Forgotten Pioneers in Reefkeeping
(A group shot of some of us early reefkeepers: Julian Sprung, Charles Delbeek, Michael Paletta and John Burleson)
When I look at reef tanks today, I am always impressed by how far we have come in this hobby. We can now keep almost any coral, fish or invertebrate that we come across and many are even reproducing in our tanks. A lot of this is because the technology has improved so much, but even more so due to our general understanding of what is necessary, makes keeping what was once considered impossible relatively commonplace. I also realize that a lot of this is due to the work by many individuals during the early years of the hobby. Sadly, many of these individuals and their contributions have been unrecognized or forgotten, and much of this work was done before the internet, cell phones or anything digital was even thought about.
(An early photo of a tank of Nilsen's using the Berlin method)
In the early years trial and error was the main method for learning if something would work or not. So, for many of the early practitioners in the hobby in addition to their time and effort being spent trying to learn many also spent significant sums of money in order to eventually learn what worked and achieve success. While everyone is aware of the contributions that Julian, Charles, Sanjay and many of the gurus in the hobby that are still making contributions today many of the early contributors who are not still around or who are no longer in the hobby have often been forgotten. Since these individuals did much to shape the hobby and help all of us get to where we are today, I think that as we start a new decade it would be nice to acknowledge them. This list is not exhaustive, and I am somewhat biased, as I am including the individuals who not only impacted me directly but they also impacted the hobby in a significant manner in my opinion. I’m sure that I forgot someone, and I apologize for this oversight in advance, but I have met so many great individuals in the hobby that sadly it is hard for me to remember everyone.
The individuals I’m listing are not in any particular order or how important their contributions were, it is more or less when I remembered them. The first of these is hobbyist George Smit, he's of Dutch Mini-Reef fame. In the mid-1980s, in a series of articles in the now defunct FAMA magazine George brought to light an entirely new methodology for keeping saltwater tanks. Trickle filters, strong lighting, and the then unheard of but now essential, component of all reef tanks: live rock. He also introduced the use of Caulerpa within the tank, all of these were a completely new and exciting concepts for keeping saltwater tank. These components combined with pictures of lush looking tanks not only full of Caulerpa, but also live soft corals drew many of us into trying this new way of doing things. Considering the stark white tanks full of bleached corals and large fish that were the norm before this in the hobby, and it is easy to see why these tanks were a revelation and brought as many of us into the hobby as a pair of clownfish in an anemone did. Not only did he explain this methodology in great detail, but he also coined the phrase “mini-reef” which compared to the bleached look made all of believe that we did indeed have a miniature reef in our homes.
A couple of years later Alf Nielsen in a similar fashion brought the Berlin system to light in two series of articles in AFM magazine as well as in a series of books he co-wrote with Svein Fossa. Alf was finally recognized for these contributions by being selected MASNA Aquarist of the Year in 2020. The tanks Alf showed differed markedly from the Dutch method in that there was no Caulerpa present, but rather the tanks were full of the then unkeepable stony corals. Alf introduced the concepts of heavy protein skimming and kalkwasser, which were the next step in our learning about what was necessary to keep corals successfully. Alf even came all the way from Norway to educate us on how this system worked, making him one of the first long-distance leaders who came to MACNA to teach us.
Before Alf made his contributions, Peter Wilkens wrote his seminal book on reefkeeping for the European audience. His book was far more technical than any book on marine aquariums up until that point. Unfortunately, it was only in German initially and was not translated into English until after Alf’s articles were published. It contained the most substantive explanation of protein skimming that even up until now I have ever read. Peter also wrote two additional books that discussed the husbandry of many of the corals we were just starting to keep. Unfortunately, as I mentioned up until these books were published in English much of what we were doing husbandry wise was trial and error. Peter’s work helped to significantly reduce this. Peter was another European who also came here to teach us during MACNA and gave one of the more detailed talks on coral husbandry done during the early years of the hobby.
(Acropora cervicornis from an aquarium in Florida)
The last of the Europeans who in the early years made a significant contribution to the hobby was Dietrich Stuber. Stuber and his group of hobbyist friends in Germany developed much of the early husbandry techniques and equipment that made it possible to keep sps corals for the first time. Stuber is credited with keeping the Acropora in captivity for an extended period of time and also with being the first to fragment it and share these fragments with his friends. The techniques that he and his colleagues developed and utilized came to be known as the “Berlin Method” and it was not only the first method many hobbyists came to use in the early years of the hobby, but it and some hybrids of it are still the fundamental method used by many of us today.
(A photo of what was considered a “very colorful” Acropora during the early days)
While these individuals were bringing the European concepts of reef keeping to us, John Burleson in Maryland, discovered how important the blue spectrum of lighting is for corals, and developed the concept of using Actinic lighting in our tanks. John was an early reef keeper who worked in a print shop where the use of Actinic fluorescent lighting was common. John saw that the use of this type of lighting might have some utility with corals, so he successfully experimented with these and other fluorescent lamps until he came up with a lighting system that not only promoted healthy corals, but also was quite visually appealing. To this day, John had one of the nicest soft coral tanks that I have ever seen. Nothing crazy or exotic, just big healthy beautiful colorful soft corals like leather corals, Sinularia and mushrooms, which grew to their full potential in his tank.
(The impressive tank of John Burleson under his actinic lighting)
Since lighting was one of the least understood but critical aspects of reefkeeping we have Wayne Blackburn to thank for his introduction of a user-friendly metal halide lamp and fixture to the reefing community. Wayne was the first to develop use and make available the Iwasaki 6500K metal halide lamp in a fixture that Wayne built himself. Even up until a few years ago this lamp was a favorite of Sanjay, due to its high output and how fast corals of every type grew under it. Up until Wayne introduced these lamps the majority of metal halides available were less than 6500K, as a result most tanks using these other lamps had a sickly yellow cast to them. The introduction of these lamps were one of the turning points in the hobby and they provided enough light to allow us to keep stony corals due to how much useable light they produced compared to what else was out there then.
(The author's tank under Iwasaki bulbs, the corals grew fast, but the tank looked yellow compared to today's lighting)
While these pioneers were simple hobbyists trying to make the hobby better, Bruce Carlson was long-established curator in public aquariums. Bruce not only stressed the need for stronger water movement in our tanks and devised the famous Carlson surge device, but he was also crucial for giving the hobby credibility with the public aquaria and academic centers. Bruce was and always has been a strong advocate for the hobby, even when many in the public aquarium sector were downplaying our success. Bruce shared his success in his lectures and was one of the first public aquarium curators to speak at hobby functions. Lastly while at the Waikiki Aquarium, Bruce showed exactly how successful a stony coral tank could be, with his tank being the envy of many hobbyists for many years. His corals did so well that he shared many of the fragments with other public aquaria and helped establish successful reef tanks in many of them.
While we now take for granted the availability of a wide range of corals, this was not always the case. Up until the early 1990’s getting Acropora or Montipora or any of the stony corals was a relatively infrequent occurrence. Lech (sorry I do not know his last name), from Aquatic Depot changed all this when through his contacts in Fiji, he began to successfully import large quantities of sps corals. I still remember flying out to LA to go to his wholesale facility and we would actually be there as the boxes from Fiji were opened and it was like Christmas for all of us. For several years he was the only importer regularly bringing in sps corals for us hard core reefers and for this we owe him a debt of gratitude.
One of the main individuals who accompanied me on the trips to get the sps corals was Steve Tyree. I’m sure that everyone is aware that he is responsible for the most part for the naming of corals, and developed the concept of looking at their lineage, as well as the successful marketing of “named” corals. He was also a pioneer in another important aspect of the hobby. He was the first to start using 20K Radium metal halides on his tanks. While this may not sound like a big deal, in fact it changed things dramatically. Up until that point most of the sps we were keeping were beige or brown and if we were lucky showed a little coloration at their growth tips. Steve’s introduction of these lamps suddenly made a lot of these corals more colorful. Obviously not all brown corals become colorful, but if we were lucky enough to get a colorful sps coral, by using the Radium lamps that Steve brought to our knowledge, we were for the first time able to keep them colorful. Keeping colorful corals that were much more brightly colored than their soft counterparts caused a shift in the hobby as people were willing to do what was necessary to keep sps corals which requires significantly more than is the case when they were just brown sticks.
(The tank of Steve Tyree under the then new Radium bulbs)
Around the time that Steve was bringing us 20K metal halides, a gentleman named Leng Sy was showing us the wonders of using Miracle Mud. While the concept and utility of Miracle Mud has stirred much debate over the years, it did introduce the benefits of having a refugium and certain trace elements. Leng’s tank was also the first one to my knowledge that was decorated with mainly Montipora capricornis colonies, including his still beautiful Leng Sy cap. While we now take for granted these corals, at the time no one was keeping as many of them in their tanks as Leng was, and no one had them in the wide array of colors that he had. His tank was truly spectacular and one of a kind and it caused anyone who saw it to understand that there was more to keeping a successful tank than just having a big skimmer and a lot of light.
(The Leng Sy cap named after Leng Sy one of the first reefkeepers to promote a refugium and to keep Montipora capricornis)
The fragging of corals is now something we pretty much take for granted. However, in the early days of the hobby fragging corals was for the most part a hit or miss prospect. Few hobbyists dared to do it lest they cause the demise of their entire colony. Leroy Headlee and his wife Sally Jo began fragging corals and selling them long before anyone else even imagined it could be a business. The Headlees frequently drove from Idaho to LA to get colonies that would be their mother colonies for fragmentation. They worked out the details on how to frag everything from ricordea to sps corals to virtually any soft coral they came across. They were so good at it that they even tried to help others set up inland propagation facilities by hosting coral propagation seminars and shared what they were doing with everyone. They did not believe in secrets and hoped that their knowledge would help lead to others being successful. Now virtually every coral can be fragged, but without the work of Leroy and Sallee Jo and their sharing what they were doing, we all probably would not be as successful as we are today.
Before Steve showed how to market colorful sps corals, Albert Thiel showed how to market the hobby and actually that there was money to be made in it. Albert wrote numerous books and articles explaining the equipment necessary to be successful, but he also took the next step and actually began manufacturing some of the equipment specifically for the hobby. This may not seem like a big deal, but up until then most of us made our own equipment. It was common practice to build protein skimmers, overflow boxes, sumps etc., out of PVC or acrylic as there were no companies building the equipment we needed during the early years of the hobby. Albert’s marketing acumen showed that there was money to be made in the hobby, so as a result countless companies began making what we needed. Once companies understood that there was money to be made, reef keeping went from cult status to being the main methodology for keeping saltwater animals that it is today.
(A modern version of a tank using the Berlin method)
When visiting MACNA or any of the other large shows, I am amazed when I see how many people and vendors are present. When Bob James of the Marine Aquarium Society of Toronto set up the first MACNA there were not even 100 people in attendance. There was no internet, no cell phones, no social media, nor was there an easy way for the people in the hobby to communicate with one another readily and share their ideas and their successes or failures. Bob knew that the only way the hobby was going to succeed was if there was a forum where all of this knowledge could be shared among the small group of us. For this reason, Bob is an unsung hero for the success the hobby now has as he not only set up the first MACNA with his wife Debbie but even once the hobby began to grow, he always helped to make sure this new found knowledge was shared.
(The poster from MACNA V put on by Bob James. and MAST)
In similar fashion Dennis Gallagher of IMAC established a regular conference in Chicago. It was much like MACNA except Dennis focused more on having manufacturers show and share their new products to the hobby while getting feedback from actual hobbyists. As result, the manufacturers got to show the new things that they had developed to an audience that could readily tell them what they thought. In the early years a lot of prototypes of equipment was presented before it went into production, so some of us were lucky enough to get to test it and tell the builders the tweaks that would need to be done to make it work. Thus, Dennis helped the manufacturers develop a simple way to get feedback before bringing a product to market.
One of the people who helped during the early days by giving helpful and unbiased reviews of new equipment was Greg Schiemer. Greg was an accountant by trade, and he took this precise analytical view of any equipment he was testing. During this time a lot of snake oil and useless equipment was starting to be marketed to the hobby, and we were fortunate to have Greg as a conscience to tell us what equipment actually worked. And the proof was in the pudding with Greg in that he had one of the first really successful sps tanks and one could see the equipment he believed in on this tank. This led to my belief that I should only believe individuals when I could see that they had a successful tank.
(The gorgeous sps tank of Greg Scheimer showing his expertise while beta testing some new equipment)
Before there was Randy Holmes-Farley to answer our reef chemistry questions online, there was Tom Frakes. Tom was not only instrumental in the development of Instant Ocean Sea salt and Reef Crystals, but he was also intimately involved in some of the initial breeding efforts of clownfish. Because of this experience he knew more about the water where many of us kept our fish and corals than anyone. Fortunately for many of us he not only knew all about seawater, but he was also willing to answer our questions about the water in our tanks as we manipulated it with substances like kalkwasser and other new additives. Tom was also the publisher of SeaScope, which at the time was the first source for new information about many of the aspects of the hobby.
While my list of forgotten pioneers in the hobby is not complete, it would not even be close if I did not include the name of Terry Siegel. Terry was the founder of The Marine Aquarist magazine, the first US based magazine devoted to the saltwater side of the hobby. He also published Aquarium Frontiers, the magazine that at the start of the reef keeping part of the hobby discussed many of the techniques and methodologies that we now take for granted. Terry also had one of the first successful reef tanks and had it up and running successfully for at least 20 years. To many Terry is the Godfather of successful saltwater aquariums.
(One of the early pioneers of aquaculturing corals Dick Perrin)
Sadly, many of the early pioneers in the hobby are no longer with us. Below are some of their names and while I did not include a couple of them in this article, they were critical to the start of the hobby and should not be forgotten.
When I look at reef tanks today, I am always impressed by how far we have come in this hobby. We can now keep almost...&media=//www.poloreef.com/cdn/shop/articles/GROUP-SHOT-900x900px_600x.webp?v=1727310230){kind=link}
Mike Paletta
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