Let's talk about the good ol' days in reefing!

marinesnow · Jul 11, 2023

What year did you start reefing? What was great about that time?
Bonus question--knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I'll go first... I started my first reef tank in 2008. It was a ten gallon petco tank with a aquaclear HOB filter and a soap holder for chaeto. Owning reef was something I dreamed of as a kid, and starting my first reef felt like a coming of age. For me, upgrading meant my next tank was a biocube--ended up getting an AIO from advanced acrylics.

In the good ol days I remember when designer clownfish first started to appear, it was a magical time.

If I could go back I would have banked my corals with friends. I had a few tank crashes along the way, and took a hiatus. Coming back to the hobby I would have loved to have corals with lineage from my early days in the hobby.

blaxsun · Jul 11, 2023

2020 (but long before that for aquariums in general). Things were a lot cheaper (no BS COVID excuses for jacking prices, which are easily 25-35%+ higher since). If I could do things differently I'd have gotten a bigger tank from the outset.

areefer01 · Jul 11, 2023

Southdown Sand - stupid cheap.
Live rock from Fiji - wrapped in wet newspaper.
Face 2 Face - clubs.
No internet as we know it today, dial up BBS and USENET.
Read books.

marinesnow · Jul 11, 2023

blaxsun said:
2020 (but long before that for aquariums in general). Things were a lot cheaper (no BS COVID excuses for jacking prices, which are easily 25-35%+ higher since). If I could do things differently I'd have gotten a bigger tank from the outset.

RIGHT?! I remember the $15 frag section at my LFS. It had all kinds of hammers and frogspawns!

Rmckoy · Jul 11, 2023

marinesnow said:
RIGHT?! I remember the $15 frag section at my LFS. It had all kinds of hammers and frogspawns!

O
Remember 3 for $10 but the selection was slim
.

$20 for
What’s now called a parge colony or acan , zoa ,
$15
For a huge elegance coral

my lfs still has $10 frags ( but they have gor
Smaller and not as often to see the sale

blaxsun · Jul 11, 2023

* When "rainbow" was used a lot less...
* When "ultra" was hardly used at all...
* When warranties were the exception rather than the rule...

Rmckoy · Jul 11, 2023

blaxsun said:
* When "rainbow" was used a lot less...
* When "ultra" was hardly used at all...
* When warranties were the exception rather than the rule...

Rainbow anemone ( someone injected them with dye . Which would eventualy
Wash out

marinesnow · Jul 11, 2023

Rmckoy said:
Rainbow anemone ( someone injected them with dye . Which would eventualy
Wash out

What?! No way!

JPM San Diego · Jul 11, 2023

Mid 70's to the early 90's I had fish only tanks. Eventually my skill level increased and my fish population stabilzed without any losses for several years. I had no reason to go into a pet store. In my mind, only fish and a couple of invertebrates lived in aquariums. In the early 90's I ventured into a pet store and saw my first reef tank, fully stocked with live coral.
It was a Dorothy goes to the Land of Oz experience. I literally stood there with my mouth agape (drooling most likely) thinking to myself, "this is impossibe", which was followed shortly by, "I want one".

vetteguy53081 · Jul 11, 2023

marinesnow said:
What year did you start reefing? What was great about time?
Bonus question--knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I'll go first... I started my first reef tank in 2008. It was a ten gallon petco tank with a aquaclear HOB filter and a soap holder for chaeto. Owning reef was something I dreamed of as a kid, and starting my first reef felt like a coming of age. For me, upgrading meant my next tank was a biocube--ended up getting an AIO from advanced acrylics.

In the good ol days I remember when designer clownfish first started to appear, it was a magical time.

If I could go back I would have banked my corals with friends. I had a few tank crashes along the way, and took a hiatus. Coming back to the hobby I would have loved to have corals with lineage from my early days in the hobby.

I go back 41 years now and it was your basic tank with undergravel filter and a maxiJet power head on each stack with dolomite opposed to now sand and a floating thermometer, and screw on heater, lots of salt creep and a large hood with compact fluorescent bulbs and tap water with tetra safe water additive. Everyone had damsels and condylactus anemones. I can go on 20 more lines. have I seem change!

Rabidbeast666 · Jul 11, 2023

20yrs ago I used to build huge skimmers with pond fountain heads. Mag 9 pumps. Halides out the wazoo and then try to keep the tank at 78° in Texas with no chiller. With the new technology in every aspect it's the 1st time I've had to worry about a heater.

LightingBug · Jul 11, 2023

About 20 years ago for me.
Skimmers were the hot topic then, IIRC,
The ReefKeeper was just coming out (I still have one in storage lol)
Acan Lord's I remember being the "it" coral for awhile - prices were ridic...

Dr's Foster and Smith
Marine Depot
The first Calcium Meter (which was terrible)

00W · Jul 11, 2023

Same as @vetteguy. 35 years now. First tank 15 gallon hex with no lid and smallish leak near the top.
Found tank behind salvation army. Undergravel filter, crushed coral and a regular light bulb. Airstone through Undergravel tube.
No heater. Tetra aquasafe. I could easily go on and on.
No info, no internet. I knew nothing.
Lots of basic books to read. Very simple.
I did finally get a Sanders piccolo skimmer and man, was I excited.

Reefing102 · Jul 11, 2023

2003 for me.

Skimmers were huge. LED was virtually non existent except for moonlights in Halide set ups. $30 colonies of Florida Ricordea (15-20 polyps). Acan lords and people eater zoas were the must have.

Goniopora was a no go coral as it always died.

A name meant something (Tyree, Tubbs, etc) meaning it’s been well established in the hobby and not likely to die.

$50 torch, frogspawn and hammer true colonies (15/20 head+).

$4-$6/lb pacific rock (Fiji, Marshall island, Jakarta, Tonga branch, etc.)

Ahh the good old days

Cichlid Dad · Jul 12, 2023

That was a year ago for me, not much change

knockout · Jul 12, 2023

The chronicles of REEF, 16 years learning to reef... still...
When the bug first bit and a 75-gallon reef tank was started, then another 75, it's just a refugium honey, then made the jump, 220 bang, then I got really good at it and people started coming to the house to pick up frags by boatloads, so my honey intervened, no more strangers at all hours are welcome anymore, I said dang, so I intervened, honey I am opening a REEF shop, so I did, now I have 100 tanks hahaha, 5 years later oh I am bored, let's get another tank at the house, 300, got tired of working 24/7 at the shop, sold it, back to just hobby, one day, moving? oh no! Sell everything, take it down a notch, REEFER 250, a few months later, honey the anemones are stinging the acros again... I have a solution, get another tank, REEFER 170, for the nems so they're happy, and then honey says the fish can't swim between all those sticks anymore, aha, solution, get another tank 130-gallon Waterbox, and so here we are nearly 20 years, we have a 130 mixed SPS/LPS and the REEFER 170 Nem tank, Zoa Garden and HUGE bubble coral, which I learned the nems don't get near it, so he lives happily amongst them, my honey actually enjoys the hobby very much, she won't miss a fragswap and often finds and wants the most expensive frags and I "let" her get them.

Overboard · Jul 12, 2023

Started in 1999…..

Ran MH (of course) with VHO actinic (still love MH). Huge Barr skimmer with dual Becketts, deep sand bed, real live rock was everywhere, big pumps for closed loops like Dolphin Amp Masters and Reeflo (Tunze was just showing up). Honestly, it all worked really well. Sanjay had all the par tests and spreads for various combinations of MH ballasts, bulbs, and fixtures (there were dozens of choices). Loved studying those to justify my itch to buy more stuff.

My first “prize” coral was a Tyree Purple Monster that I got from Steve. Most corals that were sold were known by the scientific names or maybe a general description. No clever names and no over-saturated pictures.

Fellow reefers would often be happy to share frags to help get you started (at no cost).

Vendors - Some oldies but goodies:

Flying Fish Express (predecessor to Divers Den)
Reefer Madness
Marine Center for rare or large fish
Clams Direct

Loved the hobby then and love it now. Probably more rare fish available now although some of my favorites are no longer obtainable. Things just change. Happy some long time people are still around like Dr Mac.

Salty_Northerner · Jul 12, 2023

marinesnow said:
What year did you start reefing? What was great about that time?
Bonus question--knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I'll go first... I started my first reef tank in 2008. It was a ten gallon petco tank with a aquaclear HOB filter and a soap holder for chaeto. Owning reef was something I dreamed of as a kid, and starting my first reef felt like a coming of age. For me, upgrading meant my next tank was a biocube--ended up getting an AIO from advanced acrylics.

In the good ol days I remember when designer clownfish first started to appear, it was a magical time.

If I could go back I would have banked my corals with friends. I had a few tank crashes along the way, and took a hiatus. Coming back to the hobby I would have loved to have corals with lineage from my early days in the hobby.

Back in 98 I had a small 25 g glass box, a plenum sand-bed, Icecap ballast running 4 24" T12's 2 50/50's and 2 actinic's.

Hang on back skimmer and the most lively Fiji live rock full of small corals. Dosing was just a simple handful of seachem liquids that I'd just add so many drop's per week as what the bottles said and magazines and local shop owners for info.

That's when reefing was simple and cheap. Get 30-40 polyp zoas, frogspawn, torches and beautiful mushrooms that I haven't seen in many many years and all were cheap cheap. Now those were the good ol days with $3 a pound for totally purple encrusted fiji rock, and corals were actually corals and not this tiny frag stuff ppl sell today for an arm and a leg!

Knowing what I know now... Id go back and do it the way we used to do it.. simple and keep it simple was the success. The most expensive item was the Icecap ballast @ $600 but it would do what lights of today can do, like ramp up and down and everything in between.

Now its a headache, (but a good headache of re-learning the new tech) chasing numbers, patterns ect.. back then we never tested really anything. nor had really any sort of reliable testing gear.

GoldeneyeRet · Jul 12, 2023

I started in 1989 with a 40 breeder. Upgraded to a 120 a year later and ran that until 2017 or so before going to a 210. Now, I'm thankless. If the hobbywas still like it was in the good Ole days I would still be doing it.

CoastalTownLayabout · Jul 12, 2023

I think my first proper reef tank was set up around 1993. Was a 3ft display with wet / dry sump, lime wood airstone Sanders skimmer, T8 flouro lighting, live rock, bare bottom, natural seawater and de chlorinated tap water manual top offs. Was a great starter tank, keeping elegance, frogspawn and morphs successfully. From memory I had a scopas and yellow coris in there.

I think that system ran for about 2 years until I overtightened the return bulkhead while adjusting flow one day. Cracked the rear pane from corner to corner. Never forget that day!

What I really enjoyed about reefing in the 90’s was the DIY ethos and open mindedness to alternate methodologies. Also the anticipation of a new copy of FAMA magazine.