This hobby is getting out of control with costs

[Eric R.]

Oh there's plenty of expensive stuff, and plenty of people willing to spend too much money on expensive stuff, and plenty of people that post more pictures of sumps with pipes that match their apex gear than of their tanks. But for those that are willing to look past all that, this hobby doesn't have to be expensive. You can grow corals just as well in a 75 gallon with a 40b sump as in a $5000 tank. With some simple test kits, a t5 fixture, kalk, etc. No need for a trident and ICP testing. (I do have a used apex and used reefi unos and a used red sea 250. I get most all my stuff used).

I appreciate folks like reefi that are willing to innovate and release better products for less, and buck the trend of increasingly expensive things that are more marketing than actual performance.

To each their own.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

With the high cost of the hobby, how difficult it's made, or made to seem, the pressure to have a tank full of over priced named frags and equipment, its hard to attract new hobbiest like that, many will pass and pick up something else

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

The cost of coral has gotten stupid. Torches used to be $25 not $300. And hobbyists are selling frags to other hobbyists for similar prices. Why are we adding to the price increases instead of trying to bring them down by selling amongst ourselves are reasonable prices?

That's true, stupid always wins unfortunately

 

[TnFishwater98]

So is life! Started a thread a year or two ago asking how to save in this hobby when we knew things were going to skyrocket. It turned into a gas conversation which some said it’s just the normal summer price hike. Most of us knew that wasn’t the case. The thread then turned political and it was **** down.
Buuuuuut, Here we are…..

 

[vetteguy53081]

Oh there's plenty of expensive stuff, and plenty of people willing to spend too much money on expensive stuff, and plenty of people that post more pictures of sumps with pipes that match their apex gear than of their tanks. But for those that are willing to look past all that, this hobby doesn't have to be expensive. You can grow corals just as well in a 75 gallon with a 40b sump as in a $5000 tank. With some simple test kits, a t5 fixture, kalk, etc. No need for a trident and ICP testing. (I do have a used apex and used reefi unos and a used red sea 250. I get most all my stuff used).

I appreciate folks like reefi that are willing to innovate and release better products for less, and buck the trend of increasingly expensive things that are more marketing than actual performance.

To each their own.

For sure. Speaking of tanks, did you see the Tank of the month Posted tonight? Its an 80 gallon wonder world.

" No need for a trident and ICP testing." . . . . It depends on the size of tank and investment. Once I passed the $2500 mark in coral, I myself got a trident and we all should be doing ICP tests occasionally as test kits give a range. . . ICP gives an analysis and result.
I will not second guess the status of my tank water which is the lifeline of my fish and coral

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

For sure. Speaking of tanks, did you see the Tank of the month Posted tonight? Its an 80 gallon wonder world.

" No need for a trident and ICP testing." . . . . It depends on the size of tank and investment. Once I passed the $2500 mark in coral, I myself got a trident and we all should be doing ICP tests occasionally as test kits give a range. . . ICP gives an analysis and result.
I will not second guess the status of my tank water which is the lifeline of my fish and coral

Yup once you reach a certain level of investment, you need to take action and protect that investment. I agree with you!

Investment doesn't just mean the cost, it's all of your time you can't put a price on

 

[Eric R.]

For sure. Speaking of tanks, did you see the Tank of the month Posted tonight? Its an 80 gallon wonder world.

" No need for a trident and ICP testing." . . . . It depends on the size of tank and investment. Once I passed the $2500 mark in coral, I myself got a trident and we all should be doing ICP tests occasionally as test kits give a range. . . ICP gives an analysis and result.
I will not second guess the status of my tank water which is the lifeline of my fish and coral

I would add a generator or really hefty battery backup to the list of important things to protect an investment. I'm still squinty about a lot of the ICP stuff. I'm not convinced that seawater can be analyzed the way that it's done for the price that it's done and still yield accurate, actionable, results for the number of elements that are tested. Otherwise I would 100% agree. But that's a discussion for another thread. Other than tracking alk (which really doesn't need to be tested as often as the trident does), the trident just replaces tests that could be done by hand for less money. Which I thought was the point of the convo. Or is it mostly just that corals and lights and pumps are overpriced now?

 

[t5Nitro]

You really don't need accuracy as much as you need precision in a test, whether that comes from a test kit or an ICP analysis.

It doesn't actually matter if your test kit shows an alk of 6 if your reef is thriving. As long as it reliably and precisely measures, then the trend is more important. A test with no precision will be highly variable and unreliable. So as long as you believe an ICP is precise, then you're fine to use them, whether they're accurate or not.

I agree fully with whole house backup generator. That would be the single most protective investment I would make. Its really not fun having power outages, even with a generator, especially if you're away from home.

 

[SamsReef]

Has anyone seen the cost of ESV two part lately. Almost 50 percent up in an year. Glad I moved to calcium reactor.

Sam

 

[vetteguy53081]

To add to the beginning of thread, here is another prime example.
Clearwater algae scrubbers are Nice units. In 2019. I bought the CW-50 for $297. They released today, the very same unit now in purple and black for $649. Looking at the unit and specs- Nothing has changed but the color and this is their Smallest unit. The largest - CW200 is $849, previously $499 and yet another component approaching the $1000 mark.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

To add to the beginning of thread, here is another prime example.
Clearwater algae scrubbers are Nice units. In 2019. I bought the CW-50 for $297. They released today, the very same unit now in purple and black for $649. Looking at the unit and specs- Nothing has changed but the color and this is their Smallest unit. The largest - CW200 is $849, previously $499 and yet another component approaching the $1000 mark.

I saw that, I think its a joke right, there's no way anyone would pay that! It's insane! When they first came out it was expensive, now it doesn't even make sense accept taking advantage of the times and inflation. I will be staying away from that company and their products, good luck CW..

 

[kenjung]

Interestingly no vendor has yet to copy MP series pumps. They must still have patent on it. I love my 4 MP60 got them use at average 400 per unit. The last for a long time and programming on reef link is nice.

 

[SamsReef]

Interestingly no vendor has yet to copy MP series pumps. They must still have patent on it. I love my 4 MP60 got them use at average 400 per unit. The last for a long time and programming on reef link is nice.

My MP40s are going on ten yrs. The wet side needed change in between for $80 and it’s like new now. Even tunze does not last that long.

Sam

 

[t5Nitro]

Everyone should DIY algae turf scrubbers anyways after looking at one and noticing that they're put together for next to nothing. I saw that release and thought of the thread as well, lol.

 

[BZOFIQ]

My MP40s are going on ten yrs. The wet side needed change in between for $80 and it’s like new now. Even tunze does not last that long.

Sam

I still have few Koralias that are older, no kidding.

Tunze so far has been solid - but their prices have become insane too. I was happy to buy a bunch on ebay BNIB for about a 3rd of todays price.

None of the Jebaos I bought about 7 years ago lasted past 1 year mark - never again, no matter the price.

Abyzz went from crazy to insane.

 

[Cthulukelele]

With the high cost of the hobby, how difficult it's made, or made to seem, the pressure to have a tank full of over priced named frags and equipment, its hard to attract new hobbiest like that, many will pass and pick up something else

Have what you want to have. At the end of the day that was the lesson that made me start liking the hobby again. I was growing lps and easy sps before my crash because it was the cool thing. I realized I like softies and anemones. That's what I liked in my predominantly hard coral tank. Don't let the trends dictate what you have. Buy what you like. Grow what you like. It sounds dumb to say out loud, but it's true. It's what makes things stay fun

 

[kenjung]

My MP40s are going on ten yrs. The wet side needed change in between for $80 and it’s like new now. Even tunze does not last that long.

Sam

Yea I think in this hobby its not the high price but rather how long it is lasting. I have my tank for 7 years, replace one MP 60 wet side, replace one SRO wave blaster pump I have 4 of them. So not expensive to run.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I would add a generator or really hefty battery backup to the list of important things to protect an investment. I'm still squinty about a lot of the ICP stuff. I'm not convinced that seawater can be analyzed the way that it's done for the price that it's done and still yield accurate, actionable, results for the number of elements that are tested. Otherwise I would 100% agree. But that's a discussion for another thread. Other than tracking alk (which really doesn't need to be tested as often as the trident does), the trident just replaces tests that could be done by hand for less money. Which I thought was the point of the convo. Or is it mostly just that corals and lights and pumps are overpriced now?

Water testing isn't too difficult, I ha e worked at places that did spectrolisys and whatever the method of testing is where you use chemicals to percipitate elements out of water for measuring the percipitates. Both are pretty accurate, and pretty cheap if you have the volume of testing that something like a chemical plants QC department uses.

I do not know anything about the retail ICP testing services that are used in reefing, but I know I can take a sample and have the elements I wanted spectro analyzed from the sample for about $60 with pretty intense accuracy. However, I do not know if that's a method that is available to the public at anywhere near that price.

I know the machines are expensive, but no reagents, just lots of xrays.

 

[waver]

Inflation is a huge driving factor. Then look at Supply and Demand. Expect to get ripped off when buying new - just like the dealerships. If you hunker down, do your research, and join local forums - this hobby can actually be affordable. Still very much a luxury, but fun. Like with any other business, if you dont know what you need, you will over pay for bells and whistles you simply dont need.

 

[DIYreefer]

My MP40s are going on ten yrs. The wet side needed change in between for $80 and it’s like new now. Even tunze does not last that long.

Sam

I still have a working, blue box mp20. I actually had two of them but sent one to ecotech, by way of wwc, around a year ago in trade for a new mp40. I then traded the new mp40 for a couple of nice frags that arrived in really rough shape and eventually died. Cool story, huh? Lol.