Look how far we have come as reefers...

[VSVP bet]

SALLY JO'S REEF PICTURES OF THE WEEK 7/7/99

Online reef aquarium coral farming school. Learn to propagate many reef aquarium invertebrates. You can join our reef aquarium research team by filling out the data collection forms on our pages. Coral farming for reef aquariums will help save coral reefs from over collecting

www.garf.org

Came across this old website while researching coral species. The picture below from the article was dated 7/11/99, some early reefing. The article explains the vision of the organization. "We have been using the Internet to train many people from around the world to farm these corals in captive, land based, small scale farms."

Their vision is pretty consistent with what is happening today. We are all small-scale aquaculture facilities, farmers if you will... Kind of amazing to see this claim/prediction come true.

Happy reefing fellow farmers.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

It's always fun to me reading old articles like that and seeing how much has changed since then. Kinda crazy how much the hobby changes in a year let alone 20+ years!

 

[StatelineReefer]

That 'old website' was GARF... Or the geothermal aquatic research foundation.

They were actually around for a lot longer than 20+ years. I called Leroy a couple times a year back when I first started out, before there was an internet. He and Sally Jo will always be dear to my memories.

A lot of their research and hard work paved the way towards keeping sps stony corals, if you dig around on the wayback machine you can see some of the things they did, some of which worked, some of which didn't.

 

[VSVP bet]

That 'old website' was GARF... Or the geothermal aquatic research foundation.

They were actually around for a lot longer than 20+ years. I called Leroy a couple times a year back when I first started out, before there was an internet. He and Sally Jo will always be dear to my memories.

A lot of their research and hard work paved the way towards keeping sps stony corals, if you dig around on the wayback machine you can see some of the things they did, some of which worked, some of which didn't.

Kind of amazing to think about. I was planning on taking a look at more articles later. I think it's just amazing that their vision of reefing did in fact come true.

I also think its interesting to see some of the struggles of reefing evident even in the beginning. Like aiptasia https://www.garf.org/copper/COPPERBAND2.shtml.

 

[VSVP bet]

It's always fun to me reading old articles like that and seeing how much has changed since then. Kinda crazy how much the hobby changes in a year let alone 20+ years!

It is amazing. Vintage reefing. This hobby is a product of a lot of trial and error. Makes me even more thankful for this community.

 

[vlangel]

I began to move into saltwater (from freshwater) right around that time, haha!

 

[VSVP bet]

I began to move into saltwater (from freshwater) right around that time, haha!

1999? Seasoned reefer.

 

[StatelineReefer]

1999? Seasoned reefer.

If by seasoned you mean salty, then yeah, I make that mark too.

 

[vlangel]

1999? Seasoned reefer.

Ha ha, that is such a nice way to put it! I have learned a lot over the years, especially the 5 or so years that I was an aquarium tech for a lfs's accounts. At one point I was in charge of 23 aquariums for our customers.

What I learned in those 5 years is everything (equipment wise) fails so have a plan for that. Especially heaters and pumps that aerate. The other thing I learned is that faithful water changes and basic maintenance is a very reliable way to keep water quality in bounds, and tanks with good water quality can support animals for decades. As a result I have made those chores as easy as possible.