Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

I am very happy with the way my tank is running now. It has gone through many cycles over the years and now the LPS, SPS and fish all seem very healthy and there are no problems that I can see. These cycles usually only last a year or so and then something or other changes and either the LPS, or SPS gets in moods or too much or too little algae grows, flatworms will cover everything or an invasive algae will start to take over. Actually I do have a new, wierd red bubble algae but it does not seem to be advancing on much "yet". I find all this stuff amazing and never worry about any of it. Remember, it's a hobby and if it is not fun, or is a cause for worry, or if I can't afford it, it goes in the garbage. There are plenty of things I could go broke on, my boat for one and there are plenty of things I could worry about, My family's health but one thing I will never lose any sleep over is a fish tank.
Last week I added a few things. A combination shrimp /gobi, but they seemed to have lost each other in the tank. And a yellow wrasse.
There must be an abundance of bristle worms because I see them sticking out of the rocks in the daylight and if I look close I see large amphipods scurrying from rock to rock.
Brittle stars are having a hard time finding homes because all the real estate is taken up and they are on a waiting list. Today I found a large snail in my algae trough. I am not sure how he got in there but I don't want him there so I put up a "keep out" sign at the entrance.
This year I added a load of local NY grass shrimp which are kind of cool, but, unfortunately, they are clear so they don't add any color. I also added a dozen or so local mud snails which are free and are great at finding errant pellets or any othet left over food.
I have a grape coral that I got when a LFS went out of business and it was in terrible shape with very little tissue left alive. for about 8 months I have been feeding it every day with fish oil soaked pellets and about 3/4 of it is back to full health. I would imagine that in a few years it will re grow the dead portions. I got the thing for free so it is a win win situation. I also have been feeding the frogspawns every day with the same thing and they have almost doubled in size in the same time.
I have been experimenting with jell food mixed with fish oil and they eat it but it is too soon to know if it does any good.

 

[Paul B]

Just taking pictures

 

[Paul B]

A few weeks ago I added one of those silly gobi/shrimp pairs. As soon as the pair hit the water, the shrimp lost the gobi and found a burrow of his own. I didn't see the shrimp for a while and figured he croaked but now I see him hanging out with this old guy pictured below.
He lost his mate of 12 years a few months ago and I guess got bored. Now I see both of them digging tunnels. The shrimp starts digging and the gobi who is about 5" backs in and with a few swipes of his tail, cleans out a nice hole. I am glad they found each other and seem happy. Of course the original gobi that I bought with the shrimp is carrying a torch and is all alone.
Poor little guy.
This is the original gobi I got with the shrimp

This one is about 12 or 13 and is the new buddy of the shrimp. He is about 5"

 

[Wy Renegade]

I am very happy with the way my tank is running now. It has gone through many cycles over the years and now the LPS, SPS and fish all seem very healthy and there are no problems that I can see. These cycles usually only last a year or so and then something or other changes and either the LPS, or SPS gets in moods or too much or too little algae grows, flatworms will cover everything or an invasive algae will start to take over. Actually I do have a new, wierd red bubble algae but it does not seem to be advancing on much "yet". I find all this stuff amazing and never worry about any of it. Remember, it's a hobby and if it is not fun, or is a cause for worry, or if I can't afford it, it goes in the garbage. There are plenty of things I could go broke on, my boat for one and there are plenty of things I could worry about, My family's health but one thing I will never lose any sleep over is a fish tank.
Last week I added a few things. A combination shrimp /gobi, but they seemed to have lost each other in the tank. And a yellow wrasse.
There must be an abundance of bristle worms because I see them sticking out of the rocks in the daylight and if I look close I see large amphipods scurrying from rock to rock.
Brittle stars are having a hard time finding homes because all the real estate is taken up and they are on a waiting list. Today I found a large snail in my algae trough. I am not sure how he got in there but I don't want him there so I put up a "keep out" sign at the entrance.
This year I added a load of local NY grass shrimp which are kind of cool, but, unfortunately, they are clear so they don't add any color. I also added a dozen or so local mud snails which are free and are great at finding errant pellets or any othet left over food.
I have a grape coral that I got when a LFS went out of business and it was in terrible shape with very little tissue left alive. for about 8 months I have been feeding it every day with fish oil soaked pellets and about 3/4 of it is back to full health. I would imagine that in a few years it will re grow the dead portions. I got the thing for free so it is a win win situation. I also have been feeding the frogspawns every day with the same thing and they have almost doubled in size in the same time.
I have been experimenting with jell food mixed with fish oil and they eat it but it is too soon to know if it does any good.

Very nice Paul, wish I was somewhere to take advantage of marine life like you are able to do. Your attitude toward your reef tank is very similar to the attitude I have toward my freshwater bog tank - a little of this, a little of that, and lets see what happens. If stuff dies it comes out, if it thrives its all good. Over time its become a nice thriving system, I've even hatched out stoneflies from nymphs in there. Reminds me I need to go update that thread LOL. Anyway nice seeing the progession of your tank - always enjoy looking at your pictures.

 

[Paul B]

Renegade, thanks and nice to hear from you. Long way from here Wyoming, I am surprised I can hear you so clearly. :wink:

 

[Paul B]

Winter is coming so I am going to winterize my boat and put it on dry dock so I just have one more day to collect some amphipods and bacteria from the sea. I have enough snails and shrimp already.
You can't kill those local NY mud snails.
We went away for 4 days this week and I only lost one coral which isn't bad at all. I had a neighbor feed the tank and one small birdsnest coral hitched a ride on the urchin and found itself in the middle of a giant mushroom. I don't know how long it was there but it has almost no life on it. The mushroom is fine, actually it looks better.
Yesterday I bought a beautiful hammer coral. A new LFS opened up so I went there. They gave me a great deal so I owed it to my body to get the thing.
My tank is looking real good and there are no problems, no flatworms, cyano, hair algae or anything else, except bristle worms, I have giants all over the place and they ran out of places to hide so they come out in the open. I think since I re did the aquascaping and moved almost all the rocks off the substrait, they congregate in the few places that contact the gravel. Great scavengers and I know if something does, it will disappear in no time. I may trap some just because there are too many.
I also bought this anitque microscope in Vermont. It is 115 years old and works beautifully. I got ripped of as now I see it for over a hundred dollars less than I paid for it but it is what it is. :headwallblue:
When we came home from Vermont I noticed my RUGF was not working. The pump had stopped, maybe for a day, maybe a week. I don't know and it doesn't matter but I had to get the old powerhead out of there from behind the rocks. Of course when you do that, stuff collapses and you try to hold everything up. I managed to hit one of the LEDs and the reflector fell in the tank. I can't find the thing and am hoping the urchin finds it and carries it to the front of the tank where I can see it. I am not going to dig around to look for it.

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

WOW. I have been reading this thread for the last 45 minutes and all I can say is WOW. I cant believe that you have had the same tank for 40 years. Thats probably one of the most amazing things I have ever heard, and I hope to follow in your footsteps. I love this hobby, and have only been doing this for about 4 years, but so far my interest in reefing seems to only get bigger the more I am in it. In my opinion you are a great reefing role model and we can all learn a lot from you. Thank you for posting this.

 

[Paul B]

Bob, thank you. I think thats the nicest thing anyone has said to me on a fish forum.
The reason I have an old tank is just because I am older than many people on here and the tank just evolved. When I grew up there were no computers, I Pods or I phones so we had to find things to do that interested us. A lot of my friends had Lionel Trains, I do also but the fish were more creative and it was a very cheap hobby when we just kept fresh water. Guppies were like 20 cents. I just never got tired of the hobby and had special tanks where I combined fish with other things like turtles, newts ,crawfish and frogs. Eventually I put those animals in their own tanks and just kept fish and the display got more elaborate. When salt started I also added local crabs, snails, fish and horse shoe crabs to my tanks just for interest.
You can never get bored with this hobby as more animals keep becoming available and you learn how to keep them. :smile:

 

[Paul B]

This week I added this guy. I was afraid my larger, old male watchman would kill it and at first he chased it all over the place but after a few hours he tired of that and now they just ignore each other and get on with their lives.
I am amazed at my algae trough and it is filled with all sorts of thick algaes of diferent colors. The water is having a hard time getting through but there is none of it in my tank. This thing has really stopped the algae cycles I used to get in this tank where it would cover everything.
Also for some reason a 3" montapora bleached a few weeks ago, I am not sure why, but I left it in the tank and didn't niotice it any more as it fell behind the rocks. Today my urchin carried it to the front like he does with everything that is not nailed down and the thing is growing back. There are 4 dime size patches of life on it and it was completely bare. I am happy about it but it is wierd. Another montipora is also growing faster than I have ever seen these things grow. This is just one of those strange things that we can't explain. I am leaning towards coral wars as nothing I can see happened and the rest of the corals are fine. The same thing happened to my Birds nest and now it is growing relatively fast.
In this hobby many of us go crazy when a coral dies but most of the time if it is only one or two specimins and everything else is OK there is nothing you could do. When we mix all of these complex creatures, sometimes from different oceans in a closed system, they, like us, don't always get along. They all exude chemicals and those chemicals degrade but sometimes not fast enough. These chemicals were designed to keep corals from growing too close in the vast sea, in a confined tank it is a wonder anything survives

 

[Cyber-Burn]

I knew that tank looked familiar ;) Glad to hear the Blennies are getting along now Paul!

 

[Wy Renegade]

I assume that you run no carbon on your tank Paul?

 

[Paul B]

I have not run carbon in a year or so but occasionally if there is a need I will run it. My skimmer uses ozone.

 

[Paul B]

Today I had to clean out my algae trough as the water in it was almost overflowing. It grew so much brown hair algae that it was clogged.

As I was doing that I noticed this acropora and I would swear the thing grew an inch in a month.
It is hard to tell and I can't find a picture of it older than a month ago.
This is it 4 weeks ago

And this is it today.
Even some branches that I broke off and left there, fused back to the main structure. I only really added this guy because so many people told me that SPS corals will not live in my dirty tank.
The one to the left of the acropora is the oldest one in there and has also put on more than 25% of it's size. But, what do I know?

 

[Mike&Terry]

...I only really added this guy because so many people told me that SPS corals will not live in my dirty tank.
The one to the left of the acropora is the oldest one in there and has also put on more than 25% of it's size. But, what do I know?

Bahahaaah... Way to show 'em! Always enjoy reading your posts Paul!

 

[Sea MunnKey]

Hey Paul ... "dirty" water with SPS huh? I've been "experimenting" with this since last year and honestly it doesn't seem to deter the sps growth and coloration. In my opinion the ocean is not entirely as clean as claimed.

I do stir up and clean my "low" sandbed whenever I can ... you'd be surprised to see all the accumulated & trapped detritus and dark and dirty water being cleaned out from the bottom sandbed!

Paul

 

[Paul B]

You should see what it looks in my tank when I stir it up, and I do it all the time.

 

[Paul B]

Today I think I will go to a new LFS that opened up near here. I have a choice of about 6 LFSs with in a few miles of my house but most of them always get the same old boreing, common things. How many yellow tangs, angelfish and triggers do we need?
I want to get a male mandarin to date my female now that she became an adult and wears eye make up. I also need a male blue stripped pipefish before the female gets too old. She is already on social security and past what their lifespan usually is but I think she is a cougar and a male would do her good. Her last boyfriend died after a lifetime of, well, you know.
I would also like to get a female watchman gobi but they are very hard to tell the sexes, unless you can see her eyelashes. The female died after 10 years of egg laying and the male looks bored.
You rarely see anything new and exciting any more, but I guess if you do this long enough, you have had everything there is a number of times.
I have this grape coral that I got for almost free when a LFS went out of business. It was just about dead with only a sliver of tissue left. Now it is almost completely re grown and is my largest coral. It gets oil soaked pellets every day. I am still experimenting with this gel food and I am still not crazy about it. Clams are still my favorite food next to worms. Clams are also my favorite food and I have them every week. For the tank I buy a live chowder clam for about fifty cents and freeze it. Then I slice off thin pieces to feed the corals and fish. Clams are great because it is one food where you can feed the entire animal. Shrimp, scallop, squid and octopus are not as good because we are only feeding the mussle tissue where the least amount of nutrition is. That is the parts we eat, but we are not fish. Most of us anyway. :cry:

 

[Paul B]

Today I added a small female mandarin in the hopes my male will find her attractive, or at least cute. She is too small to mate but they grow quickly. I am pretty sure she is a female but at this size it is harder to tell. My male does not yet seem to be excited as he just displays his dorsal fin and does not look happy with her. Either he thinks she is ugly, or she is a he :confused:
If that is the case, there is almost no way I could catch "him" But I should know in a day or so.
I just cleaned the algae trough which at this time is full of red filimentageous algae. Some months it is green hair algae but now it is red.
I really don't care what kind of algae it is as long as it only grows in the trough and not on my corals.
Also the fact that it is growing anyplace means that it is removing some type of nutrients from the water as it is supposed to be doing.
Everything including the SPS and LPS are happy, healthy and growing so all is well. Of course this won't last and some cycle of something will start but that is when the hobby is exciting. :)

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Very cool! How's that acro doing that grows so fast?

 

[Paul B]

It's still kicking. My old fireclown has a problem with it and tries to move it out of it's hole, when he does that I try to push it back and usually break off a small piece. I guess I should start to frag these pieces. It seems to happen when I have something else to do at the time. But eventually I will get some stuff ready to set some in rock.

I took some pictures. I can't get a full tank shot because the tank is so long and shallow.

I love this algae although most people would not