Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
I am finally at the point in my life and the life of my reef tank where I know I can relax and nothing is going to happen. Well, I may become senile and the Earth may be invaded by aliens, global warming may disturb some polar bears and people will lost interest in Myley Cyrus, but besides that, I'm good.
I can't get much balder but my tank almost takes care of itself. I am only here to give the hermit crabs something to make fun at. I don't have to quarantine, test, play with reactors, dosers, or controllers, never have to worry if anything is going to eat, or not eat. Nothing will get sick, Rarely do anything but occasionally change the water, and I only do that so people don't start threads saying how wrong I do everything.
There is enough microscope life in the tank to feed whatever is in there, the brittle stars and amphipods are so plentiful that they started a rugby team. The "Staropods". The "nitrate factory" reverse UG filter is doing it's thing and almost everything is spawning. Not the copperband but I am playing Barry White music a lot.
I think there are three reasons that my tank seems to never have any problems. One is the age of the set up. I assume that after a few decades the bacteria get bored of doing stupid things to mess up the water and I also believe the life and bacteria I sometimes add from the sea may have a positive reaction. Of course I don't know. I doubt it is my good looks or the under arm deodorant I use (and sometimes lend to the hermit crabs) It could be luck as many people acuse me of having that. The last thing is the live food I feed every day. I know I mention that a lot, but it is what it is. That is the reason for the no quarantining, and the fact that everything is spawning and only dying of old age. Except for firefish, they jump out so to save time, when I buy them, I open the bag and throw them on the floor. I almost bought a garden eel this week and was tempted to tell the guy to just throw it on the floor in his store to save me the trouble, but I decided to just let it jump out of his tank and let him clean it up.
I do realize many people have all sorts of "problems" and for many years I did try to add my opinion to those threads, but I gave up on many topics as my opinion on those topics just become arguements. Hair algae, ich and ground probes are all but off limits now and I hope the people with those things going on have good luck resolving them. My methods with all of them are very old school and we all know that old school never works. So just keep using that advice of changing the water and see how that ends up. I can't get into those philoshysical conversations that some of you college types can as I don't posess the vocabulary.
I also realize that my tank is no where near as nice as many tanks on here as there are some very talanted and creative people and I am jealous of some of those tanks and very jealous of a few of them. My tank is just there and always seems to have been there. As I get older, I don't even remember most of the things I used to do in those early days, my methods today are so different from just about everyone on here as most people started their reef after the internet was invented by Al Gore or Pee Wee Herman, I forget who, but most tanks today seem to be run the same way. It seems to me anyway, with my high school education that the tanks that are fooled with the most, have the most problems. The ones that have to get the parameters exactly to where they are supposed to be according to someone get all screwed up. I have always felt that seawater is very stable as long as you don't mess with it. The corals use a little calcium and thats about it. (Yes I know, I am way off on that) The rest they get from the normal stuff in the water or the light. Now I know that if anyone is reading this, you are saying, "wow, I can't wait to finish reading this so I could give that Old Coot a piece of my mind". But hold off on that, I am old, crotchity and probably don't care. So start your own thread saying how much of an Idiot I am and I probably couldn't keep a goldfish alive. Actually, I can't keep those dam things alive.
There is enough microscope life in the tank to feed whatever is in there, the brittle stars and amphipods are so plentiful that they started a rugby team. The "Staropods". The "nitrate factory" reverse UG filter is doing it's thing and almost everything is spawning. Not the copperband but I am playing Barry White music a lot.
I think there are three reasons that my tank seems to never have any problems. One is the age of the set up. I assume that after a few decades the bacteria get bored of doing stupid things to mess up the water and I also believe the life and bacteria I sometimes add from the sea may have a positive reaction. Of course I don't know. I doubt it is my good looks or the under arm deodorant I use (and sometimes lend to the hermit crabs) It could be luck as many people acuse me of having that. The last thing is the live food I feed every day. I know I mention that a lot, but it is what it is. That is the reason for the no quarantining, and the fact that everything is spawning and only dying of old age. Except for firefish, they jump out so to save time, when I buy them, I open the bag and throw them on the floor. I almost bought a garden eel this week and was tempted to tell the guy to just throw it on the floor in his store to save me the trouble, but I decided to just let it jump out of his tank and let him clean it up.
I do realize many people have all sorts of "problems" and for many years I did try to add my opinion to those threads, but I gave up on many topics as my opinion on those topics just become arguements. Hair algae, ich and ground probes are all but off limits now and I hope the people with those things going on have good luck resolving them. My methods with all of them are very old school and we all know that old school never works. So just keep using that advice of changing the water and see how that ends up. I can't get into those philoshysical conversations that some of you college types can as I don't posess the vocabulary.
I also realize that my tank is no where near as nice as many tanks on here as there are some very talanted and creative people and I am jealous of some of those tanks and very jealous of a few of them. My tank is just there and always seems to have been there. As I get older, I don't even remember most of the things I used to do in those early days, my methods today are so different from just about everyone on here as most people started their reef after the internet was invented by Al Gore or Pee Wee Herman, I forget who, but most tanks today seem to be run the same way. It seems to me anyway, with my high school education that the tanks that are fooled with the most, have the most problems. The ones that have to get the parameters exactly to where they are supposed to be according to someone get all screwed up. I have always felt that seawater is very stable as long as you don't mess with it. The corals use a little calcium and thats about it. (Yes I know, I am way off on that) The rest they get from the normal stuff in the water or the light. Now I know that if anyone is reading this, you are saying, "wow, I can't wait to finish reading this so I could give that Old Coot a piece of my mind". But hold off on that, I am old, crotchity and probably don't care. So start your own thread saying how much of an Idiot I am and I probably couldn't keep a goldfish alive. Actually, I can't keep those dam things alive.
I'm new to saltwater, but studied aquaculture in high school. I say forget having fancy tanks, I'd love having a well established, easy to maintain tank just so I can enjoy having a piece of the ocean in my living room with no worries! Obviously whatever you're doing works for you!
