Opinion: What have been the major advances in reefkeeping?

[wade1]

I am trying to gather a list of what people consider the stepwise advances in the reefkeeping hobby and approximately when they occurred.

What is your opinion? What advances have helped the hobby to really move forward?

 

[Len]

The Berlin Method is what strikes me as the biggest advance in husbandry (circa 1980s).

 

[Anonymous]

The Berlin Method is what strikes me as the biggest advance in husbandry (circa 1980s).

+1 . Along with the introduction of protein skimming and advances in the proper feeding requirements for once "impossible" to keep species.

 

[Anonymous]

well I've not been around long enough to remember a pre-berlin method... so I'd have to say as far as technology, wide-flow low power consumption powerheads (Vortech, Tunze, etc)

 

[wade1]

Excellent developments.... anyone have any idea when protein skimmers truly broke into the hobby market? I remember in the mid 80s that we always used biological filtration just like on the fish tanks, but I was out of it for a while and then there were suddenly skimmers.

Any other major milestones?

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm, Berlin and protein skimming would have been my first choices. I remember buying my first hugely expensive skimmer in 1988 if that's a help. Dick Perrin's experiments and success in captive propagation way back in the '80s should probably be on the list (I'm sure there are a few others who should be there as well).

Another thing that revolutionized the hobby would be the trial and error development of reliable shipping and handling techniques. Overnight shipping was a boon to the LFS as they got in stock that had a much greater chance of survival.

 

[Anonymous]

I remeber having an air lift skimmer with a wooden airstone and trying to figure out how to use the darn thing. :?

1980 something.

 

[wade1]

I remember when the cyclone skimmer came out... cheap and novel, but not what I'd term a leap forward.

Anyone else have thoughts on major milestones and when?

When did halide lighting become the norm?

 

[delbeek]

Are you talking North America or world-wide? I used a protein skimmer in the early 70s, back then there were just Sanders skimmers available in Canada.

 

[Len]

My first skimmer was a Sanders Piccolo .... oh, the good ol days.

 

[wade1]

I am looking for advances - both hobby and larger institutions, regardless of the locality.

Lighting shifts
Shipping procedures
Skimmers

All excellent points, although I can't readily assign dates to most of them.


Glad you wrote Charles - I wanted to ask you some specifics! I will email you if you don't mind answering some questions.

 

[Anonymous]

Berlin was definitely a major enhancement and continues to lay the framework for many successful tanks today whether the average hobbiest knows it or not. High lighting, live rock, and strong skimming - nearly every tank has these attributes these days. A great many of those are still using lime, excuse me, 'kalkwasser', too.

SFU - I like your point about pumps. The pump options available today are awesome. Low wattage with strong but diffused flow pumps make a lot of things possible. They also impart less heat on the water meaning that people don't always need to take the step of buying a chiller.

Every time I see these threads come up I'm surprised that frag swapping doesn't get more attention. When I started reefing I couldn't even find an SPS in my home town and I was never able to get any of the LFS's I worked at to order SPS on the grounds that they were impossible to keep. If I were lucky enough to come across one it would look like garbage...sickly and ready to die. Frag swapping corals (mostly SPS varieties) has been the basis for my current tank and many of those in my area. These corals are soooo much easier than what we receive in boxes from some corner of the world.

Lee Chin Eng deserves a lot of credit too. He pioneered the first natural approach in the 1960's.


Interesting read - http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004- ... /index.php

 

[Anonymous]

Every time I see these threads come up I'm surprised that frag swapping doesn't get more attention.

Yeah my tank would not be what it is today if it wasn't for frag swaps, there'd be no way I could afford the corals that I have.

 

[Ummfish]

I believe the biggest advance of the last few years has been in the quality and availability of better foods in a much larger range of sizes.

 

[wade1]

Excellent points.

I started the NC frag trading group in 1998 for the exact reasons mentioned above... by 2000 we were up to over 500 members (including people from TN, GA, SC, VA). Definitely another leg up in the hobby.

Thanks for the input from all of you... and please keep sending along suggestions!

 

[SnowManSnow]

skimming + 1

 

[Anonymous]

Electronic metal halide ballasts circa "I cannot recall".

GFO and GFO reactors are an advancement IMO.

Also the new kelvin choices over the years.

VHO and now T5.

 

[wade1]

I'm going to throw in a wrinkle... can you rank the following in order of importance for the advancement of the hobby? High, moderate or low?

Anyone is welcome to provide their opinion on the topics... and if you have anything to add to any topic or another, please feel free!

Ranks:
(h) high = major milestone, without which, reefkeeping would still be behind the curve
(m) moderate = minor milestone, allowed for improvement, but not groundbreaking
(l) low = very slight, normal adaptive process

Topics:
1- skimmers
2- halide lighting
2b- fluorescent lighting
3- shipping methodologies/quality on arrival
4- coral farming
5- fragmentation
6- live rock availability
7- nutrition/food
8- quality media/disbursement of quality information
8b- internet as information source
9- increased activity - local, regional, national clubs
10- Berlin method
11- other?

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Ranks:
(h) high = major milestone, without which, reefkeeping would still be behind the curve
(m) moderate = minor milestone, allowed for improvement, but not groundbreaking
(l) low = very slight, normal adaptive process

Thanks!

I think you need to expand your categories to get more spread on your responses.

Topics:
1- skimmers H
2- halide lighting H
2b- fluorescent lighting H at one time, M to H today
3- shipping methodologies/quality on arrival M to H
4- coral farming M, but moving on up quickly
5- fragmentation H
6- live rock availability H
7- nutrition/food I'm not qualified to answer
8- quality media/disbursement of quality information M
8b- internet as information source H, absolutely but it's not a replacement for books...which I think a lot of recent, www-only folks never read
9- increased activity - local, regional, national clubs M, very location dependent
10- Berlin method H
11- other?

HTH

 

[Anonymous]

Topics:
1- skimmers - H
While I came into the hobby post-skimmers, it's hard to imagine the impact, however starting with a simple air stone powered skimmer, I can definitely see where they ended up with micromeshes, needle wheels, super tiny bubbles, massive volumes.. all sorts of great stuff, so I have to say they're a big thing out there. They may not have been hot stuff when they started, but in all honest most influential things are not.

2- halide lighting - H
Really high intensity lighting, relatively low wattage compared to incandescent bulbs, nuff said.

2b- fluorescent lighting - M
While the colors to make things pop (actinic) are great, and there definitely was a power savings, they're a moderate impact at best, they really stepped up with the HOT5 bulbs, but ... yeah I've never been particular impressed with them.

3- shipping methodologies/quality on arrival - H
I don't know what it was before, but I'm guessing the poorest shipped of corals today probably are well beyond what used to be done.

4- coral farming - M
While not big for me, since everyone in our club is basically a farmer, and lots of near by stores are farmers, I think places like ORA really hit home in other parts of the country, and I don't want to bias myself because we're a tad spoiled out there

5- fragmentation - H
HUGE! Absolutely HUGE! Not sure this is an advance though, corals have done this for centuries! But the idea you don't need a whole coral, really has hit home. If the hobby today was full of colony sized pieces only, our reefs would be in really bad shape. Plus the ability to "bank" your corals by fragging and giving away, if you lose your coral you can always get a piece of it back is huge!

6- live rock availability - L
Eh.. can't really say much about this

7- nutrition/food - M
I'm sure good food for fish has jumped light years beyond the idea of feeding brine shrimp, and coral/tank foods are great, but yeah.

8- quality media/disbursement of quality information - H
Awesome, seriously before I found this site, RC, and a couple others the only place I had for information was from LFS owners (dubious) and books (that were usually at least a decade behind the times of where the hobby was).

8b- internet as information source - H
Add to 8

9- increased activity - local, regional, national clubs - H
Hard to say exactly how clubs have worked elsewhere, but if I take my local regions as an example, fantastic, I'm sure I would have yanked many corals (indirectly) out of the oceans, and probably wouldn't even have half the tank I have now.

10- Berlin method - L
I'm sure it was good, but IMO it's another way to do it is all, I wouldn't consider this revolutionary.

11- other? - Umm hell wide-high flow/low wattage pumps! - XH!
Seriously, flow is way more important than lighting in most cases, and getting turn over rates of 30x, 50x, 80x in a tank, has been troublesome in the past, where it seems like most in tank pumps max out in the 300 gph range... now we have 1500gph, 3000gph, 5000gph pumps! So even the largest of tanks don't have to rely on ultra-expensive and power hungry external pumps pushing stuff through a closed loop.