What Has Caused the Change in Reef Aquarium Aesthetics Over the Years?

[WallaceGrover]

I was flipping through "The Reef Aquarium (Volume 1)" by Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek and noticed how different the tanks back then looked compared to now. They looked much more naturalistic; it was the 90s so SPS were not nearly as prevalent, but the corals were not super saturated with neon greens, oranges, and so on. I imagine this was a combination of exotic color morphs not existing yet and technology limiting things. The look of metal halide lights also contributed, I'm sure, as opposed to the super-blue LEDs today.

I'm curious though, has the aesthetic of the hobby been a driving force behind this change as well?

If you're not sure what I'm talking about, this is Julian Sprung's same tank a decade or so apart that demonstrates the aesthetic change I'm talking about. [I realize lighting is playing a big part in perception, but surely that "old" style of lighting could be recreated today]

Julian Sprung's Tank Before

Julian Sprung's Tank After

 

[Miami Reef]

The first video looks mostly brown. I personally like the blue tanks these days. Who doesn’t like fluorescent corals?

I think we just became smarter with a better sense of aesthetics lol.

Ps, I’m just kidding in the last part.

 

[Lebowski_]

Julian Sprung has always been a real gem for this hobby.

Can't answer OP's question...when I got back in, my first thought was "eww, it's so blue now"...but over time, I have actually learned to really love the colour of my reef under LEDs. I don't think I want to go back to my 14k MH days.

 

[flagg37]

I think the early days were more focused on just keeping things alive and they didn’t have the capacity to be artistic. Back in the day, it was the cool thing to bleach the coral skeletons every few weeks to keep them white.

 

[encrustingacro]

The first video looks mostly brown. I personally like the blue tanks these days. Who doesn’t like fluorescent corals?

I think we just became smarter with a better sense of aesthetics lol.

Ps, I’m just kidding in the last part.

For some corals, such as fluorescent LPS that come from deeper waters, it would be appropriate to have bluer lighting to make the fluorescent colors come out. However, for SPS and shallower-water corals, I feel it isn’t as appropriate, as many non-fluorescent colors in those corals only come out in whiter light. Examples of this include the yellow in Porites, the highlighter pink found in most milleporas, blues and purples, etc. In addition to this, shallower-water corals are more adapted to whiter light.
I personally don’t like the look of windex-blue reef tanks, as it just doesn’t look natural. When diving on a reef, you usually don’t see a bunch of highlighter colors sticking out at you like in a reef tank; instead, depending on where you are, you would see many different shades of brown to orange, canary yellow, or cream with some highlights, or pastel-like colors like pink or yellow. To me, it looks better that way.

 

[WallaceGrover]

I personally don’t like the look of windex-blue reef tanks, as it just doesn’t look natural.

Windex-blue? That's a good way to put it!

Yeah, to me the day-glow looking coral tanks under blue light remind me of GloFish. They're neat in their own right but it looks so far removed from something meant to emulate a natural ecosystem (not that everyone's goal is to recreate one, and it's saltwater in a glass box so natural is a spectrum).

 

[Flatearth]

My LFS has a ton of coral, and if I get there early before they turn the reef lights on the corals look a lot more like the first video.


Personally not a fan of the totally blue light. Hurts my eyes to look at, and makes it hard to see the details of anything other than the glowing coral. My kenyan tree coral turns invisible under blue light, but is a nice pinkish color under white. I am sure there are other species like this that look best under white light.


The blue light is actually good for the coral though right? Even though I don't like it I have been using it more as per someone recommendation.

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Also, back in the 90’s there were no slider bars for colour or vibrancy.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Availability alone was terrible. I remember distinctly, stores full of softies and a few pieces of monti cap, maybe a bubble, or torch but really cristata. The only things that were super colorful were some of the mushrooms zoas, and trumpets. I'm sure there were.things available else where, but in the late 90's early 2k's, aqua dome was the only place I could find in Austin tx. They were way more worried about their fresh water stuff. Cichlids freshwater angels and discus. They had a tiny little dangerous loft with a few tanks of coral and fish. But they did have a lagoon under MH with a ray and some mangroves that was always nice.

 

[EZKLR]

that's his gorgonia tank and he was going for that natural look. He had other tanks back then that looked closer to tanks today. I don't remember too many corals in the early 90s fluorescing colors other than green. Def more color today but way more $$ too

 

[Reefing102]

I think much of it has to do with lighting…back then if you posted the blue pics of today your thread would get jumped with “way to photoshop” or “sure that’s what they look like for 1 hour with just your actinics on, now post it under white light”

I also think it was a husbandry thing. Back then many were trying to keep things alive and many of the OG SPS corals of yesterday were significantly more expensive as they were colors most people didn’t have or couldn’t get.

That said, I’m still old school in the preference of how I like a tank to look. I like white light. As mentioned blue washes out many natural colors and makes details hard to see.

To follow that up, if I saw Julian’s gorg tank today as a beginning hobbyist, I’d have no desire to get into reefing. Sure it’s cool looking but there’s no “wow” factor compared to colorful tanks. That said, with careful selection of livestock, I have a firm belief you can still get a very colorful tank without all the blues, just looking at some of the old TOTMs on RC, but I think some blue is necessary. I do enjoy that sunrise/sunset pop but not all day.

 

[c_ronius]

I think things have evolved into 2 separate aquarium types... I think of it as reef tanks vs coral display tanks.

I like a reef tank to resemble a real reef as best as possible, I feel that's the whole point. full colonies, whiter light sparkling about, water rushing around, real daylight colors and detail. No visible frag plugs, racks, or price tags. No need for every inch of the tank to have something growing. Negative space is natural to see, and the higher your water to life ratio is, the more stable things will be. I don't personally think a reef display should look like a store sales tank.

Then there are coral display tanks, which don't really look like a reef at all. full of manmade appearing rocks with perfect little holes for frag plugs. little glowing frags displayed on their little ceramic disks under the glowing light. It's a neat effect, but just screams "artificial" to me. More of an artistic display of corals than a reef tank, imho. Which I have no problem with, to each their own.

I like the glo-fish analogy earlier.... very similar idea. They seemed to get popular around the same time when LEDs came about and could really make things pop. Glo-fish are VERY popular, like coral display tanks.

With LED lighting today, and how we cultivate corals to glow under them, it really is a neat effect. I can see the appeal and why things have evolved this way. I personally still prefer to keep that effect restricted to dawn and dusk, as the real show for me is the natural look.

 

[Lebowski_]

I think things have evolved into 2 separate aquarium types... I think of it as reef tanks vs coral display tanks.

I like a reef tank to resemble a real reef as best as possible, I feel that's the whole point. full colonies, whiter light sparkling about, water rushing around, real daylight colors and detail. No visible frag plugs, racks, or price tags. No need for every inch of the tank to have something growing. Negative space is natural to see, and the higher your water to life ratio is, the more stable things will be. I don't personally think a reef display should look like a store sales tank.

Then there are coral display tanks, which don't really look like a reef at all. full of manmade appearing rocks with perfect little holes for frag plugs. little glowing frags displayed on their little ceramic disks under the glowing light. It's a neat effect, but just screams "artificial" to me. More of an artistic display of corals than a reef tank, imho. Which I have no problem with, to each their own.

I like the glo-fish analogy earlier.... very similar idea. They seemed to get popular around the same time when LEDs came about and could really make things pop. Glo-fish are VERY popular, like coral display tanks.

With LED lighting today, and how we cultivate corals to glow under them, it really is a neat effect. I can see the appeal and why things have evolved this way. I personally still prefer to keep that effect restricted to dawn and dusk, as the real show for me is the natural look.

If the corals are thriving and multiplying, why would it not be a reef tank?

Seems like we have some gatekeeping going on in here. Any tank that has thriving coral is a reef tank to me. Unless I'm mistaken, many of the non-SPS coral we keep actually do live deeper where the blues are more present.

I miss my MH's sometimes, but I don't miss the egregious power demand, not to mention the need for a chiller. My AI Prime's grow coral, and I could blast 4 of them on full for the same energy usage as one of my old pendants.

 

[doubleshot00]

My dads tank when I was a kid looked like Julian's first above.

Now my tank looks like his second.

Nothing wrong with newer and better looking aesthetics. I wouldn't have a tank like Julian's first unless I lived on the coast of FL and was trying to go for that look.

 

[kenchilada]

We had limited lighting options in the 80s and 90s. Still miss my Iwasaki 6500Ks that kept me warm in the winter though. Looked like snorkeling on the beach.

BUT… it was more common to see mature tanks packed with large colonies back then because soft corals were more popular and we had much better live rock. You kids now with your dry rock and windex LEDs... Pffft.

Then came the internet and the great DSB war that almost destroyed us all.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Back in the 80s there were brain corals of all sorts and torches, hammers, softies and even sps. They were not the little frags of today but large colonies. Most did not glow under the halides that is why people also had actinic tubes. I had a staghorn that went from the the brown color to purple under 6500k mh. The big thing is people had everything in the tank or hanging off the back of the tank. But all corals look better under today's leds even when set more white.