10 Things The Reefing Hobby Should STOP Doing
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- čas přidán 19. 05. 2024
- In this video, I tell you 10 things the reefing hobby should STOP doing! This is based on a video by BRS TV of the same title.
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0:00 10 Things The Reefing Hobby Should Stop Doing
0:12 Overcomplicating things
1:33 Single polyp zoas
2:19 Spending crazy money on torch corals
3:09 Importing huge fish
3:54 Taking information at face value
5:16 Thinking expensive equipment = success
6:07 Using ulva algae
6:44 Chasing coral growth
7:24 Importing corals we can grow easily
8:10 Avoiding water changes
What do YOU think the hobby should stop doing?
Stop selling expert level fish to less-than-expert fish keepers, like copperbands and mandarins
1 - They should STOP putting Walt Disney on a frag that isn't.
2 - They should saying 2 cleanup crew per gallon (1 agree with the tuxedo urchin and now abalone if I could acclimate them)
3 - Stop selling sumps with filter sock holders (that are difficult to remove)
4 - Stop the reef tax (and point the finger at those that do) - like HCL for Alk testing isn't that expensive. Sure shops need to make money but that kind of thing turns me off those companies (especially after I bought the product and realised it was a ripoff).
5 - Stop the behind the scenes knifing - if you don't realise it yet it's a relatively small, tightly knit hobby that has a lot of room for growth. I'm starting to distrust every company now where I used to be the opposite.
6 - Stop pushing bacteria dosing - at best it is expensive carbon dosing... at worst it's probably destroying our biome ecosystem
7 - Stop selling fresh imports - if you aren't going to condition a fish for 2 weeks after it's been in a bag for 2 days you are both A: Increasing the chance that it dies and B: Ripping off your customers by selling them a faulty product at full price.
8 - Stop advising new reefers they need anything more for filtration than a skimmer and rock / media bricks to be successful. Those 'extra' filtration methods should be for competent reefers (incl carbon dosing, fuges / scrubbers, socks, filter rollers, sulphur reactors etc.
Oh jeez - this is bad and I love this hobby ;) Most of it is companies focused more on making money short term than long term value. Actually coral farms mostly all do this I think because they start out small and need a good reputation and know that to survive they need to look after their customers. For example if Abe and the owner of Aquaforest both spoke about amino acids and said different things who would you trust?
Over price every thing
CZcams Videos. Nah only joking, without them there's no way I would be confident enough to get into the hobby. If anything, I would like to see focus on smaller tanks 250L or less for us beginners to try and replicate. Appreciate your videos, it really does help!
@@Xon333 I have a Red Sea Reefer 250 and I don't think of that as any different. For nano tanks Jay's Real Reef UK - Vic has a new series on his office tank on WWC (they have lots of nano stuff) and Reefbuilders has Jake's "The nano reef tank under blue lights" is really good. My advice - not that you should listen to me" is to plan around the animals and that means to know them and design around that and be focused. That's why Reefbuilders is good as he groups corals and also fish and then you can still "try a scoly in your acro tank" - plus he ONLY has the bare bones equipment
My copper band is going to be 8years in January by everyone’s videos I probably have the oldest copperband in the hobby makes me feel pretty proud of my self 😊
I have a 5 year old copperband aswell. I feed it using a little cone shape food basket that has small holes in it to allow for mysis ect. I feed it 2-3 cubes a day. No waste and happy copperband
Yeah I feel like it's the importing and conditioning that's the issue. They are not the only fish like this that are great if they make it through the first month. Anampses and Leopard Wrasse also. I really feel like the importers are often the weakest link in our hobby. Doing it properly is expensive. Just offer us the alternative for a higher price and I'd be happy to pay more.
Agree with number 1. Was having a bad algae and red cyano issue. Throwing things at it with no results. In the end i stopped dosing aminos, vitamins etc and went back to bare basics with weekly wc and dosing of alk xa and mg. And its gone.
I got a skimmer rated for 40 gallons heavy bio load for 20 gallon and boom nitrates went from 25 to 5, and no water changes is king for me I dose everything though.
I agree with the importing of fish. I was in reef keeper moss end and while back and chatting about the twin spot goby. I was tempted despite their reputation and asked the staff about them who said they really are difficult to keep, which is fine, but why are shops then even bothering to buy them? It’s not just consumers that need to change.
Imports. You hit the nail on the head. We can aquaculture, or at a minimum mariculture, just about every coral that's in the hobby now. But because people still buy the imports, there's a market for them. We as hobbiest need to shape the trade with our purchases.
Totally agree! As the man said himself, one day coral imports will come to an end.
@@christerpedersen8920 hopefully one day soon. As a hobby rooted in biology and essentially maintaining an environment, minimizing our Hobby's environmental impact should be a priority.
@@casualreefkeeping indeed! And I'm glad to see that breeders are moving forward when it comes to breeding fish too.
@@christerpedersen8920 fish are unfortunately more challenging than corals, aquaculture wise, but yeah things are definitely heading in the right direction
@@casualreefkeeping We can mass produce corals but environmental groups will never want our corals to put back into nature because we mix corals from all over the world together in one tank and mix all the diseases in our tanks.
Agree on the torch corals. I have one called a Rapunzel torch. It is a really nice bright Neon green with pink tips. It is called Rapunzel due to the extreme length of the tentacles. It is pretty impressive when fully open. Just earlier this year they were a grand for a head maybe two. I found one at my local fish store that they had fragged their huge colony and got a head for 100 bucks.
Excellent video! The basics are key and knowledge before doing anything, whether it's livestock or equipment, it will help you be more successful.
Totally agree with weekly water changes I never miss one! I’m so glad you included the dragon wrasse I’ve seen them in my LFS recently and I’m sure not many people know the are absolute tank destroyers
Aka rock mover wrasse...
Very good information. And as a hobbyist of over 30 years agree Water changes are key. And agree those that boast not doing them will eventually fail over time.
Great information (as always). I would add to that list - impulse buying ANY livestock without research, and buying mystery box corals (for beginners).
I thought you called it a jack off power head and made me double take my phone 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ haha. Great video.
Great top 10!!! Been in this hobby for over a couple of decades and all of these have a lot of validity and some are just quiet simple! Water Changes are the simplest and most effective thing one can do. The only time I have been able to get away with minimal water changes without my tank suffering is when I had refugiums as big as my display or sometimes bigger! (Ie; 240 gallon SPS Dominant display with a 300 gallon Rubber Maid tube sized refugium). Over feeding in my opinion is a major issue and often the root cause of most who fail at this hobby and then give up and quit. Keep the bio load light and feed sparingly has always worked best for me. Not using a QT tank...an ounce of prevention is worth a couple hundred pounds of cure! Most things I QT, stay there about a month or two before going in my display!!! When you look at how much money you have invested in your tank, do you really want to risk it all by getting in a hurry for instant gratification? Just a few off the top of my head...
like your list I agree with the crazy prices on corals , but like you say if we keep on paying his prices they'll keep going up and instead of getting more people into the hubby it will turn them away
Brilliant video Alex, I would consider you a very important asset to this hobby 😀 keep up the great work
guilty of avoiding water changes. Used to do weekly changes which were a pain in the butt. Went through a phosphate/nitrate spike period that killed off a lot and figured the water changes were good for nothing. Since rebooting the tank I've opted for the 'less is more approach' and whilst the first couple of months worked great and the tank looked happy. 6 months on and I'm battling with major brown algae that grows back as fast as I scrub/blow it off rocks or covers sand and is killing all the corals off in the tank... Getting more water this week along with something that the LFS said would help to kill it off and plan to step it up a bit and start doing some more regular changes. Not quite once a week as yet, but at least once a month or maybe twice.
Great video!! Always love your uploads.
No kidding on the torch. Just got back in the hobby this year after a 6 year break . I loved torch corals and yellow tangs , none for me this go around lol
It’s funny how when I started “water changes” were drilled in my head by other reefers and to this day with all the gizmos and everything possible to buy to basically make a smart tank, water changes is still the main goto
It is, and still is with Triton method of things go really wrong, but to be fair I haven’t had that issue and have only done a handful of water changes in 2 years since doing Triton method it’s working well.
My LFS has not sold any high corals over the last year much to his chagrin. I would like to see an audit trail of wildlife that is imported into the country, all the way from collection to arriving at the LFS. I would like to know more about the collection industry in these countries, they get a fair price for what they collect with a thought to the future of the industry. One of the reasons I knocked this hobby on the head back in the 80s was the local capture of fish with cyanide/explosives, I did not want to be part of that.
Good advide, Alex. Always enjoy your videos (and background music). 🙂
In my experience, tuxedo urchins are hell in a small tank. They scrape rock down past coraline algae and easily knock stuff over in the quest for more areas to graze. Mini bulldozers. I took mine back to my LFS after two weeks and never missed it.
"Sloshing saltwater on the carpet" - a little bit of plumbing can help... a siphon tube has two ends and managing these can help minimise the "sloshing" effect! Using a pump to move mixed water back into the system is helped by getting as much water out of a mixing bucket as possible and an elbow joint can help with orientating a pump effectively. As can a shepherds crook on the other end when pumping or siphoning - can't be in two places at once, so controlling one end means the other might get out of control (source of "sloshing") and the crook can clip over something to prevent accidents. Simon
Spot on with everything!!! Especially the ridiculous torch coral prices here in the USA as well.
Algae is a constant issue in a nano tank but just added a tuxedo urchin and in little more than a week it’s obvious that it’s doing its job. Will it then starve once it’s eradicated the algae? Good series of informative videos btw, thanks.
You can rubberband nori around small rocks, or using algae wafers (like you'd feed to a freshwater pleco), and the urchin should eat those.
I've never had an urchin starve (or even die for that matter)
@@ReefDorkOK, thanks. I’ve had a nano for a couple of years just to keep my ‘hand in’ with the hobby. But next year I’m building a house in the North East (of England) and want to put a bespoke tank in a wall, viewable from both sides. Strange(ish) dimensions, 6’ long, then the thickness of the wall, say 15” and 18” high so long but shallow with a sump underneath. Would you be up for paid consultancy on the project? It would be a fish, soft coral mix but certainly not overstocked and no difficult stock. I’d rather get the sump configuration, filtration, lighting, wave maker, additives and the rest of it right from the start than learn and replace (expensively) as I go along. I could message you closer to the time to discuss further if you’re up for it? Thanks.
@@haroldhorsefly1368 I don't have time for that sort of thing i'm afraid - try Prestige Reef though i'm sure he'd be up for it.
@@ReefDork If you got algae and nitrate issues over size your skimmer. I run a 40 gallon high bio load skimmer on my 20 gallon tank and keeps nitrates at 5pm. I also like doing 0 water changes. I have lasted 8 months with 0 water changes and low nitrates. I believe water changes creates more swings because you got to match all the crap to your current tank water and doubt anyone uses 8 test kits to test their new water. I then end up with more stability dosing everything and less swings. I do go against the grain with great success.
love having a reef tank in Australia cost of coral is low, torch corals are cheap and colourful.
I’m just about to get a 180g for my yellow tang and rabbit fish, any ideas for fowlr tank mates? I like butterflyfish and angels, I have a flame and potters and they get along :) might seperate when I get the new tank! Right now they are in a 80g and I’m currently looking for bigger tanks 😅
Get some awesome wrasses! They're the prettiest fish in my opinion. Other tangs would be nice. Raccoon butterfly's are nice as well.
As soon as I saw the BRS video I thought “I wonder when Reef Dork will respond?” So happy to hear your video this morning. I listen to it while I drive to work.
😅
Nice one! ( we are still waiting for the kalkwasser video 😉 )
Every time I think about how long it'll take to make, I throw up in my mouth 😅
🤣
Thanks for always doing the imperial and metric conversions 👍🏻
Nice video. Do you have one on the basics for someone starting off?
Watch some BrsTv they have everything.
Try this... czcams.com/video/itPG8dIB4WM/video.html
I think with water changes people think it’s cool not to do them and people are like “wow you haven’t done a water change in months”
People who don’t do water changes need to be mocked rather than applauded 😅
Live "sales" and fomo marketing; vendors that hype up around their own brand (wwc, tsa for example); seeing fish as 'lesser' pets than say cats/dogs
As someone who doesn’t keep a reef but is interested I find the very dark blue tanks with glowing stick corals look really tacky. I also find too many fish in a tank looks like a prison cell.
i've had my zoas for 4 months and they haven't grown at all, meanwhile my torches are already making more. i probably won't be getting more zoas anytime soon
Been in the hobby for over 20 years. I have done it every which way and I can honestly say that the less you play with your tank the better. The key is setting it up right and quarantine everything. Stop obsessing over hitting certain numbers. As long as everything is within acceptable parameters then you're good to go. The worst thing you can do to your corals and fish is constantly change stuff which stresses them out. Less is more ime.
Also, stop going against the grain when it comes to general rules. Hats off to reefers who push the boundaries of trying different techniques and experimenting, which is how we progress in this hobby. But if you're a new or intermediate reefer, don't go against general advice and don't think general rules won't apply to you, you will end up in failure. Leave experimenting to the advanced hobbyists.
If you got algae and nitrate issues over size your skimmer. I run a 40 gallon high bio load skimmer on my 20 gallon tank and keeps nitrates at 5pm. I also like doing 0 water changes. I believe water changes creates more swings because you got to match all the crap to your current tank water and doubt anyone uses 8 test kits to test their new water. I then end up with more stability dosing everything and less swings. I do go against the grain with great success.
Monie Cowrie’s helped with ulva algae in my nano. Great clean up crew.
Some very good important tips that people should strive for to keep a successful Reef. Nice job Alex
I will be the contrarian an apply your number 5 rule to number 7.
I quite like Ulva lactuca, and have purposely introduced it along side cheato more than once. It will usually out preform my cheato. However, you need a larger display with space for strong grazers like tangs and urchins. That biological control is what keeps it in check. Or yes, it will take over.
Good list though. I particularly liked number 9.
I just wish the hobby would stop giving coral stupid buzz-word names that mean nothing. It can work if you have a genetic clone and track specific lineage. But too often a drunken inspired name just references a color combination and serves to simply add confusion to a list of species few hobbyist can already get correct. More emphasis needs to be places on accurately naming the genus, or even the species. For example next time you find a 'dragon soul' favia, try to actually figure out if it's a true favia. I'll bet you right now, it is not.
Why? Because Favia fragum, and Favia gravida are Atlantic species... And every other common "favia" was reclassified decades ago.
Great update on their list.
Number 4 is a big issue for me. There are some species of fish and birds that are endangered due to people overharvesting these animals from the wild and selling them to the public knowing damn well that most are ever going to flat out die or have a far shorter lifespan than the wild. So it is probably best to just buy animals bred in captivity.
Wild collection is generally done sustainably for marine fish - there are benefits to captive breeding, but the same is true of wild collection.
@@ReefDorkgenerally untill its not, dont forget the yellow tang bann as a great example 😅
But yeah i do agree that in general naturel harvest isnt a real bad thing on most specimens of fish and corals. Ofcourse up till a certain degree and specimens. But Total export of coral of australia is just barely anything compared to the great barrier reef and its growth; the harvesters know how to harvest sustainable. Its good there is a cites list though 😊
Stop NOT vacuuming your sandbed
We need to stop basing in tank water flow on lph numbers. I commonly see people having trouble where it's plain to see there is not anywhere near enough flow in their tanks. Flow is grossly underestimated.
My thing I need to stop doing is buying a fish tank in a house that im about to move out in a year. I mean MAYBEEE its okay to do a 20 gallon and have it at this house for about.. a year or so I just dont wanna go through the nightmare that is moving it. Anybody got any tips?
Hi are you going to do any updates on the fluval sea evo
Yep, over on the Reef Dork Xtra channel...
I think if people take their time they will see torch coral prices have actually dropped. Hg used to go for £400 to £500 a head, now you can pick them up for less than £200 per head. Golds and dragon souls are now going for around £70 / £80 per head compared to £150 say a year ago….. and the prices will keep dropping
Dragon wrasses, bat fish and those white and black groupers and many others in shops do my head in. In fact i'd go as far as to say that shops that sell those won't get any of my hard earnt money, they should know better.
Well done, great video
Nice one Alex! 😀👍
Got ya self a new sub dude
Bang on with No9 Alex.
Ulva SUCKS!!!
I stupidly bought "clean sea lettuce" from Algaebarn and then it started spreading all over the rock in my DT
I'm lucky I caught it quickly enough and it's mostly gone thanks to my Tang.
Spawn of Satan
Great video 😊
Water changes, or even simpler reduce feeding 20%. Or add a fuge. Simples
Torches for anything more 20 bucks is stupid. My buddy bought a 20 head colony for almost nothing before they started making up fake names.
All good - never heard of the ulva thing
I don't agree with avoiding water changes.
I saw a documentary in Australia where getting wild corals actually helps the ocean produce more corals because after they get cut they tend to grow faster
What tank should I buy?
Depends on a million factors, check out a forum to see what other people have gone for that you like.
@@ReefDork thanks
Yes to all he said.
I know torches are in but I love them and I believe they deserve the hype but my wallet disagrees
Just watch out the ursin, they are bulldozer and can push coral over the rocks..^^’
Great video as always 👍
I’m sorry but 30% water changes are perfect
Stop spending crazy money on everything. Get manufacturers to back up all their products with appropriate warranties. 3-4-5 years. And allow those warrantees to be transferred when bill of sale gets transferred.
All the things i hate in the hobby were mentioned here. Amen.
Large water changes in a nano tank isnt the best advice....
Nothing wrong with a few 20-30% changes on consecutive days...
You missed the top one, following this channel as you flip flop all over the place giving out dogmatic information...
Should not stop buying frags 🤣 and not stop adding aquaforest pro bio s got another load of frags comeing from coralfragsrus