brettonw
Community Member
Hi Folks,
I kept a variety of reef tanks in while living on the left coast during the late 1900s to early 2000s (including an acrylic 120g show tank with a 40 gallon sump), but sold all my gear to focus on family. Now I'm on the right coast, and jumping back in the deep end of the pool.
When I started reefing, I joined a message board run by Albert Thiel. This was about the time PAR was just starting to be explored for lighting reef aquariums. Did anybody ever figure out how to count a mole of photons? It's been especially interesting to see what's changed for the better (big changes: LED lights instead of metal halide or CFL, DC pumps instead of AC, affordable computer controllers, etc.), what hasn't (skimmers are improving but are substantially the same idea, natural ecosystem "filtration" vs. machinery, etc.) and what seems to have been lost (all the small vendors have been bought up into one big company). FWIW, I still have my copy of John H. Tullock's "Natural Reef Aquariums" from 1997, and I think it mostly holds up.
I'm looking forward to getting my new tank up and running with help from the internet, starting with some magic mud from IPSF (I think their website hasn't changed in 20 years either - LOL).
I kept a variety of reef tanks in while living on the left coast during the late 1900s to early 2000s (including an acrylic 120g show tank with a 40 gallon sump), but sold all my gear to focus on family. Now I'm on the right coast, and jumping back in the deep end of the pool.
When I started reefing, I joined a message board run by Albert Thiel. This was about the time PAR was just starting to be explored for lighting reef aquariums. Did anybody ever figure out how to count a mole of photons? It's been especially interesting to see what's changed for the better (big changes: LED lights instead of metal halide or CFL, DC pumps instead of AC, affordable computer controllers, etc.), what hasn't (skimmers are improving but are substantially the same idea, natural ecosystem "filtration" vs. machinery, etc.) and what seems to have been lost (all the small vendors have been bought up into one big company). FWIW, I still have my copy of John H. Tullock's "Natural Reef Aquariums" from 1997, and I think it mostly holds up.
I'm looking forward to getting my new tank up and running with help from the internet, starting with some magic mud from IPSF (I think their website hasn't changed in 20 years either - LOL).
