What a great interview!! Steve and his Oregonreef has been the biggest inspiration to me in this hobby, this man is a true master. I can’t wait until he starts sharing pictures and videos from his new setup, so excited to see it. Another masterpiece I’m sure. 😀
I just want to say great video. Thank god we all have the availability to still allow ourselves to determine what is art work from what is considered natural. We all have our own opinions on what is natural to what is more synthetic creation. It’s all a learning curve. If we all had only a certain way of aquascaping this hobby wouldn’t survive. The eye and the mind to create there own wonderland of beautiful corals and the addition of fish and crustaceans and so on is what keeps the unmindful, mindful in my opinion. We all learn from one tank to another. Either it be equipment or not or what elements to add or not, to the chemistry of water. Aquascaping comes with challenges too , like flow and the determination of lighting when it comes to depths. How high should your aquascaping go to before you add frags. The corals can easily grow to a point where the water line was to close for proper growth. Lot’s of questions. Yet many answers.🤔 As long as the one person who cares for these animals know of how to care for them. I believe that is the goal we all thrive for. Keeping our animals alive… Great video on one’s personality of the how to do it right when it comes to aquascaping . Just like I believe. This hobby is just one big experiment on the how too’s in my opinion. Peace✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼
“Rocks glued together to look like balloon animals” 😂. Love it. So accurate. Those rock trees today look awful and so unnatural. It’s like nobody today went through the developmental phase of looking through google images of real ocean coral reefs. Every aspect of the hobby is so artificial now
I'm the same way. I've been reefing since early 1990s with the old methanol dosing Nitrate reactor with the rainbird sprinkler controller. I'm the same way all this automation and relying on probes and controllers especially for perameters is giving people a false sense of security and once the problem sets in it's already too late and many sps corals won't show the damages from an issue until two weeks later. I daily use my Hanna testers and if I see any irregularities I use the red sea kits to cross-reference the results. I'm with Steve on this. I'm old school and still use a wet dry with filter floss tray and made my own cheato reactor. We use what we learned years ago and apply them today with the available equipment. I believe today's equipment takes away the intamcy with our tanks and close connections we have on staying in tune with them. That's my two cents.....
This was a great conversation. I have been in the hobby for a long time and remember when I first saw Steve's tank in a magazine. I remember thinking how is this even possible. There was no RU-vid then. In that article there was like 6 or 8 pictures that we had to stare at for months. Lol
Talking about the dynamic of coral growth patterns - My favorite coral in my tank is montipora spongodes- not because of its color or anything. But because of how it’s grown out and formed multiple layers through a little valley and is now a home for both a green clown goby and chromis, and provides a nice overhang for the yellow tang to hide under and feel secure. It’s also the most hated because I have to break chunks off so often 😂
Awesome interview. I was a huge fan of his system back in the days, my style of aquascaping has been heavily inspired by Steve. You did an amazing job of articulating what I have been thinking as well after coming back into the hobby after an 7-8 year break. With that said I don't agree w/the equipment discussion imop you have to delineate what makes a good shot-term conversation in a forum to keep a thread going when you are discussing a hobby where things don't happen monthly let alone daily. Automation & monitoring has been a game-changer for me. I can have the same person who is watching my pups with no reef experience take care of my tank when I have to travel. The stability is unparalleled to what I was able to achieve in the past even with daily testing and water volumes up to 1000 gallons. Real-time testing, automated adjustments based on said testing; I'd be hard-pressed to go back. Not to mention my tank costs are down to 40-60 a month (with higher electrical rates) less then 1/4 of prior monthly costs. What took me 3 years to get to (when it comes to my old TOTM I'm nearly there in 1.5 years starting from tiny (modern) frags and able to do so with a true mixed reef vs the previous colonies we had access to before. Old school husbandry + modern equipment has given me a newfound love for the hobby.
Great Interview. Have always been a fan of Steve's systems. They are phenomenal and all the requirements he applies does make a truly piece of aquatic art. I will try to apply that to my re-scape of my 120g this year.
Great interview - interesting perspective - a bit too full on for me to be like that with my tanks - I really want to enjoy mine but i am more at his end of the spectrum than 90% of reefers
I feel like I need to say "Sorry, I was wrong" and change my answer. Putting in the attention to detail that Mr Weast does is something that seems WAY too much for me. But the hobby is MUCH better with the few rare tanks like his in it and everyone should aspire to have something at that level. In thinking about it Mr Weast demonstrates that developing a reefing philosophy is really important and then set out to achieve that to a high level.
This was such an interesting listen and reflection on where the hobby is today. Really looking forward to seeing more of Steve’s aquariums - hope he never sees my tank and the scolys and Acanthophylia I have on my sand bed! Haha
Hey now I actually have plans to put a ceramic model of Stonehenge in my refugium when I get around to upgrading to a bigger tank. I do agree that it wouldn't look very good in the display tank though lol
Crazy....Steve's tank was/is the ultimate reef tank. I really want to see what he can do with a 400 gallon tank. As far as the funky balloon animal rock structures, the first I remember that everyone wanted to emulate was chingchai's tank. The deal is, his tank was 4 feet deep.
The interview was good, listening to all perspectives is healthy. I wonder if in another 10 years they will look back on this conversation and still feel the same about tech and aquascapes.
Prior to that I had a smaller tank. It was 500 gallons…. 🤣 Great interview. I agree with a whole lot of the things the both of you talk about. Very entertaining with a bit of humor thrown in. Much success to you both. Can’t freakin wait to see what is going on with that tiny 400 Jake. 😂 Just want too add to that overfeeding comment. Once you get some coral in your tank how do you get to that point? You guys wouldn’t BELIEVE how much food I’m pumping into my two tanks. That being said I just dumped in more liquid Nitrate and Phosphate as a week after doing so they are both at 0 again. Never thought I would see the day I am physically adding Nitrate and Phosphate. I run my skimmer for a few hours a day. It is just too much. Same with all my filtration. It is too much. Corals are my filters now obviously.
I just want corals that I love the look of and that are cheap enough for my wallet XD I'm definitely more into the enjoyment than the fragging. EDIT: Could someone please direct me to the address to see this tank? I know it was mentioned, but I couldn't find it again.
This hobby has regressed big time! By the way... the term hobby should be better defined or changed at once IMO! We are dealing with organisms, not stamps! Anyways, the people today are following what the market tells them to do, how to behave. The consumers are like guinea pigs to test equipment. The progress of the hobby should be related to advances in coral and fish captive husbandry/ management and to improve their health and reproduction as the main focus. Instead, progress have been directly related to the number of dollar$ and the so called "new technology", using instruments and market strategies with propaganda as the main focus. Corals are more like objects of pride instead of pieces for the living art of a real reef system. The whole thing had lost it's primary essence. It's another world all together. We just have to let it go, I guess. It's important to be aware of the facts though and teach it's principles when we can.
