Be wary of rumors

[TJ's Reef]

GREAT NEWS Paul, I'll be expecting my 'paper' copy after the first printing my friend. Hoping to get me jazzed enough to finish mine, stuck on just a few chapters for many months.

So...................... is there a 'Title' yet ??? How about Paul B's 'Let There be Reeftank' with a Ten Commandments spoof like cover in superimposing your head over Charles Heston's.................. hmmmm ?


Cheers, Todd

 

[4FordFamily]

"Unpopular marine realities", in stone tablet by Paul

 

[Paul B]

Fifty Shades of Fish. Or, maybe not.

 

[Paul B]

I try to take advice from those with beautiful tanks, not those with the most post counts.

Take advice from neither. Post counts mean the person has nothing to do (or is retired like me) A beautiful
tank could mean the person threw a few thousand dollars at the tank and ended up with a beautiful tank. It could be healthy but you really need to see that same tank in 10 or 15 years to know if the owner knows what he is doing or if he just doses garlic while using photoshop. Photoshop reminds me of a story. I helped build the NY Playboy Club and was the foreman at Penthouse Magazine office. In Penthouse they didn't take the centerfolds, they just took the pictures for the advertisements , like if it was a motorcycle advertisement, they put a girl on a motorcycle and took a bunch of pictures. If it was a tire advertisement, they let the girl sit on a bunch of tires. Of course the girls were lets say, less than clothed. In those days they didn't have photoshop, or computers, so they would paint right on the models. They had a bunch of people painting right on the girl while she slept. Their hair was also all pushed to the side where the camera was and held up in the back with camera tripods and they couldn't close their mouth because the lipstick was so thick, it was just for pictures and it would stick if the girl closed her mouth. I am telling you this just to show that all that you see is sometimes not what you get. I met many of the models in those magazines and after 5 hours of make up, even I could look like a Supermodel. It's the same with reef tanks. Some tanks are just not visually set up well but are very healthy. My tank is and always has been an experiment. I try to make it nice looking but I also have feeders and various traps in there as experiments. I am not trying to get TOTM anywhere although it has won that title 5 or 6 times in various places. I go for health. I want my fish to outlive me, and some of them may.

My soon to be wife, (jumped gun earlier), are getting married at LI Aquarium in May, every time we have a meeting there with the events department I end up at the reef tank.....forgetting everything I was told to remember.

A carpenter on my job once told me he was getting married that day. The same day he was working so I guess it wasn't going to be an elaborate ceremony. I think it was on a Tuesday.
He showed me her picture and told me she was his soon to be X wife. He wasn't even married yet. Now I know that was a marriage made in heaven. After the ceremony they probably stopped at a divorce lawyer. Like why bother?
I accidently posted on a ground probe thread. I'll never do that again. Just to many opinions and very little facts. I discuss that a little in my book, which the editor is editing by the way. I think it came out well and I even read it a few times and I agree with what I wrote.

 

[Paul B]

The book is supposed to be out in print and E Book near the end of the summer. No title yet and I am working on it so if anyone has any suggestions, I would like to hear them. I have some Ideas that my Daughter gave me as she is an Editor and my biggest fan.

 

[Diesel]

Paul, you asking us but you'll come up with a great name........... we trust you!
Trust is maybe a BIG word for some young rookie reefers here but old starfish like us are easy on that.
Have a great and save 4th!

 

[Paul B]

I will try

 

[beaslbob]

FWIW One thing that really (used) to bug me is this Beaslbob's experimental unproven methods.
Gee been using these since 1979 with tanks that would run for 9 years from the original cycle fish (Fw sure).

It would seem like at some time these would be less experimental and less unproven. LOL

IMHO you tank is not experimental any more that any tank is. And it sure has proven itself.

 

[mcarroll]

I'm mad nobody has mentioned that fine jalopy in the first post! Beautiful!

I never ran into you until the web and forums came around* and never saw you much in threads but knew you had a wicked-old tank. I still haven't seen you go into much detail on how you do things...but I haven't read everything either. After reading through some threads of yours here, I do feel like I've been following a bit in your footsteps (predominantly from far inland - LOL).

• Didn't take me long back in the day to key onto RFUGF (like you). It was cool that not long after that Marineland actually came out with a little adapter/prefilter kit to run their Penguin powerheads in reverse flow. Great add-on to a fine powerhead. Most of mine ran 15+ years...still have one or two, but no longer in service.
• I also ran a pair of Magnum 350's which were capable as diatom filters (like you), but I never ended up needing to use them that way (and ended up losing most of the parts to them in a move...sad).
• Advice on fish care we agree on widely...in particular "just because you can, doesn't mean you should." ...but also on feeding, ich, etc...
• My tank has always been an experiment first in keeping healthy critters. (So far a successful one.) It's been photo-worthy upon occasion, but not frequently and not for long.
• More too, but hey, this isn't my thread and I already wrote too much!

If there's one thing I'd change in this hobby if I could, it would be to make wild-caught critters more expensive than captive-bred or farmed critters - just like on the freshwater side of the hobby. It's insanity that newbies are strongly guided (by price) to buy almost exclusively wild-caught fish and other critters. Just to put $0.02 on that.

Fun thread!

* I was on Usenet (pre-Web Internet) in the early 90's, CompuServe a while before that...were you online anywhere back then by any chance? Just curious.

 

[JOKER]

Keep it reefing and keep it simple: My way of reefing: The Reef Without The Grief, just a few that came to mind. Love reading your post. Will definitely get the book!!

 

[Paul B]

Mcaroll, I think I was on Compuserv, I remember it anyway. I didn't get a computer as soon as they came out. I am still a little old school and prefer to write in pencil. Right now I am writing this on my screen in crayon, and later on a Supermodel comes in and types it in under the crayon marks because she doesn't spell too well. But who cares.

 

[acidtablockshifty]

I didn't read this whole thread, but i can say from my experience as someone who is new to the hobby that getting an opinion on anything to do with fish keeping in person is like pulling teeth, so im glad there's the internet. Maybe its just me because i always seem to want to know how they formed their opinion, to see if i would come to the same conclusion...................... If anyone could give me there opinion as to why water height on a skimmer is so important and how will it effect performance that would be greatly appreciated as i still cant quite figure it out. It is my opinion that the siphoning affect of the skimmer body being above the water level the tank it's in, helps to make sure the pump is flowing as much as possible maybe even adding to gph it flows. Then i came across the fact that other skimmers seem to just dump water out the same level as the pump but then they still require a certain water level, so now i'm thinking its the weight of the water supplying the pump,.... if it was to deep would affect the venturi?

 

[Paul B]

I built skimmers for many years and the water height is the most important thing, even more important than how much water flows through the device because it is the height of the water that is the adjustment for how much water overflows into the cup. When the bubbles form they have a certain surface tension which holds the bubbles together. This tension is directly proportional to how much pollution you have in your tank. If the water is very clean, the bubbles will break as soon as they go above the water level and the skimmer will not do anything. Due to pollution, the bubbles will last longer and build up in the tube. The more pollution, the higher they will form in the tube before breaking. We want the bubbles to break just over the top of the reaction tube so the pollutants cascade over the top and are removed. If the water level in the skimmer is to high, to much water will overflow the tube and we would have to constantly add water (and salt as that is removed also). If the water level is to low, no amount of pollution will create bubbles that will last long enough to be skimmed off the tube. We look for a happy medium so that just enough bubbles overflow the tube to keep the pollution levels as low as possable.
Remember, bubbles add mass to the water column, although temporarily. So even clean water will cascade over the tube if the water is to high just because the bubbles the bubbles take up room in the device.

 

[mcarroll]

I fully agree and would just add some factoids and thoughts…

Any given skimmer pump is capable of feeding a certain volume of water and air into a skimmer...based on the factors Paul described. Height is important, but good to remember it is a function of shape.

The same pump put on a different skimmer will probably not work. Ditto if you (for example) changed your 30" cylinder-shaped skimmer body for a 30" cone-shape - height is the same but volume is significantly reduced so once again the skimmer will not work.

Also, I think there are some limits on skimmer height. Super-tall skimmers and super low-fat skimmers don't seem add much if any difference to performance vs a "normally proportioned" skimmer. What is related and does matter in the design is the diameter of the opening where the bubbles and the water will exit at the top. This dictates the relative velocity of the bubble-water stream. Think of the main skimmer body as a settling chamber and the top as an ejection port in terms of your strategy for sizing.

All of the factors mentioned need to be balanced together, but with enough latitude to account for dramatic changes in water quality that occur in every tank. This is why you find many features on so many skimmers such as adjustable water outlets, adjustable neck height, adjustable pump speed, adjustable air inlet. You would potentially find all of these of value in real world operation.

 

[mcarroll]

Water height outside the skimmer also matters since contained water applies pressure equally in all directions, it's just outside the bubble reaction so might be forgotten (or change after a skimmer is designed). This is (another scenario) where some of the controls above and/or a skimmer stand come into play.

 

[Rattooth]

Good piece!
An experienced aquarist can get away with things that would be disaster for newbie . Example the tang thing. Not good for newbie in my opinion.
The under gravel thing . Works fine for fish only tank with low stocking. Not the best, but you can keep a few fish fine. And here is a statement that I 'm sure will make some one go crazy.
Under gravel filters have some advantages in seahorse only tanks over surface skimming reef tanks.
( Sorry, for starting that)

 

[Rattooth]

Reminds me of my old neighbor. He died when he was almost 100. It was funny, after he turned 80 he always got lots of questions about his good health. Funny thing was he smoked heavily. He always credited his chain smoking to his good health, and in his experience, from his perspective, no one could argue against it. I never have forgotten that lesson, that one unique situation does not mean that it will apply to everyone. Someone can do something that could be really negative for years, but never see the effects of it that others might. From that persons perspective they are correct and everyone else is wrong.

A recent news article in Oklahoma , the lady said her longevity was from drinking a Dr. Pepper every day. Based on that I ' ll live to 200

 

[Paul B]

I won't say it

 

[JasPR]

anyone in this hobby KNOWS how these things go--- fads begin, sometimes enabled by a manufacturer of a potion or a mechanical AND we are off to the races! its the reason WHY we went from Dolomite, to coral rubble to sand to bear bottoms and back to sand again! Its fun and its a learning experience. The other big I noticed is that this hobby is really driven by the 30-35 year old obsessed male LOLs
. Fads begin, the holy grail is found, MUCH money is thrown at the trend and then the trend gives way to a new trend. its all good--- JasPR

 

[scardall]

The only real cure for ich is garlic. It works for everyone.


I am joking. In regards to what you originally stated, it is nice when people included pictures or videos to back up some claims.

Yeah and everything tastes like Chicken!! Thumbs UP! PS: I love Garlic but it doesn't love me. Toot---ooops not again