Old timers - what was it like BEFORE refugiums?

[Kongar]

Seems like chaeto growth in a refugium is very popular today, or running some kind of algae scrubber. Grows algae where you can't see it, keeps nutrients down, win-win. Was there a time where algae grew in the display only, and was it more of a nuisance than it is today? or did you find balance over time and algae wasn't an issue?

I'm wondering what advice and knowledge there is to gain from the days when less gear and gadgets were thrown at tanks. I'm thinking it's probably helpful to the nano tank crowd where, for example, there isn't room to run all the modern gear...

 

[mdb_talon]

I am certainly not as much of an old-timer as some, but can say in the well over two decades I dont remember a time when refugiums were not a commonly used option. A DSB with macrolgae refugium was once very popular. More recently things like algae scrubbers/cheato reactors/etc have really taken off. I see the advantages as it can allow you to do the same thing in a smaller footprint and possibly more efficiently, but it really is the same basic concept that has been done for decades.

Speaking personally I think there was a time that algae in the tank was not seen as so much of an issue and it was more common to intentionally grow macroalgae in the display. However I would add I dont believe some algae (even nuiscance algae) in the display tank as a bad thing. Personally not a fan of the sterile tank appearance that many strive for.

 

[Kodski]

I'm definitely not an old timer. I've only been in the hobby for a few years, but my LFS who's methods and idea's that I follow are definitely old school. My LFS doesn't run a single refugium on any of their tanks and they don't recommend to either. The owner is a huge believer in oversize skimmers. Back in the day, it was common for people would try to run as big of a skimmer as they could afford on their tank. The idea being that the skimmer will strip out as much nutrients as possible. This allows you to then tune your nutrients where you want them. So far its working very well for my tank. I'm running a ReefOctopus 250-EXT skimmer on my 80gal tank with 40 breeder sump. I'm producing a great looking skimmate and my nutrients hold steady and low with overfeeding to get my nutrients where I want them. I've never had a phosphate or nitrate issue with any of my tanks. I run my skimmer and carbon. Nothing else. I find water changes to do very little as things stay very stable this way. Infact, waterchanges almost hurt my nutrient levels because I run them near zero. Pho 0.03ppm and nitrates 2-5ppm.

 

[Gtinnel]

I don't remember refugiums being a thing when I originally started in the hobby around 2000. They may have been around but if they were I wasn't aware of them, but to be fair information wasn't shared among people from different locations like it is now. If I couldn't get the information from my lfs or from a book then I wouldn't have known about it.

I don't use a refugium currently so it wasn't much different for me.

 

[mdb_talon]

The owner is a huge believer in oversize skimmers. Back in the day, it was common for people would try to run as big of a skimmer as they could afford on their tank. The idea being that the skimmer will strip out as much nutrients as possible. This allows you to then tune your nutrients where you want them. So far its working very well for my tank. I'm running a ReefOctopus 250-EXT skimmer on my 80gal tank with 40 breeder sump. I'm producing a great looking skimmate and my nutrients hold steady and low with overfeeding to get my nutrients where I want them. I've never had a phosphate or nitrate issue with any of my tanks. I run my skimmer and carbon. Nothing else. I find water changes to do very little as things stay very stable this way. Infact, waterchanges almost hurt my nutrie

I would just point out refugiums are historically about a lot more than just nutrient export. Personally I would never run a tank without one. However as countless people can attest to there are many ways to have a successful tank.

 

[mdb_talon]

I don't remember refugiums being a thing when I originally started in the hobby around 2000. They may have been around but if they were I wasn't aware of them, but to be fair information wasn't shared among people from different locations like it is now. If I couldn't get the information from my lfs or from a book then I wouldn't have known about it.

I don't use a refugium currently so it wasn't much different for me.

Haha yes new reefers have no idea how difficult it was to find and share information about reefing prior to the internet really taking off. I knew of local people in the 90's using refugiums, but seemed too complicated for me until I got Anthony Calfo's book I think in 2001 or 2002 that provided a lot of information on them (and countless other things). 20 years later even with the wealth of information available now I still find that book incredibly useful.

 

[Reefing102]

I know refugiums have been around since I started in 2004/2005. That said, it was still semi-common to see macros grown in the display tank, with the common thread of “Help…Caulpera has taken over everything” lol.

I also remember fuges being common with HOB styles.

Me personally, first time I ran a fuge is in my current tank. However I was a terrible reefer back in the day…running HOB filter, PC lighting, no water changes, no ATO, etc…and it was a microalgae nightmare (diatoms, Cyano, hair, etc)

Now? I personally wouldn’t run a tank without a fuge

 

[G Santana]

I am so old that I knew Moses himself.
So, with that said, I started my tank back before the internet and all the great sources of information that we have today.
But the single best thing we had going was phenomenal quality live rock.
I mean it came fully dressed in coraline algae and all the critters that were pulled out with them.
I never really had much of an ugly phase, I did have snot algae that lasted a few weeks and that was it. Once the tank cycled it was smooth sailing.
I never dealt with hair algae or any pest algae we have today, and it was solely attributed to live rock.
I eventually dropped my wet dry filter and pulled my sand bed, but never had any kind of nuisance algae.
This time around I started with dead rock, the same formerly live rock I had, but my tank took the better part of 7 months to finish all of the ugly phases and I mean I hit them ALL.

But, even dead rock becomes live rock given enough time.

 

[albano]

Right in the DT… in the 80s, the live rock options included plant rock, which was covered with macro algaes

 

[mdb_talon]

I am so old that I knew Moses himself.
So, with that said, I started my tank back before the internet and all the great sources of information that we have today.
But the single best thing we had going was phenomenal quality live rock.
I mean it came fully dressed in coraline algae and all the critters that were pulled out with them.
I never really had much of an ugly phase, I did have snot algae that lasted a few weeks and that was it. Once the tank cycled it was smooth sailing.
I never dealt with hair algae or any pest algae we have today, and it was solely attributed to live rock.
I eventually dropped my wet dry filter and pulled my sand bed, but never had any kind of nuisance algae.
This time around I started with dead rock, the same formerly live rock I had, but my tank took the better part of 7 months to finish all of the ugly phases and I mean I hit them ALL.

But, even dead rock becomes live rock given enough time.

The "good old days". At least in my area the live rock the LFS stores now sell is just something they threw in a vat of saltwater two days prior....

 

[Wyvern]

I cringe when I see wet/dry sumps, but Im sure when they are old enough, you get a full cycle.

My FW tank is in full cycle, I just top it off and change one of the filters once every 3 months, zero algea, low nitrates and crystal clear water.

I envy my own FW tank... My reef has a LONG way to go to maturity.

 

[fish farmer]

I don't remember refugiums being a thing when I originally started in the hobby around 2000. They may have been around but if they were I wasn't aware of them, but to be fair information wasn't shared among people from different locations like it is now. If I couldn't get the information from my lfs or from a book then I wouldn't have known about it.

I don't use a refugium currently so it wasn't much different for me.

They were being used. I've been logged onto the internet since 2000. I used my first laptop for reef surfing, RC, RDO, Reefland. It was all about the deep sand bed back then, skimmer, MH and maybe some caulerpa....hope it doesn't sexual ;Nailbiting . If you really got into talking about refugiums back then, it would end in "how are the critters from the fuge going to make it to the DT without being chopped up by pumps?" I never ever heard about ATS in use at the time, I could reference Walter Addy's Smithsonian tank, but I usually heard crickets.

With regards to gear, from what I gather is the U.S. didn't have the good stuff or any stuff, European reefing was more advanced. Find a copy of Albert Thiel's book Advanced Reef Keeping from 1989, pretty much all sorts of gadgets and gizmos, just in an older format and slightly different ways.

 

[fcmatt]

You mean a sump with a light? Never ran one. But I recall people using them even when under gravel filters were a thing. You have to ask people who were reefing in the 1980s more or less. By the first macna meeting people were discussing it.

 

[outhouse]

in the 90's some still had refugiums, and there were many other ways to skin the cat all successful.

Lots of LR, overskimming, DSB, reverse flow SB, BB and high and low flow. Best thing ive seen is vibrant. Normally I run a DSB and a good skimmer and have tried everything. But when a DSB gets old they quit working as well. Im at that point now and with vibrant, the tank has never looked better as far as algae goes .

 

[mfinn]

I think my progression in the hobby started with wet/dry filters in the 80's with some live rock slipping in.
Then deep sand beds, and somewhere before a refugium came the plenum deep sand bed.
I did a little experimenting with a type of algae scrubber using a long trough ( plastic gutter) and dividers in it ( ice cube dividers/egg crate ) for algae to grow on with fluorescent tube lighting. That didn't last very long because it was flat out ugly.