Setting up a tank in 1996

[Eckolancer]

I would say when I first got a reef tank after having fresh water for 5 years in 1998. First tank was a 90 gallon oceanic that my brother still is using today and weighs as much as a 180 gallon of today with thick glass. I was told 1-2lbs of live rock per gallon of water, 20% WC weekly, at that time I was also told 1 watt PC light per gallon with 2 MH 150 supplementing. Back then it was kinda hard to find drilled tanks so standard was HOB skimmers and canister filters. I used two HOB canister filters with a lot of rubble rock in place of a filter. I was able to grow anemones, zoas, some LPS, and even had a couple birdsnest. Everyone always talked about DSB so I had a 6" sandbed that was never touched. I must have been lucky back then as I had a couple large angels that never touched zoas or corals as well as a butterfly a tang and couple clowns. We all wanted coraline purple covered rocks and would pay extra for rocks that were covered (I am guilty of at least a few rocks in that tank). I did add a skimmer after tank was up for like 3 years but didnt notice any difference in growth. Might be why I'm thinking about removing my skimmer on my current tank.

 

[AdamNC]

Back in the 80s we had a 55 gallon long, standard fluorescent lighting, crushed coral substrate, plastic plants, under gravel filter and regular hob filter. Cycled with a few Blue Devils(damsels) and was sold on the same trip to the lfs a Huma Huma Trigger and a baby Horseshoe crab, poor poor crab. Shortly afterwards it turned into a Cichlid tank.

 

[CastAway]

That was around the under gravel/trickle filter bio-ball days.

 

[Humblefish]

Blast from the past

 

[ndz98]

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 ).

This still happens lol

 

[Tjakes680]

The bigest change now is lighting in 96 u would have used power compact but most likely VHO very high output floresent tubes on a reef and u would of used like 6 at a time depending on tank size of course Also bioballs in wet dry filters there wasnt any sumps that I rember it was mostly bio balls witch end result is a high nitrate so plenty of water changes Deffenitly skimmers but many were air driven with wooden air stones and they were always needed changing . As far as live sand aand live rock it was around if I rember correctly I do rember very deep sand beds very deep cycling a tank took forever and was done with mollies and damsells It was a great time in the bussiness and hobbuy and the basics were still the basics water change s and water quality ment it all So now I feel really dang old but I have been in this hobby since the late 80 s early 90 its so much easier now

 

[jetmaker]

I remember in the early 80s I had this big marine book that was blue hard cover. I don't know if anyone still has one I lost mine through the yrs but before a skimmer was available it had a diagram of a algae scrubber I built and used with success for yrs and I think Paul B still uses one.

 

[jetmaker]

We say the biggest change is stuff like light but the biggest change in 30+ yrs is the internet and all the available information.

 

[Reeflogic]

In the mid 90's things weren't too primitive, you had more advanced sumps, starting to get away from the wet/dry filters. You had protein skimmers, ozone makers, etc. technology was starting to advance at a pretty rapid pace. I purchased my first wet/dry in 85 or so, freshman in high school and by the early 90's I had "decent" reefs. You could get a 45 lb. box of live rock back then for like 80 bucks and it was FULL of life, we'd fill up a tank and were amazed at the amount of stuff in the tank within a few weeks. No SPS at that time to speak of, but we had cool softies and inverts. Back then the only real hitchhiker threats were mantis shrimp, everything else was FREE STUFF! I read every Albert J Thiel book / article I could get my hands on, along with a few other authors of that generation, and was a total marine nerd. I just wish we had smartphones with cameras back then, I'd give anything to have photos of some of the many systems I had since the 80's.

I worked in my early 20's (1991ish) at Fritz Products, located in Mesquite, TX., they were a wholesaler and I was lucky enough to work in the fish / reptile room for awhile. There was a marine biologist named "Stan" that ran the show there and I cannot for the life of me remember his last name. The man was brilliant and I learned a ton of knowledge from him. If anyone knows who I'm talking about and knows what he is up to these days, please let me know! I had to quit that job, I was spending more of my check on marine life than I was taking home, lol.

Oh and if you didn't have an Oceanic tank, you weren't cool! lol. They were the bee's knees!! This is a fun thread, I remember those skimmers with the balsa wood airstones lol, good times!!!

 

[srad750c]

I'm still running some of my 1996 equipment. 90 gallon AllGlass tank, my tank had 2 x 175w MH 6500K bulbs with 2 x 48" URI VHO actinic bulbs. Simplicity 1 trickle filter and hang-on overflow with no bioballs, Marine Technical Concepts limewood airstone protein skimmer for about 5 years, switched to Tunze protein skimmer and Quiet one pump. I still use my MTC Kalkwasser dosing system, it's just slightly modded. I just replaced QuietOne pump 3 years ago, Tunze 2 years ago, MH fixture this year. lol. I still have an Oceanic trickle filter in shed, lol. I'm kinda like Reeflogic. I remember when growing caulerpa prolifera was a sign of a healthy tank,. I wish I had my old photos, unfortunately the ex has all the photos. I used to make my own food. I wish I could get old school live rock and start a new tank. LPS corals ruled, lol.

 

[Reeflogic]

That old school LR was the best man! I wish I could get a few boxes, too!! Haha, growing caulerpa back then was like growing SPS today! It was fun!!

 

[srad750c]

That old school LR was the best man! I wish I could get a few boxes, too!! Haha, growing caulerpa back then was like growing SPS today! It was fun!!

So true, remember when they started collecting Fiji live rock and Tonga branch live rock, everybody went crazy for it!!!

 

[jetmaker]

The Marshall island was the best and no pest. Lol

 

[marinworld]

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

Jet maker,
I have been in the marine fish/aquarium business since 1966. I imported protein skimmers from Germany in 1968. They were manufactured by Sanders, a company at that time that also sold small ozone generators to be used along with the skimmers. I sold many of them. They were air stone driven, however, they did work. I was introduced to them by two gentlemen who showed up at my shop shortly after I initially opened for business. I continued to sell them as well as another even simpler design that came along that was manufactured by the Kordon Corp., which was also the company that pioneered "Novaqua."

These skimmers were very resasonably priced at $15.99 each retail, and, we sold huge quantities of these. Very few dealers sold, promoted, or even heard about skimmers in those days. We were the exception, and rather proud of that fact.

I am still in this business to this very day, however, after having a successful retail store, wholesale marine fish importing/shipping business
and aquarium maintenance business, I am semi-retired now. I have officially been in this field from 1966 to this very date. 50 years! I have been privy to many many innovative products, husbandry theories, collecting methods, and definitely price changes.

I am still fascinated by the hobby, which was very good to me, and still provides me income.

Just wanted to write and clarify your comment on skimmers.

Regards,
Don
MARINE WORLD

 

[jetmaker]

Jet maker,
I have been in the marine fish/aquarium business since 1966. I imported protein skimmers from Germany in 1968. They were manufactured by Sanders, a company at that time that also sold small ozone generators to be used along with the skimmers. I sold many of them. They were air stone driven, however, they did work. I was introduced to them by two gentlemen who showed up at my shop shortly after I initially opened for business. I continued to sell them as well as another even simpler design that came along that was manufactured by the Kordon Corp., which was also the company that pioneered "Novaqua."

These skimmers were very resasonably priced at $15.99 each retail, and, we sold huge quantities of these. Very few dealers sold, promoted, or even heard about skimmers in those days. We were the exception, and rather proud of that fact.

I am still in this business to this very day, however, after having a successful retail store, wholesale marine fish importing/shipping business
and aquarium maintenance business, I am semi-retired now. I have officially been in this field from 1966 to this very date. 50 years! I have been privy to many many innovative products, husbandry theories, collecting methods, and definitely price changes.

I am still fascinated by the hobby, which was very good to me, and still provides me income.

Just wanted to write and clarify your comment on skimmers.

Regards,
Don
MARINE WORLD

They weren't where I was lol

 

[ianthepoolguy]

This was my "bible" in the early nineties, after seeing it reviewed as such in Practical Fishkeeping in the first copy I ever bought! (1993?)

My first tank (1993)was a 4' second-hand, with two T8 white tubes and a very industrial 2' T12 (?) actinic, made for mosquito zappers!
Circulation was two aquaclear 402s attached to an under gravel filter, but I also had a foot cube "sump" with a 12" X 8" X 8" trickle filter of plastic bio tubes, which were ultra thin plastic corrugated pipe. Return pump was an Eheim 1250, which lasted me nearly 20 years with virtually zero maintenance, before the insulation wore away on the wire!
I had to make my own overflow box, which was done with a couple of gravity fed hamster feeders.
I did have a nitrate reactor: it was a 10' length of 1" hose, filled with crushed siporax, capped at both ends and reduced to airline tubing. It syphoned from the overflow box, and into the sump, with flow reduced to virtually zero by an airline valve. (We NEVER had powercuts!)

My first skimmer came a few years later, when I first saw the visijet Ps... Impossible to "tune" and with such a small collection cup, virtually useless!

"Clean up crew" were red-leg hermits and turbo snails, and were dang near impossible to find! Nobody ever had enough.

Dosing was done manually; I used TMC calcium, and KSM, which I got given when I bought some second hand livestock from someone giving up the hobby.

My first fish were common clowns (obviously!) and humbugs, and my first inverts were cabbage corals, leathers, and Kenya Trees, which were frequently labelled as "sensitive"...20 years on, I still have some clones from mine!

 

[Lowell Lemon]

I can take you back to before and through 1996. I started in 1986 with my first part time business Inland Sea as one of the first distributors for MiniReef USA and then later Reef Lake Systems. Both companies were founded by George Smit the author of several articles in Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine. George had intorduced the United States to Dutch Style Reef aquariums and the associated wet/dry filter systems. These systems were focused on the only inverts and fish available in the country at that time. Mainly gorgonians, sponges, LPS, shrimp, crabs, anemones, starfish, and smaller invert friendly fish. Protien skimmers in both airstone and venturi were availble through Sanders via Quality Marine and Tunze was imported somewhere around the late 80's early 90's by JP Burleson and others. Eheim provided the Hobby Pumps around that time and the other system pumps we Little Giant SC series and later Iwaki pumps. TMC provided U.V. sterilizers and other products as well. Later we switched to bio-balls instead of DLS a the wet section included a large 45ppi open cell foam as both a mechanical as well a biological filtration alone the the dry section of bio-balls.

Lighting was mostly home made using T-12 lamps in standard, then HO and VHO. Some companies developed Metal Halide light systems but most of the lamps were less than 10,000K by a long shot. Phillips Actinic 03's were the necessary lamp to provide the blue spectrum at about 420nm. We still had great success compared to the sterile systems of the era and many of the tanks I owned and maintained had fish breeding in them on a regular basis.

When George was deported from the U.S. (long story) it was not long until Reef Lake Systems was out of business. At that point I was manufacturing my own acyrlic wet/dry filters and building a complete line of acrylic tanks and stocking them from 16 gallons up to 240 gallons in every size and color back ground (clear, blue, back) with overflows or without overflows. I then developed acrylic stands and canopies along with a line of wood stands and canopies. I also developed a line of retail store systems and used System Paks from Aquanetics to provide the mechanical filtration, U.V. and pumping to central filtered retail display and holding systems. I installed many of these in the Northwest before Marineland developed there systems.

By 1996 the aquarium hobby was starting to collapse as manufacturers and distirbutors went through a phase of verticle intigration. The consolidation left many of us out of the new distribution chain and NAFTA had an effect on the supply of acrylic sheet being produced both here and in Canada. NAFTA created a mass exodus of acrylic sheet manufacturing to Mexico for cheap wages. The result was interupted supply chain and difficulty in getting product in a timely fashion. This was a particular problem with the black and blue acrylic used for backgrounds and overflows. I hung on with lower sales volumns and supplu problems until about 2004.

In 1996 I was trained by DuPont(R) to fabricate Corian(R) solid surface material and recognized the possibilities of high quality water proof cabinets and canopies in this product. I made many units and sold them to higher end clients. DuPont then asked me if I was intersted in moving in to the construction trade for counter top fabrication in both residential and commercial settings. Since I was having a supply problem with acrylic I made the jump. I have still fabricated tanks and stands on a lower scale up to this day but it is no longer my primary business.

I could go on since I lived and breathed saltwater and freshwater aquarium systems and related from 1986 up the current day.

 

[Reeflogic]

Wow! I was a certified Corian fabricator, installer and repairs in the DFW area during the 90's. I built several tanks, sumps, etc. out of sink cut outs lol. I also started in marine life in the mid-80's. Great read, thanks for sharing!!!

 

[Fin]

I think I still have one of those old Sanders "counter-current" skimmers that used the limewood diffusers in my fish junk box in the attic.

 

[Fin]

The first real version of what we would consider a reef tank was in 1986. It was a display tank at a LFS that had decided to start handing the first real reef gear (in our area anyway) made by Dupla in Germany. I was there when the tank was set up.

The Dupla rep that set the tank up was Albert Thiel. The tank was a 58 gallon Oceanic with a bio-ball sump and a dual metal halide (150 watt double ended bulbs) fixture. I actually ended up with that same fixture and have it in my attic. Ha!

The tank had a corner overflow and the return was drilled on the bottom right front corner (with a 45° fitting in the tank), opposite of the overflow at the left rear corner. The only thing preventing the tank from draining out on the floor was a ball check valve. There was a float switch in the sump. When the return pump had almost emptied out the return section of the sump, the float switch would turn the pump off, until the water level would rise back in the sump and the pump would kick back on. It kinda made a surge effect in the tank, which was way different than our canister filters. Every time the pump kicked on the ball inside the check valve would rattle like crazy. That return set up scared the heck out of me, but I can still remember how amazed I was at the effect the MH lights had on the tank. That tank is what hooked me.

After he was done with the display, I asked Albert Thiel if he would come to my house to look at my 200 gallon Oceanic to give me some suggestions on how I could improve my tank. He came over and gave me some ideas that led to an overhaul of the aquarium. I still remember that Dupla return pump that I bought was absolutely dead silent. I had to put my hand on it to make sure it was still running. Anyway, that was all 10 years prior to what the OP was asking about. Just kinda nice for us old reefers to reminisce.