SO MANY ASPHYXIATED REEFERS OUT THERE!!!!

[Battlecorals]

Just an observation.

Believe it or not, there was a time not too long ago when if you posted pictures of yourself holding a frag or a colony, and your hands are totally blue or the frag plug is blue, you just about got laughed off the forum! It's true. Classifieds, circa 2013ish to see what I mean.

But that was then.


I very much understand the times change and I’m all for rolling with the changes. And there’s no doubt that the introduction of heavy blue lighting certainly changed the landscape of reef keeping permanently. As in entirely! What we (the collective we that is) like, what we like looks like, and what our tanks look like with what we like in them! Got all that? It's way different now.

I honestly think this was a massive but subtle shockwave to the hobby. Completely changed things. Not really in a bad way. Again I understand the mechanics of evolution. It really happened rather organically. As new people enter the hobby, whatever is going on at that particular moment is their baseline. This is reefkeeping 2023. Just as reef keeping in 2002ish say, was my baseline. My frame of reference from that point forward was formed then.


Anyway, back to the point.


It’s really simple. We demand and command only coral that looks good. Thats pretty much it. And in todays hobby these are corals that look best fluorescing under nice a deep blue spectrum. Thats fine. Nothing really wrong with that. It's great even. Old geezers and purest may still rant about the “good old days”. But anyway you look at it, whatever the currently available lighting was at the time, things have only gotten bluer and bluer since the introduction of the 65k halide.

Obviously though. I mean our stuff looks good under blue. And when we look at our coral and it looks good, it makes us feel good. And so we want it to look as good as possible. So we can continue to feel good. Get where I am going with this one?

Anyway, all this is to say that the next “game changer” is most certainly around the corner or maybe the corner after that. Whatever it may be. And all the “now schoolers” as in most of you guys, who started out with blue LEDs and rimless tanks, lots of automation and social media will have something to say about it I’m sure.

Just as I am doing now…

And, If you recognize your photos, I swear I’m not trying to pick on you. I just needed some examples. IG is loaded with them I just picked randomly It’s all in good fun. Ambulance is on the way.

 

[Gtinnel]

Hey wait when I started reefing there wasn’t the internet to get a baseline from. I had to use actual books that I checked out from the public library.

 

[Battlecorals]

Hey wait when I started reefing there wasn’t the internet to get a baseline from. I had to use actual books that I checked out from the public library.

Good man! Totally with you. However, internet was there,I did not even consider it a resource till at least 2004 after a friend suggested reef central.

Was a bookie too before that. Made sense at the time

 

[100gallonreefer]

My 1st saltwater tank was in 1983 in Seattle while in the military . I saw my 1st Koran Anglefish and have been hooked ever since. Didn’t keep coral back then obviously

 

[topjimmy]

I remember running vho actinic to tame the yellow iwasaki bulbs

 

[Battlecorals]

I remember running vho actinic to tame the yellow iwasaki bulbs

And to create that dusk, dawn effect, let’s not forget

 

[blaxsun]

The title threw me for a loop... I was thinking oxygen-deprived reefs, not fluoresced reefs...

 

[StatelineReefer]

 

[BranchingHammer]

I would say most of the time when I'm looking at my reef its during the full spectrum hours with plenty of white because it looks the most natural and sunny as if I'm diving. At night when things fade to blue its cool to see some fluorescent colors, but it's more of a bonus for me.

 

[Mr Fishface]

I'll admit I have never been a fan of crazy heavy blues. I have LEDs and I use blues for a few minutes when lights turn on but I mostly use them in evening before lights turn off. I enjoy watching my fish get ready for nighttime. I love the look of white or even some yellow in the tank during the day. I like being able to see all the different colors in my sand or on my rocks. My little hermit crab that came in with ocean rock has beautiful stripes but, because of the sandy shade it is, you can only really appreciate with whiter lights.

I'm not trying to say there is anything wrong with blue lights. Just that my personal preference doesn't use them very much. Although, what really kills me, are the blue-saturated photos that get edited to high heaven and hurt your eyes to look at it.

 

[Haggisman14]

I remember back when I started driving 4 hours round trip to pick up a DE HQI setup with 14k bulbs....loved that!

I"ve since come over to the dark side and running a Gen 4 Radion. I do love my blues for morning/evening, and to get a little extra pop, but during the regular day, I do prefer my more white spectrum for a "true daylight" experience!

Also when I got into the hobby 20+ years ago, it was book knowledge, and a little bit of...dare I say it...Reef Central!

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I always thought the lyrics were, I’m blue if I was green I would die…. Who knew? Maybe history will repeat itself and all the blue lights will end up in the closet next to the glow sticks on shoestrings, pacifiers and candy necklaces?

 

[Doctorgori]

I remember running vho actinic to tame the yellow iwasaki bulbs

Yeah back in the 90’s I ran 5500K’s and one actinic …coral grew, but the new fad was blue Radium’s and I got laughed off the internet then for my “yellow” tanks….
I like Blue-white like around 12-15K anymore ….

 

[Enderg60]

People and businesses using Instagram type photography to make a coral look insane while in real life, even under heavy blue lighting, you will never see those colors.

95% of the super expensive corals I see end up looking like bland turds as colonies.

Yes new lights bring out better colors, but we are now over enhancing colors, pics from the top and super close ups in order to sell a name rather than a good looking coral.

Ive had people offer my "named" colonies of super expensive corals which Ive turned down, not because of price, but because they look like butt as colonies. I end up taking the "regular old" Red milli over it because it has actual color from more than 2 feet away.

Today you cant even sell a coral unless you know how to use a orange filter to take pics. Its just sad.

 

[Battlecorals]

Today you cant even sell a coral unless you know how to use a orange filter to take pics. Its just sad.

If I'm being honest, I'm not entirely sure how they get these pictures. I mean with an orange filter I don't know why their hands are still so blue.

I'm sure it's easy peasy stuff, but when I put an orange filter on my phone and shoot, my hand looks otherwise "normal". Nothing like the blue hands in these pictures above.

 

[Enderg60]

If I'm being honest, I'm not entirely sure how they get these pictures. I mean with an orange filter I don't know why their hands are still so blue.

I'm sure it's easy peasy stuff, but when I put an orange filter on my phone and shoot, my hand looks otherwise "normal". Nothing like the blue hands in these pictures above.

That is kind of my point. They were not using an orange filter and the pics look blued out and dumb (they have even been color edited pretty decently).

You use an orange filter so your "hands arnt blue". This actually proves my point. You are using intense blue lighting with a filter in order to get all the color florescence without the blue that goes with it. Meaning unless you run your tank super blue and wear orange glasses you will NEVER see those colors in your tank.

Those "blue hand" pics are more real than yours.....

I do appreciate you admitting it, even if you did shoot yourself in the foot.

 

[Battlecorals]

That is kind of my point. They were not using an orange filter and the pics look blued out and dumb (they have even been color edited pretty decently).

You use an orange filter so your "hands arnt blue". This actually proves my point. You are using intense blue lighting with a filter in order to get all the color florescence without the blue that goes with it. Meaning unless you run your tank super blue and wear orange glasses you will NEVER see those colors in your tank.

Those "blue hand" pics are more real than yours.....

I do appreciate you admitting it, even if you did shoot yourself in the foot.

nah man I went back to shooting colony shots under whites a while ago. The orange stuff never looked right to me.


further, this is what happens if I shoot under blue with out any corrective means. This looks nothing like the pics above. nor does it represent the coral in any way properly.

its a Monti setosa for reference

and one more point to this notion. "Meaning unless you run your tank super blue and wear orange glasses you will NEVER see those colors in your tank."

a lot of people now a days do run their tanks way blue in order to see those colors. in fact that really was the gist of this write up my man.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

That is kind of my point. They were not using an orange filter and the pics look blued out and dumb (they have even been color edited pretty decently).

You use an orange filter so your "hands arnt blue". This actually proves my point. You are using intense blue lighting with a filter in order to get all the color florescence without the blue that goes with it. Meaning unless you run your tank super blue and wear orange glasses you will NEVER see those colors in your tank.

Those "blue hand" pics are more real than yours.....

I do appreciate you admitting it, even if you did shoot yourself in the foot.

I wouldn’t agree with this statement. When I could see, Adam’s pictures and what they looked like in my tank were absolutely identical….. aside from a laser melon but it was stressed and brown and I’ll never know if it recovers now, but that’s life. My tank is relatively daylight during the day and only blue at night. I’m pretty sure the filter is only to achieve a more accurate visual representation as unfiltered pics usually aren’t what the eye perceives

 

[Mschmidt]

Hey wait when I started reefing there wasn’t the internet to get a baseline from. I had to use actual books that I checked out from the public library.

whats from the where?

 

[Gtinnel]

whats from the where?

It’s easy to spot a library, it’s the big building in the middle of your city that will look much older than all of the other building and you will never see anyone go in or out of it. If you come to the one in my city they won’t have books about saltwater fish because I checked the books out and then never returned them. I wonder what the late fee is on books that were checked out 25 years ago?

Ironically my city has been doing some huge project to upgrade the library building to make it modern…at the tax payers expense of course.