A tribute to Lee Chin Eng!

[Humblefish]

Back in the 1980s I used to read books/magazines all the time about the marine aquarium hobby. Most of the information was geared towards high powered filtration and keeping everything sterile. Most saltwater tanks were full of dead bleached coral skeletons, coarse sand and a single fluorescent tube for lighting. But one day I ran across a tidbit about Lee Chin Eng's "natural method" and investigated to learn more...

Lee Chin Eng was a man of Chinese descent living in Indonesia. Back in the 1950s-60s he designed and documented a "natural" system that was capable of keeping corals & inverts alive, AND some of his fish even spawned in captivity. He used live rock, airstones for circulation and utilized natural sun light so the corals could grow. His idea was that marine systems are more successful when using live rock/sand + natural seawater than a sterile environment void of the organisms that complete the nitrogen cycle. So maybe he is @Paul B's long-lost brother or something?? I've dug up some articles (below) if you'd like to read more about one of our founding fathers:

Milestones & Pioneers of The Reef Aquarium Hobby | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

REEF AQUARIUM FARMING NEWS #6 p3

An In-Depth Look at the Natural System of Reef Keeping: Part One

Mr. Eng's "natural method" became the basis for the development of the Berlin Method: Understanding the Berlin Method of Marine Filtration

Lee Chin Eng in front of his reef tank circa 1960​

 

[deepblue68]

awesome looks like good reading thanks for the post.

 

[Hockeynut]

I remember reading articles in the 80’s from him and others. There wasn’t much info on reef keeping back then and if there was it wasn’t easy to find.
Now there is so much info at your fingertips it’s crazy. People like him were visionary’s in this hobby.
back in the 80’s when I started in this hobby if you could just keep a coral alive you were really doing something.
Man how times have changed This hobby has come a long way mostly due to people like him.

 

[MadReefer]

I was going to say didn't he have many articles in TFH back then.

 

[Humblefish]

back in the 80’s when I started in this hobby if you could just keep a coral alive you were really doing something.

I remember in the 1980s feeling so excited that I was able to keep mushrooms alive that we brought back from Florida. And then I go & read how Lee Chin Eng was doing that back in the 1950s-60s. I know he was criticized for not providing more specific info about his methodology in those old TFH articles, but I also think there might have been a language barrier in play.