Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

BurgerFish, pretty little tang. I got a real small one about a month ago. Now he colored up and almost doubled in size. I am not really a tang guy but I just couldn't resist.

This is when I got him

 

[vlangel]

What kind of algae is that?

I am guessing that you are asking about the green macro algae in the foreground,,,that is caulerpa cupressoides. I still have a little but it is much sparser now. It's not as easy to grow as some of the other caulerpas.

 

[Paul B]

Cthulukelele, I wrote this in 2016 and corresponds to something in your last post:

Thinking outside the box


Unfortunately there is this box. It is very comfortable and warm inside the box which is why almost everyone wants to stay and think inside the box. People inside the box all have much of the same ideas and ways of thinking and oddly enough many of the same problems that don't get resolved using the same methods that people inside the box have been using since the salt water hobby started in the United States in 1971. I think it was on a Tuesday about 2 or 2:30 in the afternoon. Even though many of the methods don't work, people still use those methods because the sides of the box are very hard so the information gets echoed all over the box and we hear the same wrong information over and over again. We can't help but to use those methods because that is whats inside that box. The box also gets a daily influx of Noobs and many times Noobs will try something and it will work. Of course they don't know that that thing has been done forty seven thousand times. Then that information bounces around the box and everyone in the box hears it and thinks that is the way to do that particular thing. So it is done over and over again and even though it worked once, and never works again, it is still done because eventually that Noob gets out of the hobby and goes on one of those "Getting out of the Hobby, everything for sale " threads, but his Ideas keep getting re-circulated. He goes on to colect stamps and becomes an accountant at Burger King where he becomes a manager of the French Fry cooker.

Many years ago there was no box. All we had was wide open spaces, Elvis, Marylin Monroe, bellbottoms and a lot of sky. There were also no methods so we had to find our own ways to do things. We had to experiment and in doing so we killed more fish than StarKist Tuna. There was only one salt water hobbiest per state and there was no internet and we didn't know each other so everyone was a researcher. When we bought a fish,no one knew anything about that fish except the fish itself and Jacues Cousteau and he wasn't talking. So if our tank got overcome with hair algae, we learned on our own how to deal with it. We grew enough algae to cover a 19 hole golf course, but eventually we overcame and eliminated the algae. Of course if we were inside the box we would learn that changing the water will help with that. But we, outside the box realize that never works so we didn't do that.

When our fish got parasites we quickly learned how to deal with that also. Again, if we were inside the box we would change the water , with the same result.

If a fish died, we learned through trial and error how to correct that situation. No, we didn't change the water or check our parameters. We had no test kits anyway so we had to rely on our common sense which worked out pretty well.

We also learned, on our own how to feed fish so they would never get sick. We found out that our fish were supposed to spawn all the time and if they didn't, they were not healthy and prone to diseases. We could have changed the water but knew that in the future there would be this box where everyone changed water all the time but still had numerous problems.

We never had a new fish that wouldn't eat because our tanks were natural and healthy, not sterile like a newly shampooed rug like many of the tanks inside the box.

Sometimes, after a while someone climbs outside of the box and in doing so trys to go against the fine folks inside the box. The people inside the box make fun of that person and say his (or her) Ideas can't work because it is just not done that way. If say that person uses a reverse undergravel filter, the laughter from inside the box will rise to a roar. If that person goes against biblical box knowledge and finds a way to keep fish healthy without quarantining, that roar will become a typhoon and the box will shake.

The box people will never accept those outside the box ideas because it is just not taught inside the box. Even if those outside of the box ideas are proven, they will never be taken seriousely, and more importantly if any of those ideas and methods are very cheap and easy to implement, forget about it, that person may as well take up collecting old shoes because he will be driven out of the fish hobby.

Now everyone knows there are some really nice tanks inside the box. Some tanks, everyone are jealous of so going outside the box is not for everyone. But history proves that all of the new, important, earth shattering or Awe inspiring events that happened were the result of thinking outside the box because if everyone always thought inside the box there would never be any improvement because the box doesn’t allow for it. Most Neanderthals thought inside the box which is the reason they walked around for thousands of years carrying sticks and little else. It took an outside the box thinker to invent a microwave so Neanderthals could throw away that stick and heat up a TV dinner. Eventually Neanderthals got taken over by Liberals who invented that box.

 

[atoll]

BurgerFish, pretty little tang. I got a real small one about a month ago. Now he colored up and almost doubled in size. I am not really a tang guy but I just couldn't resist.

This is when I got him

Caribbean blue tang?

 

[atoll]

Cthulukelele, I wrote this in 2016 and corresponds to something in your last post:

Thinking outside the box


Unfortunately there is this box. It is very comfortable and warm inside the box which is why almost everyone wants to stay and think inside the box. People inside the box all have much of the same ideas and ways of thinking and oddly enough many of the same problems that don't get resolved using the same methods that people inside the box have been using since the salt water hobby started in the United States in 1971. I think it was on a Tuesday about 2 or 2:30 in the afternoon. Even though many of the methods don't work, people still use those methods because the sides of the box are very hard so the information gets echoed all over the box and we hear the same wrong information over and over again. We can't help but to use those methods because that is whats inside that box. The box also gets a daily influx of Noobs and many times Noobs will try something and it will work. Of course they don't know that that thing has been done forty seven thousand times. Then that information bounces around the box and everyone in the box hears it and thinks that is the way to do that particular thing. So it is done over and over again and even though it worked once, and never works again, it is still done because eventually that Noob gets out of the hobby and goes on one of those "Getting out of the Hobby, everything for sale " threads, but his Ideas keep getting re-circulated. He goes on to colect stamps and becomes an accountant at Burger King where he becomes a manager of the French Fry cooker.

Many years ago there was no box. All we had was wide open spaces, Elvis, Marylin Monroe, bellbottoms and a lot of sky. There were also no methods so we had to find our own ways to do things. We had to experiment and in doing so we killed more fish than StarKist Tuna. There was only one salt water hobbiest per state and there was no internet and we didn't know each other so everyone was a researcher. When we bought a fish,no one knew anything about that fish except the fish itself and Jacues Cousteau and he wasn't talking. So if our tank got overcome with hair algae, we learned on our own how to deal with it. We grew enough algae to cover a 19 hole golf course, but eventually we overcame and eliminated the algae. Of course if we were inside the box we would learn that changing the water will help with that. But we, outside the box realize that never works so we didn't do that.

When our fish got parasites we quickly learned how to deal with that also. Again, if we were inside the box we would change the water , with the same result.

If a fish died, we learned through trial and error how to correct that situation. No, we didn't change the water or check our parameters. We had no test kits anyway so we had to rely on our common sense which worked out pretty well.

We also learned, on our own how to feed fish so they would never get sick. We found out that our fish were supposed to spawn all the time and if they didn't, they were not healthy and prone to diseases. We could have changed the water but knew that in the future there would be this box where everyone changed water all the time but still had numerous problems.

We never had a new fish that wouldn't eat because our tanks were natural and healthy, not sterile like a newly shampooed rug like many of the tanks inside the box.

Sometimes, after a while someone climbs outside of the box and in doing so trys to go against the fine folks inside the box. The people inside the box make fun of that person and say his (or her) Ideas can't work because it is just not done that way. If say that person uses a reverse undergravel filter, the laughter from inside the box will rise to a roar. If that person goes against biblical box knowledge and finds a way to keep fish healthy without quarantining, that roar will become a typhoon and the box will shake.

The box people will never accept those outside the box ideas because it is just not taught inside the box. Even if those outside of the box ideas are proven, they will never be taken seriousely, and more importantly if any of those ideas and methods are very cheap and easy to implement, forget about it, that person may as well take up collecting old shoes because he will be driven out of the fish hobby.

Now everyone knows there are some really nice tanks inside the box. Some tanks, everyone are jealous of so going outside the box is not for everyone. But history proves that all of the new, important, earth shattering or Awe inspiring events that happened were the result of thinking outside the box because if everyone always thought inside the box there would never be any improvement because the box doesn’t allow for it. Most Neanderthals thought inside the box which is the reason they walked around for thousands of years carrying sticks and little else. It took an outside the box thinker to invent a microwave so Neanderthals could throw away that stick and heat up a TV dinner. Eventually Neanderthals got taken over by Liberals who invented that box.

This guy (photo at the end) was the first to think outside the box. He had a great tank and no problems with diseases or parasites. Unfortunately because he thought outside the box and even though he had great success he was first ignored by the keepers of the box.

The keepers of the box then laughed and ridiculed him as they felt threatened. They even suggested he was lying and gave all kinds of scientific reasons why his out the box methods simply couldn't work, but they did.

Eventually the thinker stopped writing and telling people about how he successfully kept a great reef tank. He decided he had had enough of the box keepers and their bullying.

Some who practiced similar methods and had similar success to the thinker were also ridiculed so they also stopped posting. This plessed the box keepers as they didn't like their methods to be questioned and god forbid think there were other methods worthy of consideration that could give great success.

However the thinkers continued to think outside the box and continued to make discoveries but decided best keep them to the thinkers only. Now this was a great shame as the thinkers had gained so much knowledge that others could have benefitted from.

A few thinkers did however continue to post and they even gained more thinkers even if only a few. The few thinkers that continue to post are thick skinned and don't get upset by those who control the box after all they managed to escape the box and have no need of it. The box can't control them unlike those within it.

 

[atoll]

Some people will try and belittle you with all kinds of science put in an eloquent way which makes their claims in the box seem the only way. Belittling and bullying are other ways some will try. Most of us have seen this in one form or another.

Science has often been proved wrong not just for marines but for all manner of things until it was discovered that they were right all along. EGs Scientists said bees shouldn't be able to fly in their science until they discovered why they could. The Leaning Tower of Pisa shouldn't be standing according to the laws of physics until they found out why it was and the sun circled the earth until it was found to be the opposite and so on.

Not everything we read is right and things often change the way we understand what's really happening. Science they say can't be wrong but those interpreting can or are simply coming to the wrong conclusions based on their understanding.

 

[Paul B]

I am "kind of" winning the battle with the invasive sponge in my tank. I built this "injecting thing" so I can remotely inject vinegar into the sponge and it is having a pretty big impact.

Sponges hate vinegar, who knew? (I did read it on one of these forums but I forgot which one)

It takes a week or so but the spots I inject die about 3" around the injection spot. I do inject it multiple times in multiple places and I killed about a 6X6" sponge so far.

I am improving the injecting tool so it will last forever (hopefully) because now it is a bit delicate.

I will cut out the large projecting pieces of sponge and remove it but the part that is encrusting all over the rock is easier to inject because the rock prevents the needle from going completely through the thing.

This will take quite a while.

 

[dennis romano]

I know that you like your pipefish. I have four different types in two tanks. My pair of blue sides are in a twenty five year old reef. Every month, the male is carrying fry but I never see any after they are born. Have you ever seen fry from your pair?

 

[Paul B]

No, they must be really tiny but I know someone on one of these forums raises them and I have seen the pictures.

 

[Paul B]

This is the injector.

Here is the sponge after one application. You can see the surface deteriorating.

 

[Paul B]

I just went to my favorite, but dirty LFS where I brought Humble. I picked up 4 fish for the same price another LFS on the same block (but 5 miles away) for the same price he charges for one fish.

I got a red waspfish, 2 hectors gobies and a female ruby red dragonette.

I got there just as the order came in which is my favorite way to buy fish. Right from the sea before they went into the stores tanks, still in the blue water.

 

[nuxx]

Nice pick ups

 

[Jekyl]

I am not sure what to do with my tank. Everything is healthy including unfortunately the photosynthetic sponge that is taking over everything. Nothing eats it.

I am afraid to change water because those new nutrients makes it grow faster but the lack of nutrients the tank has now due to the sponge removing everything from the water is having a negative effect on the corals which are all soft.

I trim it when it covers gorgonians and other corals but it exudes toxins when I do that.
I added "Phosguard" to remove silicates but that didn't seem to have much effect so I am still experimenting. This is a hard problem to correct and this will be my last tank so I don't want to remove everything and soak the rock in fresh water to try to kill the stuff. I am not even sure if that would work.

But this is an interesting situation that will keep me thinking for a long time.

Have the same issue with GSP. Never again.

 

[Paul B]

In my tank smiling from gill to gill

 

[atoll]

Those gobbies can be delicate. They pick on algae and small pods in the tank..I haven't kept any for many years. They used to be a cheap fish in the UK but not anymore they ain't.

 

[Paul B]

They are cheap here, like $16.00 and they redilly spawn. My last pair I had for a number of years but they stayed in the back and ate the stuff in the mulm. They used to get under the UG filter to spawn.

 

[atoll]

They are cheap here, like $16.00 and they redilly spawn. My last pair I had for a number of years but they stayed in the back and ate the stuff in the mulm. They used to get under the UG filter to spawn.

They are double that in the UK but in pounds sterling.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

In my tank smiling from gill to gill

Love the waspfish. I have 4 new ones that are now in with my 2 old ones lol.

 

[BurgerFish]

I am not sure what to do with my tank. Everything is healthy including unfortunately the photosynthetic sponge that is taking over everything. Nothing eats it.

I am afraid to change water because those new nutrients makes it grow faster but the lack of nutrients the tank has now due to the sponge removing everything from the water is having a negative effect on the corals which are all soft.

I trim it when it covers gorgonians and other corals but it exudes toxins when I do that.
I added "Phosguard" to remove silicates but that didn't seem to have much effect so I am still experimenting. This is a hard problem to correct and this will be my last tank so I don't want to remove everything and soak the rock in fresh water to try to kill the stuff. I am not even sure if that would work.

But this is an interesting situation that will keep me thinking for a long time.

Paul, this pretty angel on the bottom, is he reef safe?

 

[Paul B]

You mean the Waspfish? Yes, I think he is. If he does well I may get a few more.