Anyone live by the old school ways???

[dennis romano]

Sorry about the orientation

 

[Paul B]

I remember those books and just gave them away when I moved here 2 years ago.

 

[dennis romano]

I remember those books and just gave them away when I moved here 2 years ago.

Did you bleach your corals to keep them nice and clean?

 

[dricc]

Did you bleach your corals to keep them nice and clean?

And then put them out in the sun.

 

[tripdad]

Yep, once a year. Cleaned the dolomite sand too.

 

[Paul B]

Did you bleach your corals to keep them nice and clean?

Like Duh, of course. Sometimes I added acid.
I even collected the coral myself in Hawaii and other places, bleached it in my hotel room and carried them home on the plane in my lap. I still use that original dolomite gravel although I had to get more and I still run an undegravel filter but I run it in reverse now.
Those blue devils spawned and lived 7 years.

This is my first salt tank in 1971. I upgraded the glass twice but that tank is still running.
I also look exactly the same including the hair and that watch.

I also have two aquarium related patents.



Here is the male over his nest of eggs in that tank.

 

[vlangel]

I am another old school reefer, although not as old school as some. I started my first reef at the end of the 90s. I worked at a LFS back then and my boss was friends with Michael Paletta. Michael shared about adding a refugium with miracle mud to a display reef with live rock for a simple low maintenance system. That is still how I keep my reef today. I do not run a skimmer, (I let the macro algae and seagrass in the fuge take up the nutrients) but I do do 10% water changes every other week to replenish trace elements and such. I occasionally dose strontium, coral vite and iron if my macro algae looks like it needs something. Other than that I let my heavy bio load (16 fish in a 56 gallon) provide the food for coral, macro algae and seagrass. The fuge also has a sustainable population of grass shrimp (for larvae shrimp) and copepods to feed the display. It's a simple system but runs well. I do not keep many sps however. This type of high nutrient system is better suited for softies and LPS

 

[X-37B]

These tanks are stunning!!! I'm a noob so forgive this probably dumb question.... I see some tanks with coralline algae but others don't look like it's there at all. Is it in all tanks but some need it more than others because of what they're keeping (hence they let it grow more) while others try to suppress it? I didn't give this much thought until I saw some of these pics.

I so love it that old school works!!

It can be an issue in some tanks as it grows everywhere.
Here is my 120 before adding 2 urchins that keep the rocks clean and coralline from overtaking the back glass.
High amounts of coralline suck the ca and alk like crazy out of your system so more needs to be added. Urchins help keep it under control since they primarily eat it.

 

[Karen00]

It can be an issue in some tanks as it grows everywhere.
Here is my 120 before adding 2 urchins that keep the rocks clean and coralline from overtaking the back glass.
High amounts of coralline suck the ca and alk like crazy out of your system so more needs to be added. Urchins help keep it under control since they primarily eat it.

Thank you for this! Now I understand and I can cross this off my long list of questions! LOL

 

[ca1ore]

Perhaps somebody could explain ‘old school’ to me. Is it essentially being a Luddite, or something else? I had my first reef tank around 1987, and have adopted equipment and procedures since than that make sense to me ..... and rejected those that do not.

 

[Uncle99]

Some old ways, some new ways, many different ways to keep a reef.
Water changes become less effective after a year or so maturity in keeping those 17 minor and trace elements in appropriate amounts.
So for me, water changes first 12 months, then Red Sea Colours Trace Program afterwords. Tropic Marin now has a similar product, same thinking, like the Triton method.

 

[smacbride]

On my 3rd tank, after about 35 years of salt water. I used to not do too many water changes and now since the lockdown I've been doing small ones once a week. I guess I'll see if anything changes with my tank. I don't dose anything so i guess the small changes add the stuff that the tank needs.

 

[Doctorgori]

I’m from the VHO days lol
Yes I don’t buy the whole blue light tank thing at all, my tanks are usually daylight tones
I don’t like water changes but do them.
I don’t buy expensive named corals as I forget what they are called as soon as they get glued down
I don’t over stock my tanks and love all the old school worms feather dusters and sponges
I went t5 retro

 

[Paul B]

Perhaps somebody could explain ‘old school’ to me. Is it essentially being a Luddite, or something else? I had my first reef tank around 1987, and have adopted equipment and procedures since than that make sense to me ..... and rejected those that do not.

Yes Old School means we do many of the things we did when the hobby started. There were no reefs then as corals were not sold so we all had fish only tanks. There was also no lights, filters, pumps or almost anything sold for salt water so we used and sometimes converted fresh water things for use in salt water. For instance all light fixtures were in a metal housing which rusted badly so we removed the guts or painted them.

There were no submersible pumps. They were also metal and sat above the water and as there were no GFI receptacles or breakers, we got shocked a lot.

HOB filters are what we used and they were filled with fiberglass floss which gives you cancer if you live in California but if you are in Ohio or France, you will be fine.

There was no salt water gravel or sand so I used blue driveway gravel until I found dolomite. Under gravel filters were used in almost all tanks.
We didn't dose anything because none of that stuff was sold.

There were no salt water fish medications so we used people meds. After a couple of years they started to become available but all they did was turn the water fluorescent colors.

For copper I used pennies. 20 pennies to the gallon. Now pennies are made out of old Oldsmobile fenders.

Here is one page from my Log book a few years after I started my tank.

Now old school means we use some of those old ways and don't dose or hardly test.
Many of us have no controlers and do things by hand. I still use an undergravel filter and dolomite. I also have no dosers and rarely test or change water.

 

[jesspal]

Water changes are old school?

 

[najer]

It can be an issue in some tanks as it grows everywhere.
Here is my 120 before adding 2 urchins that keep the rocks clean and coralline from overtaking the back glass.
High amounts of coralline suck the ca and alk like crazy out of your system so more needs to be added. Urchins help keep it under control since they primarily eat it.

I have 5 or 6 tuxedos in my tank, hate coraline.

 

[Paul B]

Water changes are not old school but since we didn't have corals, we hardly had to change it. When I started the only salt available that I could find in New York was "Lampert Kays Marine Magic"
Some ASW came with a small bottle of additives that were trace elements.

 

[dohc97]

Note I don't do sticks. Them just sitting there with no movement don't satisfy ne

I take exception to this, my sps have plenty of movement, I'm old school just not as much as others on here. Water changes, t5 with about 14k spectrum, skimmer, no fancy dosers, and I only test alk when something looks off

 

[WVNed]

I guess I am more homeschooled.

 

[tony'stank]

Old school attitude with use of some newer high tech methods. Started my first reef tank in 1982 and I am old so I must be old school. I rarely do water changes, only when there seems to be a problem. Likewise I rarely test only when there seems to be a problem. The result is a very stable tank that is relatively low maintainence. I do closely examine my tank and it’s inhabitants daily. I have a sump,with a small refugium. I rely on a protein skimmer, Boyd’s Chemipure Blue in a reactor, and a surfer denigrators to keep my nitrates low. I use an ATO with a large reservoir because I am old and carrying 5 gallon buckets is hard. I am extremely careful about what and where I buy additions to the tank. I feed a very wide variety of frozen and fresh foods . I believe nutrition is the key to healthy disease - free fish.