Log in or Sign up

How Long In The Hobby??????

Discussion in 'General Reef Topics' started by baugherb, Jan 4, 2008.

Join 3reef now to remove this notice and enjoy 3reef content with less ads. 3reef membership is free.

Page 12 of 16

marlinman Zoanthid

Joined:

Nov 3, 2008

Messages:

1,106

Location:

Pompano Beach, Florida
banthonyb71 said: ↑

I mwondering for those with decades of experience, how long has Marine Tanks been around? Before t5's and LEDs how where corals kept? Where they successful? I imagine tanks decades ago where FOWLR?
Click to expand...

Many tanks were fish only or FOWLR I believe. I had Fish Only tanks in the 90's as I entered the salt water hobby. The hobby didn't have the knowledge or the technology and understanding that they have today IMO. You were considered a genius to have a reef. The lighting had a lot to do with it etc etc.

marlinman, Apr 17, 2010

marlinman, Apr 17, 2010

#111

norg. Kole Tang

Joined:

Aug 25, 2009

Messages:

1,766

Location:

Muskego WI
This thread has been around longer than my first tank. Haha. I started freshwater about a year and half ago, and salt about 8 months ago. Been progressing pretty fast it seems.

norg., Apr 17, 2010

norg., Apr 17, 2010

#112
bherbst Astrea Snail

Joined:

Jan 18, 2010

Messages:

73

Location:

Fortville, Indiana
16 years fresh, 4 months salt

bherbst, Apr 17, 2010

bherbst, Apr 17, 2010

#113
gabbagabbawill Pajama Cardinal

Joined:

Feb 16, 2010

Messages:

1,401

Location:

Atlanta, GA
FW tanks, all my life, as far back as I can remember... didn't really get good at it until my cichlid tanks and a couple tropical tanks I set up for other people...

I decided to go all SW and figured out that I wanted a reef in 2000... it was difficult to get into at the time... there wasn't nearly as much accessible information that there is now... I remember when Randy-Holmes Farley first started posting about reef chemistry on forums; already being a chemist, he was figuring out reefing as he went along and taught us all a LOT... it was about that same time that the information online was starting to teach hobbyists faster than the information you could get at a LFS.

I remember going into the main LFS in Atlanta (now closed....hmm wonder why) and them saying things like "you can't do that... where did you hear that?? the internet?" They hated the internet because it was starting to expose their secrets and become a source of competition. If only they had got their heads out of their own butts to realize that there was still much to be learned in the hobby, maybe they could have stayed around...

I think that information (AKA the internet) has become our greatest resource, not technology in equipment; the technology for reefs has been there all along (though we may not have had T5's and high watt LED's there were always other lights that could be used)... it's the knowledge and understanding of how to use it best that has advanced the hobby, IMO.

gabbagabbawill, Apr 17, 2010

gabbagabbawill, Apr 17, 2010

#114
Craft kid21 Banned

Joined:

Jan 26, 2010

Messages:

570

Location:

orange county, CA
ive beeng doing it for 50 YEARS GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahaha na ive only been doing SALT for around 8 months

Craft kid21, Apr 17, 2010

Craft kid21, Apr 17, 2010

#115

inwall75 Giant Squid

Joined:

Sep 10, 2003

Messages:

7,172

Location:

America
banthonyb71 said: ↑

I mwondering for those with decades of experience, how long has Marine Tanks been around? Before t5's and LEDs how where corals kept? Where they successful? I imagine tanks decades ago where FOWLR?
Click to expand...

I thought you might find this article interesting

The History of Reefkeeping
From a Hobbyist Point of View
A personal journey through the reef hobby
Mike Paletta - (Aquarium Fish, Fall 1998, Volume 15)

The practice of keeping marine invertebrates, commonly called reefkeeping, is not as recent a phenomenon as many hobbyists believe. Although the success they are now experiencing has primarily been the result of the trial and error process of many aquarists, as well as improvements in technology that have occurred during the past 10 years, the groundwork for this success was actually laid in the 1960s and '70s.

After reviewing early articles it is amazing to note how many of the concepts that are seemingly recent introductions were actually developed by early hobbyists. Another interesting thing I found was that when these new ideas and concepts were introduced they were either accepted with open arms or quickly dismissed without any apparent scientific reasons why one was accepted and the other rejected. In hindsight it seems apparent that this random acceptance of new ideas and dismissal of others has often resulted in the hobby not advancing as fast in North America as it has in Europe.

My intention in reviewing the history of reefkeeping is not to provide a blow by blow description of absolutely everything that transpired, but rather, to document the articles and innovations that changed my life as a hobbyist. I did this by looking at the many books and articles I have collected over the years.

As an unrepentant pack rat I have every issue of Freshwater and Marine Aquarium, SeaScope, Aquarium Frontiers and Aquarium Fish Magazine, as well as numerous issues of other pertinent magazines and more than 100 books relating to the hobby. Before I begin I would like to point out that one of the most enjoyable aspects of this undertakning was that I would often come across a magazine cover that would immediately jog my memory to an important article within its pages.

Although it has now been almost 13 years since I kept my first coral it seems as if only a short period of time has elapsed. The success we are now enjoying is realative because, although we thought we were successful along the way, in reality our learning curve has been more up and down than steady.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The '60S
During the 1960s the saltwater side of the hobby was in its infancy. Most hobbists had to live near the ocean becaous it was necessary to have access to fresh, clean seawater - synthetic sea salts were just beginning to become widely available. The fish being kept were mainly small damselfish, blennies and gobies, which were very hardy and could be collected from tidepools. The only invertebrates being maintained were also those found in tidepools. These included starfish, urchins, small crabs and shrimp.

The nitrogen cycle was also poorly understood and biological filtration was unheard of. As a result, the success rate for keeping marne animals of any type over the long term was very limited.

Around this time, a hobbyist in Indonesia named Lee Chin Eng was usnig a rather elegant system that was called the "natural system." Mr. Eng used materials he could find close to his home near the ocean. Once his tanks were filled with fresh ocean water, Eng decorated them with pices of old coral rock he collected from the lagoon. There rocks were called "living stones" and contained coralline algae, sponges, tunicates, shrimp, crabs, small colonies of coral and so on. A small number of colorful fish also inhabited his tanks.

The tanks were placed where they received at least some natural sunlight every day to provide illumination. The only technology used he was a small air pump that bubbled slowly, This provided light aeration, as well as some moderate water movement.

For their time, these "natural system" aquariums were spectacular. Despite the lack of technology there tanks mimicked the reef to a much greater extent than any other type of system that had come before. Unfortunately, whe hobbyists in other locales tried to replicate this system they generally failed, so this method was dismissed as being unreliable or unworkable.

The reasons for the failure of this system among hobbyists who didn't live near the ocean has become clear with the passage of time. Many who tried to use it did not fully understand the importance of the "living stones" used by Eng. As a result, hobbyists tried to take shortcuts by using terrestrial stones for decoration. Similarly, dried coral skeletons or coral rock that that was improperly shipped or cured also resulted in tank failures. Only recently have we realized the importance of properly shipping and curing live rock.

Couple this problem with limited access to clean seawater and the tendency to overstock a tank with fish and it is easy to understand why this system failed to gain widespread acceptance. Thus, most saltwater hobbysist kept only fish in tanks devoid of live rock or any invertebrates.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE "70S
The 1970s saw a large increase in the number of hobbyists interested in keeping saltwater aquarims. The use of synthetic sea salt and the availability of a wider array of marine fish, plus the advent of the all-glass tank, made the keeping of marine fish much more appealling. By this time, an understanding of the nitrogen cycle and the use of undergravel filtration to provide biological filtration helped to improve the success rate for many hobbyists. Most tanks in this era still contained dead, bleached coral skeletons sitting on top of a dolomite gravel bed, and few invertebrates were being kept in most of these tanks because of the possibility of having to use copper to fight fish disease problems.

Early in the '70s, some of the ideas and methodologies that were beginning to come into practice in Europe were starting to make their way to the U.S. In the now defunct journal Marine Aquarist, Peter Wilkens began to describe some of thse innovations. He talked about protein skimming, a novel concept that used the chemical properties of seawater to help it cleanse itself, as well as the need to illuminate the tank more strongly. To illustrate the success he showed numerous photographs depicting not only live corals, but also clams and anemones.

In addition, Wilkens also published a book entitled The Saltwater Aquarium for Tropical Marine Invertebrates. He outlined many of the concepts that would come to be known as the Berlin method in this book.

Unfortunately, several factors kept this information from being widely disseminated in North America. First, until the 1980s, the book was only available in German. Also, much of the equipment and most of the invertebrates were unavailable here. In spite of the innovative and superior information this work provided (for the most part), the methodology was not used here.

At the end of the '80s, Marine Aquarist ceased being published and was replace with a new magazine, Freshwater and Marine Aquarium (FAMA). It attempted to provide the same types of articles that had appeared in the Marine Aquarist, but did so on a broader scale by also including material for the freshwater hobbyist.

It is during this period that I began to consider starting a marine aquarium. My father gave me Jacques Cousteau's book Life and Death in the Coral Sea, and after seeing the absolutely dazzling pictures of fish and invertebrates I knew that one day I would have a marine aquarium. Unfortunately, because I was still in my teens, money was scarce, and marine fish were expensive, I bided my time by spending my money on reading about marine aquariums rather than setting one up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE '80s
The 1980s saw the marine hobby, and particularly the reefkeeping aspect, blossom into a serious endeavor. Technological advancements in equipment, as well as rapid air travel, dramatically increased the demand for keeping marine animals. Improved air travel not only allowed fish from far off destinations to arrive more quickly and in much better shape, but it also gave more people the opportunity to actually visit the reefs. Once they returned to dry land many of these visitors wanted to try and keep some of the fish they had seen while diving and snorkeling, which helped to expand the hobby to adventurous freshwater hobbyists, as well as people who had never kept fish before.

I purchased my own first saltwater tank in 1980. Decorated with tuffa rock, dead coral skeletons and plastic plants, it was the best I could do at the time to try and mimic a small section of the reef. And let's face it, anyone who is keeping a saltwater tank, particularly a reef tank, wants to try and replicate a small coral reef in his or her home.

There were a significant number of changes in the hobby in the early 1980s. SeaScope, a publication sponsored by the world's largest marine salt manufacturer (Aquarium Systems), was started in 1983. This newsletter was innovative in its attempt to provide new information in as timely a manner as possible. Articles were literally printed the moment they arrived at the editor's (Tom Frakes) desk. This magazine spotlighted many of the latest breakthourghs before the information appeared in any other magazine.

In 1984 a series of articles about "European minireefs" written by James Debernardo was published in FAMA. Briefly, these articles discussed the concepts of live rock and the need for stronger illumination in order to provide enough light for marine invertebrates, and re-ignited my interest in setting up a reef aquarium. Unfortunately, before the series could be completed it was alleged that the articles had been plagarized from Alf Nilsen, a Norwegian reef aquarist, and publication was halted. But the damage was done and Nilsen decided not to publish any of his work until much later, leaving-something of a void in the hobby.

Fortunately, this void was soom filled by the arrival of several authors/hobbyists who were willing to experiment and do research regarding their aquariums, particularly reef aquariums. The first of these authors was Julian Sprung, who in 1984 published a picture of his 15-gallon living reef tank, nick-named "the salad" because of its abundance of living material. Julian would later go on to write the "Reef Notes" column in FAMA, which provided a forum for many of the questions hobbyists had regarding their reef tanks.

In a similar vein, Charles Delbeek, Scott Michael and numerous other hobbists also began to publish their experiences later in the decade. All of thir work has helped to disseminate the information necessary for success in keeping marine invertebrates.

But, the captive husbandry of marine invertebrates was changed forever by a series of articles is SeaScope in 1985 and FAMA in 1986. These articles George Smit introduced the wet-dry or trickle filter to North American hobbyists. The articles changed the hobby because for the first time they illustrated, step by step, how one could keep marine invertebrates alive. Smit explained that just like on the reef, the foundation for a successful reef tank was the live rock upon which it was based . He also explained how strong illumination is necessary to keep corals alive, because light is the main source of energy for many of the photosynthetic invertebrates.

The most innovative concept he introduced, however, was the external biofilter that was crucial to these setups. Unlike the undergravel filter, which had been the main source for biological filtration up to that time, the filtration by this new device was done primarily outside the tank. In addition, the filter medias were not submersed, but were coated with a fine layer of water that trickled over them. All of this technology would not have meant anything if Smit had not also included a large number of photographs illustrating how successful these tanks could be. The soft corals and Caulerpa algae beds present in most of these tanks coused many of us to try and imitate what he was doing.

I vividyly remember waiting each month for the next installment of Smit's series to arrive so I could find out what I had to do next. During this timeframe there were two major stumbling blocks to implementing the system. First and foremsot, virtually none of the equipment being written about was available here, so everything had to be built from scratch without any real instructions or plans. Second, and actually worse, there was almost no way of getting live rock or invertebrates unless you knew someone who lived near the sea.

I was fortunate to be able to work around these problems. I had a bandsaw and drill press that allowed me to make virtually anything I needed. My lab partner in graduate school was from Hawaii and he sent me all the live rock I wanted. Unfortunately, there are virtually no soft corals in Hawaii, so I had to scout around the U.S. and Canada to find stores that were bringing some in. So, by mid 1986 I had a reasonable facsimile of a reef tank up and running.

My trickle filter had been cut from plexiglass sheets and, because it is impossible to cut these sheets exactly square, it leaked, so I had to place it inside a 20-gallon long glass tank to prevent water from leaking onto the floor. It was illuminated by two warm white fluorescent tubes and a metal halide lamp from K-Mart. The tank's inhabitants included a bubble coral some zoanthids a Condylactis anemone and some Aiptasia anmones. It was not very pretty, but it was interesting enough to keep me going.

At this time I began to make friends around the hobby. My telephone bills started to rise dramatically as I frequently spoke with Charles Delbeek, Julian Sprung, John Burleson, Wayne Blackburn, Scott Michael, Tom Frakes and others. Because many of us were trying the same experiments, we compared notes. What was the best type of media for a trickle filter, spray bar or drip plate? Should we feed or not feed the invertebrates? Our reefkeeping experiences resulted in numerous friendships that have remained intack despite the distances that separate many of us.

Two other events contributed to my further enjoyment of reef tanks. The Smithsonian Aquarium put up its large reef tank about this time. This, along with the reef tank at the Waikiki Aquarium, was the first public aquarium in the U.S. to exhibit a coral reef. Unfortunately, I could not make it to Hawaii, but I did get to view the tank at the Smithsonian. While I personally disagreed with the methodolgy they used, I must admit that seeing a large tank laid out in the format that I was trying to emulate was inspiring.

I made contact with a fellow hobbyist in Germany named Jurgen Lemkenmeyer who had just completed a book on reef aquariums entitled The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium. This book outlined some of the techniques and equipment being used in Germany, including oxygen reactors, ozone and and redox controllers. This book, as well as the large tank at the Smithsonian, convinced me that bigger is better, so I converted my 55-gallon tank into a 120-gallon tank, firmly convinced that this was as big a tank as I would ever need.

Some other events were also occurring at this time that would dramatically change the hobby. Seeing the demand for specialized reef equipment, several manufacturers began to introduce reef equipment. Trickle filter, oxygen reactors and specialized high-intensity lighting systems began to appear. Albert Thiel published The Marine Fish and Invert Reef Aquarium, and began to market items to the reef hobby. Many aquarists were now getting into the hobby who probably would not have otherwise, and I also published my first article, which led to my further enjoyment of the hobby.

But, a funny thing happened on my way to complete success. After my tank had been set up for a little over a year I started to see a tremendous amount of hair algae in addition to the beneficial Caulerpa, which was also growing profusely. So I called other hobbyists to see if they were having similar problems. Interestingly, almost everyone I spoke with was experiencing the same problems.

Our first thought was that the algae was a result of improper lighting, as almost all of our water tests showed little in the way of nitrogen. This theory was quickly dismissed because John Burleson was writing about his beautiful reef tank, and the lighting he was using was, for the most part, the same lighting all of us were using, and John had the most beautiful reef tank I had ever seen. Consequently, we could not attribute it to the lights.

At the same time, many of us started to realize that our tanks did not really look anything like the pictures of coral reefs in the wild. They looked more like gardens in that they contained a lot of green material in the form of either Caulerpa or hair algae. The corals we were keeping (i.e., soft corals, large-polyped stony corals, mushroom anemones and so on) were not the animals that came to mind when one thought of the reef. And much of the time and expense in keeping these tanks was now being expanded on additives.

The first article to change our thinking about the way we were keeping our reef tanks was "Captive Reefs" by Julian Sprung. This article pointed out that the level of nutrients on a natural coral reef are very low. In fact, Julian likened a reef to the desert and showed how the main source of energy on a reef is sunlight. Because of this article many of us quit dumping large quantities of unnecessary additives into our tanks.

Furthermore, the article helped convince many of us that we should be doing water changes- not to add things, but to remove them. John Burleson added support to this theory by explaining the role of the symbiotic algae present in most corals.

These articles were just the start. In 1989 Alf Nilsen published a series of articles outlining what has come to be known as the "Berlin" method of reefkeeping. Nilsen demonstrated how by using this method it was possible to keep what had up to that point been the holy grail of corals: Acropora. He emphasized the importance of live rock and also discussed calcium supplementation, as well as metel halide lighting (in terms of intensity as well as spectrum). More importantly, he explained why strong protein skimming was necessary to reduce the availability of undesirable nutrients, which gave the corals an advantage over the algae. The tanks photographed by Mr. Nilsen showed dense growths of numerous stony corals with little or no bothersome algae.

Further confirmation that this was indeed the way to go was provided by Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek, who in the article "New Trends in Reefkeeping ," confirmed the advantages of this methodology. This article advanced the cause by showing photographs of the tank of Dietrich Stuber, whose hometown is the source of the name of the Berlin method.

After we read these articles, many of us took the plunge (no pun intended) and removed our trickle filters and replaced them with large protein skimmers. In my own case I was so convinced this was indeed the way to go that I not only took off my trickle filter, but I did so while simultaneously increasing the size of the tank from 120 to 240 gallons. When I did this, I and everyone else was amazed that not only did the corals not die, but the hair algae present on the rock disappeared within two weeks of my swithcing the tank over.

It took another two to three articles for most hobbyists to be convinced that the Berlin method was indeed the way to go. During this time there was often heated debate with claims and counterclaims by trickle filter advocates versus Berlin advocates. However, as more proof mounted in the form of photographs and discussion it became apparent that the Berlin method did produce the best results.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE '90S
Unlike the 1980s, the 1990s began on a more somber note. The rapid explosion of the reef hobby had caused some environmentalists to take notice of what we were removing from the sea. Wild claims that hobbyists were taking 1,000,000 tons or more of live a rock a year began to sound the alarms, Magazines, such as Audubon, called for a halt of the collection of live rock.

Because the hobby was ( and is ) unorganized and an easy target, legislation that resulted in the banning of all live rock and coral harvested from U.S. waters was passed with little debate. That this occurred without ther being any scientific proof that this harvest is not renewable resource indicated the direction the hobby needed to go.

Wayne Blackburn published areticles in FAMA about the "Ecological Use of Live Rock." In a different vein, but with a different intent, Alf Nilsen published a series of articles in AFM that pointed out the conditions on the reef and how they compared to conditions in our tanks. In rereading these articles by Nilsen I realize that they not only tried to raise our understanding about the reef, but they also illustrated how a home reef aquarium can act as a tool to teach about the reef.

To try and reduce the impact of this negative press, articles about captive propagation began to appear. I met **** Perrin in 1992 and visited his coral farm in the well-know "tropical zone" called Detroit. **** currently has in excess of 30,000 gallons under his roof and is propagating several hundred different species of corals. As a result of ****'s work there are now at least several dozen small propagation systems around the country. Unfortunately, very few of them have shown any kind of profit to date.

All of this work led to more hobbyists wanting to set up a reef tank in a more natural way. That is, despite advances in technology many of us found that the simpler the system, the better it worked. It is therefore not surprising that 1993 saw the emergence of a new methodology for maintaining a tank. Tom Frakes, via SeaScope, introduced us to the Jaubert method. The simplicity of this system immediately caused it to have many advocates. Unfortunately, as with many things, those of us who tried the system were not satisfied with its simplicity and tried to "improve" on it.

In my case at least, I found that by not following Tom's description exactly, the system failed. Although it was not a complete failure, it was a failure because the tank had massive microalgae growth accompanied by minimal coral growth. So, I removed the system and went back to the standard Berlin method.

1994 was a great year for the reef hobby. Two new publications specifically geared to the hobby were published. Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek's widely anticipated book came out, and Terry Siegel began publishing Aquarium Frontiers. This newsletter was geared specifically to reef hobbyists, and its cutting edge articles, as well as reviews of equipment, made it a much anticipated quarterly event.

This period also saw a further dichotomy arise in the marine hobby. Whereas 1986 seemed to produce two schools of thought - the reef hobbyists and the fish hobbyists - 1994 to 1995 produced a further division in reef hobbyists. They seemed to separate into those who wanted to keep small-polyped stony corals versus those who were more interested in soft corals. To my mind, this was unfortunate because with proper care and patience, a tank housing either or even both types of corals can produce a beautiful reef.

This was a very rewarding time for me because I was able to work on some rather large aquariums. In 1995 I helped my good friend, Dr. Michael Fontana, set up his 1000 gallon soft coral tank. (We later added a 750-gallon small-polyped stony coral tank to sit beside it.) I also converted my 240-gallon tank into a 480-gallon small-polyped stony coral tank. This experience led to my working with Jim Prappas and Ken Billin at the Pittsburgh Zoo Aquarium on several of the reef displays, all of which were over 1000 gallons.

Working with these large tanks full of corals and live rock allowed me to see that not only did we have much to learn about corals, but that the behavior of fish is also quite different when we place them in large aquariums. Fish that we've been told for years will not get along with each other will often not bother one another if the tank is large enough .

For example, I currently have a flame angel, a Potter's angel, a coral beauty and a goldflake angel of similar size all living in my 240-gallon soft coral tank. They are in there with 22 other fish, including nine fairy wrasses of various species, which I've been told shoud not be housed together. Only through experimentation and using larger than average aquariums will we ever find the answer to many of our questions.

In an attempt to learn more, I am currently keeping three tanks using two different systems. Two are set up using standard methods, while the third uses a new approach called the Ecosystem method, which was developed by Leng Sy. The ecosystem aquarium has now been up for over a year and it is doing at least as well as the other two.

There are two very interesting things I have noted in this system. The first is that some animals that I have had little success with to date- sponges, tube worms and tunicates- do better in this tank than in the others. A more interesting phenomenon is that in the past month four differnent species of fish spawned within seven days of each other- percula clownfish, fridmani pseudochromids, Lubbock's fairy wrasses and the mandarinfish. Prior to this the only fish I have observed to spawn in any of my tanks were my Banggai cardinalfish. Because of this, I am contemplanting switching over one of my other tanks to this system or adding another tank to see if I can replicate this event.

Looking back at all that has transpired in the history of reefkeeping has been a very enjoyable experience for me. While doing so, the quote "Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it" frequently came to mind. To those who are just getting into the hobby, I'm hopeful this admonition will entice them to read up on what has been learned during the past 20 years of the hobby. If they do and are patient, they should not only be successful, but should also greatly reduce the financial outlay that many of us in the hobby have had to experience in order to become successlful
Click to expand...

inwall75, Apr 17, 2010

inwall75, Apr 17, 2010

#116

SAY Ocellaris Clown

Joined:

Jan 6, 2010

Messages:

1,462

Location:

San Antonio
i set up my first and only saltwater tank 8 months ago.

SAY, Apr 17, 2010

SAY, Apr 17, 2010

#117
fish-aholic 94 Gigas Clam

Joined:

Aug 27, 2009

Messages:

880

Location:

treasure coast Fl.
Fresh about 12 years, salt a little over a year.

fish-aholic 94, Apr 17, 2010

fish-aholic 94, Apr 17, 2010

#118
miracle Astrea Snail

Joined:

Jun 16, 2009

Messages:

27

Location:

Goddard, Kansas
Originally Posted by banthonyb71
I mwondering for those with decades of experience, how long has Marine Tanks been around? Before t5's and LEDs how where corals kept? Where they successful? I imagine tanks decades ago where FOWLR?

When we started our first marine tank in the late 80's we were told by our LFS that it was going to be very hard to maintain and we would probably fail. We had only a few fish and the anemone. The anemone lived several years for us. I am shocked today that it lived so long in it's conditions back then when we didn't know any better.

Thinking back now we only had a standard light fixture normally used for a FW tank. The only thing we tested for was PH and Salinity. I do remember we bought a few very pricey live rocks from our LFS but I don't ever remembering having growth like coraline algea. I am sure our calcium and magnesium levels were very low since we never tested for them either. All we used to filter the tank was canister filters with carbon.

miracle, Apr 17, 2010

miracle, Apr 17, 2010

#119
OverStocked Coral Banded Shrimp

Joined:

Aug 6, 2010

Messages:

362

Location:

Canada
4 years

OverStocked, Sep 2, 2010

OverStocked, Sep 2, 2010

#120

(You must log in or sign up to reply here.)

Page 12 of 16

Search