Who are the SPS Veterans?
- Thread starter invincible569
- Start date
Here is an old picture I found that shows 5 of the 11 Bob Mankin corals I purchased back in 1997. I still have all of them today (as do dozens of other reefkeepers 
)
Stylophora - top left.
A. prostrata - left edge midway down.
A. loripes - just to the right of the above.
A. aculeus - center
Pocillipora - just to the right of the A. aculeus.
You can make out some of the cement disks they were tied to.
Regards,
Kevin
)Stylophora - top left.
A. prostrata - left edge midway down.
A. loripes - just to the right of the above.
A. aculeus - center
Pocillipora - just to the right of the A. aculeus.
You can make out some of the cement disks they were tied to.
Regards,
Kevin
Avast Marine
.Registered Member
Nice history lesson.
invincible569
New member
Funny how old threads rise from the grave again. 
shred5
Premium Member
No kidding, 2004.. When this thread popped up in my inbox I was like what the hell.
I have been in the hobby from almost the beginning in the U.S.. In the beginning there were very few people who did this and most of us knew each other through fishnet on CompuServe. Everything we did was new and exciting because it never had been done before and it did not matter if you had a degree in marine biology, everyone contributed and a lot of what is used now was started by these guys. Sps’s renewed my interest in the hobby big time and got me addicted again. Recently thing seem to have gone stagnant with not much new or many advances at all. I have often thought of writing a article on the history of the hobby. I still have a ton of old reef hobby magazines and books from the early 90's.
I have recently tore down my reef tank to try something that still has a lot to be learned and a little more of a challenge and that is the breeding of marine fish. Plus I am hopefully moving within the next year and want to set up a much bigger tank. Right now I have a pair of black onyx clown fish and a bubble tip anemone. These are my starter fish into this side of the hobby and after that I want to try some harder fish to keep and so on. So I am not totally out of the hobby, I have just shifted to a slightly different side. I think fish breeding is going to have a bigger impact and is highly needed to relieve the impact on the ocean. Sooner or later we are going to be limited or even cut out of what we can take out of the ocean and breeding is going to be needed in the hobby. I am not doing this to make money just help advance this side of the hobby. Anyone who has known me I have never been in the hobby to make money.
To me the most fun time of the hobby was on compuserve. Back then if you could keep a coral alive you were an expert. I still talk to Larry Jackson about those times when ever I see him even though it has been a while. Last year at Imac I was reminiscing about fishnet with Danna . I often wonder what happened to some of the guys like John Tullock which were such a big impact on this hobby in the early days. When talking to newer people in the hobby and I bring up names like Charles Delbeek, Julian Sprung, Abert thiel, Larry Jackson, Martain Moe they do not even know of these people which had such a big impact on this hobby. These guys should be remembered for what they did for this hobby. The next great time was when I discovered RC and it was a very small community. Now RC is huge.
I will be at Imac again this year and if any of the old timers are there hit me up and we will have a beer and talk about the old times. I am really looking forward to hear what Martin Moe has to talk about.
I have to say Over the years I have meet some really great people that I am still good freinds with and I hope this hobby just gets better and better. There is so much to be learned from this hobby.
Dave Polzin
I have been in the hobby from almost the beginning in the U.S.. In the beginning there were very few people who did this and most of us knew each other through fishnet on CompuServe. Everything we did was new and exciting because it never had been done before and it did not matter if you had a degree in marine biology, everyone contributed and a lot of what is used now was started by these guys. Sps’s renewed my interest in the hobby big time and got me addicted again. Recently thing seem to have gone stagnant with not much new or many advances at all. I have often thought of writing a article on the history of the hobby. I still have a ton of old reef hobby magazines and books from the early 90's.
I have recently tore down my reef tank to try something that still has a lot to be learned and a little more of a challenge and that is the breeding of marine fish. Plus I am hopefully moving within the next year and want to set up a much bigger tank. Right now I have a pair of black onyx clown fish and a bubble tip anemone. These are my starter fish into this side of the hobby and after that I want to try some harder fish to keep and so on. So I am not totally out of the hobby, I have just shifted to a slightly different side. I think fish breeding is going to have a bigger impact and is highly needed to relieve the impact on the ocean. Sooner or later we are going to be limited or even cut out of what we can take out of the ocean and breeding is going to be needed in the hobby. I am not doing this to make money just help advance this side of the hobby. Anyone who has known me I have never been in the hobby to make money.
To me the most fun time of the hobby was on compuserve. Back then if you could keep a coral alive you were an expert. I still talk to Larry Jackson about those times when ever I see him even though it has been a while. Last year at Imac I was reminiscing about fishnet with Danna . I often wonder what happened to some of the guys like John Tullock which were such a big impact on this hobby in the early days. When talking to newer people in the hobby and I bring up names like Charles Delbeek, Julian Sprung, Abert thiel, Larry Jackson, Martain Moe they do not even know of these people which had such a big impact on this hobby. These guys should be remembered for what they did for this hobby. The next great time was when I discovered RC and it was a very small community. Now RC is huge.
I will be at Imac again this year and if any of the old timers are there hit me up and we will have a beer and talk about the old times. I am really looking forward to hear what Martin Moe has to talk about.
I have to say Over the years I have meet some really great people that I am still good freinds with and I hope this hobby just gets better and better. There is so much to be learned from this hobby.
Dave Polzin
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Justjoe
New member
Hello,
I got my first acros in I believe 1991 and was part of the crazy trips from NY to PA and waiting at Ed's place for the potential of an acro shipment... part of the original "NY Coral Mafia" gang.
Below is a picture of the first ever acro placed in a flower stem holder in one of my tanks back in late 1992 or early 1993. I have to find the original slide (no digital back then!) to confirm the year. I take great pleasure seeing how many have been fragged since then!
I have some acros now that the lineage dates back to early 90's, but I don't have those original colonies with the house moves and job changes, but I do have some other corals from the early 90's still going strong in the tank below which is now 6 years old, including some turbinaria, favia and gorgonia.
Joe
I got my first acros in I believe 1991 and was part of the crazy trips from NY to PA and waiting at Ed's place for the potential of an acro shipment... part of the original "NY Coral Mafia" gang.
Below is a picture of the first ever acro placed in a flower stem holder in one of my tanks back in late 1992 or early 1993. I have to find the original slide (no digital back then!) to confirm the year. I take great pleasure seeing how many have been fragged since then!
I have some acros now that the lineage dates back to early 90's, but I don't have those original colonies with the house moves and job changes, but I do have some other corals from the early 90's still going strong in the tank below which is now 6 years old, including some turbinaria, favia and gorgonia.
Joe
Tvarg
New member
Joe,
Greg and I would take the same trip, but it was in the late 80's. I will never forget waking in that shop for the first time in 1987, and I could not believe what he had available for sale, Acropora!
Oh, the word was that this coral was impossible to keep alive in captivity, we showed them. The Reef Mafia made it happen.
When I get back in town I will post a photo of my tank, from 1990.
Greg and I would take the same trip, but it was in the late 80's. I will never forget waking in that shop for the first time in 1987, and I could not believe what he had available for sale, Acropora!
Oh, the word was that this coral was impossible to keep alive in captivity, we showed them. The Reef Mafia made it happen.
When I get back in town I will post a photo of my tank, from 1990.
Serioussnaps
New member
respect
MiddletonMark
Premium Member
Gorgeous tank, great history Joe.
It's nice to remember where things were at just a decade ago, nevermind the folks who got us here.
A decade ago I would have said Acro-what? Thanks to these folks, quite a lot of us are now in the know
Oldie but goodie.
It's nice to remember where things were at just a decade ago, nevermind the folks who got us here.
A decade ago I would have said Acro-what? Thanks to these folks, quite a lot of us are now in the know
.
Justjoe
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9095111#post9095111 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MiddletonMark
Gorgeous tank, great history Joe.
Oldie but goodie.
It's nice to remember where things were at just a decade ago, nevermind the folks who got us here.
A decade ago I would have said Acro-what? Thanks to these folks, quite a lot of us are now in the know
Thanks, its the result of being a coralaholic, and as a founding member of CAA I don't plan on being cured.
We often had to buy some soft coral or mushroom rock to get a chance at some sort of new coral. I'd scrutinize the small piece of attached base rock in hopes of finding a few polyps of some sort of coral and let it grow out (still good to do today).
The real pioneers are Dietrich Stuber, Peter Wilkens, Alf Nilsen and I'm sure some others that I don't currently remember from overseas. I believe Wilkens wrote a book on reef keeping back in 1972 where he describes the use of CaO/ kalkwasser and Stuber had I believe the first acro growing in captivity, which became known as the Stuber acro, which was then fragged and Alf then gave some to Julian, and he then sent some up to NY. It was an amazing time. Also, Terry Siegel from Brooklyn, had his first reef based tank in the early 80's.
I remember reading an article many years ago by Alf Nilsen and it contained such alien words as potassium iodide and strontium, and me going up the dormant labs at work and dusting off the brown glass bottles to find such chemicals.
Brooklyn Aquarium Society did the hobby a tremendous justice by bringing in such speakers from overseas. I remember one meeting from the early 90's when I brought in some propagated corals, and people didn't know what that meant and asked is "propagated" near Fiji?
I think what is really important to remember is the ability or the lack of ability back in the day for the rapid exchange of information, it was much more limited then today.
Lee Chin Eng wrote an article in 1961 talks about a natural reef keeping method.
This article will give some insight as well:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~delbeek/delb4.html
A good time indeed.
Joe
shred5
Premium Member
Justjoe
Yes the Europeans were farther ahead back then and I believe they still are sometimes with technology. A lot of the American authors and stuff actually went over there and brought there technology back here.. Americans seem more into collecting rare corals now and let’s see how much light I can throw over my tank than the marine biology side of things now. It seems the lighting debate will never end and I see why Eric got sick of it.
You mention the lack of rapid exchange of technology. In the U.S in the late to mid 80’s I believe fishnet on the pet forums was started by CompuServe. It allowed for the rapid exchange of technology at least here in the U.S.. I was told of this forum By Bob Goemans, I believe I first logged on during 88 or 89. If you were not on there would not believe the minds that were there. Albert Theil, Dana Riddle, Bob Goemans, Julian Sprung, Charles Delbeek, Randy Holmes-Farley, Richard Harker, Larry Jackson, Steve Tyree, and later years came Eric and Ron and the list could go on for along time. There were some of the biggest debates and fights that you will ever see. It was awsum. Now these guys are spread out between the different sites on their own forums. I want to see the experts get back into one forum and debate like they used too. Last time I logged onto fishnet a lot of the debates were still archived. I was d/l them so they would not get lost but my hard drive crashed and I lost them anyway. I know it is owned by aol and I no longer seem to be able to get in. I hope this info is not lost forever.
Dave Polzin.
Yes the Europeans were farther ahead back then and I believe they still are sometimes with technology. A lot of the American authors and stuff actually went over there and brought there technology back here.. Americans seem more into collecting rare corals now and let’s see how much light I can throw over my tank than the marine biology side of things now. It seems the lighting debate will never end and I see why Eric got sick of it.
You mention the lack of rapid exchange of technology. In the U.S in the late to mid 80’s I believe fishnet on the pet forums was started by CompuServe. It allowed for the rapid exchange of technology at least here in the U.S.. I was told of this forum By Bob Goemans, I believe I first logged on during 88 or 89. If you were not on there would not believe the minds that were there. Albert Theil, Dana Riddle, Bob Goemans, Julian Sprung, Charles Delbeek, Randy Holmes-Farley, Richard Harker, Larry Jackson, Steve Tyree, and later years came Eric and Ron and the list could go on for along time. There were some of the biggest debates and fights that you will ever see. It was awsum. Now these guys are spread out between the different sites on their own forums. I want to see the experts get back into one forum and debate like they used too. Last time I logged onto fishnet a lot of the debates were still archived. I was d/l them so they would not get lost but my hard drive crashed and I lost them anyway. I know it is owned by aol and I no longer seem to be able to get in. I hope this info is not lost forever.
Dave Polzin.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
old thread revival time
old thread revival time
I've had SPS since 1993 when I entered reefkeeping.
I've had my table Acropora (glauca?) since the early 90's.
Unfortunately, I didn't take many pix of my aquarium in the first few years of running it.
February 2001
March 2007
old thread revival time
I've had SPS since 1993 when I entered reefkeeping.
I've had my table Acropora (glauca?) since the early 90's.
Unfortunately, I didn't take many pix of my aquarium in the first few years of running it.
February 2001
March 2007
Chrissypoo
New member
Figured I'd bump this cool thread for some new discussion
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
I'm still around and here's what it looks like nowadays
I'm still around and here's what it looks like nowadays
I'm still around and here's what it looks like nowadays
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MammothReefer
Active member
Looking great Gary!
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
like a blast from the past!
like a blast from the past!
thanks!
like a blast from the past!
thanks!
