Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

I added so many amphipods in the last few days that I think I may have overdone it a little. I collected and added thousands of the little buggers.

I have been very busy lately for a few things so I can only collect at 6:00 am at low tide which doesn't happen to often at that time so I have to be ready.

They are in every nook and cranny in my tank and I just looked with a flashlight below my tank at the reverse undergravel filter and they are doing the macarana all over the place.
I took a video collecting them on the beach but my computer says the file is corrupted so I can't access it. I will try to take another video but that won't be soon.

As I was looking for them, I also found a small red fish that looks like a fresh water Platy which I have no recoletion of buying. I don't know how long it has been in there but it stays in a small cave in the back under the rocks. Many times I find a creature in there that I forgot about.

 

[tbrown]

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's!

 

[Paul B]

I took another amphipod hunting video early this morning just because the last video I took doesn't work for some reason. When I get time I will see if this one works.

I won't be able to get down there for a month or so now as I have other things I need to do least of which is get a new shoulder and being those amphipods are heavy, I won't be able to pick them up. :oops:

I already have to many amphipods so these I will keep in a small tank as "pets". :D

 

[Paul B]

In a week or so I need to do a water change. I am not a big water change freak but my tank is now filled with ASW so I could eliminate invasive sponge which I did but now I want to get rid of this fake water and put in real seawater. Soon I will have my shoulder replaced and I won't be able to use that arm for a couple of months and the water in my tank now is full of dying sponge chemicals so it is making way to many diatoms.

It will be very difficult to collect water now because I need to do it 100% with pumps as I can't lift it just now.
I will hopefully have some help in a week or two. :)

 

[Kmst80]

Hey Paul, so i am about to build your blackworm breeding apparatus, just got a couple of questions.
I've kept blackworms before in a plastic 5 lt container with spongefilter and airbubbler and that worked well for a while and then it crashed. Tried 2 more times after and both crashed immediately.
So when i look at your drawing you got carbon in the tube at the end of the trough, is that just to keep waterquality better?
If i understood right, you keep the worms in the trough inbetween the egg crate?...and sometimes they overflow in the main tank.
How often do you change water or do you just top up?

Thanks, looking forward to see how its going to work out

 

[Paul B]

Kmst80, good morning. You have to cycle that worm enclosure just like a fish tank or as you found out, it will crash in hours. If you can find something like a brick, cement or rocks in a pond or stream, that would be great for bacteria. In lieu of that, you need to fill that container and put some food in there like some worms or a piece of clam or shrimp and let it rot. Then add more. It may tank a few weeks to build up bacteria to clean the water.

I didn't use a sponge because the worms will get in that and you can't get them out. They will also get in that carbon but not to many can fit in there so you won't lose many.

The worms need very shallow, moving water. A quarter inch is deep enough as the worms have access to oxygen like that.

Try to build barriers in the trough that keep the worms in there but the ones that get into the tank below can be "rescued" with a baster.
If it is cycled enough the worms can live a very long time.

I don't use black worms any more because I can't get them here so I raise white worms now.

 

[Paul B]

You can't see it well in the video but after I lift a rock, I just rub my hand over the bottom of the rock, and the amphipods stick to my hand. When I want a lot more amphipods, I bring a larger bucket and swirl the rocks in the bucket. That way I get them all.

 

[Reaper1186]

Looks great. Mines only two. Hope to be in the hobby till I die

 

[Nano_Man]

Great info Paul B
I’ve just started using natural sea water today for my water changes. Theses were my test results before use
Ph 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrate trace
Phosphate 0
Calcium 420
Mag 1290
Alk 7
Sg 1.027 a little high but it hasn’t rained for about 5 weeks easily adjusted with rodi water
All theses tests done with salfert test kits and sg done with refractometer

 

[Paul B]

The salinity in the Long Island Sound varies greatly. It was 15 when I collected these amphipods.

 

[Snoopdog]

Hey @Paul B how deep is the sand bed in the display portion of your tank on average?

 

[Snoopdog]

Kmst80, good morning. You have to cycle that worm enclosure just like a fish tank or as you found out, it will crash in hours. If you can find something like a brick, cement or rocks in a pond or stream, that would be great for bacteria. In lieu of that, you need to fill that container and put some food in there like some worms or a piece of clam or shrimp and let it rot. Then add more. It may tank a few weeks to build up bacteria to clean the water.

I didn't use a sponge because the worms will get in that and you can't get them out. They will also get in that carbon but not to many can fit in there so you won't lose many.

The worms need very shallow, moving water. A quarter inch is deep enough as the worms have access to oxygen like that.

Try to build barriers in the trough that keep the worms in there but the ones that get into the tank below can be "rescued" with a baster.
If it is cycled enough the worms can live a very long time.

I don't use black worms any more because I can't get them here so I raise white worms now.

Oh you are raising white worms? How long have you been doing it?

I started a couple of months ago but my cultures are just not taking off. I am using organic soil, kept at a constant 65 degrees and feeding wheat bread, full fat yogurt and nutritional yeast flakes. I am not sure exactly what I am doing wrong, I mean they are growing but I am still waiting on any of the containers to just "take off", which they are not.

 

[Snoopdog]

My pods are a rocking again this summer.
My pods have exploded the last couple of days and I haven't even fed them directly.
https://youtube.com/shorts/krzmvq67_OQ?feature=share4

@atoll I see you are doing that outside, what is the maximum temperature you think you can do that?

 

[atoll]

@atoll I see you are doing that outside, what is the maximum temperature you think you can do that?

Am not sure but at a guess they need to be less than 30c. I have had pods crash in the high 20s but they come back. My cultures get about 4/5hours direct sun here in the UK.

 

[pal98111]

In a couple of weeks my reef will will have reached 40 years old.
Unfortunately I don't remember when I was 40 but I remember when I set it up. I was a skinny 22 year old just back from Viet Nam.
It is still running very well, still using the same reverse UG filter, same dolomite substrait but none of the fish are original. The oldest one, a fireclown is just over 16, all of the older fish died in an accident that was due to my carelessness.
The tank is mostly LPS, gorgonians, giant mushrooms and a few leathers.
There are only three SPS corals, two of which have been with me for a few years and are growing nicely.
I am not sure is any of the original NSW from the Long Island Sound is still in there or any of the original amphipods but maybe much later generations.
I still can't take a decent picture and the tank is not as blue as these pictures but it is what it is.

I had an

In a couple of weeks my reef will will have reached 40 years old.
Unfortunately I don't remember when I was 40 but I remember when I set it up. I was a skinny 22 year old just back from Viet Nam.
It is still running very well, still using the same reverse UG filter, same dolomite substrait but none of the fish are original. The oldest one, a fireclown is just over 16, all of the older fish died in an accident that was due to my carelessness.
The tank is mostly LPS, gorgonians, giant mushrooms and a few leathers.
There are only three SPS corals, two of which have been with me for a few years and are growing nicely.
I am not sure is any of the original NSW from the Long Island Sound is still in there or any of the original amphipods but maybe much later generations.
I still can't take a decent picture and the tank is not as blue as these pictures but it is what it is.

When I was about 12 I had a salty tank and dolomite and an under gravel filter. I did many things wrong looking back and was not successful. Things have really changed a lot in the hobby since then. I'm going on 60 now and just now decided to try again -- and be successful this time. :)

 

[Snoopdog]

Am not sure but at a guess they need to be less than 30c. I have had pods crash in the high 20s but they come back. My cultures get about 4/5hours direct sun here in the UK.

Oh yeah, they will cook here in the south. I very likely may start up a culture myself inside.

 

[atoll]

Oh yeah, they will cook here in the south. I very likely may start up a culture myself inside.

Well you could try just growing the phyto outside to feed your indoor pod cultures.

 

[atoll]

Gotta love pairs. My Midas blennies hanging out together on my Chalice coral.

 

[Snoopdog]

Well you could try just growing the phyto outside to feed your indoor pod cultures.

The outside temps here are getting above 100 this week.

 

[C4ctus99]

The outside temps here are getting above 100 this week.

I’m in Florida on the coast so we get a nice breeze. Generally keeps it below 100 but also brings in all the humidity so it feels like 115 :rolleyes: