High Tide Aquatics

Jim Stime is a good friend of mine...check out his most recent addition to LA Fish Guys

Oh yeah, you know Jim? Met him once when MACNA was in San Diego some years back definitely a character. Ironically I met Scott (the other one) a number of times after that because he was always working the Royal Exclusiv/GHL booths :D
 
sfsuphysics said:
Oh yeah, you know Jim? Met him once when MACNA was in San Diego some years back definitely a character. Ironically I met Scott (the other one) a number of times after that because he was always working the Royal Exclusiv/GHL booths :D
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Yes..both are good friends of mine :). We LA guys stick together LOL. Scott broke his tank down a few months ago and now lives in Montana. No tanks in the near future for Scott but...

Jim and I did MACNA X together when it was the first time to the west coast.
 
Scott Sweet said:
Yes..both are good friends of mine :). We LA guys stick together LOL. Scott broke his tank down a few months ago and now lives in Montana. No tanks in the near future for Scott but...

Jim and I did MACNA X together when it was the first time to the west coast.
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Yeah recently saw about Scott's tank, sad, but sounds like he's super happy getting away from the business of civilization. I don't know about him but if I ever made that move I would think a fish tank would be your sanity, but I realize there's a lot of work that needs to be done on his new place. Wow MACNA X, I didn't get into the hobby until a couple years after that, and even then wasn't big on going to things just because the travel times getting places are not worth it to me for what I get out of it, San Diego was a visit to my cousin which included MACNA, and Las Vegas was 2 $39 plane tickets on the same day with a 1 day pass, so I could swing that.

But yeah you mentioning Jim and (the other) Scott, and I don't know why but your name is clicking in my head, like I have associated you with them in some way before. Reefcentral Large Tank builds? or anything? Or it could just be Coronavirus related isolating making me think up stuff :D
 
sfsuphysics said:
Yeah recently saw about Scott's tank, sad, but sounds like he's super happy getting away from the business of civilization. I don't know about him but if I ever made that move I would think a fish tank would be your sanity, but I realize there's a lot of work that needs to be done on his new place. Wow MACNA X, I didn't get into the hobby until a couple years after that, and even then wasn't big on going to things just because the travel times getting places are not worth it to me for what I get out of it, San Diego was a visit to my cousin which included MACNA, and Las Vegas was 2 $39 plane tickets on the same day with a 1 day pass, so I could swing that.

But yeah you mentioning Jim and (the other) Scott, and I don't know why but your name is clicking in my head, like I have associated you with them in some way before. Reefcentral Large Tank builds? or anything? Or it could just be Coronavirus related isolating making me think up stuff :D
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I was very active on ReefCentral. Back in the late 90s, I had a 450 gallon tank. At the time, I was one of the few with such a large tank in a house. It took me 1.5 years to design it because we had no real reference knowledge on how to build such a large tank. At MACNA X, I consulted with the likes of Dana Riddle and Mike Paletta on ideas. I created these things called baffles in a sump that created weirs so we created chambers and eliminated bubbles in the sump LOL. We had none of the fancy submersible flow pumps and such as we do today. It was either a big return line, closed loops or Tunze Turbelles :). Oh yes, I had the Neptune 1.0 aquarium controller too...where I designed the first "powerstrip" that worked with the Neptune - LOL. I did a live "chat" on ReefCentral when it was at the very beginning of this weird thing called the "internet" - before Al Gore invented the "internets" - LOL.

I had sourced and sold my own calcium reactor media, Super Calc Gold, when the calcium reactor craze started. I imported one of the first calcium reactors to the USA...the Knop Calcium Reactor :).
 
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No offense meant. Doesn’t seem like any taken I Hope.
Old is old.
I guess compared to most everyone else on this forum (mainly in experience not age). That’s the good kind of old
 
Coral reefer said:
No offense meant. Doesn’t seem like any taken I Hope.
Old is old.
I guess compared to most everyone else on this forum (mainly in experience not age)
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No offense taken at all LOL. After a 20 year hiatus from the hobby...I am back with my new tank. It is progressing slowly. The good news is the basics are the same...but some of the technology has caught up with the gaps we had back then. LEDs, pumps, dosing, testing systems...it is great because I am a tech junkie LOL. It is all about automation and eliminating the monotonous things we must do..but hate to do.

Hey, when I had my 450, I used to see these tiny flat blobs on my glass at night by the hundreds. I had people, experts, come over and we all looked at them and said.."I don't know.." We all know what they are today LOL...flatworms. Hey those nasty crabs and worms that seem to make fish vanish have outlived me LOL.
 
Man, and here I thought I have been wronged (not really) by Ecotech directly stealing my idea of geometric clusters of LEDs (again not really). You came up with all the stuff! And yeah I got into the hobby largely before the wideflow low power/high flow pumps (other than maybe the cans of soup Tunze pumps). I remember using I think an Aquaclear 802 (Or something) with suction cups, that never held long, in the tank.. I see all of the "old school tech" that existed back then, and the fact that most of what we have today absolutely could have been made back then as well and am happy I didn't grow up in the hobby in those dark ages where success meant you were a god among men in the hobby :)
 
Scott Sweet said:
I was very active on ReefCentral. Back in the late 90s, I had a 450 gallon tank. At the time, I was one of the few with such a large tank in a house. It took me 1.5 years to design it because we had no real reference knowledge on how to build such a large tank. At MACNA X, I consulted with the likes of Dana Riddle and Mike Paletta on ideas. I created these things called baffles in a sump that created weirs so we created chambers and eliminated bubbles in the sump LOL. We had none of the fancy submersible flow pumps and such as we do today. It was either a big return line, closed loops or Tunze Turbelles :). Oh yes, I had the Neptune 1.0 aquarium controller too...where I designed the first "powerstrip" that worked with the Neptune - LOL. I did a live "chat" on ReefCentral when it was at the very beginning of this weird thing called the "internet" - before Al Gore invented the "internets" - LOL.

I had sourced and sold my own calcium reactor media, Super Calc Gold, when the calcium reactor craze started. I imported one of the first calcium reactors to the USA...the Knop Calcium Reactor :).
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Did you have to pump water up hill both ways back then too? :)

We are lucky to have members in the club with your long-term perspective of the hobby and the industry!
 
JVU said:
Did you have to pump water up hill both ways back then too? :)

We are lucky to have members in the club with your long-term perspective of the hobby and the industry!
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No..but I did walk in the snow, in Los Angeles, 5 miles each way, going backwards on the way back. LOL

You know...understanding where we have come from and how much more we have today is of great value. The changes and improvements of the hobby is amazing for me and I greatly appreciate how traditional commercial centric technology has caught up with the hobby to make it a little easier for the animals to thrive/survive as well as our lives for maintenance, etc. Things like automating a water change or top off for only a $100-$200 in of itself is amazing.
 
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I'm curious you said you took a 20 year hiatus. Were you still occasionally "peeking in" on the state of the art of the hobby so you knew what technologies were out there, or did you just decide to come back in and went "Bloody hell why can't I find VHO bulbs anywhere?!" :D
 
sfsuphysics said:
I'm curious you said you took a 20 year hiatus. Were you still occasionally "peeking in" on the state of the art of the hobby so you knew what technologies were out there, or did you just decide to come back in and went "Bloody hell why can't I find VHO bulbs anywhere?!" :D
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I did actually. I was on ReefCentral often looking at the TOTM and then later R2R. I would browse and occasionally get a reef fix by visiting a local retailer. One of my favorites was always Vivid Aquariums in LA. I saw when the LED craze started and watched how that matured over time. T5 lights made huge inroads...especially in Europe.

Same for pumps...the whole idea of putting a pump in to the aquarium was great...but I personally hated wires in the tank - Tunze has always been a leader here...but then Ecotech came along. My 450 had Sea Swirls, but the top of my tank was completely covered. My new tank had an open top so that introduced new challenges :).

Finally were the skimmers. The needle impeller thing had started in like 99 or 2000. They were barely capable...we used downdrafts with a monster high pressure pump back then. There were always the Mazzei venturi skimmers that were always try and true, but we didn't have the small high pressure pumps yet to drive them like we do today. Personally, I have a Marine Technical Concepts MVX skimmer...think I got one of his last skimmers. Lifereef is still around though. My skimmer was $500 or $600 and runs on a Fluval SP4 and modified with the cool Avast skimmer neck cleaner. Most of the parts are standard acrylic or pvc parts I can buy anywhere :). I just didn't want a skimmer with some special $300-$500 pump that you can only get from one vendor tied to a $100 impeller LOL. The Europeans love doing this sort of thing...and in the USA..they are very expensive :).
 
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Yeah sounds like when you got out was very close to when I got in because I definitely see the overlap. I remember having an Aquaclear powerhead in the tank, the need to have closed loops or return manifolds, and yeah my first skimmer was airstone driven :D Even the pumps on skimmers I do recall the fat pressure pumps, then the super "efficient" Eheim pumps, and even those went the way of the do-do when Sicce and under manufactuers came about (ignoring of course Royal Exclusiv and other super high end stuff).
 
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