Setting up a tank in 1996

[Angler and Eels]

This question is for the old wise people of this site. If I went on a fourm to ask how to set up a tanl 20 years ago in 1996 what would I have been told.

Some examples, filter, sump, no sump, substrate, canister filter, lighting, maintenance, fish, coral, dosing, feeding and anything else you can think of. How was cycling done? Did people know about the nitrogen cycle? For this discussion let's say I am getting a 125 gallon tank. It seems like back in the day large fish in small tanks were the thing.

Edit: live rock? How much and how was it? Please share pictures of your pre 1996 tanks.

 

[hybridazn]

Where's @Paul B at? Haha

 

[Humblefish]

I think by 1996 most people were running "Wet/Dry" instead of undergravel filters (except for Paul ). Bio-balls were primarily being used for biological filtration, but there was also this "Easter grass" looking stuff down in the sump that forced the water to trickle (providing gas exchange). HOB & canister filters were out, as carbon and everything else you needed could be put down in the sump. VHO lighting was still in (I believe), and did a pretty good job growing LPS & soft corals. Metal Halide was also available. We didn't have dosing pumps or media reactors or ATOs or controllers or anything fancy like that. I remember using crimped airline tubing to gravity feed kalk into my tank to maintain alk & cal. Didn't even check for mag back then.

Most LFS (where I lived) still were heavy on fish & inverts, light on corals in 1996. No online ordering unless someone you knew had a business license and you could "group buy" through a wholesaler. I was working for a maintenance business in 1996, so I got all my fish at wholesale prices anyway. No fancy wavemaker-like pumps. Just those straight nozzle ones (like Aquaclear powerheads). I'll add more to this thread later if I think of more stuff.

 

[Humblefish]

People still used damsels & condylactis anemones for cycling. Dead coral skeletons were more common than live rock. Everyone believed dwarf angels were reef safe. You could walk into a LFS and some creepy looking employee would just look at you and never ask if you needed anything (wait, that still happens ).

 

[jetmaker]

I believe we could still get Marshall island live rock back then.

 

[jetmaker]

Go back another 15 yrs and there was no such thing as a protein skimmer. Rodi was for scientists lol we conditioned tap water lol

 

[Sabellafella]

Wasnt 1996 around the time were vertually everyone stopped keeping reefs and started large fish only with continuously bleaching coral skeletons? Wetdry and sand only?

 

[jetmaker]

Yeah we didn't test much then. The reason I went back 15 more yrs was that's the way Paul Bs tank I's set up now the only change he has probably made is lighting lol.

 

[chefjpaul]

In 1996 I had just sold my first 10 yr. old freshwater tank I had running since I was a kid, same fish too.
(They were huge paroon)

Parents got it to keep me busy and discipline.

I started a 55G salt tank & failed miserably, because I wasn't ready to learn nor cared enough. Had to wait a few years to go at it again.

But yes- I ran it with same setup as the freshwater. Bleaching rocks every weekend & water changes w/ cold tap water - salt mix....thats what heaters are for right. Tested ph only with strips.
No sump, just hob. Pebble color rocks and "display sea shells".


No corals as they didn't have them at LFS.

Ended up being a herman tortoise terrarium.

 

[jetmaker]

This is a good thread. My only real disaster came in the mid 80s when I got a boxfish got up the next morning he poisoned everything in the tank including himself 20 dead fish.

 

[jetmaker]

I think we need to get @Paul B in on this.

 

[Retro Reefer]

The biggest change I have seen is lighting and controllers.. My fish only saltwater tank was converted to a reef in the mid 80's I had a wet dry/sump, home made reactor, 2 skimmers with one being a home made and the other a commercial ozone injected countercurrent, homemade 6 fixture actinic/daylight fluorescent lighting and a drip TO system to dose kalkwasser .. My wet dry originally came with a roll of gauze in the "dry" section, the newest craze called bio balls where a recent upgrade .. Bad picture taken in the late 80's with a cheap 35mm disposable camera

 

[scrumpto]

I can't help you with 1996 but I can tell you about 1998 as that's when I started my first tank and the online discussions were limited to a couple of different listserves.

The industry was at war with itself with TONS of arguing by different experts jockeying for position, arguing different methodologies, etc. It wasn't just the experts though -- everyone was arguing passionately as if there was only one way to do this. I saw people challenge whether corals should be fed as if their mouths didn't have a purpose. Everything was already known about successful reef keeping including knowledge of the nitrogen cycle but it was as if everyone had to prove they were right and you were wrong for thinking differently. Delbeek and Sprung wrote The Reef Aquarium Vol 1 in 1994 and volume 2 in 1997 so those were considered the bible of reef keeping at the time.

You would have been told to use the Berlin method (2 lbs of live rock per gallon) or you would have been told you were an idiot for using that and instead should be using a plenum via the Jaubert (AKA Monaco) method. If you had bio-balls anywhere in your system you were a complete idiot as you'd set up a nitrate factory. The Tang Police didn't exist yet and watts/gallon was a very common topic with the recommendation being between 5 & 10 watts a gallon of VHO or Metal Haldie and don't even think of using NO (normal) fluorescent lighting.

Skimmers were all the rage but again the arguments over air stone counter-current vs venturi vs downdraft was winner take all and one one would truly work the best.

Fragging was pretty unheard of -- you bought your corals from the LFS and paid dearly for them.

Honestly, it was an ugly time in reefkeeping and I do NOT miss those days. The amount of conflicting information, lack of true scientific testing and just downright nastiness made newbies never want to open their mouth and left them utterly confused.

By contrast, look at how the industry handled the adoption of LED lighting. It entered the market, many were skeptical, tests have been running for years and nobody is telling you that you're an idiot for using it or for not using it. LED lighting has a great many benefits but people are still using T5's and Metal Halides and that's okay because all three technologies work. Wow, what a concept -- nobody has to be right. I guess the industry finally grew up and become an adult ;-)

 

[brandon429]

In 1996-8 pico reefs were impossible and the science of pico reefing did not exist anywhere in print available to study. Nothing under fifteen gallons could live long, it was claimed and certainly nothing under that with sps corals.

 

[brandon429]

If you were freshwater fish shopping in 96, you got a drop of stresscoat in the bag before knotting/rubber banding. In that it became the worlds most arbitrarily dosed doser, in my opinion. I must have bought nine gallons worth over the yrs. sometimes when it was cloudy outside, I added a few drops. Guppies did fine

 

[Humblefish]

Go back another 15 yrs and there was no such thing as a protein skimmer. Rodi was for scientists lol we conditioned tap water lol

Do you remember those in-tank protein skimmers with the wooden air stones? I can't remember when they first came out, but I think it was sometime in the 1980s.

 

[jetmaker]

Do you remember those in-tank protein skimmers with the wooden air stones? I can't remember when they first came out, but I think it was sometime in the 1980s.

Yup about 84 I think lol.

 

[chefjpaul]

If you were freshwater fish shopping in 96, you got a drop of stresscoat in the bag before knotting/rubber banding. In that it became the worlds most arbitrarily dosed doser, in my opinion. I must have bought nine gallons worth over the yrs. sometimes when it was cloudy outside, I added a few drops. Guppies did fine

Think of all the cash API made.......no wonder MARS inc. bought them.

 

[brandon429]

I had no idea mars inc that's neat and the po4 article was really good posts nice call

 

[Reefrookie220]

I bet when @Paul B is done getting his head waxed by supermodels hell have something to chime in