Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

This morning I went downstairs to do some tinkering and I noticed my tank was cloudy.
OMG, (I said to myself) my tank is never cloudy so I looked around for something dead, I smelled the water and all was good. So I quickly mixed up 30 gallons of water, adjusted the temperature and changed some water. Still cloudy.
I went outside to check the weather as we are going boating and it was foggy. Then I went into my workshop and noticed that everything was foggy. I then cleaned my reading glasses and miraculously, the tank was clear as was everything else.
So now I know, I don't have to change my water, just clean my reading glasses.

 

[Paul B]

Today my wife and I went out on our boat and I collected a bunch of mud that I threw in my tank for the bacteria. I saw that hermit crab at the last minute and let him go back home, but the mud snails I keep as they live forever.

 

[calvo15290]

I thought you can't collect from the ocean

 

[Reef Pets]

Each state is different but mud and snails/crabs are allowed in most states but there is typically a limit such as 5 per day and you must have a fishing licenses to do so. That's how florida is and I'm sure NY is close to the same.

 

[calvo15290]

What about fish ?

 

[Paul B]

In New York you can collect anything you want legally as long as it is not a sport or food fish. You can take all the mud, snails, hermit crabs, grass shrimp, amphipods , urchins or fish you like. The people who work for the EPA here don't even know what an urchin is as I tried to get a permit to collect them and they had no idea what an urchin was or if they were in NY, so I could collect them. You can't take baby flounder, fluke, lobster, stripped bass etc. But minnows, mantis shrimp, mermaids and anything else you find that we don't normally eat, is fine. The ocean belongs to you and me, not the Government.

 

[Duffam3434]

In New York you can collect anything you want legally as long as it is not a sport or food fish. You can take all the mud, snails, hermit crabs, grass shrimp, amphipods , urchins or fish you like. The people who work for the EPA here don't even know what an urchin is as I tried to get a permit to collect them and they had no idea what an urchin was or if they were in NY, so I could collect them. You can't take baby flounder, fluke, lobster, stripped bass etc. But minnows, mantis shrimp, mermaids and anything else you find that we don't normally eat, is fine. The ocean belongs to you and me, not the Government.

Mermaids! Haha! That would be so cool to be able to go catch stuff for the tank. Congrats again on making it to 40 Years!!

 

[Paul B]

So now with this experimental Bio-Reactor I built and installed as a test, my tank is a little disheveled. My surface skimmer is floating in the tank, not doing anything as it does not quite fit on the pump any more because I had to re position the pump to make it more condusive to run the reactor. I may re build the surface skimmer or retrofit the old one. I have not decided but I want to do something because there is a surface film on the tank now.
I really don't want to do this permanently because it is just an experiment and I may take it apart in the near future and put the tank back the way it was.
I am very busy this week because my little buddy, Greta, is sick with a little fever and I may do some more babysitting. She lives in Manhattan and it is a big deal for me to just drop in there for an hour, as I did last night.

 

[kes]

I hope little Greta gets well soon. The reading glasses story was hilarious! ;-)

 

[Paul B]

I need her to help steer the boat.

 

[Paul B]

OK so I had to build a new surface skimmer because I built a bio pellet reactor and the plumbing wasn't condusive for the surface skimmer. I used the old top from the last surface skimmer. This one has an adjustment in it so that I can turn a screw and adjust the water level inside the device. Most of the water enters from the screen at the bottom. There is an adjustable screw above it that is accessable with a screwdriver from the top. The rest of the water overflows in a very thin film over the floating part at the top with the floats. I replaced the stainless steel hardware with nylon because the stainless was to heavy and it didn't float correctly.

The offset tube goes up to the bio pellet reactor, then to the protein skimmer, then to the algae trough. At all works with one pump.

 

[Paul B]

I was looking at my tank and I am embarrassed by the look of it as it needs some maintenance. The 2 pistol shrimp dug up so much that I have corals falling over and corals I can't even reach because they fell in the back. There are corals hitting other corals or shading each other. I hate to do this stuff in the summer but I really need to remove a little rock so I can get my hand in there without breaking to much to do some re-aquascaping. It is difficult to clean the glass due to corals almost touching the glass. The SPS makes this difficult as they are very delicate and very hard to move. Most of them are growing on either a bottle or a large rock.
Whenever I attempt this I need most of a day to do because I also want to create a typhoon and stir up the gravel. I hope I don't break to many SPS as I have to many frags now. Luckily, I don't think of this as work, I just need time to do it and would like to pick a rainy day as it is boating season. This week I am babysitting my Granddaughter so it aint happening yet.

 

[Paul B]

I am in the process of cleaning the tank for a little maintenance. I left everything in and stirred up all the gravel where I could reach with a rigid hose connected to a diatom filter. I think I am going to add another diatom filter to get the job done faster. I do this once or twice a year and this system would not run long without it. When it is fairly clean, I will remove as much rock as I can so I can re-aquascape and move the structure towards the back. Right now it is hard to clean the glass as the reef migrated to the front due to all the digging from the shrimp, the spawning fish and the normal growth of the corals. I only broke a few acropora's so far but I will glue them back when I am done.
The fish are carving curses at me on the inside of the glass and the hermit crabs really hate this as they get buried all over the place. But they get over it.
Oh wait, I think I just found one of Columbus's boots in there

 

[6272862829]

Paul Im gonna the worms a try. I like your post about them lets see what happens

 

[Paul B]

OK, but you may not like them as they taste like snot, but your fish may enjoy them :puke:

 

[Paul B]

Right now I have 2 diatom filters on the tank, what a mess. I have 4 diatom filters and they are all junk. These things were never built to work in salt water and rust faster than a 55 Oldsmobile. It is tough to get them to start as the "bearings" are garbage, the design is bad, the iron they build them out of is bad, the paint they paint it with is bad the tubes that connect to the hoses are to close together so you can't get a clamp on them or barely get the hoses on, so that is bad. The only good thing I can say is that they clean the tank better than anything else.
I have been saying for years that when I get time I will build my own diatom filter, I am still waiting for the time although the ones I have running are partially re-designed. I need a fully re-designed unit. I am working on it, but for now, only in my head.

 

[6272862829]

OK, but you may not like them as they taste like snot, but your fish may enjoy them :puke:

Hahaha. Paul can you tell me more about the diatom filters and how the work

 

[Paul B]

Here is a picture of one being held by one of the spokesmodels. You put this powder in which is diatoms. It looks like Dr School's foot powder, but it is not. Each grain of powder has microscope pores in it that does the filtering. It is hard to get the powder now because they found it gives you cancer, but only if you are in California, so the people who live in California have to go to another state to fill the thing. Anyway, you add the powder, that you can also get in a swimming pool store, then you fill the filter with tank water, turn it on, and "if" it starts, water will flow through it. Oh, before you start it you get a smaller piece of tubing than the hoses that come with it. Insert the smaller hose into one of the hose ends and then into the other hose end so the filter pumps through itself. You need to do run it like that for a few minutes so the powder coats the bag inside. If you forget this step. all that powder will go into your tank and if you mistakenly used Dr School's foot powder, your fish will not be happy. After you run it for a few minutes and the water in the jar clears, put the ends of the hoses in your tank and carefully separate the tube ends so tank water flows through the filter. Put a strainer on the intake end and clamp it to your tank or use the "U" fittings that come with the thing. Before you do any of this, take the instructions that come with the unit and throw them out. They give you another way to start the filter, but trust me, do it the way I said. You will inevidably spray salt water all over your walls as this is a powerful pump and even after fifty years of using them, I still make a mess. It will remove everything from your water down to a millionth of an inch including paracites and bacteria. Very nice tool. but as I said, not designed very well for salt water. Clean the water off it and oil it.

 

[6272862829]

Here is a picture of one being held by one of the spokesmodels. You put this powder in which is diatoms. It looks like Dr School's foot powder, but it is not. Each grain of powder has microscope pores in it that does the filtering. It is hard to get the powder now because they found it gives you cancer, but only if you are in California, so the people who live in California have to go to another state to fill the thing. Anyway, you add the powder, that you can also get in a swimming pool store, then you fill the filter with tank water, turn it on, and "if" it starts, water will flow through it. Oh, before you start it you get a smaller piece of tubing than the hoses that come with it. Insert the smaller hose into one of the hose ends and then into the other hose end so the filter pumps through itself. You need to do run it like that for a few minutes so the powder coats the bag inside. If you forget this step. all that powder will go into your tank and if you mistakenly used Dr School's foot powder, your fish will not be happy. After you run it for a few minutes and the water in the jar clears, put the ends of the hoses in your tank and carefully separate the tube ends so tank water flows through the filter. Put a strainer on the intake end and clamp it to your tank or use the "U" fittings that come with the thing. Before you do any of this, take the instructions that come with the unit and throw them out. They give you another way to start the filter, but trust me, do it the way I said. You will inevidably spray salt water all over your walls as this is a powerful pump and even after fifty years of using them, I still make a mess. It will remove everything from your water down to a millionth of an inch including paracites and bacteria. Very nice tool. but as I said, not designed very well for salt water. Clean the water off it and oil it.

Thanks Paul its great to have a guy like you in this hobby that's been doing it for that long.

 

[Paul B]

It's great to be doing anything for a long time.