Tank birthday, 47+ years

Paul B · Feb 8, 2016

This is my vacation hatchery/feeder, it is a new design I am testing out. Basically it adds shrimp eggs every day to the thing and they hatch out throughout the day and feed the fish. it can work for a week, maybe two before it would need to be cleaned.
I have used this when I went to Hawaii and Europe and it worked well.

Paul B · Feb 19, 2016

Lately my tank has been evolving by attrition to more sponges and gorgonians. I just like them better and it is one thing I have not done yet. The tank went from fish only to fish and crustaceans to anemones to leathers to LPS then LPS and seaweeds to SPS and LPS to now. I have been finding colorful, odd looking sponges and gorgs and I find them fascinating. I don't think I have seen a tank full of them yet but it is what I am going for now. I still have some SPS and quite a few LPS but my main goal is to keep my fish spawning and I have way to many fish. They have also gotten to large, and large spawning fish require an enormous amount of food to keep spawning and healthy. Of course that pushes up the nitrates. I think mine are around 90 which is to high for most SPS.

This is an old picture, I don't remember how old but I can see my 24 year old fireclown on the left and he looks young there. I used to collect these codium seaweeds on the east end of Long Island and put them in. They live a few months then get ratty. I also add to many other things from the sea but to me, it makes the hobby interesting. My tank is and always has been an experiment or something I find interesting and never meant to be the nicest tank around, which it certainly is not. It is also just one of my hobbies.

This is an older picture and I can see I always liked gorgonians (and copperbands)

I used to be into these. Then I went to Germany and my tank sitter let the water fall by about a third and these were out in the air, so now they are reduced to a few smaller pieces.

You could see some of them here.

Paul B · Feb 21, 2016

How cool is this guy? I also added a clingfish, but I will never see him again.

Paul B · Feb 26, 2016

I have been adding more and more sponges and gorgs just for a change. I love it.
(I also have been taking a photography course and have no Idea what I am doing)

Paul B · Feb 27, 2016

This morning before the reef lights came on I decided to look in the tank for a new slug just to see what it was doing. It was gliding along the front glass looking for it's meal of spaghetti worms which unfortunately is the only thing it eats and won't touch real spaghetti or anything else as I have found out. But as I was searching for him I noticed my bluestripe pipefish all entwined with each other as they often do, I just didn't know they did it in pitch darkness. Anyway, I noticed something go floating by and I am pretty sure it was a couple of baby pipefish. I can't be 100% sure because there is a lot of things floating by in my tank, but it sure did look like two entwined baby pipefish. I am telling myself that's what they were anyway just so I can feel good about it. Of course it could have been slug snot.
The pregnant male is the top one.

Paul B · Feb 28, 2016

I have been taking a photography course and am trying things out.

Paul B · Mar 9, 2016

I am having a hard time keeping all my fish fed because I just have too many. You know that feeling when you go into a LFS not intending to buy anything. You promise yourself you won't buy anything because you just don't have the room. You swear to yourself you won't buy anything. Then you see it. You really must have it. It is a one of a kind. You convince yourself that you owe it to your body. Then as you are driving home with the new fish, you swear to yourself, that that is the absolute last fish you can possibly fit in there. My fish are now taking turns putting their heads underwater, that's how crowded it is. Their tails are getting a rash from hitting each other. Each fish is on a first name basis with each other.
It's terrible, but that's where I am now. For the last two weeks I can't find my male bluestripe pipefish, so I figure he is gone along with my clingfish, so that gives me the opportunity to get more fish. As soon as I put in the new fish, guess who shows up? Yep, the bluestripe pipefish and clingfish. The pipefish was doing what he always does, having babies in the back of the tank. My water is like sewage from all the food I have to put in. One of my bubble corals died, probably because my nitrates are 980 or so. I tested the nitrates once and the test water in the vial turned into tar. I don't know what I am going to do because the fish just won't die, they don't even jump out any more but they keep growing. One of my bangai cardinals uses a shoehorn to get in between the rocks because he got to large. That fireclown had a birthday, he is about 25 years old (but I could be off by a couple of years as I lost his birth certificate)

Paul B · Mar 10, 2016

Still practicing with camera so don't mind me.

Paul B · Mar 21, 2016

Feeder video. Notice how pregnant the pipefish is.

Paul B · Apr 2, 2016

I have been experimenting with this little anemone crab for a couple of months by giving him a live blackworm every day. At first he just looked at me like I was crazy and continued filter feeding. But now he comes out for the worm as soon as he sees the feeder and grabs the worm. He also gave up living on corals and prefers to stay in this spot on the rock. He doesn't seem to filter feed any more which is good because these crabs don't usually live long in a tank. I assume they don't usually get enough food. But I will see how long he will live on worms. I want to get a few more of them so they will mate.

This is him when I got him.

Paul B · Apr 6, 2016

Taking pictures.

It's almost impossible to get a picture of this guy

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Paul B · Apr 7, 2016

I don't remember how old the oldest coral is but I think it is a gorgonian which may be 15 or so years old.
The fireclown is my oldest fish.
I think this is that gorgonian.

Fireclown, He is starting to show his age now. I think he needs some Botox and maybe a good dentist

BoneXriffic · Apr 7, 2016

Paul B said:
Thanks guys. It is common practice in Long Island to add zinc orthophosphate to the water supply to control corrosion in the pipes. All of Long Island uses well water and it corrodes brass very fast. The zinc forms a film on the inside of the pipes to protect them. The brass screws inside valves just crumble.
I have resins now that specifically remove zing, I get it from "The Filter Guys" I don't remember what type it is but I need to orser some more.
This zinc is what stopped my from using tap water like I did for many years. The first time they added the zinc I lost all my corals also and that was about 20 years ago. I don't think it is too much of a problem every day but if I happen to change water with a batch of water just after they add the chemical, my tank is in trouble. It seems that my RO/DI does not remove enough of it in those cases. It also happened to the large LFS a few blocks from my house the same time it happened to me.
Newman blue devils cost $7.00 in 1971 in Manhattan, thats like $50.00 today. I initially filled my tank with water from the Long Island Sound as there was no ASW for sale then. There was also no live rock or any rock, we used dead coral skeletons for decoration and we removed then every couple of weeks to bleach so they were pure white. All tanks looked like that.
I added livestock then like I do now but we had to keep copper in the water continousely because everything had ich. ZThe tanks were not very healthy due to not having enough bacteria and there was no salt water food available. There was nothing in print, no books and no computers so no internet. No fish forums, and no one with a salt tank, except me. I bought the first blue devils the week they became available for sale 40 years ago next month.
I change about 20% of the water 5 or 6 times a year and I only add homemade 2 part calcium and Lugols Iodine.
The first 5 years the tank was in smaller glass, here it is circa 1972. You can see the bleached corals and the blue devils.
I got them to live 7 years and they spawned for many of those years.

I knownim quoting an extremley old post here but doesnt the water affect all ove the old galvinized metal? Brass is still somewhat new in so many areas. Also amazing story here ive been reading a while....and much more to read congrats on this acomplisment

Michael43 · Apr 7, 2016

Amazing story. Congratulations to you Sir!!

Paul B · Apr 8, 2016

BoneXriffic said:
I knownim quoting an extremley old post here but doesnt the water affect all ove the old galvinized metal? Brass is still somewhat new in so many areas. Also amazing story here ive been reading a while....and much more to read congrats on this acomplisment

I don't exactly understand the question, but I am not that sharp.

The pipes in my house are copper as they are in almost all of New York. Copper or brass. The well water we have here rots the brass so they add zinc orthophosphate which is supposed to control that. But it kills marine life. They don't use galvanized pipes much for supply water any more as it was normally used for sewage pipes. Only the outside is galvanized and it rotts pretty bad. Here is a galvanized sewer pipe I removed from my house last year. The inside of galvanized pipes would rust then catch all sorts of stuff that keeps building up. This pipe was installed in 1952.

BoneXriffic · Apr 8, 2016

Paul B said:
I don't exactly understand the question, but I am not that sharp. The pipes in my house are copper as they are in almost all of New York. Copper or brass. The well water we have here rots the brass so they add zinc orthophosphate which is supposed to control that. But it kills marine life. They don't use galvanized pipes much for supply water any more as it was normally used for sewage pipes. Only the outside is galvanized and it rotts pretty bad. Here is a galvanized sewer pipe I removed from my house last year. The inside of galvanized pipes would rust then catch all sorts of stuff that keeps building up. This pipe was installed in 1952.

Looks about right for galvi lol. Old brass was full of lead. Which might be the culprit. Zinc seems like such a dangerous additive as it poisons people as well as marine life