Who are the SPS Veterans?
- Thread starter invincible569
- Start date
TheReefKeeper
Aquaholic
These are the only surviving pictures from over 10 years ago I have and my story.
This was my 300gal in the year 2000 total SPS addict over 12 years.
Most of the large colonies came from Walt Smith Via Dr Mac's connections when we could import colonies for 80.00 each the size of basketballs. See the far Left and Back Center? 2 efflo's (Center efflo. almost 10" cup shaped wild caught) when it was popular and no one could find them. I was selling them to local Boston Reefers club members out of my basement. I ended up finding out Dr. Mac had ties to my town and became friends as he came to my home run store and payed a visit. No many people where passionated about it like us at that time he was actually still in his basement in Rubber made tubs too. My store was called of course TheReefKeeper even had the website LOL (someone else has been running that site for years since I walked away) Some issues and a new home purchases I was kinda forced to get out for a few years. Marc (Marco Rock) actually bought most of my stuff when I dumped it all. He stared Marco Rock soon after I quit (This 300 gal in the picture was one of 3 300 gal he bought from me to start MarcoRock) we where also pretty good friends I used to go to his house before he was even Marco Rock LOL.
I started in "98" and by 2000 had this 300 gal a 180 gal and 500Gal in sumps a 90 gal Frag tank and a bunch of smaller breeders. Yep over 1,100 gal. back in 2000 mostly SPS dominate with over 200 frags in my 90 gal (our smallest tank) I was a full blown propagator since Dr.Mac was rubbing off on me and importing was becoming less and less popular. I found nothing weird about being in my basement since Mac was doing it in his basement too LOL.
Brains the size of basketballs in the early stages of setting up the 300gal this tank ended up chocked full LOL. Year 2000
Really big wild colonies
A Smaller SPS tank years later
A Propagation table I built out of wood back in 2001 the more I got to know Dr Mac the more and more I like the idea of propagation this was the same time he was building his facility (Trying to keep up with LMAO)
The older I get the smaller systems I get LOl I notice if your an old timer in and out of the hobby this happens unless of course you still have your original tank. I am setting up another tank after my 4th home purchase and swear this is the last tank I will ever set up (YA RIGHT LMAO). I have learnt a lot know what works and doesn't with SPS and by now keep it as simple as possible and ignore all of the nicely advertised snake oils and such and just do it the way I have been since 2000 just with better equipment.
This was my 300gal in the year 2000 total SPS addict over 12 years.
Most of the large colonies came from Walt Smith Via Dr Mac's connections when we could import colonies for 80.00 each the size of basketballs. See the far Left and Back Center? 2 efflo's (Center efflo. almost 10" cup shaped wild caught) when it was popular and no one could find them. I was selling them to local Boston Reefers club members out of my basement. I ended up finding out Dr. Mac had ties to my town and became friends as he came to my home run store and payed a visit. No many people where passionated about it like us at that time he was actually still in his basement in Rubber made tubs too. My store was called of course TheReefKeeper even had the website LOL (someone else has been running that site for years since I walked away) Some issues and a new home purchases I was kinda forced to get out for a few years. Marc (Marco Rock) actually bought most of my stuff when I dumped it all. He stared Marco Rock soon after I quit (This 300 gal in the picture was one of 3 300 gal he bought from me to start MarcoRock) we where also pretty good friends I used to go to his house before he was even Marco Rock LOL.
I started in "98" and by 2000 had this 300 gal a 180 gal and 500Gal in sumps a 90 gal Frag tank and a bunch of smaller breeders. Yep over 1,100 gal. back in 2000 mostly SPS dominate with over 200 frags in my 90 gal (our smallest tank) I was a full blown propagator since Dr.Mac was rubbing off on me and importing was becoming less and less popular. I found nothing weird about being in my basement since Mac was doing it in his basement too LOL.
Brains the size of basketballs in the early stages of setting up the 300gal this tank ended up chocked full LOL. Year 2000
Really big wild colonies
A Smaller SPS tank years later
A Propagation table I built out of wood back in 2001 the more I got to know Dr Mac the more and more I like the idea of propagation this was the same time he was building his facility (Trying to keep up with LMAO)
The older I get the smaller systems I get LOl I notice if your an old timer in and out of the hobby this happens unless of course you still have your original tank. I am setting up another tank after my 4th home purchase and swear this is the last tank I will ever set up (YA RIGHT LMAO). I have learnt a lot know what works and doesn't with SPS and by now keep it as simple as possible and ignore all of the nicely advertised snake oils and such and just do it the way I have been since 2000 just with better equipment.
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Nano sapiens
New member
This is funny as it perfectly describes the situation. I've been at reef tanks since around 1985 (had to build my own system from what I could get out of a translated German mag article). Had a 50g for about 15 years and finally sold it around 5 years ago. I'm now content with a little 12g nano 'mixed reef' (~ 1/3 SPS) that's literally as simple as it gets and still be able to properly care for coral (no media, no skimmer, no mech filtration...). Only sup I still use is a few drops/wk Iodine (old habit, hard to break
).Unfortunately, I've noticed a lot of frustration with complex equipment, overdosed supplements, maintaining stability, out-of-control costs, etc. on these boards. The reefers who stay in the hobby tend to be those who have a thorough understanding of what the animals need and the simplest, most reliable way to provide for it.
Wow, just saw how old this thread is. I'll let Albert T. know about it.
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alberthiel
New member
This is funny as it perfectly describes the situation. I've been at reef tanks since around 1985 (had to build my own system from what I could get out of a translated German mag article). Had a 50g for about 15 years and finally sold it around 5 years ago. I'm now content with a little 12g nano 'mixed reef' (~ 1/3 SPS) that's literally as simple as it gets and still be able to properly care for coral (no media, no skimmer, no mech filtration...). Only sup I still use is a few drops/wk Iodine (old habit, hard to break
Unfortunately, I've noticed a lot of frustration with complex equipment, overdosed supplements, maintaining stability, out-of-control costs, etc. on these boards. The reefers who stay in the hobby tend to be those who have a thorough understanding of what the animals need and the simplest, most reliable way to provide for it.
Wow, just saw how old this thread is. I'll let Albert T. know about it.
Thanks Nano Sapiens for passing the link on, and Yes, you are right indeed, when once goes back to the late 70's or early to mid 80's, it seems like we were all keeping much larger tanks, and had very little info to go by as not much had been happening in this country that had been published and was widely available, but there were indeed quite a few German articles around (that is of course if you could understand them, or as Nano Sapiens said have them translated).
Myself, I got into the hobby in Belgium in the early early 70's on the FW side, but moved into SW shortly thereafter and had access to the German lit. and understand German, so that was helpful, and did change the way I was keeping tanks, but then it was for the most part fish and maybe some anemones, and some corals that were available and were all wild caught of course, and usually did not survive for very long ( a few months at first and then longer as we got better at managing the water chemistry and used better filtration methods).
Gee what memories this all brings back, and all those names in this thread many of whom I knew and met, but have not seen or spoken to for many many years now, except for a few many (Bill Boomer Wing being one of them)
But the big issue in those days, as I think Paul B. pointed out, was that the equipment we had, including tanks, were what I would call "somewhat primitive" ... and that did not change much until the mid 80's when more advanced and better tanks and equipment came around (and as some may remember when I imported a lot of it from Germany from Dupla Gmbh and also fabricated some here in the US, including controllers for pH and ORP and reactors for calcium combined with CO2 injection, Metal Halides, etc. etc. and then I wrote my first book "The Marine Fish and Invert Reef Aquarium, followed by another 5 of them and the Newsletter Marine Reef ... wow that is now all 30 or so years ago when it started ... yes 30 .. long time indeed ).
I can't quite pinpoint when hobbyists started moving to smaller tanks but there were some in the early 90's although we did not call them Nano Reefs in those days (remember my book "Small Reef Aquarium Basics"), so it must have been somewhere around the early 90's I guess.
Of course nowadays far more of us keep much smaller tanks and run them with more natural systems with less equipment, although I seem to notice a resurgence of controllers and some other forms of automation, and of course LED lighting and newer techniques like carbon dosing, and DSB's coming back in some cases, and who knows one of these days we may get back into UGF's like Paul is still doing !
Anyway nice of Nano Sapiens to have send me a link to this thread so I could reminisce about the old days ... and what we were doing then versus what we are doing now.
And if you are not aware of it yet, I am in the midst of writing a new book (#7) on Nano Reef, which describes amongst a lot of other things the current methods that are being used, including lighting, filtration, etc ... and has sections on fishes and other life forms for the Nano Reef, and much more.
Nano Reef Aquariums should be out in late December as I am about half way through writing it. I'll post a list of most of the topics it includes in another messages ... Thanks for reading my long rant ...
Albert
alberthiel
New member
Great looking tank indeed. Pity you had to let it go. And yes in those days we could, if we had the right connections, get for peanuts or just about what we now have to pay tons of money for, that is if we can get a whole colony still as that seems to become more and more difficult and all we find most of the time are real small frags and for about the price of what we paid for 10 times the size of what we now get.
Lots of changes indeed, and of course the other issue nowadays is the far more frequent problem with "AEFW" infestations that I don't recall having had to deal with many many years ago.
Thanks for the post. Love that tank ! Great growth in there of so many different SPS and other corals that I don't really see any more or very infrequently as the majority of tanks no longer seem to have those kind of results ... and that was when far less was known about SPS's which makes it even more interesting and something to be really proud of.
Great tank!
Albert
alberthiel
New member
+1 indeed ...
Paul B
Premium Member
The hobby started in the US in 1971, In New York at least, I don't know what the rest of the country was doing but Aquarium Stock Company which was a huge store near the Trade Center in Manhattan had blue devils then. Of course I bought the first ones.
There was absolutely no equipment built for salt water, nothing. Not even salt. No copper, medications, or anything else. Lights were aluminum and were mostly incandescent bulbs, soon after flourescents were available but they were still made for fresh water. You had to turn them on with a stick because the salt creep would allow the current to pass through the frame and thus, you.
Powerheads were also aluminum and not submersible. Not on purpose anyway, so imagine having an aluminum device of 110 volt electrical equipment 1/2" from the surface of your salt water aquarium. Remember GFCI's were not invented for 15 or so more years. Shocks were a way of life, maybe thats why I became an electrician, I was so used to it. To do any work on the tank or God forbid, put a net in there, everything had to be un plugged.
Before powerheads we used airpumps and they were all piston operated. The piston was made of leather, real hi tech, and it had to be oiled every few days. The oil would make it's way into the tank and make a nice oil slick and it smelled. Those pumps would overheat and the paint would melt off of them, if you were lucky, you didn't burn your house down. I always installed a fan on the motor shaft which allowed it to run a little cooler. They were noisy and had to be placed away from people or the noise would drive you crazy.
Heaters were also not submersible and hung on the side of the tank. Salt creep would eventually also cause them to shock you.
UG filters was all there was, there was no other choice, and HOB filters were also the thing of the day and we filled them with nylon floss.
With all the issues with equipment it is a wonder we had any time to feed the fish. We fed them fresh water Tetra Min as that was about all there was.
By the way, fish food in the fiftees was made out of dried ants and turtle food was dried beatles. I know because I have had a fish tank every day of my life from about 1952 or so.
You have no idea how easy all of this is now compared to the dark ages.
Albert knows because we are both, lets say "mature". :wavehand:
There was absolutely no equipment built for salt water, nothing. Not even salt. No copper, medications, or anything else. Lights were aluminum and were mostly incandescent bulbs, soon after flourescents were available but they were still made for fresh water. You had to turn them on with a stick because the salt creep would allow the current to pass through the frame and thus, you.
Powerheads were also aluminum and not submersible. Not on purpose anyway, so imagine having an aluminum device of 110 volt electrical equipment 1/2" from the surface of your salt water aquarium. Remember GFCI's were not invented for 15 or so more years. Shocks were a way of life, maybe thats why I became an electrician, I was so used to it. To do any work on the tank or God forbid, put a net in there, everything had to be un plugged.
Before powerheads we used airpumps and they were all piston operated. The piston was made of leather, real hi tech, and it had to be oiled every few days. The oil would make it's way into the tank and make a nice oil slick and it smelled. Those pumps would overheat and the paint would melt off of them, if you were lucky, you didn't burn your house down. I always installed a fan on the motor shaft which allowed it to run a little cooler. They were noisy and had to be placed away from people or the noise would drive you crazy.
Heaters were also not submersible and hung on the side of the tank. Salt creep would eventually also cause them to shock you.
UG filters was all there was, there was no other choice, and HOB filters were also the thing of the day and we filled them with nylon floss.
With all the issues with equipment it is a wonder we had any time to feed the fish. We fed them fresh water Tetra Min as that was about all there was.
By the way, fish food in the fiftees was made out of dried ants and turtle food was dried beatles. I know because I have had a fish tank every day of my life from about 1952 or so.
You have no idea how easy all of this is now compared to the dark ages.
Albert knows because we are both, lets say "mature". :wavehand:
Flatlander
Premium Member
Nice to see you here Albert. Look forward to your new book.
Chrissypoo
New member
Bring this baby to the top!
ashish
New member
I have been in aquarium hobby since 93 at the age of 11. My first saltwater tank was in 97 29 gallon fish-only system when i was 13. Needless to say I look back and wonder how i managed to even set-up an aquarium with NO income lol. I learned many lessons in just the basics and I could not be where I am today without keeping freshwater fish, saltwater fish, & now corals. My current tank is the first tank that was gradually converted from a fish only to a soft coral tank 8 years ago. I have been keeping SPS for about 6 years now and I can honestly say that it is the pinnacle of the aquarium hobby. These corals require incredible level of care, understanding, and consistency. I've made every mistake in the book as a kid and I am very thankful of RC for providing information before I try something new or stupid. The best thing about this hobby is that we have everyone on RC forum who is willing to help there fellow hobbist not make the same mistakes they did while giving away years of knowledge and experience. I have a lot of pictures of my tanks through out the 90s and will definately share. The best part is now you don't have to start of with freshwater fish or FOWLR..I've seen people successful grow acropora in there first tank....Something that I don't advise unless you plan on reading day and night for months on end. These things would never have been possible back in the 90's
These old school SPS veterans did not have the fancy equipment and forums we have today. They did not have fancy controllable vortech, tunzes, wavebox, & even propeller pumps back then or skimmers that claim to be "best ever". These select few people IMO where successful in keeping SPS because they figured out how there corals responded to different things. They provided them with outstanding flow via closed loop systems and turbulent flow (with multiple linear powerheads). They had to keep everything simple and I think keeping it simple is focusing on things like: turbulent flow, good lighting, clean water, & stable calcium/alk. I personally don't like half the stuff on the market unless it has the general health of the corals in mind.
This thread might be old but I just thought I'd wake it up
These old school SPS veterans did not have the fancy equipment and forums we have today. They did not have fancy controllable vortech, tunzes, wavebox, & even propeller pumps back then or skimmers that claim to be "best ever". These select few people IMO where successful in keeping SPS because they figured out how there corals responded to different things. They provided them with outstanding flow via closed loop systems and turbulent flow (with multiple linear powerheads). They had to keep everything simple and I think keeping it simple is focusing on things like: turbulent flow, good lighting, clean water, & stable calcium/alk. I personally don't like half the stuff on the market unless it has the general health of the corals in mind.
This thread might be old but I just thought I'd wake it up
ashish
New member
This was my 1st saltwater tank...96. The only source of knowledge was through the LFS and all they told me was "I need at least a 29gallon" and a "fluval". Only thing I knew was I have to Cycle the tank but no clue What this was. This may not make me a SPS expert as I've only been keeping SPS successful for the past 6 years but with this hobby (back in the day), the only way was "trial and error". OH the good ol days
<a href="http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/IMG_0861_zps153527f3.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/IMG_0861_zps153527f3.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0861_zps153527f3.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/IMG_0861_zps153527f3.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/IMG_0861_zps153527f3.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0861_zps153527f3.jpg"/></a>
dvanacker
DID I SOUNDS SMRT??
Pimping....love the collection of pets...haha. Awesome picture man.
tfp
Active member
Ordered some frags from him back in 2003. He did have amazing corals!
Arkayology
Active member
This thread is pretty awesome. Great to look back and see where we come from.
veloboy
New member
ashish thanks for sharing this pic, reminds me of my childhood and those trips to the LFS! Awesome!
madkeenreefer
New member
Its kinda kool to check out all the history here , I myself am along way from many howevery tally up 20yrs.. That being said it was certinly alot different to the things I have read in this thread as I started my time in Cairns Australia.
I worked at my LFS for next to free just to get a discount on live stock (I was 14), I remember diving in My bosses 5000gl water change tank to clean out the algea after school lol. not so bad when its 32deg celcious out. Back then the norm was powerheads on undergravels with crushed coral for most home aquaria . In the shop we used a freezer to chill the system in summer which was almost year round and the main displays were running VHO T12 (as I remember) and live rock rubble towers with the nylon floss one of my other daily jobs to clean yuck!Skimmers were avalible but I never saw one as they were extremely expensive.
I wish I had of had a camera back then as I saw some huge colonies and amazing fish as I woud drag my mom around town to all the wholesalers on the weekends to see what was the "catch of the week" as we used to put it.
I worked at my LFS for next to free just to get a discount on live stock (I was 14), I remember diving in My bosses 5000gl water change tank to clean out the algea after school lol. not so bad when its 32deg celcious out. Back then the norm was powerheads on undergravels with crushed coral for most home aquaria . In the shop we used a freezer to chill the system in summer which was almost year round
and the main displays were running VHO T12 (as I remember) and live rock rubble towers with the nylon floss one of my other daily jobs to clean yuck!Skimmers were avalible but I never saw one as they were extremely expensive. I wish I had of had a camera back then as I saw some huge colonies and amazing fish as I woud drag my mom around town to all the wholesalers on the weekends to see what was the "catch of the week" as we used to put it.
