Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

Very hard to get a picture of that possum wrasse much less a Video. But here is a little of him. His colors are much better now after a few months in my tank.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Hope things are going well for your wife and the move!

Was wondering how big your copperband is now and when you bought it and how long you have had this one?

Thanks

 

[Paul B]

I don't remember when I got this copperband but I think it was about as large as a quarter. She is about 5" now and I hope she is finished growing.

My wife is still in quite a bit of pain and today I am going to try to book a Gamma Knife appointment for her.
The move is going well. I am in the process of getting permits for the elevator.

 

[Paul B]

I am getting some red algae and some cyano, no problem but with the move I have really been neglecting the tank and overfeeding. I really should change some water. My nitrate reading is way off the chart so I can't tell what it is. All the livestock is very healthy but even a very low maintenance tank needs some maintenance. I will have to stir the substrate soon but I was hoping to get away with it until I move. I am not sure it can wait.

 

[atoll]

Back in the day.
I knew I had a photograph of me taken sometime around 32 years ago but until now I couldn't put my hands on it, well I have just found it.
I am in my mid 30s here I would guess in front of my 6'6" x 2' x 1'10" reef tank containing mainly soft corals and anemones. The tank is lit by 2x 250w HQI and a single 160w 03 actinic T12 tube. The tank will have been about 4 years old and first had Wotan 80w mercury vapour lights if anybody can remember them. The tank was filtered by a sump I designed and built and there was caulerpa both in the DT and the sump. The first skimmer was a DIY one followed by a Tunze of which I have searched the net but can't find a pic of it, it was powered by a Tunze 4002 air cooled pump.

Towards the top right of the pic you can see my H.magnifica which in the day was considered impossible to keep, I kept it many years before personal circumstances forced me to break it down and sell all on. I had a trio of common clowns living in it with a large female and attendant male spawning weekly the other was a small sub adult waiting for it's turn to become a male, it never got the chance. On the far right, I had another nem (I don't recall which species) that a pair of skunk clowns lived in, you can see the 2 of them checking my commons out.

 

[Paul B]

Looks fantastic, especially the angels on your shirt.
My tank from 32 years ago was probably not that nice, but I can't remember last Tuesday so I couldn't tell you.
This was probably from the 90s. But yours looks much nicer

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Les I didn't know you were an old school reefkeeper like Paul!

 

[atoll]

Les I didn't know you were an old school reefkeeper like Paul!

I knowBud, I hide it well

Everybody thinks am some sort of young upstart when in fact an just an old upstart like Paul.
I have been keeping marines now about 37 years on and off, more on than off. Met many of my reefkeeping heros who came over from mainland Europe and the US. people like Peter Wilkins, Sven Fossa, Albert Thiel, Graham Lundigurad, Dave Keeley, Forst Young, Martin Moe, Jack Kent, Julian Sprung and many more back in the 90s.
Not been going as long as Paul here, of course, but not a million miles behind him.
We made many discoveries back then, made much of our own equipment and experimented all pre interweb of course.

 

[atoll]

Looks fantastic, especially the angels on your shirt.
My tank from 32 years ago was probably not that nice, but I can't remember last Tuesday so I couldn't tell you.
This was probably from the 90s. But yours looks much nicer

Thanks, Paul, It was considered by many a very fine tank in its day with many coming from far and wide to view and interview me about it. I t appeared in Practical Fishkeeping at the time. That tank is/was younger than yours and we grew Caulerpas back then to help keep nutrients down although we did very little testing for them. I was pleased when I got my first NO3 test kit, most of us only had a hydrometer, ammonia and nitrite test kits. Your tank is a fine tank in it's own right and has served you well over the years for sure, my hat off to you sir.

 

[Paul B]

Les, that upper picture appeared in FAMMA Magazine.
Us Old Geezers still look pretty good.

 

[atoll]

Les, that upper picture appeared in FAMMA Magazine.
Us Old Geezers still look pretty good.

Yep spot on Paul a bit worn around the edges but on the whole not bad for our ages. I didn't have to go through national service like you but I was in the boy scouts till I was 17

 

[Chasmodes]

Thanks, so does my mandarin, the worms are not crazy about it though

It looks like the copperband isn't all that crazy about the worm feeder, but he keeps trying! I love the vids too. Thanks for sharing them Paul.

 

[Sea MunnKey]

You don't give yourself enough credit. It's simple. Feed them correctly and don't quarantine them.

I've never ever quarantine any of the fish that I've collected and owned over the years ... I like to make the fish "enhance" their own immune system & resilient against potential parasitic invaders ...

 

[Paul B]

We went to my Daughters other house in Vermont for Thanksgiving mostly because I really like driving six hours for a turkey. The trip was uneventful anf the holiday was great, not so much for the turkey though.
My Son n Law has those ATVs and plenty of acres so we went out on those and got stuck. WE went over a huge log which lifted the wheels off the ground and it was very muddy so I had to get a tree to pry the thing up so my Son n Law could put some rocks under he wheels. No problem.
Anyway I had my tank sitter watch my tank and I make her individual frozen cups of food so all she has to do is put one in my automatic feeder which thaws it and distributes it through the tank. That has worked fine for years but now I have 4 pipefish which really like new born brine shrimp and I don't ask her to hatch them for me. I do add some frozen new born brine shrimp but my pipefish have discriminating taste so I lost my dragon faced pipefish which I kind of knew I would lose without the proper food. I do have a lot of pods but with so many pod eaters I guess he couldn't find enough. Poor thing probably figured I put him on Jenny Craig.
I do have an automatic brine shrimp hatchery and feeder but I didn't put it in the tank this time as I figured he would find enough pods and eat the frozen ones, but he spited me by croaking. Look whose sad now!.
I am still here.

Another thing that happened is that our electricity went off probably just for a few minutes but my skimmer stopped. That is not a big problem in itself, but the skimmer also feeds this 5' trough sitting above my tank which is filled with encrusting corals, pods, amphipods and plenty of bristleworms. The trough dried out and everything in it died causing a small pollution issue. I re started the skimmer and it overflowed for hours.
I hope everyone had a Great Thanksgiving.

 

[dbraun15]

Hope your wife is improving...I know how tough it is seeing loved ones in pain. Glad to hear you had an uneventful Thanksgiving!

 

[SpartaReef]

Sounds eventful to me. So what's next for the tank then?

Happy belated Thanksgiving

 

[Paul B]

Thanks dbraun. The only eventful thing that happened is that we went out on my Son N Law's ATVs. They have a thousand acres and they are all trails, some are barely trails. He went over a big log which lifted the wheels off the ground so he got stuck. It was also very muddy. I had to get a tree limb and wedge it under the vehicle to lift it off the tree and he could throw large rocks under the wheel to get us moving. It all took maybe five minutes.

Sparta, today I will do a big water change as my skimmer is going crazy and my nitrates are way off the chart. I am not a big water change advocate but when you drop a pencil in the water and it stands up, it's time to change the water.

Being I am moving and selling Steam Punk stuff (so I don't have to carry it to my new home) and people keep coming to see the house, I have been very busy so my hermit crabs took over the tank maintenance job, and they are very lazy and keep asking for a raise.

My wife with a friend before heading out.

 

[andyg1960]

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your wife, Paul.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks Andy

 

[Paul B]

I just finished my water change using fake water. I can't wait until I move because I will be right near the sea and I can just back my car up to the water and pump it into containers.
This mixing and lugging around ASW water is getting old as I am.
I changed about a third of my tank water or a little more which is probably the largest water change I ever did. Now when I test my nitrates it is still off the chart but it made me feel better anyway. My fish don't seem to care one way or the other.

I am real happy now for a couple of reasons. My wife seems to be getting slightly better as the days pass. She is still in pain but not as severe so maybe she won't have to get Gamma Knife "surgery" again. We are hoping so anyway because it's better to get better on your own than to have some guy who you hope at least went to high school send radiation into your brain. What if he was out the day they showed him how not to fry the patients neural network.

The other reason I am happy is because in my new house with my new "huge" workshop I need a few more tools. My router specifically. My old one croaked. (for you electronic Geeks this router is for wood working and not the thing with all the blinking LEDs on it that lets you contact your Geek friends through the cloud, the net or however you guys contact each other to talk about how much RAM and megabytes you have so you can stream Lady GaGa quotes at each other at the speed of light or watch TV in Blue Ray whatever that is)

Anyway I found an American made router. I almost did a backflip in the store. It seems that DeWalt has a line of American tools, Who knew. The only reason I never replaced any of my power tools is that I could never find an American one. I looked at Porta Cable, Bosch, Craftsman, Milwaukee, Ryobi and some names I can't pronounce but they all come from places I can't pronounce and I won't buy them.
I will also get a scroll saw but so far I can't find one made in the US so if I can, I will try to find a used American one. I have a large band saw but for fine work, it is too big.