blueheaven

I have noticed such things happening since I have been into this hobby and its only that no one has the courage to bring it up. I can still remember when I started this hobby, it was purely out of interest and at that time the industry is blooming with the release of "Finding Nemo". Like what many have said or discriminated about the show, that it had created a massive surge of people wanting to keep marine fish, I beg to differ. Its obvious that the show bears the message that collection from reefs are a wrong thing to do. So why do people still have that urge despite the message? No one knows. So in 2003, you can see that SRC has shot up in its membership and now in 2005, although we have over 3000 members, how many do you think still visits the club? In the article, Anthony Calfo mentioned that people are buying monster skimmers in which the power consumed and the cost induced make up for only about 20% increase in efficiency. Not very substantial. Like some points mentioned here, its all about evolution. Before needlewheels hit the US market, Becketts are in the fad. Why? Its simply because Becketts are outperforming many other skimmers in the market at that time. So when a reefer decides that his tank is receiving an increasing bioload, its only natural that he upgrades his stuff. So at that time, the only form of upgrading is to get bigger, more powerful becketts. But majority of the reefers do not realise that other than buying expensive, power hungry skimmers, they can also choose to improve the efficiency of the skimmers by using a different design which saves on cost. So when the needlewheels hit the US, people start to realise that that skimmer consumes less and works equally as well. So can this be considered a trend? As for corals, it is even more significant here. I can still remember that when I came into the hobby, an anemone would cost as much as $40-50 but when you look at it now, it can be found at a quarter of the price. Some goes to elegance corals. I had one which cost me $16 in my previous tank but there was a time the price shot up to $30-40 a specimen. I agree with some points mentioned here that people start to buy a certain species of corals due to 2 factors. One is when a prominent reefer has got a specimen and does a lot of "publicity" about it that due to the herding instinct that another reefer wants to get one for himself without considering other factors such as the conditions needed to ensure its survival. Another factor is that prople buy a certain species of corals in order to be trendsetters. These people may also be the cause of the former. And both actions fuel the industry and urges the supplier to get the supplies. And then again, reefers and suppliers cease to realise that an alternative to getting coral specimens can be achieved by propagation which I would not discuss here. I am 100% sure that if anyone was asked about previous fads on a certain coral, he would be able to name not one but a few. So in the end, we must think. Are all these trends the result of unscupulous dealers? Are reefers considered to be the innocent flock which fall prey to exaggerated publicity? Who is the mastermind, the source which powers all the actions taking place? The dealer or the reefer?

You may want to change to another piping design

Ya, I would prefer buying a frag than a colony

Hi guys, i just read the article "Reef Trendy" by Anthony Calfo in reefkeeping mag and I feel that it really rings a bell somewhere. I recommend reefers to take time to read that article and do some thinking into the topics discussed. And pls do not change this into a flaming thread k?

Sorry to be a little off but I have orange and pink coralline

What you desvribed sounds like a plenum You can refer to my article on Sandbeds for reference

Oh yeah, almost forgot Took a pic of it few days back Still as metallic as before but it doesn't seem to grow substantially

Actually i do not really know what type of anemone it is As you can see from this pic, its not red but a bright neon orange colour Any bros can help me with this?

Well, everything is still going good Got a few shrooms that splited and that green cynarina is starting to show solid colours Only thing is that that baby ric I got disappeared the next day, probably eaten by the foxface Anyway, here's the anemone after 5 mins

3 mins later......

Apologies for the previous pic as it was overexposed and with noise Here's it when I just placed it in

Haiz so many work to do these few days and I cannot come visit SRC Anyway here is a new addition to my reef PS. I cannot take whole tank shots as my camera does not have wide angle Maybe next time

Looks more like green star polyps to me

Well, I am thinking of glueing SPS onto my overflow box to camo it

I glued my SPS using the method weileong mentioned But I prefer to apply a glob rather than on the whole surface

Well you can visit the aquaculture forum for some tips on fragging

be wary of that sea apple

The only MMORPG I am playing now is MU Online

well, i'm sure not a lazy reefer I clean my skimmer neck every 3 days

Yeah, I'll take a pic later when my MHs are on Couldn't visits ya guys often now cuz I have my major exams this year

Anywhere worth going down today?

Its been sitting in my room for quite some time already. Need to clear off soon 2x150w Dymax 10kk DE MH bulbs going for $45 each Collection can be arranged

Actually, I found my new design DSB works pretty well and keeping my nitrates at 3-5 ppm with only 6 months of maturation.

Was there with my parents. Not many ppl when i was there, only another reefer

Yeah, its the only fire orange there. All the others are reddish orange and blue