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THE OFFICIAL ASK ALBERT THIEL THREAD


ZephNYC

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We are very proud to have Albert Thiel on board here at NR. Many who have been around for a number of years are more than likely familiar with Albert through the number of books he has written.

 

1) The Marine Fish and Invert Reef Aquarium (over 50K copies sold and still used, Amazon lists used copies for a very low price)

 

2) Advanced Reefkeeping I

 

3) Advanced Reefkeeping II (was not published in print but was an online “subscription only” e-book, long before e-books were even available and know to us)

 

3 )Small Reef Aquarium Basics - for smaller tanks and for beginner hobbyists

 

4) The New Marine Fish and Invert Reef Aquarium (not in print but published online only again as an e-book at http://www.nmfira.com)

 

5) The Marine Reef Newsletter - a monthly 16 to 24 page publication that ran for nearly 5 years and was also available in hardbound copy by year)

 

6) Numerous articles for FAMA and THF magazine, and also for foreign ones in French and Spanish

 

7) Many articles published in Aquarium Society Newsletters and other vehicles under the pen name “The Blackfriar” (tons of hobbyists at that time wondered who The Blackfriar was but no one ever found out to our knowledge … so this is a first for you … Albert was and is The Blackfriar”

 

Albert spoke at far more Aquarium Society meetings than he can remember, including some in England, Germany, France and of course many many in the US.

 

He Spoke at several MACNA Conferences as well

 

Albert has contributed to our hobby in so many ways, introducing techniques and products that were not in use in the US at the time, and through his books exposing hobbyists to approaches of running saltwater and reef aquariums that were based on best practices used in other Countries (in Europe and the Far East), but also by bringing products and equipment to the market that were not used in the Hobby before he did so.

 

Albert was born in Belgium, came to the US in late 1979 and worked for a few years for large US Companies before starting Thiel AquaTech.

 

Thiel Aqua Tech was the cutting edge Company at that time and originated or brought to the market almost all of our modern supplements and equipment.

 

Thiel Aqua Tech began back in the mid 1980’s and ran it till 1996 at which time Albert sold the Company as well as the web site he ran for many many years (http://www.athiel.com Unfortunately the purchaser did not focus on the business and made a number of mistakes and upset quite a few hobbyists and basically ran the company in the ground (the web site was also not updated any longer but as a side note, it still contains a large amount of information in its various libraries that is sill applicable today in 2012.

 

Albert points out that by going to the main page of the site and on the top left clicking on the search button you can enter topics and usually find several articles or postings on that topic, some by Albert and some by other Authors or saltwater and reef experts.

 

Thiel Aqua Tech is responsible for the very first trickle filters brought into this country (originally in glass but soon after that in acrylic) and introduced many products for the Marine hobby such as Liquid Gold, X-Nitrate, X-Phosphate, KSM, Iodine supplements, X-Silicate, and many many others.

 

Many of our supplements started with his Company or were improved upon, and so did: Sumps, Refugia, Skimmers, Reactors for all sorts of purposes e.g. KH ones and chemical filtration ones for carbon and other materials, and …. even Mangrove usage at a time no one had even heard of doing so (check the website for articles on them). GARF (R.I.P. LeRoy) was soon to follow and advocate their use as well.

 

Based on his conversations with several German experts and Authors he also introduced the addition and use of Kalkwasser as one of the first companies to do so, if not the first.

 

His interactions with German and other Authors and experts allowed him to not only bring US hobbyists up-to-date on what was happening overseas, but also to develop new products based on all the research he did (e.g. he was the first one to introduce phosphate removers and for those who remember FAMA Magazine introduced it with a stunning advertisement that showed an aquarium the font of which was covered in green algae, and a razor blade being scraped from top to bottom of the front glass to make clear opening … and then underneath in the text asking: “is this the way you rid your tank of Algae” and suggesting that using X-Phosphate was a far better way to go. And it was …. nowadays what he introduced is still used but a new product has since also been introduced: Ferric oxide

 

We are all pleased to have Albert here on NR as the “Go To Guy” for serious information and for any questions you may have.

 

So if you have any for him, this is the place to post them. Enjoy.

 

goodthiel.jpg

Edited by ZephNYC
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In 1997 I would spend hours online when google first started looking up aquarium info, the Thiel database of links was first return before market saturation of myriad products diluted early search returns. That was the first time I read about his work and it took another year to read all the links.

 

There was even a link to information about ultra small reef work, but I can't recall the info I just remember thinking it was neat to read about the different sized tanks and all the complex chemistry involved.

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HecticDialectics
I love the idea of an Ask Albert Thread. Thanks for starting it Zeph.

 

No one really cares what you love the idea of. Does Albert love the idea of an Ask Albert thread? Kinda weird that you all start it for him...

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albertthiel
We are very proud to have Albert Thiel on board here at NR. Many are familiar with Albert through the books he has written.

1) The Marine Fish and Invert Reef Aquarium

2) Advanced Reefkeeping I and II (II was online only) (I was in print

3 )Small Reef Aquarium Basics

4) The New Marine Fish and Invert Reef Aquarium (not in print but online only)

5) Marine reef news letter - a monthy publication that ran for nearly 5 years

6) endless articles for FAMA and THF magazines

 

Albert was always the center of attention when he spoke at far more Aquarium Society meetings than I can remember, including some in England, Germany, France and of course many many in the US. He Spoke at Macna Conferences as well

 

ALbert has contributed to our hobby in so many ways.

Albert was born in Belgium, came to the US in late 1979 and worked for a few years for large US Companies before starting Thiel AquaTech. THIEL was THE cutting edge company that originated almost ALL of our supplements and equipment. Thiel Aquatech began back in the mid 1980's and ran it till 1996. Thiel is solely responsible for the very first trickle filter and introduced many products for the marine hobby such as Liquid Gold, X-Nitrate, X-Phosphate and many many others. ALL of our supplement started with him. Sumps, skimmers, reactors for all sorts of purposes. He is one of the first, if not entirely responsible, for bringing kalkwasser to the US.

 

We are all proud to have Albert here as the "go to guy" for serious information. So if you have any questions for the Guru, this is the place to address them. ENjoy!!!!

 

Thanks for the welcome and thanks for creating the Thread. I could expand on what was written above and give more details but I am sure that I will have an opportunity to do so when the thread starts getting posts and hobbyists asks questions, to which I will reply to the best of my ability, as even if I have been around this hobby for 25+ years there is still a lot that I do not know which in this hobby is certainly not unusual. We all still have a lot to learn.

 

I am happy and pleased to be part of this forum and will entertain any questions NR members may have and if I do not know the answer even after researching it, I will certainly tell you so

 

Thanks again and I look forward to being able to share a lot of my experiences and what I know with you

 

Albert

 

 

In 1997 I would spend hours online when google first started looking up aquarium info, the Thiel database of links was first return before market saturation of myriad products diluted early search returns. That was the first time I read about his work and it took another year to read all the links.

 

There was even a link to information about ultra small reef work, but I can't recall the info I just remember thinking it was neat to read about the different sized tanks and all the complex chemistry involved.

 

You can actually still find that on http://www.athiel.com and go to the main page and at the top right use the Search feature and then look for nano tanks and small reefs and iterations of those words.

 

Note that there are thousands of articles on the site, but unfortunately the site has not been updated as when I sold the company the web site went with it and it was not kept up-to-date but as I said a lot of the information is still valid today ... what you will not find is information on LED lighting as in those days it was not available but we did research on fiber optic lighting for aquariums and tested it on several tanks but were never able to bring fixtures out at reasonable prices in those days.

 

Albert

Edited by albertthiel
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Thanks for the welcome and thanks for creating the Thread. I could expand on what was written above and give more details but I am sure that I will have an opportunity to do so when the thread starts getting posts and hobbyists asks questions, to which I will reply to the best of my ability, as even if I have been around this hobby for 25+ years there is still a lot that I do not know which in this hobby is certainly not unusual. We all still have a lot to learn.

 

I am happy and pleased to be part of this forum and will entertain any questions NR members may have and if I do not know the answer even after researching it, I will certainly tell you so

 

Thanks again and I look forward to being able to share a lot of my experiences and what I know with you

 

Albert

 

 

There you are Albert!!!! I was beginning to get some heat for starting this without you !! I just wanted a thread where some of us could direct public questions to Albert. I hope it gets respectful attention.

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albertthiel
How is this "Official"?

 

I guess what was meant is that it is the "real" Albert Thiel :)

 

Albert

 

 

No one really cares what you love the idea of. Does Albert love the idea of an Ask Albert thread? Kinda weird that you all start it for him...

 

The thread was started after Zeph consulted with me and others and since I am not all that familiar with how the forum works and what you can and cannot do, Zeph started it for me.

 

Hope that answers your question

 

Albert

 

 

Subscribed. Albert Thiel is very helpful and has given me a good amount of article links in the recent past for references.

 

 

Thanks Kat and I hope that I can continue to draw on my past experience to help other hobbyists on NR ...

 

Albert

 

 

Subscribed. Albert Thiel is very helpful and has given me a good amount of article links in the recent past for references.

 

Thanks IIX ... appreciate the kind words and will continue to provide answers and links whenever I can.

 

Albert

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albertthiel
There you are Albert!!!! I was beginning to get some heat for starting this without you !! I just wanted a thread where some of us could direct public questions to Albert. I hope it gets respectful attention.

 

As we discussed I knew you were going to start it since we discussed it and since you know how to work things on this forum a lot better than I do ... so thanks for doing so

 

I became aware that the thread had been created only about maybe 20 minutes ago or so ... as you can see from my first post ...

 

As I said I welcome questions from anyone on NR and will do all I can to come up with the answers hobbyists are looking for to the best of my ability and mark my answer with IME and IMO when needed. I certainly do not want to mislead anyone or give the impression that I have all the answers ... as I do NOT ....

 

Albert

 

Great idea! Hey Albert, can we ask you anything or does it have to reef related?

 

Anything regarding saltwater aquariums and reefs, fish, inverts, macro-algae, water chemistry, reactors, skimmers etc ... etc ...

 

I'll even entertain a plant aquarium question unless NR has objections to that :)

 

Anything goes as long as it is aquarium related in some form or another :)

 

Albert

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albertthiel
Who?

 

If you really want more info :) do a google search for my name .... :) it will bring up a lot of info ... In fact I just did it and I found a listing from a site for someone who was wondering what had happened to me

(http://www.livingreefs.com/forums.php)

 

Interesting what Google knowns ... sometimes I think they know more about us than we know about ourselves :)

 

Albert

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albertthiel

The other day we were trying to identify a small yellowish animal in one of NR's members tanks ... cannot recall who it was but I have now ID'ed it I think

 

cirratulid.png

 

It is a Cirratulid ...

 

Albert

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Why did my armor of gods zoas fully like extend today, like a inch when they never did before and why did my toadstool not come out today, i did my wc yesterday if that helps

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Why did my armor of gods zoas fully like extend today, like a inch when they never did before and why did my toadstool not come out today, i did my wc yesterday if that helps?
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albertthiel
Why did my armor of gods zoas fully like extend today, like a inch when they never did before and why did my toadstool not come out today, i did my wc yesterday if that helps

 

Could be due to the water quality change tanks to the Water Change ... hard to tell without further details of what your params were before and after the water change ... Maybe the temp and the pH change may have affected both ... If you have more details I'll try to get you a better answer ...

 

Is this the Zoa

 

armorgodzoa.png

 

Which Toadstool Leather did you have (brown, green, pink tentacles?)

 

Here are two :

 

toad1.png

 

toad2.png

 

Also how large was the water change in comparison to the total water in the tank ?

 

Albert

Edited by albertthiel
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