Before internet..

Wish i was around at the beginning of this technology to learn this stuff as its going on. much easier that reading about it. I feel im a bit of a comp buff and nerd, well my friends see me as such, but reading this im lost! lol i get the concept but the lingo isnt sittin with me. I remember my modem for dial up, what a pos that was. If someone was calling as you were logging it it would project their voice thruogh it. lol Ill never miss the times i said "mom, can i go on the internet?" "your not expecting phone calls are you?" more times than not she was so i couldnt chat it up on AOL chat rooms and AIM with all my middle school buddies. lmao ahh the good times.

 

LOL... No worries my friend.. Good thread, brought back some good memories.. Mine you I'm only 38 hehe

 

No doubt. I do recall the 300bps modem and Compuserve BBS that was available for the Commodore 64 back in the 80s- via long-distance internet phone call. lol. Needless to say, I didn't "invest" in all that. I waited until high-speed cable was available locally.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

 

Seahorses were my first fish. Why? Because I had no one to tell me anything different. We didn't learn by someone else telling us how to do it.... we learned from our own mistakes. And those are the most valuable lessons ever learned.

 

Local reef clubs were popular when I started in the hobby. In Phoenix the Desert Marine Society was a very active club that actually had a deal with the Phoenix Zoo for a meeting room. The club was fairly organized with board members and a President, I was Pres. 3 times myself. I have been in the saltwater hobby about 30 years and reefing specifically for about 15.

We had lots of guest speakers on a regular basis such as Eric Borneman, John Walsh, Anthony Calfo and Bob Fenner. Many times the large companies like Kent and others would send a Rep with some of their latest products to try for them. We had a vast library of books and materials for loan and best of all held monthly raffles for some great prizes, most donated by the LFS or vendors.

It was supported by the local fish stores and therein lies the problem that led it its eventual demise. As the internet became popular, members started buying online and were not frequenting and supporting the stores that were supporting us.

I miss the club as it was but we now have other local get togethers and frag swaps/auctions but its not the same. The knowledge transfer at these meetings is pretty good and it has helped many a newbie get in the hobby ther right way without spening a mint on equipment they won't use or doesn't work like the Seaclone or Ecoaqualizer!

 

Well, 30 years ago all the pictures were on film, and nobody had reef tanks. Controlling pH (or even caring) was somewhat of an alien concept, as were skimmers, wave makers, top off systems, dosers, captive corals, etc. Live rock was not even used by anyone I had ever heard of. A marine aquarium was an under gravel filter, crushed coral, coral skeletons (or worse, fake coral skeletons) and a collection of whatever fish were sold within driving distance. In essence, it was a nitrate factory.

To be honest, it might have been easier then as you did not have to assimilate nearly the knowledge just to be current. You just talked to friends or that guy at the fish store and you all made an communal undereducated guess.

 

Before the days of wide spread internet media I soaked up as much information from

Martin Moe books.
San Francisco Public Aquarium.
Jacques Cousteau TV.

Finding resources for the hobby in the late 70's was slim pickings, when you live 2 hours away from the nearest fish store.
I ordered by first Sea horses out of a comic book in late 60's.

 

I remember my first skimmers were a Skilter which was significantly modified over time as new ideas came out. I also had a Picollo air lift skimmer and a few others.

Lighting back then was normal output fluorescents in shoplight fixtures with as many packed in as you could fit. Bulbs were VitaLites and Phillips actinics.

Filtration was a couple Fluval or Magnum canisters and undergravel filters with crushed coral and Maxijets or Penguin powerheads on lift tubes. We had caulerpa algae in the display since we didn't have sumps and either fought it from going sexual or our tangs ate it all.

I recently ran across some of my old photos and ecven a notebook where I was recording tank events. I need to scan some of the photos and post them, it was very different from today.

 

Post them post them!

 

Before the Internet I thought I knew what I was doing.



lol...dial up. I still remember that ring tone.