latest trend animal.
Rick
Well-Known Member
led is more of a hype than a fad but like anything in this hobby your gonna have your fan boys that get the best growth and color out of what they run be it mh t5 or led new reefers should look at TOTMs on various websites and see what is truly successful and what is not(the use of fully matured tanks that have switched to led for Led advertisements is misleading to newcomers in this hobby though one example being that trash orpheck add with the sunlit reef in it... sure he uses their lights but for suplementation not standalone growth like he gets) ive seen a single system run with 3 different isolated lighting sources one source t5 one source 400w radiums and one source LED (currently 2 radions) i made my choice of what to use through seeing what the 3 individual light sources could do to the same corals under identical conditions
a real fad was yumas people used to go crazy for them !!!
a real fad was yumas people used to go crazy for them !!!
Last edited:
theguy67
Community Member
What about when deep sand beds kicked off as they "magically remove nitrates"? I'm surprised they are still going on today, although we may be at the end of this fad. I was almost sucked in until I saw the big picture. I mean, sure when I see a pile of dirt on the floor, I like to just sweep it under the rug and forget it was ever there, but that pile eventually builds. With a tank it is similar but much more serious. Even if they do work well for some, the hassle of replacing them must be dreadful, plus the expense of sand.
Kworker
Tang Lover
I think a large draw to LEDs are their lower power consumption which is why my father chooses them as a electrician. We went for lower power even with solar panels all along the top of our house. Honestly I would sacrifice some color to save power, for the pocket and the enviorment. My personal reason I wanted LEDs was maintenance. I did not want to have to remember when I got bulbs and when they need to be replaced. Plug and play. But I think we have the luxury of choosing the best lighting for what we want instead of just dealing with what we have. I think the ultimate lighting are the natural sunlight solar tubes.
-kc
Rick
Well-Known Member
I can deff see the economical/ecological benifit from led and if I just kept zoas and Lps I would deff have them however the growth rate for Sps is just on the slow side for me I'm really anxious to see more and more t5 led hybrid fixtures because the two are great together I've never seen coral grow the way it does under ATI t5 fixtures I'd love to try their new hybrid powermodule but that price tag is insane
Kworker
Tang Lover
I have what is considered "cheap" LED fixtures that is a mixture of white and actinic. its a fixture my LFS sells with store name on it. I have two each with 25 LEDs supposedly running at 2watts. Than i have a deep blue 2 bulb t5-ho fixture which for most part of the year I ran with standard blubs white/actinic.. I have what I would consider okay growth for my two small SPS frags. One of them actually began bleaching on one side recently after I added a blue plus and coral plus I dont strive for SPS though, fast growth I see as a good sign but its not what I'm striving for..
I am looking forward to the new fixtures my LFS are bringing in, they are allowing me to swap out the old fixtures for new. They are comparing them to the radions which they were looking for seeing they use their own fixtures for their frag tanks. But the new fixtures will have several new LEDs with red/green/UV so I will eventually see the differences with those in them. Like I said its great to have options to use any of the options or combine them.
Here are two topics:
1) Would any of you consider tangs as a "fad" . Why does everyone even if they do not have a tank large enough basically "need a tang" sometimes it seems people look for any excuse to put one in their tank, people will ask and get 100 responses saying NO but will listen to the 1 that says it worked for them. Is it just because they see them in a lot of other peoples tanks? I wonder because there are plenty of smaller colorful fish, is it the big aspect?
2) How about refugiums? Are they worth the work? Do you actually need one? Do they actually help? There is a long thread on another forum I am a part of that points that they actually don't do what they are figured to do. Not sure if I'm allowed to dig it up and post a thread to another forum on here.
Happy Reefing
-KC
Rick
Well-Known Member
How are tangs too common as a species there are many that aren't common because they are in affordable obviously yellows and hippos are blah if you aren't into finding nemo but the Hawaiian blacks are awesome in person as well as the gems but there are other affordable species that go overlooked like the thompsoni , macula eps, mustard guttatas, even the convict tangs look cool in some setups
