14 years ago I set up my first reef tank.....

Agu

Agu

Premium Member
It was on Memorial Day 14 years ago I set up my first Reef tank. 55 gallon tank, Skilter protein skimmer, two normal output bulbs, and an Aquaclear 500 HOB filter. Stocked it with shrooms, leather, and too many fish (including some angelfish). My guide book was the "Marine Aquarist Comprehensive Manual" copyright 1991. Thought I was ahead of the curve because at the time protein skimmers were new and unproven technology. Cycling a tank was not a big part of the protocol (four pages of the book that I missed) so the tank was set up and stocked in three days.

I actually remember Labor Day weekend three months later more vividly. The water turned cloudy and everything crashed and burned :rolleyes:.

In retrospect I'm surprised I kept it going for three months.
 
I had a similar experience with my first SW tank in 91. Nothing but problems. I dont really remember that far back but I think it was up about 6 mo. before I broke it down and went back to african cichlids. I do remember trying to impress my fiancee (wife now) with my SW tank.
 
My first reef tank was in 1991 although I did saltwater fish well before that. I hate to think what I did not know then. But muddled my way through making all sorts of errors.
 
My first salt tank was in 1989/90, and consisted of a magnum cannister filter, undergravel filter, and tons of dead coral skeletons. Stocked it unwisely. In the end, the only survivors were a tomato clown and bicolor blenny. I remember noticing that the tank did "better" when I would neglect it. By neglect, I mean procrastinating on re-bleaching the coral skeletons that had become covered in algae. From there, I took interest in more natural methodologies.

First reef tank was in 1995.. 55 gallon with skilter, 4 normal output tubes, and wild Florida gulf live rock. That pre-ban rock was amazing. It was like you were literally buying a piece of reef. No need to buy corals. That tank actually thrived. I did water changes religiously, and kept the carbon replacement on schedule. The skilter probably acted only as an aeration device.
 
My first salt-water tank was in 1978.....we thought keeping a clown alive for a few months was a triumph! We used undergravel filters and live rock was unheard of. Still, that yellow-tailed damsel was my very favorite.
 
As a humorous aside, after the crash I realized that knowledge is power and decided I would never have a tank crash again. So I began searching for information. Started at the local libraries and LFSs but didn't find the information I was looking for.

I decided to search the internet. Found out about a place called "fish net". I did a search for "fishnet", the adult sites wouldn't stop popping up and I finally had to unplug the computer to stop the onslaught :headwalls:.

Finally found Aqualink, RDO, and the discussion forum at Premium Aquatics. Never had a tank crash since then ......
 
Hey Jeremy,

Have the Marineland Reef LED on a 10 gallon softies tank but I think it's too much light. The zoanthids are so/so but the derasa clam has doubled in size since November. Got the clam after getting the light from you.

I'm in the planning stages of a custom 22X22X14 cube that I'll build out of glass. You may be getting an order for another Marineland Reef Led. Looked at DIY but in the Nano world the cost/benefit analysis doesn't make it worthwhile to build a reef led light for a nano tank imo.

Don't know if you were around when the PA board was one of the few options for internet information ? It was pretty active and pretty crazy, good advice and lunatics on the same thread. Most of us could tell the difference but some people got scared off.
 
solitude127 said:
I wonder, 20yrs from now, what we'll say about our tanks back in 2011?
Click to expand...

From what I see here my suspicion is that current reef aquarists are changing the hobby dramatically. Fewer "boxes of rocks" with incompatible fish and coral, more progress making the hobby accessible to the neophyte, and more toys for the advanced/ high tech aquarist making reef husbandry even easier and more successful.

Also the supply of captive propagated corals/fish has exploded. I'm stocked with +90% captive propagated. When I started wild collected/caught were the norm. The idea of a zero/minimal ecological impact tank (as regards livestock) is within our reach as hobbyists.
 
can u give me a quick run threw on wat i need for a new 120lb tank salt water all i have is the tank and sand thats it please
 
LOL Fishnet got me into trouble too. That was way back when - when there was no single net - the time of Prodigy, AOL, MSN, Compuserve and a few others. I subscribed to them all Hahahaha. Well they were each $6 to $10/mo. and I wanted all the saltwater info I could get. They each had their own forums for it. That was back around 1988 or so.

First tank was a 75G long and it was stocked with 125 lbs of LR and pretty much any coral I could get my hands on. Had failure and success with it along the way. Being a DIY guy I always tried to make the better mousetrap and that sometimes got me into trouble. Battled every algae imaginable to the point I removed everything in the tank two or three times. The darn tank was in my living room. Wasn't a pretty picture.

But eventually I got it right. Learned how to build my own protein skimmers since at the time I couldn't afford a good store bought skimmer. Built pretty much everything including the sump, overflow and devised my own wet/dry filter. With mods from time to time, it was a pretty good setup. Lasted over 10 years, well it was eventually transferred into a 110G tall, but the equipment was all the same as was most of the livestock. Big mistake was moving to a new house and then only a short time later going on an extended vacation. Had a blackout during the time away and the tank went south really fast in 100 degree heat.

Just got back into the hobby after taking the tank down in 2001. Building stuff again too LOL

Agu said:
As a humorous aside, after the crash I realized that knowledge is power and decided I would never have a tank crash again. So I began searching for information. Started at the local libraries and LFSs but didn't find the information I was looking for.

I decided to search the internet. Found out about a place called "fish net". I did a search for "fishnet", the adult sites wouldn't stop popping up and I finally had to unplug the computer to stop the onslaught :headwalls:.

Finally found Aqualink, RDO, and the discussion forum at Premium Aquatics. Never had a tank crash since then ......
Click to expand...
 
I got started in the hobby around the same time (I think)
I had a 30L with a minireef conversion unit, four fluorescent bulbs (two actinic and two daylight), lots of live rock and lots of caulerpa. Does anyone remember the article by George Smit? about dutch mini reefs? Can't remember when it came out.
 
My first SW tank was a 29 gallon. I was 16 back in 1992. I found an add in a magazine to order LR from the FL Keys. It was a diving couple, and I had them ship me 50 lbs of LR freight to the Nashville airport. The best part was explaining to my dad why he needed to take me to pick up some rocks. This stuff was literally plucked from the ocean, wrapped in news paper and sent the next day. Needless to say, my bedroom smelled like a dead fish for almost 2 months! But after that intense die off and eventual cycle, my tank was steady as could be. I have some losses along the way, but ended having 5 fish that lived for over 7 years.

I had no real success with corals. If they lived for 6-8 months I was happy. My skilter worked hard for me, but my bio-wheel was what I thought was doing all the real work. hahaha...God, I had no idea.
 
I remember my Dad and I setting up our first SW tank back in the summer of 1977. It was a 10 gallon garage sale tank with the metal rims and seams. It had a corner box filter with filter floss driven by an air pump. Typical garishly colored freshwater gravel as a substrate, plastic plants and had a standard 25 watt incandescent bulb. It housed 10-12 dwarf seahorses which I remember Dad having to replace about as frequently as we changed the water. We'd mail order them from the Florida Keys and they'd just be shipped regular mail. It wasn't until much later I realized that the poor little guys were just starving to death as we were mostly feeding dry food with an occasional supplementation of brine shrimp...oops, I mean sea monkeys! When the poor little guys invariably did die, I'd put them out in the sun to dry out for a couple of weeks, paint them with clear nail polish and make jewelry for my mom. She was the one to finally put an end to that tank some time later. She had enough of that creepy jewelry!
 
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