Tank birthday, 47+ years

atoll

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A few things actually. I run a reverse undergravel filter with gravel, no sand. After the tank gets established, never quarantine if you want long lasting, healthy fish and feed food with living bacteria like live worms, clams etc along with maybe LRS frozen food. No dry foods at all.

Give the fish plenty of "real" hiding places where the fish can't see you and you can't see them. Not just a couple of large caves. I am talking caverns.

Good Luck
But but but doesn't a lot of that advice go against what the "experts" tell us Paul? Don't you know you are playing Russian roulette and you can't trust those Russians espnwith animals. Your tank like mine is doomed, its a ticking time bomb even if it has a very long fuse. Little you say makes any sense to the "experts" therefore your advice is dangerous and can't possibly be true or proven to work. Shame on you for you know not what you do ;>)

On a positive note I bought another black leopard wrasse on Saturday to go with my long established one not seen it since Saturday, it will be under the sand for a few days before putting in an appearance as if by magic. The black Leopard wrasse isn't so common here just available now abd again and of course more expensive.

In truth am not a big wrasse fan but like this one.
black_leopard1_1024x1024_fe5ed2c6-8b22-488d-be7d-dc18fcf53566_530x@2x.jpg
 
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Paul B

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My tank is doing very well, all fish are really healthy, some spawning including mandarins, fireclowns and ruby red dragonettes. The only thing I don't like about my tank is due to the mistake I did a few years ago by adding a photosynthetic sponge that is taking over the tank.

It is really healthy which is to bad as it tries to cover the corals and it exudes a toxin that kills SPS corals especially if I try to cut pieces of the sponge out so now my tank is all LPS, gorgonians and leathers. I kind of like them but wish I had more space to put them but the sponge covers all the real estate.



At my age I am not going to worry about it and certainly not going to start a new tank. I have been slowing down the sponge growth by eliminating silicate from my NSW and top up water. Eventually I think I will eliminate it but it may take years.

The stuff doesn't look bad, kind of like blue montipora.



I think I have between 25 and 30 fish but I keep a lot of fish that hide and I will almost never see many of them. It's OK as long as I know they are in there and healthy.

Looking at my tank the rocks go to the top of the tank and the rock consists of a maze of interconnecting caves and tunnels where the fish can hide. Also any exposed rock that is not covered in corals or sponge is covered with growth that houses multitudes of copepods, amphipods, worms and starfish. All of that contributes to the health of the tank.
Copepod



Notice this Long Nose Hawkfish and what he is laying on. This is in my tank and part of what covers the back and darker parts of my tank.



Some see this as dirt, but the fish see this as health. (doesn't he look comfy?)

I feel the reason so many people have problems with this is the lack of "normal and natural" hiding places. A cave made out of 3 pieces of rock won't do it. The correct food, which does not mean dry foods like pellets and flakes. A food with living bacteria in it and not just the bacteria from our hands.

Medication, whatever it is and long quarantine.

If your tank is white and clean, you probably will have problems......Sorry.
 

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Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?
Well said Paul!
 

atoll

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My tank is doing very well, all fish are really healthy, some spawning including mandarins, fireclowns and ruby red dragonettes. The only thing I don't like about my tank is due to the mistake I did a few years ago by adding a photosynthetic sponge that is taking over the tank.

It is really healthy which is to bad as it tries to cover the corals and it exudes a toxin that kills SPS corals especially if I try to cut pieces of the sponge out so now my tank is all LPS, gorgonians and leathers. I kind of like them but wish I had more space to put them but the sponge covers all the real estate.



At my age I am not going to worry about it and certainly not going to start a new tank. I have been slowing down the sponge growth by eliminating silicate from my NSW and top up water. Eventually I think I will eliminate it but it may take years.

The stuff doesn't look bad, kind of like blue montipora.



I think I have between 25 and 30 fish but I keep a lot of fish that hide and I will almost never see many of them. It's OK as long as I know they are in there and healthy.

Looking at my tank the rocks go to the top of the tank and the rock consists of a maze of interconnecting caves and tunnels where the fish can hide. Also any exposed rock that is not covered in corals or sponge is covered with growth that houses multitudes of copepods, amphipods, worms and starfish. All of that contributes to the health of the tank.
Copepod



Notice this Long Nose Hawkfish and what he is laying on. This is in my tank and part of what covers the back and darker parts of my tank.



Some see this as dirt, but the fish see this as health. (doesn't he look comfy?)

I feel the reason so many people have problems with this is the lack of "normal and natural" hiding places. A cave made out of 3 pieces of rock won't do it. The correct food, which does not mean dry foods like pellets and flakes. A food with living bacteria in it and not just the bacteria from our hands.

Medication, whatever it is and long quarantine.

If your tank is white and clean, you probably will have problems......Sorry.
On YouTube somebody commented on how crystal clear some guys tank water is and how does he keep it like that. Things is just because a tank has very clear water does not mean it's good water. I have plenty of floating bits in my tank water much of it detritus, detritus being food for many corals esp SPS. Reef water is full of floating bits like detritus.
 
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Paul B

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I just picked up this cool fan tail filefish. It is kind of rare and I think the guy made a big mistake on the price because it was fairly cheap. The owner gave me the price so i didn't say anything. :)

 
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"From 2 years ago...I think" :

As I sit here self quarantining myself I have a lot of time to look at and ponder my tank. As I study it from the front and the back which I just scraped clean just to do something I noticed something that we rarely speak about.

We normally make our aquascape to look like something pleasing to us. But how do we know if the fish like it? After all, they have to live in it.
I think my fish absolutely love their home and if they had thumbs, they would be giving me the "Thumbs Up" sign.

Most of us (no one here I am sure) certainly look very ugly and scary to our fish and remember they can see us as well as we see them. They can also see our homes, TV, sock drawer kitchen etc. When we eat fish, I put a blanket over the tank so they don't get the horrors.

Anyway, I designed my aquascape with so many caves, nooks and crannies that I have some fish that I see maybe a couple of times a year. That may not be good for me but one fish that I saw maybe once a year lived almost undetected for 18 years. A Brutlyd or 6" cusk eel and I killed it by accident when I took out a rock and didn't know he was there.

Fish need to feel secure and if you can see them, they know it and don't feel safe. PVC pipes and flowerpots do not cut it and you may as well shoot those poor fish as they hate that. That is one big reason so many fish die in quarantine. It isn't their perceived disease, it is their surroundings.

My entire reef structure is built on a base which I built out of cement and the thing sits roughly about 1 1/2" off the gravel.
I can see the back of the tank under the reef almost everywhere and in that under space is an interconnected catacomb system where a fish the size of a mid sized copperband butterfly can hide while traveling from one end of the 6' tank to the other.

After cleaning the back of the tank a couple of days ago I discovered that I have two rainsford gobies, 2 green clown gobies, 2 six line wrasses, 2 possum wrasses, 2 gecko gobies and a pistol shrimp.
I didn't realize I had two of those fish because of all the hiding places I never see both of them at the same time.

You may not like this, but the fish do, which is one reason they only die of old age.

If you do any diving you will notice that there are very few, if any fish that will let you get with in a few feet of them before they hide. Great white sharks are one that let you get very close and personnel. :oops:

Fish like Hippo tangs love to jam themselves into a tight space just to have some "personnel" time which is why if you see them in a bare tank, they will be behind the heater. Mine is hiding right now and if I had to find him, I probably couldn't.
My 7" Janss Pipefish rests laying up side down on the top of a cave and my 2 Gecko Gobies have found such a secure place that I can say I never see them. I know they are there because if I "shoot" some live worms into their hole, Iget to see a glimmer of a fin or tail.

This system of caves (not just one or two) and hidden passageways is crucial for many fishes health and one big reason we have a disease forum because fish that can't hide are very stressed and stressed fish are the ones that get sick.
I myself am writing this from under a chair right now. :oops:

This piece I built from real rock, dead coral and cement. This and two more like it form the base of my reef structure.

 
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Paul B

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I have been having upper back issues (because my life was full of Manly work where you actually have to lift and hold heavy things over your head for many hours, resisting gravity while you wait for an apprentice to get the screw started) :rolleyes:

Anyway, my X rays and MRIs indicate that if I move incorrectly about 7 of my disks will shoot out of my back and land on the floor where they will get all dirty and maybe fall into a storm drain.

I go to this Pain Mgt Dr. mainly because she is a Supermodel, but secondly because she is a very good pain Mgt. Dr.

She gave me a few spine injection or infusion procedures where they drill a hole in your back while you are laying on your stomach listening to Billy Joel singing "A bottle of red, a bottle of white, a bottle of rose for your appetite". Then while she watches an X Ray or maybe a Lady GaGa concert she sticks needles into this tube that floods your spine with embalming fluid.

I think some of it was an epidural but not sure. She did both sides of my spine and I feel no pain. The last time she did it I was good for three entire days.

You can only get this done 3 times a year. I am not sure if that is because of insurance or a shortage of embalming fluid.

Anyway at my age we all get something and I am almost in perfect health and most of me runs like a very healthy red legged hermit crab who just got a whiff of a freshly killed Moorish Idol.

So now she put me on Gabapentin which is a nerve thing but it also gives you delusions, Diarrhea, shortness of breath, dizziness, hair loss, weight gain, weight loss, insomnia and an uncontrollable fear of quarantine. :oops:

If this doesn't work there is a surgery that fixes it. They remove 7 disks from your back and send them to the National Hockey Team.

Then so you don't stand like a Jelly fish, they screw a couple of re-bars for strengthening concrete into your spine with toggle bolts in an effort to keep you upright unlike a Moray eel.

Of course you can no longer bend or twist so you can't put on shoes and have to hire someone to cut your toe nails. My wife frowns on that so I will forgo that operation for now and just munch on these Gabapentin pills.
 

atoll

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"From 2 years ago...I think" :

As I sit here self quarantining myself I have a lot of time to look at and ponder my tank. As I study it from the front and the back which I just scraped clean just to do something I noticed something that we rarely speak about.

We normally make our aquascape to look like something pleasing to us. But how do we know if the fish like it? After all, they have to live in it.
I think my fish absolutely love their home and if they had thumbs, they would be giving me the "Thumbs Up" sign.

Most of us (no one here I am sure) certainly look very ugly and scary to our fish and remember they can see us as well as we see them. They can also see our homes, TV, sock drawer kitchen etc. When we eat fish, I put a blanket over the tank so they don't get the horrors.

Anyway, I designed my aquascape with so many caves, nooks and crannies that I have some fish that I see maybe a couple of times a year. That may not be good for me but one fish that I saw maybe once a year lived almost undetected for 18 years. A Brutlyd or 6" cusk eel and I killed it by accident when I took out a rock and didn't know he was there.

Fish need to feel secure and if you can see them, they know it and don't feel safe. PVC pipes and flowerpots do not cut it and you may as well shoot those poor fish as they hate that. That is one big reason so many fish die in quarantine. It isn't their perceived disease, it is their surroundings.

My entire reef structure is built on a base which I built out of cement and the thing sits roughly about 1 1/2" off the gravel.
I can see the back of the tank under the reef almost everywhere and in that under space is an interconnected catacomb system where a fish the size of a mid sized copperband butterfly can hide while traveling from one end of the 6' tank to the other.

After cleaning the back of the tank a couple of days ago I discovered that I have two rainsford gobies, 2 green clown gobies, 2 six line wrasses, 2 possum wrasses, 2 gecko gobies and a pistol shrimp.
I didn't realize I had two of those fish because of all the hiding places I never see both of them at the same time.

You may not like this, but the fish do, which is one reason they only die of old age.

If you do any diving you will notice that there are very few, if any fish that will let you get with in a few feet of them before they hide. Great white sharks are one that let you get very close and personnel. :oops:

Fish like Hippo tangs love to jam themselves into a tight space just to have some "personnel" time which is why if you see them in a bare tank, they will be behind the heater. Mine is hiding right now and if I had to find him, I probably couldn't.
My 7" Janss Pipefish rests laying up side down on the top of a cave and my 2 Gecko Gobies have found such a secure place that I can say I never see them. I know they are there because if I "shoot" some live worms into their hole, Iget to see a glimmer of a fin or tail.

This system of caves (not just one or two) and hidden passageways is crucial for many fishes health and one big reason we have a disease forum because fish that can't hide are very stressed and stressed fish are the ones that get sick.
I myself am writing this from under a chair right now. :oops:

This piece I built from real rock, dead coral and cement. This and two more like it form the base of my reef structure.

Ain't that the truth Paul. Many people donseem to understand the importance of creating a reefscape FOR thier fish. The current fashion and yes that is what it is a fashion for this minimalist reefscape is counter to what most fish require.

I see long aches or little scales called bombies with few if ant hiding places. Suspended reefscapes stuck to the back of the tank way off the bottom I have never seen on any reef, what is that about.

For me and my fish more is more with lots of hiding places, caves and overhangs. So what if I don't see all my fish all of the time.
 
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Paul B

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Atoll that is also why I don't know how many fish I have. I can't find them and thats what the fish want. I am not that good looking so they don't want to look at me. :confounded-face:
 

atoll

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Atoll that is also why I don't know how many fish I have. I can't find them and thats what the fish want. I am not that good looking so they don't want to look at me. :confounded-face:
I have a few that I don't see so often in my tank. Yellow assessors that I have 3 off, one is out a lot the others now and again. Some will say what's the point of keeping fish you only see once in a while. The real point is they do see the bigger picture and the point at all.
 

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Wow, that's impressive! I don't like a pristine tank either, not nearly as interesting as one that's more natural.
 

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have the same stuff your hawknose is sitting in...white, fuzzy and bubbles...might be calothrix ?...and it only grows on the rock thats real coral, not the stuff that i suspect is man made...probably need to dose lacquer thinner and prestone engine flush immediately
 
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Paul B

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That is too cool! Is that a clock?
No. It's nothing really but that sand timer turns over every 60 seconds and has lights in it. Everything moves and has lights in it. :)
 

atoll

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Some people have a single species of angel fish in their tank. I have 4 of the same fireball angels. Keeping one angel might be considered boring keep a few and they are anything but. Still young yet but sooner or later I expect them to start spawning like my other fish do.

 

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Some people have a single species of angel fish in their tank. I have 4 of the same fireball angels. Keeping one angel might be considered boring keep a few and they are anything but. Still young yet but sooner or later I expect them to start spawning like my other fish do.


This is making me rethink the move for a Multicolour angel in my 3’x16”x1’ tank. And I found a healthy specimen in an LFS for a nice price (Photo from the LFS - I didn’t pick her up however I’m contemplating dropping the £169 for her)
6E15DC6A-9323-4369-9448-7A0BCFFC1510.jpeg
 
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Paul B

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I am running out of room with my other hobbies so I will have to sell my steampunk stuff for about an eighth of what it sells for in an art gallery.
I have been making live edge tables and now I am making a waterfall table.

Very cool. I get so many compliments on my finished table I decided to make more so I bought 5 more pieces of live edge wood. I also have no room for these so I will probably give them away. :D
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 76 51.4%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 76 51.4%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 37 25.0%
  • None.

    Votes: 32 21.6%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 6.1%

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