Evolution of SW Tanks
 

Being a person who enjoys fun facts, knowledge and history I thought it would be neat to start a thread on the progression of this hobby! People who have been draining their wallets at this for years please post how long you've been at it, maybe even what was popular or the "new big thing" at that time and changes/advancement over the years. Anything from equipment, technology, prices changes, corals/fish that were once thought of as impossible to keep that are now common, fun facts or even funny stories from older tanks!!

Having my hands wet for only 2 years in saltwater tanks I am still very green when it comes to it and don't have much to share of my own experience. However the thing I have noticed the most is the advancement in LED lighting.
Now it's your turn!

I havnt been in the game that long either really, (about six years)but when I started up there was still metal halide diehards that didnt believe HOT5s could sustain sps.....now all the whippersnappers are on LEDs:mrgreen:

who are you calling a WHIPPERSNAPPER?!?!? ;) I'm still much to green for this thread ;)

Fresh water for 3 years then 6 years in saltwater, I remember when I laid my eyes on the first solaris fixture I told myself that was the future, but after seeing the price tag of 4 digits I was very content with my power compacts.

My first "reef" was about 17 years ago. Liverock approached $20/lb. It was also covered in life, corals, sponges, you name it. Beckett skimmers were the best you could get. Iwasaki 7.8k bulbs were popular. Salt was IO or Kent. No such thing as HOT5's. Growing SPS was tough, near impossible. Best powerhead you could find was a Hagen 802.

A lot has changed in 20 years -lol

thanks Brad.....now I dont feel so old:razz:.....tho I have been keeping fish(not salties) since I was 16, so about 23 years......ugh! now I feel old again:neutral:

I've been keeping fish for about 40 :razz:

$20/lb?!! Wow! I'm assuming there was no dry base rock 17 years ago??

That would have been hard to find 5 or 6 years ago. Not that I'd use it anyway :razz:

I'm dating myself but here goes anyways. My first salt tank was a 27 gallon and had an undergravel filter with dolomite gravel and crushed oyster shell as the substrate. I used an air pump to power the under gravel filter as there was no such thing as a power head. I used dead coral skeletons for decoration and had a few fish. I used Instant Ocean salt mix and had an Ebo Jager heater. The heater malfunctioned and took the tank to 92°f. Needless to say the fish came down with ick and that was the end of my first salt water tank. If I remember correctly the tank used incandescent lights too.

I remember my first acro shipment. We all were so excited to get "LIVE" acros... even though they were brown.

I was born with fish and dogs. My father had a nice big pond with lots of different kinds of fish in his back yard. I started feeding his fish when I was 5 years old. He bought me my first fresh water fish tank when I was 13 years old. In 1993, I bought my very first saltwater fish tank and quit doing fresh water from there. Until 2003, I converted from a fish only tank to a LPS and softies tank. In 2008, thanks to Tom R - one of the members here -sold me a dozen of sps frags from his tank, and I got a tiny free frag from untamed, I got addicted with sps corals from that time until now. Living a whole life with fish and corals later on, people may think I have a lot of experiences ... but I am actually the most terrible reef keeper :cry: The reason is ... I don't really care about corals very much ... I only like fish :mrgreen:

In mid eighties I was working in the fish department of the LFS and at that time the only saltwater tanks were bleached coral and under-gravel bio filters. One day the boss arrived with a bag of blue "bio-balls" and a plexiglas drip filter. The first in Ontario as far as we knew.. Within two years were we the goto source for these new technologies. Soon myself and two others from the fish department quit, drove to Key Largo, rented a trailer and began harvesting and shipping LR back to Canada. Good times.

When I was in high school (over 15 yrs ago) I worked at PJ's pets and they were the only store in Edmonton that had saltwater anything. I remember hooking up the spraybar over the giant bin of bio-balls and thought this is the best filter ever!! I believe the LR was by special order only and you had to pay first.

I think one of the biggest improvements has been transportation of livestock. We were lucky to get damsels or a few tangs on the order sheet it was usually 1/2 page.

PJ's Pets alumni as well, see above post. Steeles and Yonge in Toronto.

Great stories!!

Do you remember the price or survival rate of these first Acro's??

Not that I was even around, but my dad has kept saltwater for probably 30+ years. First with seahorses and then getting a 100g saltwatertank in the late 80's with a wet/dry filter and liverock which he ordered from an lfs and picked up at the airport direct from florida. The rock was very live from what I am told with sponges and what not. He had anenomes, clownfish, tangs, gobies even a queen angel but took it down shortly after I was born and went on a saltwater hiatus.

I have only kept salt for 5 years or so, but fresh since grade 7(1988 i think), started with a tank from a garage sale and whatever fish i could get with my meager allowance and flyer route.

I would bicycle to Hole in the Wall in Calgary at lease once a week, even in minus 30, oogle at all the salt fish and the shark pool in the back, I don't remember prices but i remember my dad cringing any time I tried to talk him into letting me do salt.

Adventures in fishkeeping
 

My father built my first aquarium for me I was 5 years old. We made it from old window glass and bathroom caulking and it had a wood frame. I would say it was about the size of a 29 gal tall. Filtration consisted of a small box filter powered by a tiny diaphragm pump we ordered from the sears catalogue. Since there was no lfs in ft. Mac in the 70's my livestock consisted of whatever I could catch with my net in the creek and pond behind our house. I kept minnows, sticklebacks, newts, tadpoles, and mudbugs of all kinds. My dad taught me to catch daphnia with a nylon stocking on a stick as a food source. I got very good at keeping things alive in that little tank!

Later in the early eighties a lfs opened up and I started keeping regular tropical fish. I was content with that till we moved to Red Deer in 1985. I had to leave my little tank behind.

Once in Red Deer I found a lfs and was introduced to FAMA magazine. I saw pictures of all the beautiful saltwater fish and knew I had to have some! I bought a used 55 gal at a garage sale with my paper money and started to plan. Back then Berlin systems were just coming in and nobody knew what a skimmer was. I knew about live rock and so I ordered some from a Florida company called Tampa bay saltwater. I think I got 25lbs. It cost over $350.00! I set that first system up with an undergravel filter with a powerhead, an aquaclear 250 filter and a heater. Salt was IO and I had a floating hydrometer. I had various coral skeletons I had collected as decoration. Gravel was dolomite. I learned to keep a few different animals in that tank. I remember having a yellow tang, a regal tang, clown fish, damsels, featherdusters, hermit crabs, etc. I tried an anemone once but it didn't last long. All that time I used no test kits and fed the fish flake food! I had that tank till I was diagnosed with leukemia in 92. By the time I got home from the hospital 14 months later everything had died. I didn't venture back into the hobby again until 2007.

Good to hear everything worked out for you and your back at it. Must have been neat seeing the advancement in saltwater after a 15 year break!!

I think they were $5 each plus shipping. The club I was in bought them from a public aquarium.

Mine lasted about 2 months under an Iwasaki 6500k 400 watt MH.