Struck me while answering another question that reefs have gotten mega-expensive, and I thought I'd describe the situation we had in the 80's, just to let people know there are other ways of doing this that may save a few bucks...where would I put the bucks saved? Definitely on the biggest meanest skimmer you can afford.
First, we started with water from the lfs, which was ro/di. Salt, bucket, mix, check. Sump: pretty big sump, with bioballs [don't try this at home: the bioballs proved a PITA and a nitrate problem.]
We started with [sob] crushed coral: don't do this. Aragonite is so much better.
We laid down a structure of old dead rock we picked out of bins at the lfs. Today we call it base rock.
In went the rock, then the sand, then the water, check, just like today. And we added a cup of sand from a good live reef.
Best lights anybody but Onassis could afford were highpowered fluorescents and actinics. We kept buttons, mushrooms, nems [not bta's], and the occasional tolerant stony like frogspawn. But not yet---
After the water warmed up, we added a pinch of dead shrimp, uncooked, and ran everything full bore, on timer for the lights. About a week later we started testing. About 6-8 weeks later, we had a tank with bacterial life, and started adding fish. After that spike died down, we tried a few inverts. {MUCH better the way we do it now, inverts first, and massing 3x as much as any fish ever to be added.]
As the tank aged and life and coralline spread across the rocks, the sand would collect crud [being cc]. We'd stir up about a third of it [mind, we had no skimmers] and use a diatom [1 micron] filter to get the crud out of the water. We didn't do water changes nearly as often: this led to trouble. Big trouble. And we ran with sealed systems, no evap to speak of, except the big air space between the sump and the tank: that was open. But that caused a LOT of problems, ditto the lack of frequent water changes. We just topped off [once a week in a big system] with fresh ro/di.
No skimmer. Just filter pads where the water ran through. My 100g had 3 pads, in a row, and you changed 1 a week.
I do not miss this system in the least. But it was a lot cheaper to set up than my 52g with the modern systems and mh. And it had some compromises that did save money. There's absolutely no reason not to start with base rock, for instance; it just costs you more time. The other downside is that you miss some of the species of invert life that arrive with the live rock, but one good piece of live rock can afford you that boon, too.
Just an FYI, this post. We get a lot of questions about "how pricey do you need to be?" and this holds a few warnings, a few ways to save a buck, and I reiterate my opening statement: a really big skimmer is a really big help.
Anyone else remember this era?
First, we started with water from the lfs, which was ro/di. Salt, bucket, mix, check. Sump: pretty big sump, with bioballs [don't try this at home: the bioballs proved a PITA and a nitrate problem.]
We started with [sob] crushed coral: don't do this. Aragonite is so much better.
We laid down a structure of old dead rock we picked out of bins at the lfs. Today we call it base rock.
In went the rock, then the sand, then the water, check, just like today. And we added a cup of sand from a good live reef.
Best lights anybody but Onassis could afford were highpowered fluorescents and actinics. We kept buttons, mushrooms, nems [not bta's], and the occasional tolerant stony like frogspawn. But not yet---
After the water warmed up, we added a pinch of dead shrimp, uncooked, and ran everything full bore, on timer for the lights. About a week later we started testing. About 6-8 weeks later, we had a tank with bacterial life, and started adding fish. After that spike died down, we tried a few inverts. {MUCH better the way we do it now, inverts first, and massing 3x as much as any fish ever to be added.]
As the tank aged and life and coralline spread across the rocks, the sand would collect crud [being cc]. We'd stir up about a third of it [mind, we had no skimmers] and use a diatom [1 micron] filter to get the crud out of the water. We didn't do water changes nearly as often: this led to trouble. Big trouble. And we ran with sealed systems, no evap to speak of, except the big air space between the sump and the tank: that was open. But that caused a LOT of problems, ditto the lack of frequent water changes. We just topped off [once a week in a big system] with fresh ro/di.
No skimmer. Just filter pads where the water ran through. My 100g had 3 pads, in a row, and you changed 1 a week.
I do not miss this system in the least. But it was a lot cheaper to set up than my 52g with the modern systems and mh. And it had some compromises that did save money. There's absolutely no reason not to start with base rock, for instance; it just costs you more time. The other downside is that you miss some of the species of invert life that arrive with the live rock, but one good piece of live rock can afford you that boon, too.
Just an FYI, this post. We get a lot of questions about "how pricey do you need to be?" and this holds a few warnings, a few ways to save a buck, and I reiterate my opening statement: a really big skimmer is a really big help.
Anyone else remember this era?
