Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
nice!
nice!
Nice to see your aquarium and nice to see a post on RC by you again, Kevin! :wave:
nice!
Nice to see your aquarium and nice to see a post on RC by you again, Kevin! :wave:
Who are the SPS Veterans?
- Thread starter invincible569
- Start date
Though I've been in the hobby since 1978, my involvement with Acropora and the like didn't begin until 1990. It was not of my doing. What happened was that three years after setting up my 500g LPS and softie tank, I noticed an electric blue 'nodule' beginning to form on one of my live rocks. As it grew during the next few months, it begin to develop what I now know to be corralites and even looked as though it was going to soon divide into branches. This, of course, sent me rushing to find all the information I could on this mysterious hitchhiker. There wasn't a heck of a lot but as SPS keeping WAS starting to gain a foothold here in the States, there was enough to let me know I had something kind of special going on.
Naturally, I thought I would seek out a few more to add variety to the tank and though the selection at my LFS was...let's just say, a bit lacking by today's standards [three or four brown sticks, 2"-3" in length], I was all in. All died with such rapidity, I was beginning to think it was suicide. In the meantime, my hitchhiker kept on trucking along and was now well over an inch tall. Luckily, another customer of this particular LFS was the late Greg Schiemer who had heard of both my tank and my struggles and offered to come by to see if he could help.
Yeah, he had a suggestion or two.
In a nutshell, he said if I just got rid of my canister and wet/dry filters, upgraded my 150W lighting system, tripled up the amount of flow, and added a calcium reactor or kalk doser and then developed some kind of nutrient export system, I'd be well on my way.
I told him I'd think about it. I mean, after all, I was just talking about adding a few more earth toned sticks here and there. It wasn't like I was going to get addicted to this stuff...
Oct' 03
The Infamous 'World's Ugliest Efflo'.
Look familiar?
Strawberry Shortcake. Back in '04 when it was simply known as A. rosaria.
Naturally, I thought I would seek out a few more to add variety to the tank and though the selection at my LFS was...let's just say, a bit lacking by today's standards [three or four brown sticks, 2"-3" in length], I was all in. All died with such rapidity, I was beginning to think it was suicide. In the meantime, my hitchhiker kept on trucking along and was now well over an inch tall. Luckily, another customer of this particular LFS was the late Greg Schiemer who had heard of both my tank and my struggles and offered to come by to see if he could help.
Yeah, he had a suggestion or two.
In a nutshell, he said if I just got rid of my canister and wet/dry filters, upgraded my 150W lighting system, tripled up the amount of flow, and added a calcium reactor or kalk doser and then developed some kind of nutrient export system, I'd be well on my way.
I told him I'd think about it. I mean, after all, I was just talking about adding a few more earth toned sticks here and there. It wasn't like I was going to get addicted to this stuff...
Oct' 03
The Infamous 'World's Ugliest Efflo'.
Look familiar?
Strawberry Shortcake. Back in '04 when it was simply known as A. rosaria.
60Cubed
Premium Member
WOW!! Like this thread......been in it since 2000. Been keeping sps since 02. Took two 2yr stints away from the hobby. Two yrs ago T-5s were it and now LEDs have become the new thing. LEDs weren't where they are now when I shut down my tank before. Technology changes so fast these days. It's great but can put a draw on ur pocket book pretty quick!!!
The one thing I can say I've learned in the past twelve yrs is simply this:
Good ain't cheap and cheap ain't good!!!!
Basically buy the good equipment the first time cause u eventually will and then have spent more $$ to get there!!!! There is def something to be said about quality and reliability.
The one thing I can say I've learned in the past twelve yrs is simply this:
Good ain't cheap and cheap ain't good!!!!
Basically buy the good equipment the first time cause u eventually will and then have spent more $$ to get there!!!! There is def something to be said about quality and reliability.
ShaunMonahan
Clam nut
Subscribed.
Some great history being shared!
Some great history being shared!
Alex T.
Active member
I remember when I first got hooked. It was when I saw Mike Paletta's Ultimate Marine Aquariums book. There were a few very colorful SPS reefs in that book for the time, and it seemed like almost everybody was running a deep sand bed. I even remember Sanjay Joshi's legendary 180 gallon tank and thinking that there was no way I was going to be able to achieve the beauty of something like that one day. Other names I remember from the book were:
1.Leng Sy with his Miracle Mud and skimmerless reef with a Regal Angel and Moorish Idol
2. Terry Siegel's 500 gallon reef with lots of Acanthurus tangs and large coral specimens instead of many small colonies.
3. Sally Joe's 55 gallon Softee tank from GARF office
4. Steve Weast's famous 500 gallon masterpiece
5. The store reef tank at the Hidden Reef run and operated by Ziggy. I met Ziggy a few years back. The original store had a fire and the tank was sadly lost.
6. David Saxby's monster 1,500 gallon reef with rare fish from all over the world. I believe that one is still up and running.
Obviously the methodologies have changed over the years. It use to be a right of passage to have a back panel covered in coralline algae. Now you rarely see it that much anymore because many people try and keep their tanks looking like they were set up yesterday. I'm guilty of this as well. With the advent of ULNS systems, those deep sand beds and refugiums seem to be popping up less and less as well. There aren't many people cultivating their own phytoplankton either.
On the positive side, there are some tanks these days whose results and overall look is simply breathtaking.
Looking at some of the tanks being awarded each month shows us just how far this hobby has come over the last 20 years, and especially in the last 8 or so years. Things change, and hopefully for the better. Where would Ford Motor Company have been if Henry Ford stuck to his guns by only making cars with black paint? His genius may have been forgotten and the assembly line may have never become a defining juggernaut of the Industrial Revolution.
Even though we now look at many of the pioneers' reefkeeping habits and beliefs as archaic, without them we'd probably all be keeping dead coral skeletons, a few fish and undergravel filtration.
1.Leng Sy with his Miracle Mud and skimmerless reef with a Regal Angel and Moorish Idol
2. Terry Siegel's 500 gallon reef with lots of Acanthurus tangs and large coral specimens instead of many small colonies.
3. Sally Joe's 55 gallon Softee tank from GARF office
4. Steve Weast's famous 500 gallon masterpiece
5. The store reef tank at the Hidden Reef run and operated by Ziggy. I met Ziggy a few years back. The original store had a fire and the tank was sadly lost.
6. David Saxby's monster 1,500 gallon reef with rare fish from all over the world. I believe that one is still up and running.
Obviously the methodologies have changed over the years. It use to be a right of passage to have a back panel covered in coralline algae. Now you rarely see it that much anymore because many people try and keep their tanks looking like they were set up yesterday. I'm guilty of this as well. With the advent of ULNS systems, those deep sand beds and refugiums seem to be popping up less and less as well. There aren't many people cultivating their own phytoplankton either.
On the positive side, there are some tanks these days whose results and overall look is simply breathtaking.
Looking at some of the tanks being awarded each month shows us just how far this hobby has come over the last 20 years, and especially in the last 8 or so years. Things change, and hopefully for the better. Where would Ford Motor Company have been if Henry Ford stuck to his guns by only making cars with black paint? His genius may have been forgotten and the assembly line may have never become a defining juggernaut of the Industrial Revolution.
Even though we now look at many of the pioneers' reefkeeping habits and beliefs as archaic, without them we'd probably all be keeping dead coral skeletons, a few fish and undergravel filtration.
Dr_zilla
TDS Addict Extraordinaire
Great thread, read it years ago and just found it again after 8 years. Always been a lurker here except in the old days of rc ( i think the post count got reset or something when the archives went up) My contribution... Started in the hobby in early 2000, tried sps after success with softies. Failed miserably. Took a long time to get good at it and even now I feel like I am confused more often than not with this beautiful hobby... Which is the allure for me.
