My tank reached 46 years old today

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Paul B

Paul B

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You told me to try. My college only allowed 10g and at the time that was still almost unheard of. You said nothing is done until it's been done. That was interesting - I couldn't get shipments to the dorm and the LFS had no salt water tanks. I arranged for them to get the fish and call me and I'd come pick them up straight out of the shipping container. lol!!

I am very happy that worked out. :D
 
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Paul B

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When we were first married my tank was a 40 gallon which was considered pretty big then. I had the tank before we were married so naturally the tank came along with me when my wife and I got our first apartment. That apartment was on the first floor of an attached home and it was the smallest apartment I have ever seen. But we couldn't rub two nickels together to make a dime so it sufficed for a few years. We had one tiny closet in the entire apartment and that was under a stair case. The "living room, dining room and kitchen" was really one small room. The other room was the bedroom. In the part of the apartment we called the dining room, which was really just the tiny entrance into the place we had the fish tank. The tank took up almost a quarter of the hall way/dining area, which had no table, we just called it that to make it sound like we had a dining room. We really had two stools at the kitchen counter as that was all that would fit.
When our Daughter was born, we put her in the same whicker bassinet that I was in when I was born. Luckily it was on wheels because we had to wheel her back and forth to be able to walk past the bassinet and the fish tank.
I am surprised my new wife put up with that for so long and still does.
One day just two days after we moved in I came home from work to find my wife hysterical crying. I said, whats wrong. She said the stove (which was brand new and she never used it yet) blew up right after she closed the oven door to check on some Chinese food she was warming up for dinner. She wanted me to call the stove manufacturer and tell them they almost killed her. There was Chinese food all over the newly painted apartment and the fish tank. Luckily the fish didn't mind the salty food. I inspected the oven and it looked like a pot belly stove. The insulation was coming out and the sides were bent out. The bottom of the oven was also bent down.
In those days you had to turn on the gas to the oven, then light it with a match. Now they are all electric start. I pulled out the stove and started to take it apart to see if I could find the cause of the explosion.
My wife was just yelling about the manufacturer.
Then I found the problem. As I said this was a tiny apartment, (and a tiny stove) My wife was just 18 and we had just came back from our Honeymoon two days prior to this. We also had no money to replace the stove.
I found an exploded can of "PAM" spray in the oven. The stuff you spray in a pan so stuff don't stick. I can tell you that PAM doesn't keep Chinese food from sticking to walls or fish tanks.
She would store stuff in the oven for lack of any other place to put it and that can must have rolled in the back where she didn't see it.
I had to take every part out of that stove, insulation, rivets, everything and straighten it out. I got it looking almost like new and it worked for the next five years until we moved.
This is her then
 

Rybren

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Happy belated birthday to Paul's tank. I don't know how I missed this thread.

Paul, you married a supermodel. I hope that the experimental treatment goes well.
 
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Paul B

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It seems for some reason that as the tank ages, very few things, if anything go wrong, with fish health anyway. I think I could throw a stripped bass with asthma, mononucleosis, strept throat, and psoriasis in there and he would be able to compete in the Olympics in a week or two. I am not sure if that is because of the bacteria I add or the bacteria that evolved over time or the parasites I know are in there or the oldies music I listen to from the 60s and 70s.
I really can't remember the last time there was a disease in there, but I also can't remember what I had for breakfast five minutes ago.
I constantly read about all sorts of things people do to their tanks and I really feel those things contribute to many of the problems. So far I have never dipped a coral in anything or quarantined anything.
Years ago I removed all the carbon as I don't think it is needed and I also feel it removes too many good things. I do have to admit I keep a Poly Filter in my "algae trough" but it is not for anything water related. It is used for a kind of barrier to keep a lot of the amphipods living in there so they don't all get washed into my tank so fast. They breed in there and the thing is swarming with them. I am sure a sponge or my underwear would serve the same function. ;Vomit
My nitrates of 160 don't seem to be an issue so I stopped trying to lower them.
To me, feeding correctly and almost overfeeding is the way to go even though it will raise nitrates. I used to think limiting feeding was best, but I was totally wrong and my fish agree with me. Having a picture of a Supermodel with in sight of the tank seems to also help. It helps me anyway. :rolleyes:

 
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Paul B

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Thanks Smilereef.
I do lost a lot of corals and I know at least one reason. Just now the lights came on in my tank and I notice two large pieces of montipora (about 5") broke off and are laying up side down on the bottom. There is als a large, blue sponge laying the same way. The hermit crabs do that and I saw it happen. Some of the crabs are 10 years old and as large as a golf ball and they climb on corals above the montipora and when they fall, they smash the very thin montipora. I don't have time today so I just turned them over so they get light but the wrasses love to turn them back over. When I have time I will mix some glue and stick them back on someplace but many times those corals get lost in back of my tank in the dark. The urchin also "helps" move them around and I wonder where some pieces went.
I have 3 or 4 gorgonians that became completely engulfed by a sponge just because they rubbed up against it. I could have moved them but this is only one of my hobbies and sometimes I don't look closely at the tank for a week and before I realize it, something is growing on something else. It is normal and natural but I would prefer if each coral minded it's own business.
This piece was carried to the nether regions and I can't get it. It was part of a much larger piece that was also crushed and carried away.


 

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Nature always seems too find a way !!! Happy 46 th tank day .. I hope I still have mine that long as well as a great sense of humor as yours ..congratulations!
 

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Missed the party and just seeing this! Congrats Paul and what an accomplishment!
 

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@Paul B are you coming to RAP this weekend?
 

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46 yrs! Awesome Paul! You inspired me to keep my tank simple. I've also started to collect some mud and add it to my tank for more biodiversity.
 

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Any fish or corals that is 46 years old and still in your tank?
 
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@Paul B are you coming to RAP this weekend?

I have no Idea what that is, but if there are Supermodels there, I am coming. :D

WMO, there are no 46 year old fish or corals in my tank. Corals were not even for sale 30 years ago. :cool:
My oldest fish is the 26 year old fireclown.
 

Mark Gray

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Been following your tank for a long time it looks great. I think your mud and feeding have a lot to do with it, and I am positively the super models help a lot too good luck Paul
 
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I think it's definitely the Supermodels, the mud a little, but Supermodels are important. I gauge many things by Supermodels, I mean if you were walking down the street and there was mud and Supermodels, which would you spend more time looking at, Just saying. :rolleyes:

But mud is good too. Just not as interesting.
Like this steampunk fish I am working on. I think it is interesting, if also useless. :p
It's almost done and soon will be as cool as it's brother. And neither one will get ich. :eek:



 

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Just curious have you ever swapped tanks? Or is it the same tank for 46 years? Silicone doesnt generally last longer than 25
 

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