Setting up a tank in 1996

[Reeflogic]

I still have autographed Thiel books from the 80's, lol. Thanks for sharing, Gary!

 

[JMacedo]

In 1996 my most advanced piece of equipment was an wooden air stone skimmer and I was still using an under gravel filter. My main fight was against a stubborn deep green algae.:mad:

Had a Batfish that outgrew the tank, few fish and an anemone. Used to carry Dr. Burgess's "Atlas of Marine Aquarium Fishes" (second edition) to the LFS! lol A book that I still have and I have been carrying with me for the years I lived in Portugal, The UK and now Thailand. It was purchased circa 1992 by me in Edinburgh, Scotland with a price tag of £54.95.

 

[Reeflogic]

Haha, nice! I still own that book, too!

 

[Chris Adams]

96 I had a 125gl All Glass, not drilled, undergravel filter, 4 hagen pumps, large hangon Berlin SKimmer(was the Bomb), used 2 magnum 150 filters and drove 3 hours just to pack my tank with mushrooms. I loved that tank.

 

[JMacedo]

hahaha found some more footage of my tank, this one is from 1995 but the equipment was the same; undergravel filter, canister filter, wooden air stone skimmer...

You can see the green algae I mentioned before!

 

[Lowell Lemon]

@Fin
What happened to Albert Theil. Someone told me Dupla threatened legal action against him for plagerizing their German publication books. It was an industry insider that mentioned that Albert was the owner or employee of a travel agency when he stumbled on Dupla in Germany and started to bring the products into the U.S. Not long after he just dropped out of site and Aquarium Products was distributing Dupla Foods. I was a distributor for Aquarium Products and worked in some of the national trade shows with them and Reef Lake Systems. Don't remember the dates but I was just a twenty something living in wide eyed wonder of all these industry giants. Funny how life changes. I first talked to Julian Sprung when he was working for JP Burleson and just starting out in the industry. In my opinion Julian eclipsed Albert and George in providing better science, results and information to the Reef Hobby.

I alway wanted to set up a Dupla system freshwater planted tank but could not bring myself to pull the trigger on the expensive cable heating and CO 2 system. Instead I developed a Tunze filtered and skimmed 100 gallon reef system instead. Best tank I ever owned...and sold to soon to a local store.

 

[Fin]

@Fin
What happened to Albert Theil. Someone told me Dupla threatened legal action against him for plagerizing their German publication books. It was an industry insider that mentioned that Albert was the owner or employee of a travel agency when he stumbled on Dupla in Germany and started to bring the products into the U.S. Not long after he just dropped out of site and Aquarium Products was distributing Dupla Foods. I was a distributor for Aquarium Products and worked in some of the national trade shows with them and Reef Lake Systems. Don't remember the dates but I was just a twenty something living in wide eyed wonder of all these industry giants. Funny how life changes. I first talked to Julian Sprung when he was working for JP Burleson and just starting out in the industry. In my opinion Julian eclipsed Albert and George in providing better science, results and information to the Reef Hobby.

I alway wanted to set up a Dupla system freshwater planted tank but could not bring myself to pull the trigger on the expensive cable heating and CO 2 system. Instead I developed a Tunze filtered and skimmed 100 gallon reef system instead. Best tank I ever owned...and sold to soon to a local store.

I believe Albert Theil is actually a Forum Moderator here, in the Nano Tank Forum. I don't really see him post much, if at all. Not sure what he is doing professionally. I would imagine that he is retired.

I remember that all of the Dupla stuff was crazy expensive, especially back in the 80s. That 36" DuplaSun twin metal halide fixture was somewhere around $800 new. That was some serious coins back in 1986 - well, for me anyway. I ended up with some of their products when the LFS tha carried the products went out of business and they just gave me some things. That light was one of them. I also had that C02 system that you spoke of. It was just in one of the boxes of stuff that I was given.

 

[adestafi]

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

I had an Rodi put in my house for a fish only tank. It was never tested for tds or chloramines though

 

[srad750c]

Remember these

 

[Reeflogic]

lol, I have most of them still!!

 

[srad750c]

At the beginning

 

[Tahoe61]

My tank in 1996 (Polaroid image). Power Compacts, large skimmer, and live Marshall Island rock. Clams were the hot items, and I spent a small fortune on them. My first true SW was in 86 with an undergravel and florescent lighting, man I thought aiptasia and hydroids were the bomb.
Time and time again I see hobbyist bash PC lighting, "it will not support sps or anemones", wrong.

 

[JMacedo]

My tank in 1996 (Polaroid image). Power Compacts, large skimmer, and live Marshall Island rock. Clams were the hot items, and I spent a small fortune on them. My first true SW was in 86 with an undergravel and florescent lighting, man I thought aiptasia and hydroids were the bomb.
Time and time again I see hobbyist bash PC lighting, "it will not support sps or anemones", wrong.

1996? No way! lol That´s better than many of the reef tanks I see nowadays! Heck! You forgot to crank up the colours in Photoshop! How come your tank was not blue? We all know reefs are blue! lol

That is something I only could dream of in 1996! Jaw dropping tank that is!

 

[brandon429]

Agreed, about 1999 was the earliest anyone around my area had one that diversely stocked. 96 is dang early for multi reef

 

[Tahoe61]

1996? No way! lol That´s better than many of the reef tanks I see nowadays! Heck! You forgot to crank up the colours in Photoshop! How come your tank was not blue? We all know reefs are blue! lol

That is something I only could dream of in 1996! Jaw dropping tank that is!

Thanks, that is quite the compliment.

LOL.

I wanted the shimmer of MH so bad at the time but MH were outrageously expensive then.

Agreed, about 1999 was the earliest anyone around my area had one that diversely stocked. 96 is dang early for multi reef

I lived in New Port Beach Ca, we had great LFS in the area. There was no liveaquaria and I had never heard of a SW forum. Boy things have changed.
The concept of carbon dosing or ULNS was not even a twinkle yet. Euphyllia flourished in those tanks because we did not strip the water. Gonipora was a rent a coral.

 

[srad750c]

Thanks, that is quite the compliment.

LOL.

I wanted the shimmer of MH so bad at the time but MH were outrageously expensive then.



I lived in New Port Beach Ca, we had great LFS in the area. There was no liveaquaria and I had never heard of a SW forum. Boy things have changed.
The concept of carbon dosing or ULNS was not even a twinkle yet. Euphyllia flourished in those tanks because we did not strip the water. Gonipora was a rent a coral.

Was thinking about going back to MH until I saw prices of fixtures, guess I will use T5 as supplement to my Kessils.

 

[choff]

Hahaha this is a great thread. I set up my first SW tank in 1991 when I was Sr in college. I constructed a tank for my senior year engineering project. That summer I bought a 90g and started working Saturdays on the fish platform of one of the 2 stores that sold saltwater fish (that I knew of) around Boston. Man, the misinformation I spread...

Anyway, my tank was pretty high tech with a sump with bio balls (UG were prevalent) , a protein skimmer that was fed with ozone. For some reason I had a diatom filter that I would occasionally use to "polish my water" lol. Never heard of RODI water, it was straight out of the Boston tap that I wouldn't even consider drinking. Measured my salt with my handy swing arm. My temps swung wildly with no way to cool off my tank in the middle of summer with no AC.

Tank was stocked with countless Angels and triggers. My fav was my snowflake Moray eel though. We used to toss live freshwater shrimp and gold fish into the tank to watch the triggers and eel feast.

Decorations were large chunks of dead coral and they were not cheap. $100 for a 12" hunk. Live rock was a rarity.

Had a fluval canister filter that had filter floss that I changed monthly along with the charcoal. Oh, and when in doubt ...stress coat! The miracle additive.

Best of all was my lights. I was told sulphur lights you could buy at ho e depot were just as good as the expensive metal halides people used.

Ok..now some pics. Remember, I just graduated college and lived on a shoestring budget.....

 

[Reef Junky150]

Remember these

I have some of these and I started in 2003. Ha!
And here's some others I found

 

[Waterjockey]

Wow....loved seeing the books....don't know what happened to all of mine, but I still have "The Marine Aquarium Reference" ..that was my "bible" My 160 gallon was crammed with live rock, and about 4 to 6 inches of pure white beach sand. The sump had two rotating spray bars, spraying over these 8" high rolls of floss, then down to the wet/dry mass of a thousand bio-balls lol. A balsa wood skimmer (Ehiem I think) was my high tech bit of equipment. 6 big fat (T8?) Florecent tubes laying across the Euro-style bracing for lighting, and 5 mirrored (tank side) glass panels fit on top as a lid and reflected light down.
Good memories,
Thanks!

 

[Maacc]

Still have those books as well. I was fortunate enough to live in the keys, fresh reef water for water changes every week.