Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

MyDjeep Sounds like your tank is doing exactly what it is supposed to do and if you were to test now, you would probably just get the horrors and add something. Just leave it alone and let it do what it is supposed to do on it's own.

Ghill, nothing is wrong with your tank because you have macro's growing and you are correct that they are probably out competing the pest algae's. That is the best thing you want to happen to your tank. Any algae is good but macro's are the best.

Paul, I've looked through your thread quite a bit but maybe I missed it, do you have progression pics? like day 1, year 1, year 5, year 10, etc..? I think it would be interesting to see how this transformed over the many years..​

There are some pictures of my tank on here from the beginning and some from when someone invented the internet, but the 25 or so years before that all my pictures are someplace on film. Film is like Scotch Tape but pictures stick to it.
This picture, Circa 1972 was my first real salt water tank. It is a 30 or 40 gallon tank filled with NSW from the Long Island Sound. When I got married and moved it was all carried to my new, very small apartment.
In 1979 we moved to our new house and I again carried everything to my new home where I put everything into the existing 100 gallon tank where it has been ever since.



Over the years I added all sorts f things like this codium I collected on the east end of Long Island



This blue devil was one of the first salt water fish imported to the US. I had 7 of them in that 30 gallon tank. Here the male is over his nest of eggs in that barnacle shell. Circa 1973



Here are the eggs


These shrimp were also in that first tank where they spawned for many years.



This is the first picture of my present tank Circa 1980 in it's present location. I was just building the basement around it as it is not finished here. You can see the white bleached coral skeletons that we used for tank decoration as there was no rock or live coral for sale.



This picture (or one very similar) appeared in "FAMMA" magazine around the 90s (I forget) I remember reading the magazine on the train and thinking, Wow, this guy thinks just like me. Then realizing, OMG, It is me. I sent in the article months ago and didn't even realize it.



The only major changes the tank has gone through is lighting and many home made skimmers. I remember when I set it up, there were no sumps at the time, but I wanted to hide everything so I installed a sheet of black plexiglass about an inch from the back glass with grills to let the water back there. Any tubes or heaters were in there but my fish kept somehow getting in there and it was a disaster to get them out, so I removed it. The tank was never taken down except a few times to re aquascape, but everything was always put back in.
Of course in those days besides fish, I was also interested in the Babes. This is me with my first Girlfriend Georgia.


​

 

[GHill762]

There are some pictures of my tank on here from the beginning and some from when someone invented the internet, but the 25 or so years before that all my pictures are someplace on film. Film is like Scotch Tape but pictures stick to it.
​

film? what is that? :photo:

Film was great but digital is so much easier.. I do miss my photography class though, the dark room was so much fun, actually making pictures rather than just taking them.. can you even buy film anymore?

 

[Paul B]

Yes, but only under the name "Scotch Tape"

 

[MrDJeep123]

Thanks for the reply Paul, I've been in the hobby around 11 years. I know now patience is key to success.
PaulB, putting tanks in walls before it was cool! That paneling is pretty awesome. lol, and Congrats on the little one.

 

[Paul B]

Paneling was the thing in the 70s and 80s. That paneling was very thin, I bought that purposely so I could curve the walls. I have curves all over my basement that I made out of three pieces of paneling glued over each other.
The top front panel opens up with concealed hinges and stays open.
You can see that here with my old lights that I had left over from lighting up the top of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.




See the upper picture? Does that light look familiar? That is snow covered Central Park below me

 

[GHill762]

that's a lot of codium! I've got about a softball size chunk of it..

 

[Paul B]

I could fill a fifty gallon drum with it in the summer. It is the most common seaweed out east on Long Island but it doesn't grow in the western Sound where I live. I don't know why. Maybe it likes being around the rich people like Billy Joel, Christie Brinkley and Jerry Seinfeld in the Hamptons. I like to be around Christie Brinklie myself, but she has other ideas. :love: I did see her once out there when she was still married to Billy. A Corvette stopped next to me and this 7' tall drop dead gorgeous Babe got out. Of course it was her. I stood there for 10 or 15 minutes until the horns just got to much for me and I had to move.

 

[MrDJeep123]

I could fill fifty gallon drum with it in the summer. It is the most common seaweed out east on Long Island but it doesn't grow in the western Sound where I live. I don't know why. Maybe it likes being around the rich people like Billy Joel, Christie Brinkley and Jerry Seinfeld in the Hamptons. I like to be around Christie Brinklie myself, but she has other ideas. :love: I did see her once out there when she was still married to Billy. A Corvette stopped next to me and this 7' tall drop dead gorgeous Babe got out. Of course it was her. I stood there for 10 or 15 minutes until the horns just got to much for me and I had to move.

Lol!

If I can find codium that is a plant I intend on putting in my tank alongside sea grass and a few others.

 

[Paul B]

You may have to look real hard in Tennessee to find it. But if you look really hard, you may get lucky. I have never been to Tennessee that I can remember but I don't remember to much so maybe I was there. Doubt I ever collected codium there though. :der:

 

[Paul B]

I am sure I put this on here someplace but I re found it so I will put it on again, just because I can. I think it is from last year.
It's about why fish are sometimes smarter than us.

Why do I say that fish are smarter than us? Well think about it, we as 2 legged beings can go forward, backward and from side to side. Fish can do that too, but they can also go up and down, and they can do that just by thinking about it and barely moving a fin. If we get up in the middle of the night because we hear a noise or are thinking about that Victoria Secret catalog on the table (not that we would look at something like that, I am just using that as an example and I know if you ever did look at it, it would purely be for research) But whatever the reason, we would run into walls, doors, windows and the lucky few of us may run into a beautiful cat burgler. But a fish would not run (or swim) into anything. Why? Because they have a lateral line that lets them know what is around them even in pitch darkness. Ever wonder why you could never catch a fish by chasing it with a net? If someone ran after you with a net, I bet they would catch you.
Everybody here who has a lateral line raise your hand, Higher. Thats what I thought.
Fish can do something else that "most" of us can't do. They can change sex. Then, if they get bored, they can change back. If we do that, it is very painful, (I would imagine) only works one time, is very expensive and leaves scars, (I think anyway, not that I know anything about that or am judging anyone)
I have some fireclown fish, well I had one for a long time and I decided to get another one.
That first one was either male or female, I have no idea, But then again I rode the Long Island Railroad for 40 years and many times I wasn't sure if I was next to a man or woman, but I digress. This fireclown sat there in a broken bottle for years and just looked out the glass at me. He (or she)kept guard over a nest and he would keep it neat, blow away detritus along with arrow crab poop. And there wasn't even another fireclown for, Oh I don't know 15 miles (I am guessing) Then one day I added another fireclown and they both fought. I don't know if they both thought of themselves as boys, girls or politicians, but then after a few years they started becoming friends, then they were more then friends if you know what I mean. So one of them became a female. Now I don't know what posessed that one to change into a female but I do remember walking in front of the tank in my underware, I don't know if that would have caused the transformation, my wife just tells me to get away from in front of the TV.
So fish are not as stupid as we think. If you had no thumbs to hold a pencil, how well do you think you would do on standardized tests?
Fish can do many things that we can't do. If we put some food in the tank, they will find it right away, I can't even find anything my wife puts in the refrigerator.
If a fish loses an eye, he barely notices and goes about his life as if he just had Lazac surgery. They get along fine just by relying on their lateral line. Fish don't even have to sleep, if we go like 3 days with out sleep we start halucinating about Paris Hilton or worse, her dog, but if you leave the lights on, a fish will just stay awake and, Oh I don't know, think about changing sex.
Another wierd thing about fish is that tropical fish for the most part are beautifully colored, why is that? Is it to attract a mate? to scare predators? to look good in magazines? No. Why? because where fish live the only color you can see is blue. If you decend down in the ocean about 40' everything becomes blue because blue is the only color of the srectrum that gets through that much water. (It is either 30' 40' or something like that, I am a diver but I never take a rueller with me and I forgot the depth that colors disappear, work with me)
So all fish appear blue in the sea. A copperband butterfly would be blue with darker blue bands, and red appears black. (I got a moray eel story with blood and all so if you didn't hear it, remind me) So their color is a mystery. The fish probably know why they have those colors but no one else does.
Also while we are seriously thinking about this, why do fish from temperate (or cold water) have drab colors?
Ever see a bright red or blue flounder with yellow stripes? I didn't think so, but why? I don't know but I bet you never thought about it. I did.
Why are there no copperband butterflies in Florida? You would think with all the bilge water from ships some of them would get here as invasive species. But no, what do we get for invasive species? Snakeheads that eat everything imaginable, carp, that invaded every river, stream, brook, lake, sink, bathtub and coffee pot everywhere in the world. Those things could live on a damp sponge. Zebra mussles that clog pipes and taste like snot, Japanese shore crabs that invaded every square inch of coastline on the eastern US, lionfish that are eating all the small native fish. So why can't we get invasive copperband butterflies, square anthias, sailfin tangs, bangai cardinals, Swedish massage therapists?
This is just one more thing I don't know. There is a whole plethora of things I don't know. An unimaginal vast expanse of knowledge I don't posess. I mean we could go on about what is at the end of the universe and we would all have different opinions, sort of like ich threads. I think at the end of the universe is a brick wall with tar paper on top of it, and beyond that are strawberry fields forever. Prove me wrong.
I guess we should save some room for your thoughts and then we could start on why invertabrates are smarter than we are.​

 

[MrDJeep123]

You may have to look real hard in Tennessee to find it. But if you look really hard, you may get lucky. I have never been to Tennessee that I can remember but I don't remember to much so maybe I was there. Doubt I ever collected codium there though. :der:

I'm sure I can find something in the mountains. Might not be codiom, but it'll be something. I was implying i could find it online. My incorrect assumption. ;) There isn't much to see. Dolly Pardon (Dollywood) and Pidgeon Forge are our main attractions. There's the mountains...good for hiking.

 

[Paul B]

I like Dolly Pardon although I never heard of Pidgeon Forge we have an awful lot of pidgeons in NY so I am sure I would like it. I have been in many places in the US mostly because of the Army but we do have some nice places here.
Take care you two and stay warm. It got warmer here today, now it is up to 9 degrees.

 

[D_Reep1106]

It started out at 9 degrees here this morning in NC so for once I feel your pain. I have really enjoyed your thread and it is an awesome breath of fresh air. When i started my first tank I kept searching for someone with a more natural approach instead of their tanks looking like a hospital all sterile and free of algae and then they would complain because they couldn'nt get their 7 year old clowns to spawn...ever. So I thoroughly enjoy learning from someone who has the means and ability of keeping a more natural tank with the help of the ocean as I will be doing again when I move back to the coast of NC in August. So all that said I am taging along for more wisdom as I'm gonna be setting up my tank again over the next couple weeks.

 

[Paul B]

I have really enjoyed your thread and it is an awesome breath of fresh air.

That's because I wrote it outside on a bench here.

 

[TJ's Reef]

Great stuff and FUN read as always Paul, brave man to go back and find actual film photographs from the 70's then post 'em....lol I to once had the 'Dead Coral' Marine Aquariums of the 70' and early 80's and the full head of hair (long hair of the 70's & 80's) and the 'Bell Bottom' or 'Swabby' pants with floral poofy sleeved shirts to go with..... oh and Clogs or platform shoes so as not to drag all that fine denim material through the dirt or mud (Seattle.... rains a lot) One day I'll go through some old boxes and find some photographic evidence of my groovy self circa 1979-ish maybe even in front of a SW or SA Chiclid aquarium ???
I'll then post it on your/this thread so as not confuse anyone into thinking that there is actually more than one of you* out there.

Cheers my friend, Todd

* Old Salt = one who is/was successful in Reefkeeping long before there was an Internet, colorful live coral and fish from every part imagined around the globe, good skimmers, T5's, high gph prop style powerheads, controllers annnnnnd of course long winded both in person and on keyboard (full sentences in paragraph form and moderately correct grammar and punctuation).

 

[TJ's Reef]

I bet they really regret leaving their Ice Scraper in the glove box..... YIKES!

Cheers, Todd

 

[Paul B]

Todd, you can post anything, anytime on my thread. They don't charge me much for it anyway.

 

[GHill762]

Tennessee is pretty country. We vacation there occasionally and stay up in the mountains, we rent a cabin on the mountain side. Just don't trust your GPS, she'll try to drive you over a cliff, Lol..

I think codium is pretty rare there though.. Lol.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, I know about GPS. If you use it in Manhattan it goes nuts. Turn here, no, Wait, turn here, Wait a minute, make a U turn, NO, Don't do that, go around that cop on the horse, OMG, this is a One Way, Don't block the intersection, in 3' turn left then make a hard left in 8' and bear right for 32' but miss the boxing ring in the middle of Times Square.
I turn off the GPS there.

 

[GHill762]

Thanks, I know about GPS. If you use it in Manhattan it goes nuts. Turn here, no, Wait, turn here, Wait a minute, make a U turn, NO, Don't do that, go around that cop on the horse, OMG, this is a One Way, Don't block the intersection, in 3' turn left then make a hard left in 8' and bear right for 32' but miss the boxing ring in the middle of Times Square.
I turn off the GPS there.

Lol that's how the work! I was on a road trip with a college buddy and the GPS took us to a gravel road (which I thought was weird), then it turned to dirt, then we were in a field with no road at all.. I hate GPS, good old map and road signs for me..