Early Reefers 1990’s to Early 2000’s

[Panky]

Did reefers in the Early days of modern Reef aquarium’s deal with Dino’s and/or Cyano? If so, what did they do to remedy the issue?

Asking this question because I think Metal Halides were eliminating a lot of the common reef ugly problems. I’m wondering if the producers of UV sterilizers, understood that UV-B was missing from current LED’s. Given that UV-B LED’s are pretty much nonexistent. I started to wonder about this dating back to my days of working in healthcare IT. We used to have UV-C robots that would go in and sterilize rooms when patients left.

 

[Lou48314]

Did reefers in the Early days of modern Reef aquarium’s deal with Dino’s and/or Cyano? If so, what did they do to remedy the issue?

Asking this question because I think Metal Halides were eliminating a lot of the common reef ugly problems. I’m wondering if the producers of UV sterilizers, understood that UV-B was missing from current LED’s. Given that UV-B LED’s are pretty much nonexistent. I started to wonder about this dating back to my days of working in healthcare IT. We used to have UV-C robots that would go in and sterilize rooms when patients left.

Never had dino issues back in 88 when I started my first saltwater tank.
Back then you had predominantly FOWLR tanks with some corals. Zoas weren't popular.
Cyano was always a threat and the LFS used to rent out their water polisher to strip the nutrients from the water.
I bought my first sump kit back in 1990. It fit into a 10-20 gallon aquarium. I really didn't have a real reef tank until then.
The only real salt we had was Instant Ocean. Nothing fancy back then. You chased zeros all the time too.

 

[FlyinAg]

Started in mid-2000s. Cyano, bubble and hair algae, yes. Never saw dinos I could think of. All started with live rock either cured at LFS or from an online vendor (maybe GARF or TBS?). I dunno, I did the clean rock/bac in a bottle thing this time and kinda wish I went with real live rock (price was a factor though). I enjoyed all the hitch hikers and thankfully didn't have much in terms of pests. Maybe that would have changed my perspective. It was nice to have coraline, pods of all types, and other filter feeders all ready to go and eat/compete with the uglies.

 

[MtnDewMan]

Cyano and Dinos always were a threat when setting up. Natural live rock was a huge benefit. Back in the day, local fish stores actually cured it and would only sell rock that was nice and cycled. Getting it local nearby and putting in the tank right away created only a mini cycle in the tank. A huge benefit over this fake reef rock you get these days.

Tank of the Month - October 2002 - Reefkeeping Online Magazine

reefkeeping.com

 

[Driftdiver]

I’m dating myself a bit, but I remember having occasional cyano breakouts and green mat algae blooms in my 65 show and 55 in the early 90s. They were rare and usually the reason for the appearance went undetermined. Back then I would siphon up as much of the offending breakout as possible, redirect extra flow to the area and increase water exchange plus extra carbon.

My 65 was running a Magnum 300 plus a wet dry with VHOs. There were several 802 power heads for additional flow. The tank had approx 3” of dolomite/crushed coral and originally had a reverse flow under gravel filter. The 55 was a pair of HOB Biowheel 300s (I think that was the original model #), coupled with an oversized wet dry (DFS rolls with an “innovative drip plate” instead of the spray bar.) and a protein skimmer. Lights were VHOs on Ice Cap 660s plus Hagen 802 power heads for flow. I ran that mostly bare bottom.

Back then I used to direct order boxes of live rock directly from Tonga. It was all fresh collected the day after you ordered and came in loaded with micro and macro fauna. I truly miss real live rock and high quality suppliers. (The back of the hobbyist magazines used to include extensive advertisements from various companies and businesses.)

Thinking of my more recent setups, I don’t think there is that much of an increase in breakouts, so I cannot say if the differences really amount to anything. I think it mostly depends on the hobbyist maintenance schedules plus bio load.

 

[USCfan]

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php

Here an article from reefkeeping from the 2000s.

Been reefing since 2000's and its always been around. Also my tank was also started with real live rocks and it came with tons of live critters and macro algae.

Don't buy into the new marketing hype on LED "UV". People pushing this stuff are trying to market a product. MH even have shields on them to blocked that UV.

Marketers are what ruined skimmers. Now we have a small selection of skimmers types compared to 2000s. All the manufacturers chased the short contact time cone foam cannons and most of those that didn't are no longer around.

I have run PC, t5s, MH and now philips coral care 2.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Started in mid-2000s. Cyano, bubble and hair algae, yes. Never saw dinos I could think of. All started with live rock either cured at LFS or from an online vendor (maybe GARF or TBS?). I dunno, I did the clean rock/bac in a bottle thing this time and kinda wish I went with real live rock (price was a factor though). I enjoyed all the hitch hikers and thankfully didn't have much in terms of pests. Maybe that would have changed my perspective. It was nice to have coraline, pods of all types, and other filter feeders all ready to go and eat/compete with the uglies.

I researched GARF for many years.. I love their tanks with no refugium or overflow, just start with undergravel filters, adjust accordingly, add CUC etc...and their tanks seemed to be awesome!

Are they still around?? They had a surefire Bullet Proof Reef System that basically ran on its own with no Sump, Skimmer or Refugium!!

 

[Nano sapiens]

Started a nano reef back in 1985 with some of the first real from the reef live rock (air-shipped, no less) from somewhere in the Atlantic. In the following years had the typical ugly phases upon startup, but that cleared up and cyano mats would only happen if I got too lackadaisical about cleaning the system. Never had dinos.

Back then we were very concerned with 'balance' animal-wise, with typically a much smaller fish-to-coral ratio than is often seen today. The idea was to create more of a reef similar ecosystem with as much biodiversity as possible vs. a tank full of corals and not much else.

Didn't care about P and N, just topped off with straight Kalkwasser to replace evaporation (worked because of covered tanks minimizing evap) and maybe a 5-10% WC every month or three (depending on mood). It was a simpler time

 

[FlyinAg]

Garf's website is still up but they are no longer doing business.

Funny that as much as things have changed, there are still people arguing over how to cycle, lights, nutrients, etc lol! One thing is for sure, there are so many variables (more now I'd argue given the numerous techniques, products and equipment types) that it is hard to say what makes things worse or better. How much does one solution cause another problem? How many problems are self imposed? Are we just playing an expensive game of whack a mole? After all the 'progess' and 'advancement' away from real live rock, garf grunge, real sand, and all the 'pests' they bring, have all problems been solved? Nope! Some are new, some are gone, and some are the same!

I guess if it was too easy it wouldn't be a challenging, rewarding and fun hobby.

 

[mfinn]

Started early 80's and I remember mild cyno, but we used so much rock back then flow was a issue.
Maybe I just remember the good times and not the struggles.

 

[FlyinAg]

Ah yes, the pile of rocks aquascape!

I was looking through some of my old pictures today... Wow I had so many critters growing and crawling on my love rock lol!