Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

Please tell me you are working on your book on how men should be living!

That sounds like a good Idea. "How Real Men should live." Snowflakes need not apply.

 

[Paul B]

Brew I am sure you remember that I did once write how a "Mans" store should be. We really need gender specific stores. because Men, like me have no patience. How many times do us men go into a store and there is a woman in front of us checking out. and she doesn't have exact change and searches in her bag for 15 minutes looking for it. My wife does that.

I say just give her a 20 and forget abut it. It isn't worth the wait.
Once my wife sent me into a Mall, a place where I would "never" go, to return something. I would just throw the thing out no matter what it cost. I get that "Mall look"

So I was on line thinking of what disease I would rather have that waiting here on line. Maybe irritable Bowell. Then, I figured the wait wasn't going to be to long because there were only two Ladies in front of me.

The first lady walked up to the cashier and also wanted to exchange something so she put it on the counter and explained to the salesgirl if she had this thing in yellow.

Now the two of them had to go look through the aisles for this yellow thing and couldn't find it. So now of course they had to order it so she had to look through a prism of colors to find the right yellow to match her shoes. If I had a chain saw I would have cut my head off.

Finally she was done. So there is only one lady in front of me so I figured I was almost out of there. Wrong.
She put the item on the counter and gave the salesgirl her credit card. It didn't work. Then she gave her a different credit card which also didn't work.

Now of course they have to call the bank because it just worked a while ago when she got her hair colored to pink.
The bank put her on hold as I was putting gas in the chain saw.
Then the sales girl and the customer realize they know each other and their kids went to the same school. Now they are showing each other pictures of their kids and their dogs.
I looked around for a file to sharpen the teeth on the saw.so I would get a clean cut on my neck.

Then it was my turn. I put the thing on the counter, told the girl to keep it and have a nice day and I walked out.

In a Men store we wouldn't have any of those problems.
There would be a girl, it doesn't matter what she looks like or if she had a nice personality because she doesn't have to say anything. She would be holding a pool cue stick.

The real man would say something like where are the "cro Bars". She would smile and point the pool cue in the direction of the cro bars. She would also have a box near her feet where the real man would put some money. Maybe five or ten bucks depending on what he is buying. That is not sexist . (A Ladies store could hire a man for this) It is so the store doesn't have to waste time paying this girl and she should make a good living and be paid in cash so she doesn't have to claim it on her taxes.

The real Man would then go to the cro bar aisle (because in a real Mans store only manly things would be sold, no incense burners, bed sheets or pink cell phone cases.)

At the cro bar aisle the price would be marked on each cro bar in red permanent marker and it would be priced in whole numbers, no 99 cents or anything silly like that.
If it is supposed to be $49.99, it is fifty bucks. $37. 23 would round out to $37.00 or $40.00. Real men don't need change as I always leave it on the counter or put it in one of those boxes that say homeless dogs, homeless Aardvarks, homeless Veterans, whatever is closest to me.

Then when we had the cro bar that we wanted we would look for that girl at the door.
Just inside the door would be a bucket. We would throw approximately how much we owe the store into the bucket.

Sometimes more, sometimes less. At the end of the day it will almost even out and everyone is happy.
If the store ends up with more money than they are supposed to get, they give it to the girl at the door.
This solves a multitude of problems and there are no lines in a Mens store.

I sometimes go food shopping with my wife and it is painful. It takes hours because she has to read every ingredient. Then she puts it in the carriage and in 5 minutes finds something better so she makes me put that first thing back.

Men have a different way of shopping. The first rule is never let the cart stop. If it stops you are finished.
Go in the store and head straight for whatever you want. Don't look at the colored donuts near the door or the paper towels on sale. Just head for the hamburgers, beer or whatever it is.

As you approach the item, raise your arm and in one quick movement grab the item and keep going. Then head to the next item. If you accidentally skip something, forget about it as you probably don't need it. Never go back.
Then search for the aisle that is the least crowded. Put the stuff on the belt as quickly as you can and estimate how much the stuff will cost. As soon as she scans everything put down a few bucks more than it is worth and run out without looking back.
Thats the way a Man shops.

Ladies should also have their own stores where no men are allowed. (Except the one at the door) They could have chairs, benches, tables with caramel lattes or anything else to make them comfortable. Then they could talk and show pictures of their kids or dogs. Everyone is happy and if the man is waiting home he makes dinner.

 

[Brew12]

Brew I am sure you remember that I did once write how a "Mans" store should be. We really need gender specific stores. because Men, like me have no patience. How many times do us men go into a store and there is a woman in front of us checking out. and she doesn't have exact change and searches in her bag for 15 minutes looking for it. My wife does that.

I say just give her a 20 and forget abut it. It isn't worth the wait.
Once my wife sent me into a Mall, a place where I would "never" go, to return something. I would just throw the thing out no matter what it cost. I get that "Mall look"

So I was on line thinking of what disease I would rather have that waiting here on line. Maybe irritable Bowell. Then, I figured the wait wasn't going to be to long because there were only two Ladies in front of me.

The first lady walked up to the cashier and also wanted to exchange something so she put it on the counter and explained to the salesgirl if she had this thing in yellow.

Now the two of them had to go look through the aisles for this yellow thing and couldn't find it. So now of course they had to order it so she had to look through a prism of colors to find the right yellow to match her shoes. If I had a chain saw I would have cut my head off.

Finally she was done. So there is only one lady in front of me so I figured I was almost out of there. Wrong.
She put the item on the counter and gave the salesgirl her credit card. It didn't work. Then she gave her a different credit card which also didn't work.

Now of course they have to call the bank because it just worked a while ago when she got her hair colored to pink.
The bank put her on hold as I was putting gas in the chain saw.
Then the sales girl and the customer realize they know each other and their kids went to the same school. Now they are showing each other pictures of their kids and their dogs.
I looked around for a file to sharpen the teeth on the saw.so I would get a clean cut on my neck.

Then it was my turn. I put the thing on the counter, told the girl to keep it and have a nice day and I walked out.

In a Men store we wouldn't have any of those problems.
There would be a girl, it doesn't matter what she looks like or if she had a nice personality because she doesn't have to say anything. She would be holding a pool cue stick.

The real man would say something like where are the "cro Bars". She would smile and point the pool cue in the direction of the cro bars. She would also have a box near her feet where the real man would put some money. Maybe five or ten bucks depending on what he is buying. That is not sexist . (A Ladies store could hire a man for this) It is so the store doesn't have to waste time paying this girl and she should make a good living and be paid in cash so she doesn't have to claim it on her taxes.

The real Man would then go to the cro bar aisle (because in a real Mans store only manly things would be sold, no incense burners, bed sheets or pink cell phone cases.)

At the cro bar aisle the price would be marked on each cro bar in red permanent marker and it would be priced in whole numbers, no 99 cents or anything silly like that.
If it is supposed to be $49.99, it is fifty bucks. $37. 23 would round out to $37.00 or $40.00. Real men don't need change as I always leave it on the counter or put it in one of those boxes that say homeless dogs, homeless Aardvarks, homeless Veterans, whatever is closest to me.

Then when we had the cro bar that we wanted we would look for that girl at the door.
Just inside the door would be a bucket. We would throw approximately how much we owe the store into the bucket.

Sometimes more, sometimes less. At the end of the day it will almost even out and everyone is happy.
If the store ends up with more money than they are supposed to get, they give it to the girl at the door.
This solves a multitude of problems and there are no lines in a Mens store.

I sometimes go food shopping with my wife and it is painful. It takes hours because she has to read every ingredient. Then she puts it in the carriage and in 5 minutes finds something better so she makes me put that first thing back.

Men have a different way of shopping. The first rule is never let the cart stop. If it stops you are finished.
Go in the store and head straight for whatever you want. Don't look at the colored donuts near the door or the paper towels on sale. Just head for the hamburgers, beer or whatever it is.

As you approach the item, raise your arm and in one quick movement grab the item and keep going. Then head to the next item. If you accidentally skip something, forget about it as you probably don't need it. Never go back.
Then search for the aisle that is the least crowded. Put the stuff on the belt as quickly as you can and estimate how much the stuff will cost. As soon as she scans everything put down a few bucks more than it is worth and run out without looking back.
Thats the way a Man shops.

Ladies should also have their own stores where no men are allowed. (Except the one at the door) They could have chairs, benches, tables with caramel lattes or anything else to make them comfortable. Then they could talk and show pictures of their kids or dogs. Everyone is happy and if the man is waiting home he makes dinner.

I do remember your post along these lines, which is what I was thinking of when I said you need to write another book! I'm sure your daughter would get a kick out of editing another one for you!

 

[Victoria M]

Happy Bday Paul! xo

 

[Paul B]

Thanks Victoria, How are you feeling?

I went for my walk this morning like I almost always do but for some reason my wife got up early and that threw my schedule all off. I normally get out of the house about 6:30 when it is very cold and very dark. But she was up and we started talking, having coffee, moving the stove etc. and I wasted precious time.

Today I got out about 7:00 which made a world of difference and I will never walk that late again.
First of all it was very light out almost daylight. I totally missed the beautiful array of colors the sky turns when it goes from dark to where I could almost see my feet.

But my main concern is that it was very noisy. I live on a country road with the sea behind me and a golf course in front of me. But now they are building condo's near me and I immediately heard those back up alarms from the construction equipment. Beep, beep, beep, then the unmistakable sound of bulldozers moving dirt. RRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRrrmmmmmmmmmmfffffftttt

Horrible sound to hear early in the morning and I never hear that when I get out at a normal time. The country road I live on is a mile from the main road and when I normally walk, there are very few cars so I don't hear them.

At 7:00 am there is a lot of traffic and it makes this infernal Hum which I can't stand. You don't pay attention to it during the day because it is constant. But if you go early enough there are very few cars.

This totally defeated the purpose of my walk except that I did get exercise but it did nothing for my "carma" and the reason I moved out here.

Normally I hear the sounds of tiny birds that are all over the place. There are hundreds of them and they flitter all around me and they call to me. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Even though they don't how much I spend on bird seed.

I can also hear the faint sounds of the deer as they try to quietly walk away from me through the brush.
It is usually so quiet that I can often hear the muffled sounds of frogs. Of course they are hibernating now so I can only hear them snoring .

 

[Paul B]

I just cleaned around under my tank and found a small, very stiff fish. I think it was one of my ruby red dragonettes.
Oh well. Better him than me.

I think it was there for quite a while because it is a hard place to get to.

 

[dbraun15]

Always enjoyed your stories about reefing/life...Happy Belated B-Day...I’m at home laid up after my second surgery in the last 3 weeks(shoulder early December to repair torn labrum and bicep tendon and second yesterday to repair torn meniscus in knee). My younger day shenanigans are catching up to me and am being put back together again. Hope you have a blessed New Year!

 

[Paul B]

Thank you dbraun. I know how you feel as I have had those things repaired a few times. I think I had 28 surgeries so far to fix broken and torn things.
They also replaced my left knee but I am trying to get them to put it back in as it was better than the new one which I think is made out of dead live rock.

Take care of those injuries and do the threrapies. I loved those because they always have Supermodels working in those places. It doesn't do anything to make you heal any faster, but who cares?
Happy New Year to you and your family and stop tearing things.

 

[Paul B]

This morning I got up at my usual 4:30 or 5:00 and I normally go for a walk. It was predicted to be 16 degrees now so I didn't prepare to go but they lied, it is 33 degrees which would have been fine. Too late now as I lost my window of opportunity.

As I am waiting for my wife to get up I am baking muffins for breakfast like I do when I have nothing else to do and my fish are also sleeping and don't want to be bothered.
Muffins are very easy to bake and I find it relaxing.

We are having a couple of neighbors over for New Years eve for dinner. They were just tested for Covid and we think it will be fine.
I will bake some bread and my wife started spaghetti and meatballs/sausage.

She makes a great sauce and it has to simmer all day. I think my Mother taught her and my Mother was very Sicilian. She was born in Manhattan near the Bowery like my Dad and grew up speaking Italian because her parents came here from Sicily in about 1900 and didn't speak a word of English.
My parents learned English in school like all people living in Little Italy in Manhattan in those days.

Across the street was China Town and no one there spoke English either as they all came from China.

I would imaging the people who came from Tunisia spoke Tunionese.

Yesterday we went to the Italian market 40 minutes away. You can't get the proper ingredients in a regular supermarket even if it says "imported from Italy" .

You need an authentic Italian market and they are few in between. Not many left.
The place we go makes the pasta there in front of you as well as the sausage, right from the pig.

It isn't cheap but if you want good food, thats what you have to do. Us Americans (including me) are totally spoiled with the food we get here in the US.
The olive oil we have available isn't even close to what they have in Italy, Greece and Spain.

When they open a bottle of olive oil in Italy you can immediately smell it all over the room. Olive oil here is good for rubbing on your feet for callouses or putting a nice sheen on your stainless steel refrigerator but thats it.

We can't get good oil here and I spend over $100.00 for a gallon of the stuff. We think it's good. But we are wrong.
The good stuff is made by small families in the mountains and each batch is pressed by hand and not processed at all.
It's the same with cheese. The stuff we get thats made in a factory and mixed with a Toyota tractor is not good cheese. Thats another thing we can't get here. Italian specialty stores get a good quality cheese and it is as good as we can get. But if you only have an A&P, or 7 / 11, forgetaboutit and go to "Red Lobster"

I was going to make stuffed calamari, baked clams and clam chowder but the people coming are not Italian and a lot of people don't eat that stuff. I grew up on it so for me it is a normal breakfast.

Italian market in the Bronx

 

[Paul B]

CRASH!!!!!!!.

No, not my reef, don't be ridiculous, I have a reverse undergravel filter and everyone who has a reverse undergravel in their tank that crashed, raise your hand.....Higher.

My worm culture crashed. It didn't crash because the worms died, it crashed because I have to many worms. And flies. My two worm cultures are inundated with flies. The fly larvae looks just like worms but a little shorter and the flies are really annoying. They fly around and crash into my bald head.

I tried many things to rid the thing of flies including completely flooding the culture overnight and leaving it outside when it is 35 degrees. The flies just laugh at my feeble attempts and their squeeky laughing really grates on me and exasperates my already grated PTSD.

I also built a container with a small fan on top where it would collect the flies as they hatched and sucked them into a net.

So today I left them outside where it is 30 degrees to stop them from laughing then I quickly flooded their container while holding a huge shop vac over it and as each fly warmed up and climbed out, I sucked them up.

I don't have one of those Sissy Girly shop vac's, this one I built and it will suck the ear wax out of your ears from 10' away through 5/8" sheetrock.

Then I kept running water into the container and pouring it out until it was clean with not a trace of worm or fly poop. After that I poured the entire thing through a course net and ran water over it for 15 minutes which removed most of the soil and those pesky gnats or whatever those little bugs are.

The next step was to swirl what was left, a little at a time in a round container. That congregates the remaining worms in the center and now they feel like they just went to midnight mass and drank to much wine. I sucked up masses of them with a baster thing that I built and put them in a clean container.

I collected about a pint of pure worms. I am sure some of those fly larvae got in but I can't be sure.

I threw out thousands of worms but I still have another culture that has even more flies in it. They are outside now where they may freeze. I will show them.

I may rescue those worms but I have so many that I really don't have to.

I am also considering a new way to collect the worms. I am going to try to use vermiculite which is really tiny pieces of Styrofoam instead of soil. To collect the worms I will just flood it and the vermiculite floats while the worms sink so I can suck them up with a baster. I am not sure how the worms will fare in vermiculite but the next time I go to a garden center, I will get some.


By the way. I don't consider this a problem, a catastrophe, an annoyance, an inconvenience, a set back, or a disaster. It is a part of my hobby that I love. Opening up a can of dry food just doesn't do it for me nor does stamp collecting.
If this was easy, everyone would do it even Nancy Pelosi and she doesn't have a tank.

 

[Victoria M]

CRASH!!!!!!!.

No, not my reef, don't be ridiculous, I have a reverse undergravel filter and everyone who has a reverse undergravel in their tank that crashed, raise your hand.....Higher.

My worm culture crashed. It didn't crash because the worms died, it crashed because I have to many worms. And flies. My two worm cultures are inundated with flies. The fly larvae looks just like worms but a little shorter and the flies are really annoying. They fly around and crash into my bald head.

I tried many things to rid the thing of flies including completely flooding the culture overnight and leaving it outside when it is 35 degrees. The flies just laugh at my feeble attempts and their squeeky laughing really grates on me and exasperates my already grated PTSD.

I also built a container with a small fan on top where it would collect the flies as they hatched and sucked them into a net.

So today I left them outside where it is 30 degrees to stop them from laughing then I quickly flooded their container while holding a huge shop vac over it and as each fly warmed up and climbed out, I sucked them up.

I don't have one of those Sissy Girly shop vac's, this one I built and it will suck the ear wax out of your ears from 10' away through 5/8" sheetrock.

Then I kept running water into the container and pouring it out until it was clean with not a trace of worm or fly poop. After that I poured the entire thing through a course net and ran water over it for 15 minutes which removed most of the soil and those pesky gnats or whatever those little bugs are.

The next step was to swirl what was left, a little at a time in a round container. That congregates the remaining worms in the center and now they feel like they just went to midnight mass and drank to much wine. I sucked up masses of them with a baster thing that I built and put them in a clean container.

I collected about a pint of pure worms. I am sure some of those fly larvae got in but I can't be sure.

I threw out thousands of worms but I still have another culture that has even more flies in it. They are outside now where they may freeze. I will show them.

I may rescue those worms but I have so many that I really don't have to.

I am also considering a new way to collect the worms. I am going to try to use vermiculite which is really tiny pieces of Styrofoam instead of soil. To collect the worms I will just flood it and the vermiculite floats while the worms sink so I can suck them up with a baster. I am not sure how the worms will fare in vermiculite but the next time I go to a garden center, I will get some.


By the way. I don't consider this a problem, a catastrophe, an annoyance, an inconvenience, a set back, or a disaster. It is a part of my hobby that I love. Opening up a can of dry food just doesn't do it for me nor does stamp collecting.
If this was easy, everyone would do it even Nancy Pelosi and she doesn't have a tank.

Eewwww!

 

[Paul B]

Playing with my new lenses.

 

[Paul B]

Today I took our Christmas tree down. For many years I would remove the ornaments and lights then carry the thing outside and spend the next few weeks picking up needles. About 10 years ago I started doing it this way. I put a fifty gallon garbage can on a dolly and roll it next to the tree. Put down a drop cloth and with a pruning sheers remove all the branches and put them in the can. Then throw out the middle stick. Very little mess. This is whats left.

I also kept my indoor lights in this box. You can see how old it is. It was made in the US in the town I lived in. I used that filter for many years.

 

[CMMorgan]

Well I never liked the idea of DSBs. They have a lifetime of about 10 years and almost all of our fish live way longer than that.
I think most people keep their tank much too sterile.
I like LED lighting but I didn't build a unit yet.
In the beginning we used regular flourescent lights, then VHO, then compact flourescents then MH, now we will all soon have LEDs.
Besides that, everything is the same except for our knowledge.

Funny that you said we keep our tanks too clean. I was obcessing over my nitrates... trying this and that. Raising this, lowering that. All I got was a perpetual cycle of cyano, dinos and non-thriving corals. I went dark for 4 days... ignored it, stopped testing constantly and it's suddenly thriving. It's all about finding that happy medium, right? You are very wise, sir.

 

[CMMorgan]

Playing with my new lenses.

Great pics! Has the tank been in the same location all of this time or has it undergone moves? This is definitely a testimony to your endurance and dedication! Happy Tank Birthday!!

 

[Paul B]

Morgan, Thank You. I moved the tank 3 times since 1971. The longest it was in one place was my last house for 40 years. It has been here in my new home almost 3 years.

 

[CMMorgan]

I also think it will be much less heat. Of course I recently invented a chiller for the tank that hardly uses any power and if the tank stays cool with the LEDs I can't test my chiller. Figures
My lighting has always been under par which is one reason I can't keep certain SPS corals. There are probably other reasons but for now I will blame it on my Plaza Hotel lights. I am running 2- 150 watt MH lights. My 6' tank really should run 3-150 watt MH lights.
But the heat would be too much. I like the way LEDs look and I like saving energy. The royal blues will come on first then the whites.
Today I bought some square tubing to mount the lights on. The tubes will be cut to 5' lengths and run parallel to each other. The LEDs will be mounted to the tubing and a fan will be installed in the center of the fixture which will force air through all 3 tubes for the heat. It will also be on a pulley system so just a touch will raise this entire thing up to the ceiling of the enclosure so I will have two feet of clearence to work on the tank. Then they will settle down about 8" from the water.
It should only take a couple of hours to build once I have all the parts.

How did that pully system work out? I've been messing around with plans to build one but I'm worried about rust. I'd love your input!

 

[Paul B]

The pulleys I used were aluminum and the cable was stainless steel aircraft cable. It worked for many years until I moved and never had any problems. It used counterweights.
The tank I have now has a panel over the front that raises up to work on the tank using counterweights also.
I like using gravity for most things. My ATO also uses gravity as does my algae scrubber

 

[Paul B]

I had to post this (again) somewhere else because someone asked me a question about all fish having ich. I am putting it here on my thread because I know no one reads it and I won't get any arguments. If I put this on the General forum I would get multitudes of hate letters and people would fill paper bags with pink tipped anemones, throw it on my porch, light it on fire, ring my bell and run away.

If anyone wants to argue, send me a SASE and I will steam off the stamp and use the envelope to store worm food.
I am old and have PTSD so leave me alone in my stupor.

Yes all fish in the sea have ich. OK, maybe 0.0237% don't have it, but they my have some kind of social disease instead.

I am going to have to get into this again but it would be much easier if you read it when I posted it 73 times.
Ich is a natural part of the sea. Ich has been there longer than Nancy Pelisi and it is not going away any time soon.

We call ich a parasite because it hangs out on our expensive fish and sucks a little blood. If we don't know what we are doing it will kill our fish but ich is not the enemy. We are. We can't see the face on an ich parasite but I bet if it were cute like the Gerber Baby we would try to raise those parasites and feed them copperband butterflies.

We humans carry thousands of parasites, yes even if, like many of us, we bathe. We have special parasites that live in our eyelashes, behind our ears, under our arms and even in our noses. We don't normally try to eliminate these things by using copper nasal spray. Those parasites do not hurt us just like ich doesn't hurt fish in the sea.

"We" destroy fish by quarantining or medicating them. OK stop laughing and no, I am not yet senile, Soon, but not today. Everybody here who has some 30 year old fish that have never been quarantined or medicated or been sick and are still spawning.......Raise your hand,,,,,,,Higher.

Healthy fish "need" ich just like they do in the sea. I would never try to eliminate ich and I hope the NSW I collect is full of it. I will buy a fish from any store even if I see ich in the same tank the fish I want is in. I do it all the time because my fish are immune and have been since the 80s. Yes, that was a dark time when there were no cell phones or computers so if you were a boy and you wanted to meet a girl, you had to stand a few feet from her and make intelligible sounds come out of your mouth.

Here is how ich is supposed to work in a healthy tank. You have a fish in your tank from the sea. A copperband butterfly, clingfish or manta ray, it doesn't matter.
A healthy fish that has not been quarantined or poisoned with copper is covered in slime, all over even on their gills and down their throat.

That slime is not there to make the fish slippery so you have a hard time picking it up. I used to date a girl who was a little slimy, but she didn't have ich.
The slime is full of "anti parasitic" substances which the "healthy" fish constantly exudes from all over the place.

Copper, antibiotics, quarantine, chicken soup will all disrupt the production of anti parasitic substances for different reasons.
Extended quarantine will stop the production of these substances because if you don't use it, you lose it. Slime is very "expensive" in energy for a fish to make as are the antibodies. The fishes immune system depend on occasional meeting of parasites to stay immune. If there are never parasites, like in extended quarantine, the fish will lose that ability to identify and kill parasites. How long it takes is debatable, you will have to ask the fish. But people who run quarantine tanks have fish that have no immunity at all because the fish never encounters parasites.

We get a flu shot every year because if we never encounter the flu, we lose our immunity.
If we have ich in our tank filed with "healthy" fish, we will never lose a fish to any disease. Healthy fish were not quarantined or medicated and have a full compliment of gut flora or bacteria. Fish that eat mostly dry foods are not healthy. It's true, Sue me.

But if you don't quarantine or medicate, some parasites will live happily in your tank and they will sample a little blood from your fish. It is "good" for the fish and will keep the fish immune. I donate blood all the time and I don't have ich.

The disease forum is full of quarantined and medicated fish. Go there and look. The non quarantined fish in the disease forum are there because the owner doesn't know how, or doesn't want to keep their fish healthy and immune.

Remember, if there are no parasites, the fish has no immunity from them and as soon as one parasite gets in there which is a given and impossible to keep out if you buy almost anything wet, the fish will get a huge "pandemic" and your fish will die. (there are no very old quarantined tanks that never get a disease. Old is not 10 years)

You may try to rescue them by fresh water dipping and copper. But then your fish will get something else. It happens constantly. It is not the LFS, wholesaler or the guy in the canoe who caught the fish that is to blame, it is us.

To stay immune, as I said, fish need to meet parasites, but they also need a supply of live gut bacteria. That can come from live worms like white worms which are basically free. It can also come from fresh shellfish. If these things are not fed occasionally. You may be spending time on the disease forum. Wherever that is. ;Bucktooth

 

[Paul B]

I also posted this on another thread on here because someone asked me if my method would work in a small tank of 29 gallons.


Dkmoo, my tank was started in a 40 gallon tank. I started it with ocean water from the East River near Manhattan because thats what I had and I couldn't get ASW. I also used rocks from jetty's in New York. I fed worms and things I could find as there was no salt water food sold at the time. Remember, the hobby didn't even start yet.


That 40 gallon tank had some problems for sure. Ich was everywhere and there was no copper medications because we didn't use that in fresh water. I found a scientist who told me about copper so I got pennies and put them in. I found out from Robert Straughn, (The Father of Salt Water Fish Keeping) to use 20 pennies to the gallon. (pennies are no longer made of copper so don't try this)

My old log book tells of all the problems I had and the medications I used were for humans and didn't work well.



I had a lot of fish then as fish came on the market, I bought them.
LFSs were popping up in the 80s but no one knew what they were doing and I bought all the new fish anyway and experimented until I could figure out what the fish needed. At the time I was also SCUBA diving in the tropics and in New York for lobsters.



Remember this was way before computers cell phones or the internet so there was also no bad information. As far as I knew, I was the only one with a salt tank.
But eventually I figured out what to do and I accidentally started feeding my 7 blue devils live worms that I used to feed to my fresh water tanks of which I think I had 14.



They started to spawn and lived for 7 years. Then I discovered that I didn't need the pennies any more and all my fish were living for many years. Of course I had accidents and lost fish as I barely knew what I was doing and when you do things by trial and error, you will fail more then you win.

Blue devil eggs circa 1972


It took until the early 80s when I think I had it down to a science and stopped losing fish to communicable diseases.
Then much later the internet came out and everyone had an opinion. Thats when the problems started and no one any more experimented, they all asked for opinions. Opinions now are fine but to ask for opinions from people who started the hobby last Tuesday and have kept one damsel for a couple of weeks on life support was not a good idea.

I wrote a few articles in the paper magazines then and like now, people would ask me questions.
(remember, even in those days I still had the oldest tank around)

I would say to feed live worms and clams etc. People would write back and say: Oh thats great, I can't get that so I will feed corn flakes is that OK?..



And thats the way it has always gone.

But getting back to your question of a small tank. For many years I kept a 5 gallon salt tank using NSW and rocks from New York water. Much of it was asphalt, cinder blocks and bricks,


I hatched out these octopus in a small tank.



And kept cool creatures. Most of which I collected in the sea




This was my tank I think in the 80s


Those small 5 gallon tanks using bricks,NSW and local creatures never crashed or had any disease problems. Not once. Don't tell some of the people on here because it would be an argument as they can't grasp having healthy fish by using parasites to control parasites.

Of course none of those people can show their still running tanks from when the hobby started.
Remember us Geezers invented quarantine, copper and medications, that is not a modern thing from the internet. It was because we were un informed and didn't realize that the fish could stay healthy if we stayed out of their way and dealt with diseases the way they have been for millions of years.