Paul B
NJRC Member
I also posted this on another forum because someone asked me if my method would work in a small tank of 29 gallons.
Dkmoo, my tank was started in a 40 gallon tank. I started it with ocean water from the East River near Manhattan because thats what I had and I couldn't get ASW. I also used rocks from jetty's in New York. I fed worms and things I could find as there was no salt water food sold at the time. Remember, the hobby didn't even start yet.
That 40 gallon tank had some problems for sure. Ich was everywhere and there was no copper medications because we didn't use that in fresh water. I found a scientist who told me about copper so I got pennies and put them in. I found out from Robert Straughn, (The Father of Salt Water Fish Keeping) to use 20 pennies to the gallon. (pennies are no longer made of copper so don't try this)
My old log book tells of all the problems I had and the medications I used were for humans and didn't work well.
I had a lot of fish then as fish came on the market, I bought them.
LFSs were popping up in the 80s but no one knew what they were doing and I bought all the new fish anyway and experimented until I could figure out what the fish needed. At the time I was also SCUBA diving in the tropics and in New York for lobsters.
Remember this was way before computers cell phones or the internet so there was also no bad information. As far as I knew, I was the only one with a salt tank.
But eventually I figured out what to do and I accidentally started feeding my 7 blue devils live worms that I used to feed to my fresh water tanks of which I think I had 14.
They started to spawn and lived for 7 years. Then I discovered that I didn't need the pennies any more and all my fish were living for many years. Of course I had accidents and lost fish as I barely knew what I was doing and when you do things by trial and error, you will fail more then you win.
Blue devil eggs circa 1972
It took until the early 80s when I think I had it down to a science and stopped losing fish to communicable diseases.
Then much later the internet came out and everyone had an opinion. Thats when the problems started and no one any more experimented, they all asked for opinions. Opinions now are fine but to ask for opinions from people who started the hobby last Tuesday and have kept one damsel for a couple of weeks on life support was not a good idea.
I wrote a few articles in the paper magazines then and like now, people would ask me questions.
(remember, even in those days I still had the oldest tank around)
I would say to feed live worms and clams etc. People would write back and say: Oh thats great, I can't get that so I will feed corn flakes is that OK?..
And thats the way it has always gone.
But getting back to your question of a small tank. For many years I kept a 5 gallon salt tank using NSW and rocks from New York water. Much of it was asphalt, cinder blocks and bricks,
I hatched out these octopus in a small tank.
And kept cool creatures. Most of which I collected in the sea
This was my tank I think in the 80s
Those small 5 gallon tanks using bricks,NSW and local creatures never crashed or had any disease problems. Not once. Don't tell some of the people on here because it would be an argument as they can't grasp having healthy fish by using parasites to control parasites.
Of course none of those people can show their still running tanks from when the hobby started.
Remember us Geezers invented quarantine, copper and medications, that is not a modern thing from the internet. It was because we were un informed and didn't realize that the fish could stay healthy if we stayed out of their way and dealt with diseases the way they have been for millions of years.
Dkmoo, my tank was started in a 40 gallon tank. I started it with ocean water from the East River near Manhattan because thats what I had and I couldn't get ASW. I also used rocks from jetty's in New York. I fed worms and things I could find as there was no salt water food sold at the time. Remember, the hobby didn't even start yet.
That 40 gallon tank had some problems for sure. Ich was everywhere and there was no copper medications because we didn't use that in fresh water. I found a scientist who told me about copper so I got pennies and put them in. I found out from Robert Straughn, (The Father of Salt Water Fish Keeping) to use 20 pennies to the gallon. (pennies are no longer made of copper so don't try this)
My old log book tells of all the problems I had and the medications I used were for humans and didn't work well.
I had a lot of fish then as fish came on the market, I bought them.
LFSs were popping up in the 80s but no one knew what they were doing and I bought all the new fish anyway and experimented until I could figure out what the fish needed. At the time I was also SCUBA diving in the tropics and in New York for lobsters.
Remember this was way before computers cell phones or the internet so there was also no bad information. As far as I knew, I was the only one with a salt tank.
But eventually I figured out what to do and I accidentally started feeding my 7 blue devils live worms that I used to feed to my fresh water tanks of which I think I had 14.
They started to spawn and lived for 7 years. Then I discovered that I didn't need the pennies any more and all my fish were living for many years. Of course I had accidents and lost fish as I barely knew what I was doing and when you do things by trial and error, you will fail more then you win.
Blue devil eggs circa 1972
It took until the early 80s when I think I had it down to a science and stopped losing fish to communicable diseases.
Then much later the internet came out and everyone had an opinion. Thats when the problems started and no one any more experimented, they all asked for opinions. Opinions now are fine but to ask for opinions from people who started the hobby last Tuesday and have kept one damsel for a couple of weeks on life support was not a good idea.
I wrote a few articles in the paper magazines then and like now, people would ask me questions.
(remember, even in those days I still had the oldest tank around)
I would say to feed live worms and clams etc. People would write back and say: Oh thats great, I can't get that so I will feed corn flakes is that OK?..
And thats the way it has always gone.
But getting back to your question of a small tank. For many years I kept a 5 gallon salt tank using NSW and rocks from New York water. Much of it was asphalt, cinder blocks and bricks,
I hatched out these octopus in a small tank.
And kept cool creatures. Most of which I collected in the sea
This was my tank I think in the 80s
Those small 5 gallon tanks using bricks,NSW and local creatures never crashed or had any disease problems. Not once. Don't tell some of the people on here because it would be an argument as they can't grasp having healthy fish by using parasites to control parasites.
Of course none of those people can show their still running tanks from when the hobby started.
Remember us Geezers invented quarantine, copper and medications, that is not a modern thing from the internet. It was because we were un informed and didn't realize that the fish could stay healthy if we stayed out of their way and dealt with diseases the way they have been for millions of years.
