Why are reef tanks not more popular?

[Nick30G]

I would think it would be cost and the perceived difficulty of the hobby. Most people want something that they know it "easy" and they want things handed to them. Not in the the reef hobby, you gotta work for what you get!

 

[fish farmer]

First I think the general person sees corals as plants and may not understand basic biology. I run a display FOWLR tank at a campground, never once have I bumped into a fellow reefer, well a couple fish people but they needed advice on their small SW setups. Most people say to me that tank must be hard and expensive, I tell them it is easier than you think, but if I didn't have tangs in the tank it would be an algae mess.

I will also state and I could be wrong, I believe this is an introvert's hobby and more stay at home hobby. I know a couple who are serious extroverts, they will get up early, go kayaking, bike to the winery, then go wine tasting, then to the craft distillery, then back to the campsite for a quick hamburger, then drive to watch the sunset at a local state park.

My wife and I just wanted to do wine tasting and relax at the campground...it was exhausting.

 

[Sailingeric]

I think cost is a factor. If I was to guess it is about 3 times or more expensive versus fresh water but as I tell people after the start up cost it is not that much harder than a fresh water tank, the fish might be more but they have personality and live a lot longer, I like point out my yellow tang will probably out live me.

 

[AC1211]

Ich, video games, and other activities. Not necessarily in that order though.

Ich yes the bane of many

 

[Leslie Tabor]

It's expensive & time consuming.... Most people just don't want to deal with it. I highly doubt you could find many people that would turn down a reef tank if you told them it was free & they'd have someone come by to take care of it. But the time & money sink for a non-necessity is a big turn off for most people I'd imagine.

This is EXACTLY what my husband thinks of my "little" hobby. Lol

 

[S2G]

Social media is a plague. I've never seen so much unchecked ignorance and bad info as I have on YouTube/Facebook etc. Which is part of the problem.

Reefs are so popular it's ridiculous. Aquariums in general are on the rise from what I've seen. What sets things apart is the higher end fw and then saltwater setups. If you're lazy you're going to get exposed. Your tank is going to look horrible and things are going to die unless you put in the work....or drop the dough for something to control it for you.

 

[Mike Porreca]

It's the stigma people all think they are impossible and way to hard to even consider. I was afraid of touching reefing but I'm happy I got into it, it's been life changing!

I can agree here. I have always had freshwater growing up, and always wanted a reef tank. After hearing everyone say it’s soo hard and this and that I never dived in. Well I finally decided to give it a shot and it’s been the most rewarding and addictive hobby I ever got into. I’m just mad I didn’t start it years ago.

 

[JordanS01]

My opinion is that most people just don't have the time or patience, the hobby is very time consuming and for most things in it you get what you pay for so most times going cheap is not an option.

 

[Terri Caton]

It's expensive & time consuming.... Most people just don't want to deal with it. I highly doubt you could find many people that would turn down a reef tank if you told them it was free & they'd have someone come by to take care of it. But the time & money sink for a non-necessity is a big turn off for most people I'd imagine.

Agree. But, more people should look into local tank experts who will come to your house. If you aren't sure where to find them ask your lfs. The charge is reasonable and they only have to come like every 2 weeks if you want them to do the water change. Less if you don't. Heck, with all the money we spend buying tests it's not that expensive at all because they do all the testing. Add to that all the $$$ we spend getting things wrong. Plus, they haul all the water! And they will advise on all fish and coral. You literally can't go wrong.

You still have to feed them but if you don't have time for that you definitely shouldn't be getting a tank.

 

[ca1ore]

Seems kind of obvious: they are expensive, require effort and knowledge to be successful and you have to have a particular interest in reefs. The intersection of all three is a relatively limited addressable market.

 

[Zero1091]

Its expensive and the daily maintenance.
I personally find the maintenance fun and therapeutic in a way from a busy work week.
Plus you learn from mistake, trial/error. Not many people want to bounce back from loosing livestock either when they start a tank. Aswell as a lot of research and some study to keep everything flourishing and healthy. Not to mention patience alone.

 

[Terri Caton]

It's not more popular because, as others have stated, it's expensive, time consuming, and can be difficult.

Everyone that says "it isn't that expensive", or "it isn't as hard as people make it out to be" love the hobby, so the work/money involved doesn't always seem difficult or like that much.

There are different personality types, and a lot of those types want to come home and relax. Only some of us like coming home from work and working more

Yes, but way more rewarding than watching "nothing" on TV.
Plus, maybe it would decrease your health costs. Watching fish lowers stress, blood pressure, etc.

 

[maroun.c]

I've been in the hobby for.more than 20 years and have visited multiple countries in Europe and middle east, and you see various trends that possibly relate to the challenging nature of the hobby: it requires a bit of learning, its non forgiving, expensive, time consuming ....
Believe overall the hibbh has been growing exponentially in different areas whereas it struggles in other areas due to the challenges above. Must admit that the limited marketing potential affects people attention to or interest in the hobby. I can only imagine the effect of a TV show that does a weekly tank tour to a good reefers house and checks out his system and does a review on it.... am sure itll skyrocket the number of people wanting to have a tank. Similar shows wlexisted but I believe they had a more negative impact by featuring only high end high cost tanks and also possibly by setting the wrong impression that u can have an immediate tank with basically zero hassle except the financial.

 

[Tastee]

For me it’s the expense and the knowledge. I’m 2 years in after keeping basic FW all my life and know 100x as much now as I did 2 years ago. Money and effort up front in automation can break the back of the maintenance load but it isn’t cheap. I’m planning a 2nd tank (RSR 525XL) for which my estimate is A$14K before I buy any animals. I am also planning to automate my RODI to auto-fill and setup AWC for both current and new tanks and I’m up to A$3K in my estimate for that. This will give me a great result that is very low on maintenance but you need deep pockets.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Hmmm, how can we crack this mystery??

Lets see...
1. Expensive
2. Complicated (seriously, how many people remember ANYTHING from chemistry class).
3. Disease ridden fish in nationwide chains.
4. Requires significant maintenance

I mean sure, people on this forum have a clue but many many people do not. Honestly, I am completely fine with the hobby becoming LESS popular.

The amount of people that kill wild fish because they have no clue is prettty depressing.

 

[sas226]

I would think it would be cost and the perceived difficulty of the hobby. Most people want something that they know it "easy" and they want things handed to them. Not in the the reef hobby, you gotta work for what you get!

I've only been in the SW hobby for about 5 years, had FW tanks on and off through my time. When I got into SW I had spent a lot of time doing research trying to vacuum up every bit of info I could trying to be prepared. I will say this, the amount of information out there is a little off putting if I'm being honest. I can definitely see how with all the horror stories you read that people will shy away from it. It's not a good hobby for the 25% commitment type, at least in my opinion. I ran into the issue that I had listened to a group of people who were the old guard, who had their ways and would tell it like it is. They'd straight shoot you and tell you not fall for certain things. By no fault of their own, sometimes they were wrong. Best advice I could ever give is take advice, and look into it and consider all options. That's what ended my first trip into the hobby. Was a little jarring when I thought I did everything right and still things happened. At the end of it

That's a point too, despite doing everything right things can and will go wrong. People say this and that scares people off too. Stuff happens, gotta push through it. The other issue I think is the cost. The cost is very real. My first setup was, by all measures, a budget "Friendly build". It still ran me 500+ and that was a very basic setup, Plus the upkeep costs. I'll be the first to say that wasn't a great looking setup. Pedestrian would be a good word to describe it. Most people I feel want something that looks good all around and that's just not cheap.

That being said, I love it and glad I didn't let my early failures deter me from starting back up and currently in the process of gathering everything to start again. My only advice to those looking into the hobby, go to your LFS, ask them to show you around, ask about their routines. Most LFS are very nice people and anyone that shows interest they'll gladly help. Learn about the upkeep and what not, then look at their displays and see if effort vs reward is something you'd be interested in doing. That's it.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Most individual pieces of equipment; Powerhead, Skimmer, return pumps, empty glass box, or even the cost of a couple hundred lbs of rock...... Just ONE of those things, is more money than quite a few people would pay for a dog or a cat.....

 

[Viking_Reefing]

It’s expensive, very time consuming and utterly unforgiving.
I don’t think keeping a reef tank fits with most peoples mentality. It’s all fun and games at first but eventually most people start slacking of due to losing interest (failing to do water changes, not taking action if they see algae/aptasia), very few have the focus required to stay in for the long haul.

 

[Chewbacca]

Being in the hobby for about 50 years on sw and reefs, I have researched everything possible to the hobby,purchased many book on specifics from A to Z including equipment .i find to many people have time to finger tap a phone or video game than to go back to basic research for proper setups and decide what they want to accomplish. And yes IMO a lot of the equipment is over priced 1000% which is a big turn off to most newbs. Time wise for care of a system variable on what kind a junk you added to your system (KISS) water change for me 20 % per 6 months just a sump and top off If you feed your system by had you sure could adjust your chems’ by hand Yeah I get automation that’s for slackers or people who have the greenbacks. But still slackers. With all the junk in your saltwater trunk that’s a bit maintenance time factor for me. Also with no means to offend but will happen the Mellenial as it’s called want it now with out getting hands wet with out research or knowledge of any aspect to an ecosystem. I have to go bite my tongue.

 

[Chewbacca]

Let’s not forget time and effort!!!!