Reef keeping in the 1980's

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I was 13 years old in 1983
Some accesories I remember from the 80's was:

A black rectangular box for denutrification. And trays you put in the sump for denutrification. Hamilton t12 96" vho flourecent lighting.
6500k was the highest kelvins. Little giant pumps, trickle filter with rotation spray bar, I tried to make a homemade spray bar.
@Lasse what do you remember then from aquaria.
@Sallstrom follow along or comment, we're going back to 1980's. @Subsea, what do you remember? anyone else remember 80's for reef keeping,
Remember tv aquarium?

 

[Sallstrom]

I was young back then, only had a small fresh water tank.
But I remember an aquarium book with a short chapter on saltwater aquariums, bleached or painted coral skeleton and clown fish

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I was young back then, only had a small fresh water tank.
But I remember an aquarium book with a short chapter on saltwater aquariums, bleached or painted coral skeleton and clown fish

We were all young then. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

@Flippers4pups what do you remember?

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

All live corals we bought, Goni, elegant corals, dendronephthya, Christmas tree worms, pipe organ,feather dusters. We were killing them left and right.

 

[reefwiser]

It was a tough time to be in the saltwater hobby. I remember all the devices like trickle filters too well. At that time I was a young man with a family and looked at all the fancy equipment and thinking how can you afford that.Like many people here today. We did at the end of the 80's get the berlin method of keeping saltwater tanks and started down the path to where we are today. Thou many hobbyist still try to use hi tech equipment and dry rock to run their aquarium like we did back in the day. An I find that quite sad as they have lost their way and are back 30 years in learning again.

 

[Subsea]

First marine tank was October 1971. After four years in the Air Force, I entered the Texas Maritime Academy in Galveston, Tx. I got hooked into the ecology of our environment the first semester with Chemical Oceanorgraphy 101. During those days, GI Bill was $175 a month. Nothing in the budget for reef tank inhabitants.

My first marine tank was 55G. It came with an undergravel filter and air pump with uplift tubes. Armed with the science of Oceanorgraphy 101, I settled on crushed up oyster shells for substrate to stabilize pH. Two inches of substrate was crushed up oyster shells from chicken “feed store”. Inhabitants were collected in Galveston Bay as well as on the jetties on Gulf of Mexico side of Galveston Island. Peppermint shrimp and Condalacta Anemone came from jetties. Live rock consisted of oyster cluster with barnacles and fan worms collected in the Intracoastal Canal. Ghost shrimp, green mollies and Sheepshead minnows were seined in salt water marshes.

The above “set up” served me 15 years. A real reefer commented on seeing my tank for the first time, why are you growing all of that cynobacteria. I thought the thick burgundy colored mat was pretty.

Laissez les bonne temps roulee,
Patrick

 

[Retro Reefer]

First reef I set up in the early 80’s had under gravel filter, lava rock, air stone in tank and I used sun bulbs and daylight fluorescent tubes.. I had LPS, softy’s and inverts




This is my first modern reef from around 1985.. wet/dry filter, protein skimmers, ozone, real live rock and lighting was actinic o3’s imported from holland

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

First reef I set up in the early 80’s had under gravel filter, lava rock, air stone in tank and I used sun bulbs and daylight fluorescent tubes.. I had LPS, softy’s and inverts




This is my first modern reef from around 1985.. wet/dry filter, protein skimmers, ozone, real live rock and lighting was actinic o3’s imported from holland

Coral life had an ozone device for cheap then,
Daylight bulbs
I think then you could get 7500k, not cheap
Then forget about high kelvins from MH

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

First marine tank was October 1971. After four years in the Air Force, I entered the Texas Maritime Academy in Galveston, Tx. I got hooked into the ecology of our environment the first semester with Chemical Oceanorgraphy 101. During those days, GI Bill was $175 a month. Nothing in the budget for reef tank inhabitants.

My first marine tank was 55G. It came with an undergravel filter and air pump with uplift tubes. Armed with the science of Oceanorgraphy 101, I settled on crushed up oyster shells for substrate to stabilize pH. Two inches of substrate was crushed up oyster shells from chicken “feed store”. Inhabitants were collected in Galveston Bay as well as on the jetties on Gulf of Mexico side of Galveston Island. Peppermint shrimp and Condalacta Anemone came from jetties. Live rock consisted of oyster cluster with barnacles and fan worms collected in the Intracoastal Canal. Ghost shrimp, green mollies and Sheepshead minnows were seined in salt water marshes.

The above “set up” served me 15 years. A real reefer commented on seeing my tank for the first time, why are you growing all of that cynobacteria. I thought the thick burgundy colored mat was pretty.

Laissez les bonne temps roulee,
Patrick

1987 I was thinking of getting into oceanography, so before jumping into it. Went to college book store in Fullerton. Bought a used oceanography book 101. To this day only subject or point in book I remember was, "the same amount of heat the sun radiates to earth, the earth loses same amount to space", nothing then about climate change or neither did we see damage to earth,to the scale, as we see now. Times are a changing.

 

[Fin]

The "go to" light of the early 80s...

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

The "go to" light of the early 80s...

Wonder what the kelvins was on them

 

[Subsea]

@Jomama

I laughed when you said, “what do you remember of the 1980. I remember getting out of high school in the spring of 1966. Janis Joplain said about the 1960’s, “if you remember the 60’s, you really were not there”.

1987 I was thinking of getting into oceanography, so before jumping into it. Went to college book store in Fullerton. Bought a used oceanography book 101. To this day only subject or point in book I remember was, "the same amount of heat the sun radiates to earth, the earth loses same amount to space", nothing then about climate change or neither did we see damage to earth,to the scale, as we see now. Times are a changing.

With respect to “Times are a changing”, it depends on how observations are made. Considering advances in technology & methodology that allow much more detailed scrutiny, we see so much more. Considering advances in social networking, we hear so much more. I think that the “times were a changing back in the sixties”, but for various reasons, we were not aware of it.

 

[Breadman03]

I wasn’t a contributor back then, but I loved walking around Q-Pet, the pet shop in a farmers market (Q-Mart) in Quakertown, PA. They had a solid saltwater setup. In the 90’s I finally convinced my parents to let me set up a freshwater tank, but it was largely from wanting a saltwater tank.

 

[Subsea]

Here is what is left of 25 year old Jaubert Plenum, after Melanarious Wrasse excavated detrivore crew.


EcoSystem Mud/Macro refugium with wet/dry filter in first chamber.

 

[Oldsalt01]

I got hooked one day in the summer of 1970, when my then-wife and I walked into a pet store in Tidewater VA, and before us was a 5ooo gallon SW tank that took up one whole wall of the store. That day we bought a 20g long (with a metal rim), fluorescent fixture with a Gro-lux bulb, an Aquaking box filter, an air pump and undergravel filter. We took it home, I hauled 20 gallons of Chesapeake Bay water and about 20 lbs of Chesapeake Bay beach sand the block and a half from the Bay to our house. We filled that sucker up, put in a bleached coral skeleton, and stocked it with Silversides, Ghost Shrimp, 2 baby Atlantic Spade Fish I netted in an estuary, and a baby Horseshoe Crab we caught at the beach. We knew nothing about ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/phosphate cycles, and I am still surprised the tank never crashed. We fed the fish freshwater fish flakes exclusively. Every week I would haul 5g's up from the bay and do a 25% water change. No dosers, no LED's or automated controllers, no RO/DI for top off (we used tap water, [shudder] which we may or may not have hit with de-chlorinator) but I was HOOKED! We had that tank for about a year until I shipped out for a Mediterranean cruise. All the critters went back into the estuary and in that time I think we only lost one or two Silversides and maybe the shrimp. We threw the tank away because the rim was so rusted. Unfortunately, all the photos went with my ex-wife, but I'll always have the memories of my first SW tank.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I got hooked one day in the summer of 1970, when my then-wife and I walked into a pet store in Tidewater VA, and before us was a 5ooo gallon SW tank that took up one whole wall of the store. That day we bought a 20g long (with a metal rim), fluorescent fixture with a Gro-lux bulb, an Aquaking box filter, an air pump and undergravel filter. We took it home, I hauled 20 gallons of Chesapeake Bay water and about 20 lbs of Chesapeake Bay beach sand the block and a half from the Bay to our house. We filled that sucker up, put in a bleached coral skeleton, and stocked it with Silversides, Ghost Shrimp, 2 baby Atlantic Spade Fish I netted in an estuary, and a baby Horseshoe Crab we caught at the beach. We knew nothing about ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/phosphate cycles, and I am still surprised the tank never crashed. We fed the fish freshwater fish flakes exclusively. Every week I would haul 5g's up from the bay and do a 25% water change. No dosers, no LED's or automated controllers, no RO/DI for top off (we used tap water, [shudder] which we may or may not have hit with de-chlorinator) but I was HOOKED! We had that tank for about a year until I shipped out for a Mediterranean cruise. All the critters went back into the estuary and in that time I think we only lost one or two Silversides and maybe the shrimp. We threw the tank away because the rim was so rusted. Unfortunately, all the photos went with my ex-wife, but I'll always have the memories of my first SW tank.

How times have a changed. Thanks for sharing

 

[Bunnee911]

Metaframe aquariums, canister filters, and two sets of decor so you could bleach one and have the other in the tank.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Metaframe aquariums, canister filters, and two sets of decor so you could bleach one and have the other in the tank.

My god, those were the days. Heehee

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Metaframe aquariums, canister filters, and two sets of decor so you could bleach one and have the other in the tank.

One more time, I gotta read this