What constitutes a Reef Tank anymore?

[billsreef]

The designer corals & overpriced clown morphs are nauseating to me, because it's the businsss part of the hobby taking advantage of people.

Actually the vast majority of this has been hobbyist turned "chop shop" trying to take advantage of their fellow hobbyist. Many of them would be on here building hype while getting commercial accounts to buy wholesale coral to chop, while still claiming to be hobbyist We've banned an aweful lot of chop shopping coral frag hypers that were hobbyists turned commercial. The mainstream commercial entities simply jumped on a bandwagon started by "hobbyists". With the designer clowns, again that started with basement breeders creating a niche market for what I would call a cull. Such trend in general aren't actually engineered by businesses in this trade, but simply picked up on exploited.

 

[doctorgori]

the designer clown thing is analagous to the Dutch Tulip craze of the 17th century; I'm not seeing a pair as a good investment...heck 1/2 of them are uglier than the wild specimens

 

[mussel and hate]

Regardless of my personal feelings regarding commercial exploitation of reef animals/hobbyists I voiced the issue to suggest that industry was steering hobbyist trends and thus redefining terms.

The high res photo of tanks packed full of beautiful coral accompanied by an all star equipment list set the bar for what a reef tank is/should be.

Hobbyists whether with or without financial incentive parrot the pitchmasters when showcasing their accomplishments. Despite the staff's best efforts forums like RC become a vehicle for commercial propaganda through clever astroturfing.

BTW I love the beautiful high res photos, keep them coming... did I mention I really lust for LEDs a low iron cube and an Ecotech pump?

 

[whipsaw]

Paul B, I love the Bud can front and center!

I've always thought of a reef tank as a coral-dominated display. It's gotten far easier for people to keep corals over the last couple decades, but the methods and equipment that allow it also shape the results quite a bit.

To me the TOTM doesn't shape reef tanks nearly so much as the techniques and technologies in use by pretty much everyone that keeps corals. There is a best way, we almost all use that best way, and the results will all look essentially similar in many ways unless something goes wrong. I don't see it so much as a matter of style- best methods themselves shape the look of the results quite a bit.

I've never seen a little wall of wildly colored and well mixed small corals in the ocean. I expect it in reef tanks though, because it's the best way to keep and display an assortment of the animals.

 

[RoWall]

Great thread. I actually stopped keeping saltwater in march partly because I realised i'm just keeping 'pokemon cards' and playing with toys (equipment). It wasn't like that in the beginning and that wasn't the goal at all. I will be starting the tank again in the near future and it was great to take a rest to reconsider why do I want to keep a reef tank and what is it that I really want to keep, not just follow the masses. After stearing at so many "mainstream" tanks at forums you can really forgot what is it that YOU want and it's easy to do what everyone else is doing.

 

[T Diddy]

Hey doctorgori, thanks for posting. I've often thought about that over the years. I too got started in the early 90s, though never truly stepped away. I did however get out of actively "reef keeping" for a few years. On one hand, as already mentioned, keeping many of today's corals used to be a lesson in humility. I think it is amazing to be able to sustain a gallery tank, the more color the better. On the other hand, I have never actually attempted (now that it is possible) to maintain a region specific aquarium. I have always wanted to have two or three independent systems for the purpose of keeping solely inhabitants from the Red Sea, or the Carribean, or even a deepwater (NPS) softie tank for example.

I suppose for me, a "reef tank" simply describes a glass box with a stack of rocks and a diverse group of inhabitants including fish, corals, anemones, snails, crabs, bacteria, protists, pods, worms, and other various invertebrates. I think for someone who is trying to accurately recreate a slice of the reef in a living room, they should consider using organisms that would all be familliar with each other prior to getting in the aquarium (region specific). I am guilty myself, but I think it is funny to see fish swimming together in an aquarium that would not possibly have met in the wild.

 

[doctorgori]

Regardless of my personal feelings regarding commercial exploitation of reef animals/hobbyists I voiced the issue to suggest that industry was steering hobbyist trends and thus redefining terms.

Wow, that is a condensed quip of how I've felt all along; basically I'm not defining the scope of what reef tank is, I'm voicing a lil disapointment that nefarious forces are shaping them

The high res photo of tanks packed full of beautiful coral accompanied by an all star equipment list set the bar for what a reef tank is/should be.

...and this is the component that I blame the status quo "TOTM" winners seem to be; Paul B's tank while I'm sure is interesting, diverse and likley stable will never be because it lacks the big shinny easily photographed objects required to be considered for TOTM

Hobbyists whether with or without financial incentive parrot the pitchmasters when showcasing their accomplishments.

ha ha, I wish I had time to go through all the post and cut-n-paste everytime I noticed that to...Oh and don't get me wrong, I'm easily a sucker for fads and trends as much as the next guy; but it don't hurt to step back and view things in a larger scope that includes yourself

Despite the staff's best efforts forums like RC become a vehicle for commercial propaganda through clever astroturfing.

Funny, I'm sorta a amerature "business planner" and not to poke at RC, but to have "volunteers" do such an excellent job policing this place for free (and thus contribute to its oustanding GLOBAL ranking amongst webstite) is amazing...nice business model whomever owns it...

After stearing at so many "mainstream" tanks at forums you can really forgot what is it that YOU want and it's easy to do what everyone else is doing.

good one....So if I don't own a Starphire "Cube" with LED lights and stock it with "green bay packer" zoos, you ain't "hip" ...ha ha

 

[TjwBlake]

This post is more for me to subscribe to this as I find it an interesting discussion.

I've only been at this for about 8month now so im fairly new, but what about throwing this into the conversation:

Based on the various opinions and comments so far I would think a reef tank is anything that is not the artificial plastic plant, underwater volcano and sunken pirate ship creations that I once associated with all forms of fish tank. Any attempt to create a contained world that tries to use the mutlitudes of symbiotic realationships of all the underwater life would constitute a reef tank regardless of what is really stocked in it (FOWLER, SPS dominated, budwiser dominated, etc) As long as there is an attempt to create a food web and interconnectivity in the inhabitants then you would have created a reef.

 

[power boat jim]

[


Actually, when you get away from the hobby, any hard underwater structure is often called a reef. Clusters of granite rock in the North East, large oyester beds and mussel beds are all called reefs. Just not coral reefs [/QUOTE]

Take this one step further, look at a chart for say, Lake Michigan and you will find many elevated areas of the bottom that are rocky shown as "reefs". Does this mean a reef tank even needs to be saltwater? I assure you on these fresh water reefs there are fish, crabs, mollusks and often some sort of plant life (algea). Are they any less of a "reef environment" then a marine reef? Would a tank with this kind of setting be a reef tank?

 

[Paul B]

"TOTM" winners seem to be; Paul B's tank

Paul Bs tank will never be TOTM. It is usually WTOTM (wierdist tank of the month)
(power boat Jim, I have almost the same boat) cool

 

[power boat jim]

Paul Bs tank will never be TOTM. It is usually WTOTM (wierdist tank of the month)
(power boat Jim, I have almost the same boat) cool

Then you are almost as broke as me!!

The avatar is what made me think of the fw reef. The pic was taken very near a fw reef.

 

[Jon_Hewett_85]

Just a side note, if you want to have a little fun with the "collectable shiny things crowd"...next time someone asks what a piece in your tank is:

1) Make up the most ridiculous sounding name you can think of on the spot.
2) Proudly state said name with conviction
3) See how many people claim to have heard of it...(it's more common than you would think)


The lesson here is that a "reef tank" is what YOU make it. I tell people all the time, just keep what YOU like. You're the only person that has to look at it every day.

 

[Paul B]

Then you are almost as broke as me!!

I always tell people that think this is an expensive hobby that one year with my boat costs much more than 40 years of reefing.

 

[doctorgori]

Paul Bs tank will never be TOTM. It is usually WTOTM (wierdist tank of the month)
(power boat Jim, I have almost the same boat) cool

I found this picture in a pile, it dates back to the early 80's and I immediatley thought of Paul B's thread (about a old reef tank) ...

i was waiting to post it figuring someone might start another thread of pre-1990 reef tanks

look at the algae...by todays standards people would be horrified, but back then skimmers were rare/outrageuosly priced....

Anyway, to anyone from Phx, AZ, doing a "rewind":
all the stuff was bought at Kinglsleys place on 48th Street

 

[Paul B]

This was my reef in the late 80s or early 90s (I don't know but I still have that fireclown) it is also covered in hair algae. But everything is very healthy.

 

[billsreef]

look at the algae...by todays standards people would be horrified, but back then skimmers were rare/outrageuosly priced....

Even when using skimmers back then, algae was dominant. The big thing in the mid 80's and 90's was growing Caulerpa...it was thought of as the magic bullet for water quality. Of course most of the corals kept back then were also common to lagoons and therefore able to cope with all that Caulerpa.

 

[doctorgori]

Uh, I just came back from the Equipment forum; saw a "Radion" thread and I'm now partially blind in one eye....beyond that, I'm not sure exactly what to say...

 

[RoWall]

Yeah, I looove that rainbow-color thunderstorms!

 

[coralreefdoc]

Anyway, to anyone from Phx, AZ, doing a "rewind":
all the stuff was bought at Kinglsleys place on 48th Street

Yep, looks about right ...

 

[euod]

Indeed I think we're already there in some respects. For myself, I like to create a patch of reef much the way it might look in nature...although with less algae growth. Some prefer a reef "garden" in the same vein as some fancy estate garden.

Great discussion.

To me "reef tank" has come to mean anything that is saltwater, and more complex than just fish.

From there, there are all sorts of ways to specialize or become more specific. Examples might include;

-Recreating particular locations (Figi reef crest)
-systems planned/stocked around specific types of fish or other creatures (ritteri anemone tank)
-systems designed around shiny bling corals (pokeman card reef)
-non-photosynthetic reef (non-photosynthetic reef)
-Cold water reef (cold water reef)
-or endless other areas of focus....

Exactly! Reef tank has to come close to nature that specializes in species or organisms that exist there. Tank with diverse organisms that has bosai aquascape and too colorful, to me is a designer tank. Don't get me wrong, these tanks are extraordinary mind blowing and they deserve TOTM rightly so.
When people ask me what kind of aquarium I keep, I just respond, "saltwater with some corals".