Evolution of SW Tanks

Aquattro · #1 04-17-2012, 10:32 PM

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

fishytime · #2 04-17-2012, 10:39 PM

thanks Brad.....now I dont feel so old

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

Aquattro · #3 04-17-2012, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishytime

thanks Brad.....now I dont feel so old

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

I've been keeping fish for about 40

GracieLou · #4 04-17-2012, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquattro

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

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

Aquattro · #5 04-17-2012, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GracieLou

$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

TimT · #6 04-18-2012, 12:14 AM

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.

Casey8 · #7 04-18-2012, 12:54 AM

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

The reason is ... I don't really care about corals very much ... I only like fish

Snaz · #8 04-18-2012, 01:33 AM

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.

subman · #9 04-18-2012, 02:08 AM

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.

GracieLou · #10 04-18-2012, 02:36 AM

Great stories!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimT

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

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