Daniel92481
Valuable Member
Wow! Amazing! Welcome to R2R! 
Brandon Smith
AquaticArsenal.com
The Aquatic Arsenal
2500 Club Member
reef lover
It's a reef thing....
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Hudson Valley Reef Keepers
Hospitality Award
518 Reefers
My Tank Thread
Welcome to r2r!
New&no clue
2500 Club Member
- Joined
- May 11, 2019
- Messages
- 3,557
- Reaction score
- 12,225
Wow awesome story, thanks for sharing. I'll be looking for your build thread so I can follow along.
SPR1968
No, it wasn’t expensive dear....
Reef Squad
Reef Squad Leader
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
UK Reef Club Member
Hospitality Award
Beautiful tank and great detailed write up
And Welcome to R2R!!!
And Welcome to R2R!!!
Over to @Paul B
39 years reefing here and your story clicked with me. First skimmer a Sander air driven followed by a Tunze. T12 tubes followed by Wotan mercury vapour lights, then industrial HQI with 5400k lamps later 6000k. I was one of the first to have a DIY sump run by a Ehiem canister filter, turnover once every 3 hours. Calerpa in the DT later in the sump. The list goes on
Like you I did lots of DIY and converted my Sander air driven skimmer into a power skimmer using a Hagan powerhead. All the readily equipment makes people lazy.... some of them. They say necessity is the mother of invention, it certainly was back in the day. I couldn't wait for the newsagent to get in the next copy of FAMA. Professor Emmens, I corresponded with him but never met. I assume he has passed on now? Great times with many great discoveries by hobbyists.
Am 70 now the pic was taken around 30 years or so a go and was taken for Practical Fishkeeping Magazine in which I appeared in a few times.
39 years reefing here and your story clicked with me. First skimmer a Sander air driven followed by a Tunze. T12 tubes followed by Wotan mercury vapour lights, then industrial HQI with 5400k lamps later 6000k. I was one of the first to have a DIY sump run by a Ehiem canister filter, turnover once every 3 hours. Calerpa in the DT later in the sump. The list goes on
Like you I did lots of DIY and converted my Sander air driven skimmer into a power skimmer using a Hagan powerhead. All the readily equipment makes people lazy.... some of them. They say necessity is the mother of invention, it certainly was back in the day. I couldn't wait for the newsagent to get in the next copy of FAMA. Professor Emmens, I corresponded with him but never met. I assume he has passed on now? Great times with many great discoveries by hobbyists.
Am 70 now the pic was taken around 30 years or so a go and was taken for Practical Fishkeeping Magazine in which I appeared in a few times.
OP
OP
Osler
Community Member
@atoll
Nice shot from Practical Fishkeeping!! I truly miss print media. Thanks for the kind words. I am constantly amazed by how much this hobby has evolved since I first started in it. Lighting solutions alone nowadays can be overwhelming. I also had the smaller Sanders air-driven skimmer. Just suction cup that baby to the inside of the display tank and plug in your air pump. Talk about tea colored skimmate but it was cool because it was the first time you ever used a skimmer and it was actually pulling gunk out of the tank (microbubbles in the display be danged).
Nice shot from Practical Fishkeeping!! I truly miss print media. Thanks for the kind words. I am constantly amazed by how much this hobby has evolved since I first started in it. Lighting solutions alone nowadays can be overwhelming. I also had the smaller Sanders air-driven skimmer. Just suction cup that baby to the inside of the display tank and plug in your air pump. Talk about tea colored skimmate but it was cool because it was the first time you ever used a skimmer and it was actually pulling gunk out of the tank (microbubbles in the display be danged).
@Osler
I recall reading something early days by a writer saying that these new fangled protein skimmers were useless bits of junk and wouldn't work.
We were also told by some of the "experts" of the day if you made your own food from fresh seafood ingredients without being gamma irradiated all our fish would succumb to disease they had no resistance to and all out fish would be wiped out.
Back in the day lighting was a major issue for us. My first commercial HQI lamp cost me £300 that would be around 28 years ago. My only regret is I never thought to take photos of my tanks and systems like Paul B has.
We did make lots of discoveries esp with the animals we kept and in doing so kept proving those "experts" wrong as in you can't keep most of the fish we do in pairs or groups as they would fight to the death. I had a few friends into reefkeeping and together we dispelled many of the myths in the hobby mainly through trail and error, never afraid to experiment. Very much pioneering days.
I recall reading something early days by a writer saying that these new fangled protein skimmers were useless bits of junk and wouldn't work.
We were also told by some of the "experts" of the day if you made your own food from fresh seafood ingredients without being gamma irradiated all our fish would succumb to disease they had no resistance to and all out fish would be wiped out.
Back in the day lighting was a major issue for us. My first commercial HQI lamp cost me £300 that would be around 28 years ago. My only regret is I never thought to take photos of my tanks and systems like Paul B has.
We did make lots of discoveries esp with the animals we kept and in doing so kept proving those "experts" wrong as in you can't keep most of the fish we do in pairs or groups as they would fight to the death. I had a few friends into reefkeeping and together we dispelled many of the myths in the hobby mainly through trail and error, never afraid to experiment. Very much pioneering days.
Similar threads
