I just realized my reef is 44 years old this month.

[Paul B]

I forgot all about it. It just cycled

 

[Mr.Rocc]

Wow that actually really cool and sweet looking tank!

 

[glb]

Wow! Beautiful tank!

 

[DFW]

Amazing! You have lots of stories to tell!

 

[gacolt]

congrats.thats older then alot of the r2r members including myself

 

[tyler1503]

congrats.thats older then alot of the r2r members including myself

Thats older than some of us put together!
Congrats Paul, awesome looking tank! That's an amazing accomplishment

 

[maroun.c]

Happy Tank Birthday Paul.

 

[NanaReefer]

 

[Praslin]

WOW
Happy Birthday.

 

[Paul B]

My hermit crabs have canker sores older than some of you guys. :wave:

 

[bneufelder]

Amazing.

 

[c_healy]

Very cool Paul!

Love your tank and your posts!

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, I think it is because of the UG filter :noidea:

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Just wanted to throw this link in here to PaulB's build thread for those that haven't checked it out: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-aquarium-discussion/55423-tank-birthday-40-years.html

Definitely an amazing build with some really cool DIY stuff! (I LOVE his skimmer!) :rockon: :rockon: :rockon:

 

[prinaudo]

Wow! That is one incredible reef tank, great work.

 

[Paul B]

Amazing! You have lots of stories to tell!

Yes I do. I can start with "Alice in Wonderland" and go right through to Horton hears a Who. Stories are my thing and after you live long enough, you learn things. You learn things faster than you forget them. Then as you get older, you start to forget them quicker than you learn them (which is why I wrote a book) I saw my Mother in her 90s gradually forget and eventually fall into the fog of dementia. Now I see my wife's Mother going through it and if I live long enough, I too will most likely get it as will most people. The bad part is that we don't realize it is happening to us. Of course my wife thinks I have had it all my life, because I seem to think differently than many people. I am not sure why. She will look at a mechanical or electrical thing or a piece of furniture and comment on it's beauty, while I will look at the same thing and comment on the materials it is made from, the bearings, hinges, weight, usefulness or craftsmanship the builder had when he made it. I love to look at a mechanical device and re-design it in my mind. I rarely like the way things are built and really enjoy re building things. Right now, next to me on the computer desk is a pull out garbage container that I was fixing. It is one of those things under a cabinet that you pull out and it holds trash. The weld broke and I repaired it and on my way upstairs to put it back in, I saw the computer and got sidetracked. It happens all the time. On my way upstairs I have to pass my fish tank, so I am not sure I will make it all the way to my kitchen because I am sure I will see something that needs attention. On my work bench are all the parts to build another LED fixture that will supplement my existing fixture and I am resisting the urge to build the thing until I fix this thing first. I also need to get under my car and fix a big rattle and grind the barnacles off of my boat propellers which are in my garage. I will try to get this thing up stairs without stopping to fix something on the way. :biggrin1:

 

[Reefnjunkie]

ADD - it's a beautiful thing

I thought for a second I was reading something about myself until the boat came into the picture.

Curios about the tank-(and to busy to read the build thread-got a coffe maker to fix after I wire in some electrical outlets) have you siphoned/replaced any of the sand in the year?

TIA

 

[Paul B]

I don't use sand in my reef, I use dolomite, state of the art in the 60s and all of it has been in there since then when the tank was brackish. Once a year or so I stir everything up with a diatom filter and suck out everything. That is my typhoon and I think that is necessary for long term tank health.

Today I added 12 more LEDs on a 5' square aluminum housing to supplement my 36 LEDs that I didn't feel were bright enough. So I increased the lighting by 25%. That is enough light for now. I didn't yet connect the fan to this new strip as doing that requires quite a bit of labor because I have to rebuild the entire fixture and I don't think that could happen until the fall so I hope it doesn't get to hot. After it runs a few hours I will check it out for heat.
This is the strip I added.



This is the original 3 strips. Now there are 4

 

[Paul B]

The new, or I should say, re modeled fixture worked out well. It added 25% more light and a staghorn coral that was croaking, stopped croaking and seems to be recovering slowly. I only had about 100 watts of LED lighting over a 6' tank which is way under lit. Now I have 136 watts of light which is still way under lit but it will stay like that until I see how that works out. I can always add another 36 watts on another strip but it seems fine so far. I probably can't keep certain corals but there are a lot of things I can't keep. like Claudia Schiffer so I will deal with it. More lighting is easy to add. I still have my old snow blower in my yard and I was hoping someone would steal it because I doubt I will have time to fix it which is why I bought a new one. <y bluestripe pipefish is still pregnant and will probably give birth tonight or tomorrow. The same with the ruby red who is also very pregnant. My female mandarin is slightly pregnant but the large male is not getting enough food so he lost some weight. He is very large and there are so many pod eaters and so many fish at the feeder that he is having a hard time getting enough. I have 7 fish that just eat pods so not enough to go around and it is hard to hatch enough brine shrimp. I may have to build a second feeder just for him. I just need time because it is almost boating season and it is also planting season. Not enough hours in the day and I get up at 5:30





Video

 

[NanaReefer]

How does a fish become "slightly" pregnant? [emoji23][emoji12][emoji39]