Saltwater in the Long Ago #2: Settin' It Up, Breakin' It In

[Doug]

Now that you had all your hardware in place, you needed to "break it in". This was slang for establishing a colony of nitrifying bacteria in your undergravel filter. It typically took 4-6 weeks, and was a trying period for impatient new hobbyists. Typically, a 75 gallon system called for the standard initial load of 4 to 6 damsels, a single banded coral shrimp (never two), and a dozen condylactis anemones-- plus a bagfull of dolomite gravel from a retailer's established store tank. Some hobbyists knew they could get by on the cheap by slowly acclimating freshwater black mollies to saltwater over the course of several hours, thus reducing the initial outlay from $50 to about $2. While I am frugal, I think a 75 gallon tank with a dozen black mollies for 6 weeks was a pretty boring start to an exciting new hobby.

You, of course, had to have your Tetra Nitrite Test Kit. You were cautioned against wasting the reagent by making repeated unnecessary tests during the first 3 weeks. You were assured that, once you saw nitrite rise sharply, you knew that ammonia was being converted, and that very soon, nitrites would be converted to far-less-toxic nitrates, and you would then be ready to add "regular fish", like percula clowns and yellow tangs. This rite of passage preceded the advent of bacteria-accelerating commercial products (Who remembers "Fritz-Zyme*"? Raise your hand), or the advent of filtration methods that would drastically shorten the development and establishment of full-blown colonies of nitrifying bacteria.

Next: What Constituted a "Healthy" Tank in 1977

*Fritz Pet Products, back in that time, was a pet supply wholesaler who also marketed its own private label products, including a saltwater aquarium biological accelerant, apparently still sold today.