Tank birthday, 47+ years

[beaslbob]

are you sure the cans and bottle od key largo are suitable for your tank?

 

[Paul B]

No, Key Largo bottles are not correct. My tank was started with New York water so I only put in New York bottles and cans.
I used pristine water from here to start the tank and I didn't even need to add anything dead to complete the cycle. Our water is already cycled.

 

[Paul B]

I have a leather coral that is so old I can't even imagine when I got it. It is not looking to good and is kind of leaning over. I am not concerned about this because this is normal coral wars and they come in cycles. Something in the tank is exuding a substance that the leather coral does not like. The other corals including the LPS and SPS seem very healthy and healthy corals hate other corals, especially corals of a different family. When a coral dies and we don't know the cause we usually blame water parameters, temperature, Lady GaGa, Rap music, global warming, the hole in the Ozone layer or Al Gore. I think it is a combination of all of those things including coral wars. Having a coral war is kind of a good thing because only healthy corals can start a war.

It's like when we see algae. Many people, especially Noobs will say OMG what can I add, how much water should I change, what type of snail should I put in or what is the best church to go to and what is the most potent prayer I can say to eliminate it. Experienced aquarists realize algae is a good thing (in moderation) and grows on every healthy reef in the sea. It probably grows on those under ice seas on the moons of Jupiter but I am speculation and would have to ask Al Gore.

 

[TJ's Reef]

Paul, I'm so very glad to see that the FRIGID New York Winter weather has not cooled your wit any my friend.


Cheers, Todd

 

[Paul B]

Is it cold? I haven't noticed because I can't see through the ice.
My back yard looks toasty as does my side walk

 

[Paul B]

Shrimpfish

 

[SpartaReef]

lol those look very interesting...

 

[Paul B]

That's why I have them. You can also see one of the bluestripe pipefish and ruby red dragonettes in that picture. I don't like tangs, angels or many of the more common fish. After you had so many, they are just to common. I go for weird, like myself. :der:

 

[Paul B]

These razor shrimpfish I added are extreamly cool but I doubt they will live long. They eat very well but only live new born brine shrimp and for the last two months there has been a problem with brine shrimp eggs. They are very hard to find and the ones I have have a very low hatch rate so I am using 4 or 5 times more than normal and still can't get a good hatch of shrimp. I also have a few pipefish, mandarins and ruby red dragonettes that rely on shrimp so this may be a problem. I even ordered them on line a wek ago and they are not supposed to get here for 2 more weeks. My selection of fish depends on new born brine shrimp but there must be a problem with them at the collection site.

 

[SpartaReef]

Oh my, I still have half a bottle of eggs... they seem to still be hatching at the same rate as before (around 90%). But I haven't needed to use thme for a while. my little 1g only has 3 corals in it right now and they are so small... plus I don't want to add the eggs directly just yet (as I had before) and dont have a seperate hatchery setup yet.

 

[Paul B]

I
got plenty of eggs and
just received a couple on
line so
I
hope they
are better.

 

[Paul B]

I eat fish almost every day but they are dead before I eat them. I talk to them about my old girlfriends and bore them to death. Then I eat them. But the fish in my tank live long and prosper and are very lucky because almost all of them are spawning. So my fish know life's pleasures while I am slaving and driving through snow to get them worms for dinner. I just got them lunch and took this picture of my house just before I parked. By the way, on my way home from the LFS on the highway. The Jiboni in front of me in a silly car without 4 wheel drive spins out of control right in front of me and stops facing me on the road. This is what I go through for my fish
I just took this picture of my house.

 

[Paul B]

To My amazement, those shrimpfish are thriving. I love them and may get some more. I mean, how many times do you see shrimpfish? They are not the most colorful fish but they have a coolness factor that I love. You can keep the tangs, angels and designer clownfish and give me weird, odd or just unusual or rare. Most of my fish are a little out of the ordinary. I think the only common fish I have is a copperband and he is my favorite. I also have mandarins, ruby red dragonettes, a regular red dragonette, some bluestripe pipefish, bananafish, clown gobies, shrimpfish, fireclowns, a red fish that I have no idea what it is,, some watchmans, bangai cardinals, a few unknown cardinals and a few unknown gobies. I think there are about 25 fish but I am guessing. Besides those there is a long spined urchin, a pair of pistol shrimp, a bunch of hermits, some local snails and corals, Oh and a big clam.

 

[SpartaReef]

looking great Paul!

 

[Paul B]

Doing some much needed maintenance. Once a year or so I stir up the gravel as good as I can all the way down to the reverse UG filter. This typhoon makes a mess and the pipefish are making nasty faces at me as I normally lose my bluestripe pipefish when I do this, but I am going slow and taking all day to do it to try to save them. I still see them so they may be fine, if not mad. The rest of the fish don't seem to mind and never do. This bit of maintenance is the secret to my tank's long term health and it would crash from Old Tank Syndrome (or boredom) if I didn't do it. I would like to leave this diatom filter on the tank all night but it is a terribly designed piece of machinery and if I kept it running it would burn my house down. I have 4 of them and out of the four, I have enough parts to get one working. The bearings are garbage the seals are useless and the overall design is horrible so I really need to re-design one because I need to do this all the time. I also have one Eheim running with some floss in it but that doesn't filter to well like that. I may design a diatom filter using the Eheim as a base. I just need time and I never have enough of that. It's been running for about 4 hours now and I keep stirring it up. I could do this for 12 hours and still find plenty of gunk to suck up but I don't want to make a career out of this today. The diatom is very hot and I want to finish before the thing stalls like I know it will.
Maybe I will do it again next week (but I doubt it.)
I realize most people don't stir up their gravel or sand but most people also don't have a very old tank. Don't stir up a DSB unless you want to take down your tank and take up stamp collecting

 

[MrDJeep123]

One of our not so LFS has a large cube tank with 20 or so shrimpfish. They have it scaped in such a way that it looks like a pyramid in the center. Anyways, it's always really cool to see them school together in circles.

 

[Paul B]

I
love those fish.
They are also one of the cheapest fish

 

[Paul B]

I got one diatom filter going great and made another typhoon because you can't have to many typhoons. This is s a good one as I can't see the back of my tank so I know I am sucking out a couple of years worth of muck. I think the diatom will last for the entire cleaning. I repaired the bag, stopped the leaks, oiled it up good and drilled more holes in it to cool it so I am sure it will work at least for this cleaning and maybe next years also.

 

[gettaReef]

Man, I've really been wanting to get one of these ancient diatom filters; they still sell them on ebay/amazon, but am so hesitant as I've heard from numerous sources/reviews that they are unreliable, require new/better parts, leak, can start smoking, etc... Since setting up my system (going on 4 years now) I've always kept a very shallow sandbed and have always siphoned it when doing water changes (there's so much gunk in there I pull out, even if the water changes are only days apart). I really wish there was a reliable alternative to these diatom filters or I had your knowledge/experience/skills to be able to work one. Guess I'll have to wait until your diatom filter comes out with your design (which I assume will fix these problems)

 

[Paul B]

A diatom does a fantastic job when they work. They will even remove ich (but can't be relied on to cure it) I don't know how people keep a tank without one as I have always had at least one. A new one will last a few years if you wipe it off and keep it oiled. They still sell them but the diatom powder is banned in some places because breathing it can cause cancer, something to think about. If you are worried about that,take the powder outside and put I in a jar with some water. If it's wet, it is safe.