Eurnice or the Bobbit Worm

[albertthiel]

One of many articles on this NASTY worm 

http://reefbuilders.com/2014/02/27/eunice-worm-pet/

You can find many videos on them by doing a search on Google for Bobbit Worm

Albert

[kosai1111]

Hey, buddy. Statement, that you can find all in the Google is not entirely true. You know, that new system. Frankly speaking, I, like the person who explores this problem 6th months, can say you, that only one site from all I read, have good information and photos - https://arcreef.com. If you want to read more about this problem, then welcome.

[bergenm]

I think Albert probably explored this for more than 6 months, and didn't get most of his info from Google, but sadly Albert passed away a few years ago so he will not be responding.

Here are a few of his contributions to the Aquatic Hobby...



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 in circulation)

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 known as e-books)

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 athttp://www.nmfira.com)

5) Nano-Reef Aquariums (currently in print and e-book form - OVAS has a copy in the library - available at http://www.nanoreefs.info)

6) 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.

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

8 ) 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...Albert was and is The Blackfriar")

9) Frequent contributor at Nano-Reef.com with over 250,000 views and nearly 15,000 topics in his official thread.

Albert has spoken at far more Aquarium Society meetings than he can remember, including some in England, Germany, France and of course many many in the US, as well as several MACNA Conferences.

Albert has contributed to our hobby in so many ways, introducing techniques and products that were not in use in the North America 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 commonly used in the hobby before he did so.

Albert was born in Belgium, came to the US in late 1979 where he worked for several years for large US aquatic companies before starting Thiel AquaTech in the mid 80's.

Thiel Aqua Tech was a cutting edge Company at that time and originated, or brought to the market, almost all of our modern supplements and equipment.  Thiel Aqua Tech was responsible for the very first trickle filters brought into North America (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.

The use of many modern supplements and techniques we use today were introduced by Thiel Aqua Tech and are used as they were, or were improved upon by others in the hobby, including : Sumps, Refugia, Skimmers and 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. *

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 European authors and experts allowed him to not only bring UNorth American 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