Paul B
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Rock Pool Reef Keepers
Pioneers of the aquarium hobby that we don't hear about
Aquarium keeping goes back to the ancient Egyptians. They had problems because the water from the Nile wasn't nearly salty enough and was full of left over rocks from carving out pyramids. Those rocks were carved with copper chisels and their was tiny pieces of copper left in the rock causing all sorts of water quality problems. They also had issues because whenever a fish died, they would try to mummify the poor creature but the mummification process took many weeks and in a few hours the dead fish would stink attracting those hairless cats that they kept as pets.
As time went by there were many people involved in fish keeping so we can call them pioneers. One that comes to mind was Copernicus. In the 1400s he proposed that the Earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around. That in itself had nothing to do with fish, but while he was coming up with this unconventional theory he made a lot of people angry.
Especially people of the clergy who showed their dissatisfaction by throwing clams at his house. Some of the clams broke his Anderson windows and landed in his sumpless reef tank. To his astonishment, his fish started eating the clams and that is how we came to know how to keep Copperband Butterflies.
A similar Pioneer was Galileo. As everyone knows Galileo is famous for inventing the telescope but what many don't know is he also invented the refractometer. Galileo went to the university in Piza. His laboratory was in the Leaning Tower of Piza which made fish keeping "Interesting". His AtO kept making his tank overflow but that has nothing to do with how he invented the refractometer.
Galileo was never a happy kid and was always fuming at his Mother because she gave him a first name that sounded just like his last name. Galileo Galilei. Everyone made fun of him and one day as he was looking through his telescope someone stormed in and yelled "Hey Galileo, Galilei, Galaxy, Gibralta whatever your name is, your Mother is calling you"?
He got so mad he threw his telescope into his reef tank. His Mother heard the commotion and came in just in time to take the instrument out of the water and she looked through it backwards and said. Hey Galley (thats what she called him for short) your salinity looks a little low!
Way before this in the year 79 we had Pliny the Elder. Pliny actually gave us the internet along with Wikipedia. In the year 79 AD that was a big deal because we didn't even have USB plugs so he had to use solar electric to charge his wooden slide rule. We have Voltaire to thank for USB plugs along with "stray voltage". He never liked to use his full name "Nom De Plume Voltaire" because it sounded like a Sissy Girly Man name but as we all know he discovered voltage which is named after him.
Of course we can't have stray voltage without amps. Amps were discovered by Ampere or André-Marie Ampère. He never gained much notoriety because stray voltage doesn't really have any amps to speak of and we never say "our fish died because of stray amps". It's always volts.
We also can't have Volts or Amps without the other guy, Ohms. None of us know who Ohm is named for but it was actually Georg Ohm. No, Really!. Thats the guys name. I think he also had something do do with GFCI's and was a distant cousin of Susan Sarandon, who had something to do with Saran Wrap.
Unfortunately Ohm was sometimes confused with Olds. Ransom E. Olds was an auto pioneer and we have to thank him for inventing storage places where white flour, ASW and two part calcium additives can be stored along with Oldsmobile parts.
Last but not least we have the Wright Brothers. They owned a bicycle shop which was very profitable but they got bored so they invented an aeroplane. You may not know what they have to do with reef tanks and the truth is, not much.
But during their first historic flight, Orville wanted to see what happened if he taped a pink tipped anemone to the left wing of their aircraft. He carefully removed the animal from his thermos bottle, dried it off and applied Gorilla tape.
Orville steadied the wings as the motor of the historic craft roared into action. He let go and Wilbur flew an astonishing 120 feet.
As soon as the craft landed, Orville, who was running alongside came up to the wing to see how the anemone fared. (he didn't care much about the plane or his brother) But to his horror, when Wilbur landed he immediately stepped on the brake propelling the anemone into and through the propeller causing the creature to turn into a very wet snot that engulfed poor Wilbur which in turn gave him the inspiration to invent that little handle on your steering wheel that sprays water onto your windshield to clean away squashed bugs.
Aquarium keeping goes back to the ancient Egyptians. They had problems because the water from the Nile wasn't nearly salty enough and was full of left over rocks from carving out pyramids. Those rocks were carved with copper chisels and their was tiny pieces of copper left in the rock causing all sorts of water quality problems. They also had issues because whenever a fish died, they would try to mummify the poor creature but the mummification process took many weeks and in a few hours the dead fish would stink attracting those hairless cats that they kept as pets.
As time went by there were many people involved in fish keeping so we can call them pioneers. One that comes to mind was Copernicus. In the 1400s he proposed that the Earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around. That in itself had nothing to do with fish, but while he was coming up with this unconventional theory he made a lot of people angry.
Especially people of the clergy who showed their dissatisfaction by throwing clams at his house. Some of the clams broke his Anderson windows and landed in his sumpless reef tank. To his astonishment, his fish started eating the clams and that is how we came to know how to keep Copperband Butterflies.
A similar Pioneer was Galileo. As everyone knows Galileo is famous for inventing the telescope but what many don't know is he also invented the refractometer. Galileo went to the university in Piza. His laboratory was in the Leaning Tower of Piza which made fish keeping "Interesting". His AtO kept making his tank overflow but that has nothing to do with how he invented the refractometer.
Galileo was never a happy kid and was always fuming at his Mother because she gave him a first name that sounded just like his last name. Galileo Galilei. Everyone made fun of him and one day as he was looking through his telescope someone stormed in and yelled "Hey Galileo, Galilei, Galaxy, Gibralta whatever your name is, your Mother is calling you"?
He got so mad he threw his telescope into his reef tank. His Mother heard the commotion and came in just in time to take the instrument out of the water and she looked through it backwards and said. Hey Galley (thats what she called him for short) your salinity looks a little low!
Way before this in the year 79 we had Pliny the Elder. Pliny actually gave us the internet along with Wikipedia. In the year 79 AD that was a big deal because we didn't even have USB plugs so he had to use solar electric to charge his wooden slide rule. We have Voltaire to thank for USB plugs along with "stray voltage". He never liked to use his full name "Nom De Plume Voltaire" because it sounded like a Sissy Girly Man name but as we all know he discovered voltage which is named after him.
Of course we can't have stray voltage without amps. Amps were discovered by Ampere or André-Marie Ampère. He never gained much notoriety because stray voltage doesn't really have any amps to speak of and we never say "our fish died because of stray amps". It's always volts.
We also can't have Volts or Amps without the other guy, Ohms. None of us know who Ohm is named for but it was actually Georg Ohm. No, Really!. Thats the guys name. I think he also had something do do with GFCI's and was a distant cousin of Susan Sarandon, who had something to do with Saran Wrap.
Unfortunately Ohm was sometimes confused with Olds. Ransom E. Olds was an auto pioneer and we have to thank him for inventing storage places where white flour, ASW and two part calcium additives can be stored along with Oldsmobile parts.
Last but not least we have the Wright Brothers. They owned a bicycle shop which was very profitable but they got bored so they invented an aeroplane. You may not know what they have to do with reef tanks and the truth is, not much.
But during their first historic flight, Orville wanted to see what happened if he taped a pink tipped anemone to the left wing of their aircraft. He carefully removed the animal from his thermos bottle, dried it off and applied Gorilla tape.
Orville steadied the wings as the motor of the historic craft roared into action. He let go and Wilbur flew an astonishing 120 feet.
As soon as the craft landed, Orville, who was running alongside came up to the wing to see how the anemone fared. (he didn't care much about the plane or his brother) But to his horror, when Wilbur landed he immediately stepped on the brake propelling the anemone into and through the propeller causing the creature to turn into a very wet snot that engulfed poor Wilbur which in turn gave him the inspiration to invent that little handle on your steering wheel that sprays water onto your windshield to clean away squashed bugs.
