Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Fort Salty]

The first post says almost 40 in 2011, so I'm going to guess 52 years old.

 

[atoll]

@Paul B im sure you have already answered this question many, many times but how old is your actual aquarium? Thanks!

2 answers to that kind of question.
1/ An aquarium as in glass box. EG. My glass box is 4 years old. The guy before me only had it less than a year
2/ The contents of my glass box range from about 20 years. That's is the age of a good proportion of my live rock I acquired from a breakdown. Others are rocks, sand, fish and corals I have had in my other tanks.
I would say number 2 above is the true age of my aquarium but it was only setup 3 years ago.

 

[atoll]

What do you all make of the claim that people who do not quarantine and avoid illnesses "just get lucky?" Many of those who post about illness seem to be relatively new and have a newer tank. Obviously some people have problems with illness, but lots of others don't seem to encounter a problem with illness.

For example, I have only brought home my creatures, floated the bag in the tank, added water a few times, then drop them in. I have not noticed any illness (plenty of interesting and varied behaviors, but no physical maladies). Some claim it is "only a matter of time" before the coming doom. Is illness so inevitable and destructive for those with less established tanks? Or is a quick introduction, good diet, and proper exercise such a contributor to health that some "just get lucky?"

Also, what actions do you think one should do to help the fish recover well if it has ich or velvet? Thank you for your answers!

FS

I have been unbelievably lucky. In the last 35 years of keeping marines (the first 10 not so lucky making it about 45 years keeping marines) with 9 tanks, never QTing and buying fish and coral from many different LFS, I have never had a serious outbreak of any transmittable disease or parasites.

Am so luck I don't know why I don't do the lottery one day as I would be sure to win it with my first entry. On the other hand perhaps luck has played no part in it. I could test this by doing the lottery this week, that would prove it.

Some people may have been lucky and not killed their fish with QT and cocktails of medication and managed to get the balancing act right. I say right as I am not sure of those fish that have been QTd and medicated go on to live long lives and even get to spawn.

In this hobby I long discovered madness can be a virtue and thinking outside the box can bring rewards. That is how the likes of Paul managed to push the hobby forward as there was few to guide you back in the day.

You made your own discoveries by trail and error. A common phrase back in the day was "what if" much of that seemns to be lost today. "You can't do that" became a challenge and helped push the hobby forward kicking and screaming some cases.

QT to me stands for Quite Terrible. However, each to their own.

 

[Sump Crab]

2 answers to that kind of question.
1/ An aquarium as in glass box. EG. My glass box is 4 years old. The guy before me only had it less than a year
2/ The contents of my glass box range from about 20 years. That's is the age of a good proportion of my live rock I acquired from a breakdown. Others are rocks, sand, fish and corals I have had in my other tanks.
I would say number 2 above is the true age of my aquarium but it was only setup 3 years ago.

Yes I was asking about the glass box

 

[Sump Crab]

The first post says almost 40 in 2011, so I'm going to guess 52 years old.

I was curious about the glass box, not the reef itself.

 

[atoll]

I was curious about the glass box, not the reef itself.

Paul will correct me if wrong but I believe he bought a new tank when he moved home about a year orvso ago. He moved all this rock etc over to it but had a major toxic sponge problem so emptied it, removed all the sponge and restocked it recently. His origional tank was I believe over 40 years old.

 

[Sump Crab]

Paul will correct me if wrong but I believe he bought a new tank when he moved home about a year orvso ago. He moved all this rock etc over to it but had a major toxic sponge problem so emptied it, removed all the sponge and restocked it recently. His origional tank was I believe over 40 years old.

If his old box was 40 that’s insane! I had no idea any aquarium could make it that long

 

[Paul B]

Paul will correct me if wrong but I believe he bought a new tank when he moved home about a year orvso ago. He moved all this rock etc over to it but had a major toxic sponge problem so emptied it, removed all the sponge and restocked it recently. His origional tank was I believe over 40 years old.

Actually I did buy a new tank when I moved here 5 years ago as my old tank (40 years old) was built into a wall, scratched and I couldn't remove it. It was also a 100 gallon tank and my new one is a 125.

A couple of months ago I removed everything except the gravel and UG filter to remove toxic, encrusting, photosynthetic sponge by mostly putting the rock outside in the cold and dark.
I also threw some rock out that was to encrusted and scrubbed some with a wire brush under hot water .

The corals I put back into the bare tank for the time I was killing sponge.

Most of the rock still had it's full complement of bacteria and fauna to re populate the tank.
Now that much of the organic sponge and other matter died, it is still in the rock and turned into algae which I am removing every day.

I feel the heavy growth is good as it will cover any sponge I may have missed. None f the 30+ fish got sick or exhibit any spots even though they were all caught and put in dark buckets for a couple of days. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

I now have about 40 fish but today I will try to catch a fan tail filefish that grew to large. If I do, I will bring it back to the store.

 

[Paul B]

If his old box was 40 that’s insane! I had no idea any aquarium could make it that long

It was in that tank for 40 years but It was in a different glass long before that. It is now 52 years old. :)

 

[Paul B]

I caught this beautiful Filefish just now to return back to the store as he grew a little larger than I like. He is about 5" and I rather have 5 or 6 small interesting fish than this big guy. I also have 2 more of them and when they get to big, I will return them.

I caught him with this hook which I made from a needle. I have caught a few fish like this and never hurt any of them as far as I can tell.

The only other way I could catch this fish would be to remove everything from the tank.

 

[Sump Crab]

I caught this beautiful Filefish just now to return back to the store as he grew a little larger than I like. He is about 5" and I rather have 5 or 6 small interesting fish than this big guy. I also have 2 more of them and when they get to big, I will return them.

I caught him with this hook which I made from a needle. I have caught a few fish like this and never hurt any of them as far as I can tell.

The only other way I could catch this fish would be to remove everything from the tank.

Besides a simple net scoop, catching rogue fish in my reef with a hook is my favorite method! Works almost every time.

 

[tbrown]

Besides a simple net scoop, catching rogue fish in my reef with a hook is my favorite method! Works almost every time.

"Simple" net scoop... I wish. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[Paul B]

There is no way I could catch anything in my tank with a net. Especially a filefish that almost becomes part of the rock.

That filefish is back in the store in his show tanks so he won't be sold. I picked up another one of each of these just because I can. He didn't have anything else earth shattering that I wanted.







And a big, blue hermit crab :)

 

[Paul B]

This is how I caught a blue wrasse 5 years ago with a hook.

 

[LegalReefer]

This is how I caught a blue wrasse 5 years ago with a hook.

Yoink!

 

[Cthulukelele]

An update on the white worms as I thought you would enjoy! Boy howdy does the culture start to stink haha. I have tonsss now and feed them generously about once a week. Particularly my cherub angel, midas blenny, lyretail anthias, and possum wrasse have really brightened up in color and seem way healthier. It's pretty impressive!

 

[Paul B]

My new Possum wrasse became best friends with my old one and my new yellow clown gobi is more than friends with my other one. :face-blowing-a-kiss:

 

[Paul B]

Playing with the camera. I don't know why the picture is so small. :anguished-face:

 

[Paul B]

I fixed it.

 

[Paul B]

I am still sucking out algae with my diatom filter every other day. The stuff grows long and fills up with bubbles. Unsightly but very healthy. Eventually it will stop and the tank will once again be pristine.

The corals are all extending and so far, I don't see any sponge, which was the goal of all this cleaning.

If you look close you can see the algae. Much of it is clear because it is dying.