Old Salty's... Reefing before the internet

[Paul B]

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following! I'm curious to see what everyone says!

 

[Mark Goode]

I had a 4'x18"x18" in 1978. It had an UG filter powered by a pair of 'Whisper' air pumps, which were (and are still) the loudest air pumps I've ever heard. I cycled it with a couple of damsels (a humbug and a blue devil, if I remember correctly. We all did that in the olden days). It never finished cycling; my then wife hated it so much she made me take the whole lot back to the shop. At a considerable loss too.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Imagine having to learn your hobby by going to the library or trying to find a reef keeping book at your local bookstoreor the famous Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine? Before the internet, learning how to keep coral was mainly done by word-of-mouth that had been passed on from other Salt'ys through trial and error. Your local fish store was your internet.
Advances in the hobby have allowed us to keep and propagate species that were never thought possible back then. I read through forums like these and notice that quite a few new hobbyists seemed overwhelmed with the choices or cures for basic cycling. It's easy to get caught up with all of the gadgets and thousands of bottles of treatments/supplements. At times I want to chime in and say, be patient, take it slow, you don't need a reactor for this and that.
Anyway, I would like to hear from the Old Salty's with some bio ball and water spinner stories

We did have to go to the library and depend on books by Dr Burgess and axelrod and depend on advise from pet stores.

 

[reef_ranch]

I set up a 55g saltwater tank in 1974, my second year of high school. Undergravel filter, dolomite for substrate and bleached corals. I remember keeping a panther grouper, a lionfish and, yes, blue devils and dominos who survived by being mean and hiding in the coral skeletons. The tank stayed up until 1979, a year after I left for college at University of Miami where I set up a 20g tank with NSW to house a small octopus with developing eggs I collected in Biscayne Bay. Watching the babies emerge was amazing (I returned them all to the bay).
In 1981 Dupla was the rage with their bioball systems and grundfos pumps. All high end German gear. I got to play with all of it while helping to build a large aquarium store in Cambridge MA with thousands of gallons of displays -- fresh, rift lake cichlids and salt. What saddens me today is that the store would import crates of fresh coral and put them in 55g drums of bleach solution so it could sell snow white skeletons.

 

[fish farmer]

I set up a 55g saltwater tank in 1974, my second year of high school. Undergravel filter, dolomite for substrate and bleached corals. I remember keeping a panther grouper, a lionfish and, yes, blue devils and dominos who survived by being mean and hiding in the coral skeletons. The tank stayed up until 1979, a year after I left for college at University of Miami where I set up a 20g tank with NSW to house a small octopus with developing eggs I collected in Biscayne Bay. Watching the babies emerge was amazing (I returned them all to the bay).
In 1981 Dupla was the rage with their bioball systems and grundfos pumps. All high end German gear. I got to play with all of it while helping to build a large aquarium store in Cambridge MA with thousands of gallons of displays -- fresh, rift lake cichlids and salt. What saddens me today is that the store would import crates of fresh coral and put them in 55g drums of bleach solution so it could sell snow white skeletons.

Was the store called Boston Pet? or something along those lines.

I remember that store and Tropic Isle Aquarium in Framingham during the mid to late 1980's....my local walk to store was Debbie's Petland in Newtonville.

 

[Opus]

I actually was thinking about this a few days ago. I really miss the Julian Sprung articles.

I guess the hardest part for me is the pricing. Being around when you could buy an elegance coral that had an 18" skeleton for $100 or a maxima clam for under $20 just makes today's prices seem insane. It is like comparing the cost of my college education in the late 80's that has gone up over 500% at the same school. Just depressing. At least I'm not paying $300 for a 200meg hard drive now.

I did have a sub to FAMA and another one that was saltwater only. Out of all the advertisers in those mags back in the 90's, Premium Aquatics is one I would order from based on their ad prices and still use them today. I think all the others are long gone.

I also miss ordering live rock and it would be covered in life, including corals. I remember buying ricordia mushrooms rock and paying $6/lb and they would be covered in mushrooms.

 

[reef_ranch]

Was the store called Boston Pet? or something along those lines.

I remember that store and Tropic Isle Aquarium in Framingham during the mid to late 1980's....my local walk to store was Debbie's Petland in Newtonville.

Yes! Boston Pet. It was an ambitious store and did well for quite a while. I remember Tropic Isle as well.

 

[topjimmy]

Under gravel filters came before wet/dry

Jaubert Plenum

 

[topjimmy]

They worth anything? I got several years worth in my basement.

My wife finally made me throw mine away

 

[FUNGI]

Thats you @Paul B ?
Spent all my spare time at the 1990 NY Toy Fair reading this book at NY Public Library.....LOL...no after hours Toy Fair parties.....just this book....wanted to make sure I could do a UGF marine tank..........Much respect...

 

[PharmrJohn]

Imagine having to learn your hobby by going to the library or trying to find a reef keeping book at your local bookstoreor the famous Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine? Before the internet, learning how to keep coral was mainly done by word-of-mouth that had been passed on from other Salt'ys through trial and error. Your local fish store was your internet.
Advances in the hobby have allowed us to keep and propagate species that were never thought possible back then. I read through forums like these and notice that quite a few new hobbyists seemed overwhelmed with the choices or cures for basic cycling. It's easy to get caught up with all of the gadgets and thousands of bottles of treatments/supplements. At times I want to chime in and say, be patient, take it slow, you don't need a reactor for this and that.
Anyway, I would like to hear from the Old Salty's with some bio ball and water spinner stories

Back in 91 I started a 29g tank. No skimmer, just a HOB and a heater. That blue and green AWFUL sand replacement and zero live rock. The LFS told me to add 1" of fish per gallon. Right away. I should have gone to the Library. It failed spectacularly until enough fish died out to where equilibrium finally won out. Then it was good for about 3 years. I just did water changes (with tap water) and it seemed to do the trick. LOL, so many mistakes here!!!!

 

[PharmrJohn]

My wife finally made me throw mine away

What is it with wives making us throw away magazines we never read which just take up space? I mean, I'll eventually get to my Mad Magazines from the 70s and 80s!!!! ......OK, no.

 

[Paul B]

If my wife threw out my fish stuff, I would throw out her underwear.

 

[Nano_Man]

I remember buying marine magazines because that’s where I got some of my information because there wasn’t much out there for marine hobbyists.. But really it was trial and error and what worked for you and your tank .

 

[PharmrJohn]

This is interesting. Both the post and the attachments. As I've stated in other posts in different threads, I used to belong to 3Reef. A few days back I was reading my old posts and saw that I actually kept my DKH at between 15 to 18 (but i finally settled on 15 as the target). As I did not do any reading per se, I must have been advised to do this. Amazing how times have changed.

 

[GlassMunky]

Old salt from the late 80's.
I built skimmers, trickle filters with bio balls, and sumps.
I used industrial dosing pumps to top off the system.
I used WC's to maintain said systems.
Pendant style halides with actinics.
Lots of live rock was the key and still is, imo.
Check the recommended alk levels in pic 2, what!

15-18DKH!?!?!
Calcium 60-80

 

[GARRIGA]

In the 80s I recall reef tanks being live rock plus inverts and leathers. Don't recall hard corals until the 90s and my recollection might be a mirage self implanted because I think I did. Tried selling skimmers early to mid 2000s to local shops. Found only one carrying them and they had no clue what exactly they did but assumed based on being told they removed all junk. Berlin in my area wasn't known and I didn't find out about it until that particular store brought in a then big vendor of skimmers and ozone and later attracted a partner who ran the reef section comprised of 20 plus 75g tanks. Learned most of what I knew then from him although he was wrong about why not to use wet dries or canisters. Thinking those a nitrate factory but not live rock rather silly. Heck tank walls are nitrate factories along with anything else house nitrifying bacteria.

Luckily there were books and magazines. Been reading everything I could get my hands on about life in water regardless if ponds or seas since early 70s. Wasn't a need for forums and although forums are great they are also loaded with misinformation one needs to glean and extract facts from.

Know this much as it pertains to any knowledge. What was yesterday changed and what it is we think we know today will too. Best keep an open mind and question everything as new knowledge is acquired as that's the only way to advance. Perhaps tomorrow we will have solved those dreaded buckets and realize what life really needs is just being left alone vs chasing printed ideals and just accepting ranges and stability best methodology. Plus we can avoid all those paper towels to dry our hands

 

[Doctorgori]

FAMA, TFH
there was a thing called “Fishnet” back when BBS were the norm…
once the net came online in the late 80’s I moved over to alt.reef.org …. basically a unmoderated flamethrower

 

[Doctorgori]

They worth anything? I got several years worth in my basement.

I swear I read that issue …wow funny how you can remember a mag cover