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The first time LED was ever tried on a pico reef was 2002


brandon429

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Throwback 

 

Nano-reef.com was one yr old at the time of this led run, which was weak and underpowered. RadioShack had our back tho, hate to see them go.

 

first led pico reef post early led pics ifanyone has any

 

Did the 90's have any LED use we can find? Poster evil66 and jmben good on led history must locate

 

 

 

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Christopher Marks

This is so awesome to see! Did you post it on the forum back then? I suppose many of those early images were lost to time and old hosting.

 

LED lighting first showed real promise with pico and nano reefs, but that wasn't until so many years later!

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I did post Chris, do believe the site changeover moved it about, not sure

 

A poster named mermaid123 had very old pico work I wish I could review=elusive

 

Not active long time but they put up neat pics for sure

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A poster named lunchbox got acropora to grow out a five inch nub with a bigger array of these non-aquarium LEDs... His is probably the first successful growth arrangement I recall seeing for early led use among nano reefs

 

This was the system from 2002 before led, was trying out cooler running light options. quarter gallon sealed cube.

 

This was the first non evaporating reef tank of any size, zero topoff but the lid could be raised for access. Powerhead cable cut and spliced back through grommet

 

The refugium typically ran as counter lighting

 

The old led light still works I should make a vid of it. It should go in the nanoreef museum

 

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Christopher Marks

@Mermaid123 was a good friend, we met on IRC chat in #reefs and #candybass a year or so before this website came to be. Unfortunately we lost touch a good 10+ years ago :( 

 

@Lunchbucket was always a pioneer for nano reef lighting! I remember when he first put a 400W metal halide over a 10 gallon tank, everyone thought he was insane.

 

Power compact florescents were really what allowed nano reefs to take off as an accessible concept, being able to powerfully light such a small area without the heat and expense of metal halides. Those 32w, 27w, 13w and 9w bulbs in reef spectrums were everything. Lower wattage double ended halide bulbs came into fashion after that, making halide lighting a little more practical for nano reefs with high light needs. It's incredible to see LEDs replacing nearly all of this, with such efficiency no less.

 

I'll see if I can find some of these old topics.

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Christopher Marks
1 hour ago, brandon429 said:

A poster named mermaid123 had very old pico work I wish I could review=elusive

 

Not active long time but they put up neat pics for sure

Thankfully the internet archive preserved a few photos on her old website! I'll archive them here as well.

https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20040212010018/http://reefcastles.com:80/onegallon.htm
 

 

Quote

 

This tiny nano reef was a Valentines Day present to me from Vernon and was set up on February 13th, 2002.

 

new4feb13.JPG

Brand new

new1feb13.JPG

February 13, 2002

 

full1feb15.JPG

February 15, 2002

 

full1feb18.JPG

February 18, 2002

frogspawn1feb18.JPG

Frogspawn February 18, 2002

 

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Briareum February 27, 2002

  • One Gallon Triangular Tank
  • 2" Live Sand (approx. 3 pounds)
  • 2 Pounds +/- Live Rock
  • ZooMed Micro Jet 104
  • 13 Watt Jalli Power Compact Fixture (smart bulb)

Livestock

  • Scarlet Feather Dusters
  • Antheila (from live rock)
  • Frogspawn Frag
  • One Scarlet Reef Hermit
  • One Blue Leg Hermit
  • Two Astrea Snails
  • Briareum
  • Mushroom
  • Small Toadstool Leather
  • Xenia Umbelatta
  • One Caribbean Pistol Shrimp

Small systems like this one are generally not for new comers to the hobby as they are actually more difficult to maintain than larger systems. A larger body of water gives you a much greater margin for error, nano reefs aren't as forgiving. Water changes were done on this system on a daily basis for about two weeks. Then every other day, for about two more weeks, until they could finally be cut back to two times a week. Additives to these small systems are equally tricky. Most come with dosing instructions for much larger systems and must be broken down for small systems. Extreme care not to overdose should always be taken.

 

 

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Christopher Marks

@Mermaid123 also had a 5.5 gallon pistol shrimp and goby pair system with coral that was later converted to a general nano reef when the pair was removed, along with numerous other 15-20 gallon tanks. Check them all out here in the archive, you might have to click around to find a good capture: https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20040318114749/http://reefcastles.com:80/

 

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Mermaid123's 5.5 Gallon Pico Reef Archive: https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20030730162924/http://www.reefcastles.com:80/shrimp_goby.htm

 

rearrangedtank1feb7.JPG

February 7, 2002

pistolgoby14feb7.JPG

 

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The shrimp & goby have been moved into a 15 gallon "critter tank" and the 5.5 gallon has been set up once again as a nano-reef.

 

Tank Specs

  • 5.5 gallon AGA tank
  • 36 watt JBJ Clip On Power Compact (smart bulb)
  • 8 Lbs. Live Rock
  • 10+ Pounds Live Sand
  • ZooMed mini power head
  • Small AquaClear HOB filter (no media, used for current only)
  • 2 Astrea Snails, Approx. 20 baby Nerite snails (keep multiplying)
  • 4 Blue Leg Hermits
  • 1 Emerald Crab
  • 1 Peppermint Shrimp
  • 1 Percula Clownfish
  • Nephthea Frag
  • Capnella Frag
  • Briareum Frag
  • Green Ricordea
  • Green/Red Ricordea with purple tips
  • Finger Leather Frag
  • Open Brain
  • Toadstool Leather Frag
  • Xenia Umbelatta
  • Xenia Elongata
  • Red, Blue, and Green Speckled Mushrooms
  • Coralimorph
  • Yellow & Pink Sponge
  • Gorgonian Frag
  • Macros: Grape Caulerpa, Caulerpa Serrata, Brillo

 

 

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That's truly the dawn of pico reefing in these pics, an incredible resource/time reference. That was the exact tank i remembered seeing! The 2001 pics are mighty hard to find, owned no digital camera in 2001 they were five hundred ish

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I believe, after exhaustive googling for a decade, that what is shown above might be the first pico reef pictures of this size at all, anywhere on the web. The pico edition from coral mag was 03ish

 

 including Germany which is a strong contender for early pico reef data...the owner of the reefing company koralle is an early nano pioneer if anyone has old pico reef info it's DK

http://www.reef2rainforest.com/2016/03/04/coral-video-daniel-knops-reef-turns-21/

 

after searching even German forums using google translator I never saw anything near one gallon going into the 90s -01 and that's where my searching ran out. I know of no older pics on the internet of a gallon reef system or less. Rather rare instance. The victorians had pico reefs, but I know of no pics or pico jar tintypes

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Christopher Marks

Val's (Mermaid123) 5.5 gallon system may be one of the very first pico reefs ever documented, the picture is from February 7, 2002, but clearly predates that to at least some time in 2001. The earliest archive of her site with reference to it shows August 2002 as the last update, and the image has feb7 in the filename. https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20021210142710/http://reefcastles.com:80/shrimp_goby.htm

 

Not only was is one of the first pico reefs, it was also a symbiotic pair specific tank.

 

Her 1 gallon pico reef that was setup February 13th, 2002 was definitely the first time I had ever heard of anyone trying something at 1 gallon. There may be a 5.5 that predates the first system, but a 1 gallon system? Who knew we'd be a part of history some day :) 

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Christopher Marks

I found an archive of @Lunchbucket's tanks from his old website: https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20030201225202/http://www.lunchbucket.org:80/Nano page.htm

 

Here's his original 10 gallon, September 5, 2002

9 5 02 full tank.JPG

 

I'm still looking for his posts about the LED growth experiments. He really had some cool tanks, his 20 gallon tank upgrade became an SPS monster by the end of 2003:

 

20gal 12.18.2003 lunchbucket.JPG

 

Thank goodness for the Internet Archive, they are an incredible organization preserving the internet for generations to come. Much of this information went offline well over a decade ago, but Archive.org saved it for us! Well, most of it anyways. I'm very grateful. I've worked hard to preserve information on our community, but so many images are hosted externally, it's difficult to save it all. It wasn't easy sharing digital photos on the web back then, and we didn't consider what would happen to those web servers hosting the files some day.

 

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I have never heard of that and thank you tons for the quick search and link that's niche history to keep reading about!

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