Tank birthday, 47+ years

Brew12 · Jul 28, 2017

Paul, why does foot sweat smell worse than arm pit sweat? :confused:

I mean seriously, isn't all sweat the same?

Paul B · Jul 29, 2017

Chris, I think many people would put the jack through the floor boards, they are just to embarrassed to say it. :rolleyes:

I don't collect hydrogen sulfide mud, that stuff is nasty and nothing that I can see lives in it except for some sand worms.
I collect the mud over that which smells like lotus blossoms in the wind. :rolleyes:

My ATO is simple and requires no power near the tank. I have a 7 gallon bucket suspended near my workshop ceiling that fills with RO/DI water. The feed to the RO unit has an electric water valve on it that opens when it gets a signal from the DIY float switch in the bucket. That's very important as you don't want the valve opening in a power outage.
There is a 1/4" tube coming out of the bucket that goes over the ceiling about 25' to my tank which is in a closet. On the tank is a simple float valve. I have a small valve on the line so only a little more water can enter the tank than what it needs because of evaporation. This way, if the float valve fails, the water enters the tank very slowly so it would take many hours to over flow.
In other words, my tank evaporates about a drop every 5 seconds. The gravity system can only produce about a drop every 4 seconds. You can see how much water your tank evaporates by looking under the float switch and see how many drops are coming out to replenish evaporation.

Brew, we have different bacteria growing on our feet than our armpits so it smells different. But if you are the type of person that can put your feet under your arm pits, I believe they would smell the same. :cool:

The blue bucket is the reservoir. The acrylic thing to the left of it holds the resins. Under the bucket is the RO unit. You can see the small tube near the bottom of the bucket that goes over the ceiling to the tank. The electric valve is out of the picture.
The large red thing is my whole house vacuum.
The rest of that stuff is all experimental and secret, so don't look.

Paul B · Jul 30, 2017

It seems I can't keep these small Queen Anthias as the 4 of them are gone. The slightly larger ones with the bright yellow stripe and the one with the muted yellow stripe are doing very well and have been in there for a month to 3 or 4 months so far. I think they will live their normal lifespan.

These small purple ones didn't live to long. They either jump out or just disappear, I guess from not having enough of the right food even though I fed them new born shrimp a couple of times a day. Some fish "I" just can't keep long but many people can keep them. Luckily, they never die from disease. I also can't keep banded pipefish very long. But copperbands I have no problems with as they are large eaters and seem to be able to store food. I got this one as a baby and now she is the size of a hub cap.

Not in my fully stocked reef anyway. You really need a species tank for them and some fish and you need to have a constant supply of tiny, preferably living food. I do like those kinds of tanks but I only have my one 100 gallon reef tank (which I think is really a 90 but was sold as a 100)
If you have no life, I mean if you can spend all day tinkering with your tank, you can easily keep any kind of fish, but if you are active and are out all the time, forgetaboutit.

We were out late last night with other people for dinner as we do a lot and when I got home, the lights were off in my tank, so they didn't eat. They will be mad at me this morning but I will be going out before the lights come on, so they won't have breakfast either.
But I will be home to give them lunch so they will still be talking to me.
WE also stay out in the boat late and those days the fish don't eat, unless I collect something for them for desert.

Not eating for a one, two, three days or more won't hurt most fish. But for planktivores, they just don't have the storage capacity to cope with thea and they starve. It's a fact of fish life.
I try to be here all the time, but I can't.
When I travel, I am sure I will lose some of those types of fish as I can't ask my Supermodel tank sitter to do what I do which is hatch brine shrimp every day, strain them and put them in a feeder twice a day, collect mud from my white worm culture and separate out the white worms, suck up blackworms and baster them to both sides of the tank so all the fish get a chance to eat them before the copperband and blue wrasse gets it all.
Supermodels have other things to do such as do things that Supermodels need to do to continue to look like a Supermodel.

I only ask her to put a pre made frozen food package, that I make, into the defrosting cup and dispenser I have hanging on the tank, and I only ask her to do that every other day. There is some frozen baby brine and cyclopese in there which those fish eat, but it's not enough and I normally target feed some fish like the Janss Pipefish which live in a cave with a possum wrasse.
I am sure those fish will find some food but with about 25 fast feeders they won't get enough. I also have a small perchlet that I target feed.

These are the guys that seem very hardy.

I didn't do to well with this guy either. I have only a few SPS corals or the types of corals he eats and with all the other special feeders I have I couldn't spend the time that this beautiful fish needs to keep him long term. A few months is not long term so I will say I sucked at keeping him.

chris85 · Jul 30, 2017

Your shop looks better than mine!! I have to reorganize if I want to do fish stuff. Then when I have to get back to work I have to move it back. I missed spring cleaning maybe I will do some fall cleaning.

Have you ever tried to setup a pod tank to auto feed? Besides your ats. Or a grass shrimp tank so they could breed in it.

Paul B · Jul 30, 2017

I did design an auto vacation feeder which is very successful when I go on vacation, but now I have so many feeders on new born shrimp that I am not sure it will be enough. But it is what it is and if I lose any fish while I am away, so be it. I have never lost fish while I was away but I lost many corals always when the water level goes way down as my tank sitter knows nothing about water level but now I have a camera on the tank and I can call her.
My shop goes daily from total chaos to neat and orderly to the extent I remove everything from the work benches and paint them white enamel which I do every year.

A few years ago I went nuts and built in a lot of storage.

We are having people on the boat so at breakfast at the diner my wife said, "I need to go to the market to get a nice crusty Italian bread". I said OK, lets stop there for the bread.
She gets out of the car and said, " I Just need to run in for bread". OK I stayed in the car.
Half an hour later she comes out with enough groceries to make my car lean to one side.
I said "what kind of bread did you get"?
She said: "Bread!" I Forgot the bread.
Like how do you Ladies shop?
If I am going to a store for bread. I am like those horses that have those blinders on their eyes so they can't see to the side. I run in the store to the bread isle, pick up the first loaf of bread, run to the closest cashier that has the shortest line, throw more money on the counter than the bread cost, say, Keep the change and run out. Total 1 minute and 45 seconds.
If they are giving away free trips to Hawaii with a case of blueberries and shrimp, I won't know about it. Of course if there is a Supermodel giving it away, I may stop to look. So then it would take me 2 full minutes to get out of the store.
As I exit the store I will have my car keys in my hand in the exact position I need it to be in to put the key in the ignition and I will start bending my foot to hit the gas. No lost movements.

chris85 · Jul 30, 2017

Yeah I saw the auto feeder great idea. Just thinking with a shrimp tank you may be able to get some bigger food to the anthias and others without so much labor.

I am sure you know but those grass shrimp will breed on anything even flakes and if you put a little light on at night by the overflow the larvae will swim to it.

Paul B · Jul 30, 2017

I know about the grass shrimp and flakes is what I feed them when I keep them. I can't keep them in my reef as they jump out when the fish chase them and I find them on the light or stuck to the wall.

Paul B · Jul 31, 2017

Tomorrow I will go to my boat to do a little maintenance on some of my designs and while I am there I hope to get some amphipods. I have some frayed ropes in the water and they normally get filled with pods. I really don't need any as I already put in thousands this year but I hate to miss an opportunity to collect. I won't take the grass shrimp even though there are thousands because they just jump out when the fish chase them and none of my fish, except maybe the bangai cardinal will eat them. My copperband eats the small ones but he can eat cake.

There is a valve I installed on the seawater intake line on both boat engines that I shut off to flush the engine with fresh water, but after 7 years they became very hard to turn so I may cut them out and glue in new ones.
It's not a real easy job only because I have to cram myself into the bilge to do it. 20 years ago it would have been a snap. :rolleyes:

Paul B · Aug 1, 2017

I see a "problem" coming soon to my tank. The 3- 1" tubes that feed my reverse UG filter have been growing those worm tubes for decades and there is no simple way to remove the growth. My vertical algae scrubber uses gravity to feed the manifold where the tubes emerge from the bottom and feed the UG filter. The manifold normally only has 1/4" of water in it as the water goes down the 3 tubes as soon as it goes into the manifold. But for the last few days, that manifold has been filling with a few inches of water. I never built an overflow on to it because the water always instantly drained down the tubes. If the manifold overflows the way it is now designed, the water will be pumped on to the floor which my wife frowns on. The fish also frown on that as the tank would completely empty.
Now I have a few things I need to do very soon.
The first thing I will do is drill a hole a few inches up in the manifold in case it fills, the water will just flow back into the tank.
The next thing I will do is make a tiny "Rotor Rooter" snake to twist down through the tight bend the tubes make near the gravel. I will try to grind up the growth in small enough pieces that they get deposited under the UG filter plates.
I can't remove those tubes without breaking many year old coral growth to get to the back of my tank so I will try not to go that route.

I can't remember when I removed those tubes for cleaning but it may have been 20 years ago before I had a lot of things growing back there. There was a time when I could remove the corals and rocks, but now it is mostly montipora which are very delicate and I would rather not break.

The thing gets fed from the big white pipe that is the bottom of the algae scrubber.

Brew12 · Aug 1, 2017

Paul B said:
I see a "problem" coming soon to my tank. The 3- 1" tubes that feed my reverse UG filter have been growing those worm tubes for decades and there is no simple way to remove the growth. My vertical algae scrubber uses gravity to feed the manifold where the tubes emerge from the bottom and feed the UG filter. The manifold normally only has 1/4" of water in it as the water goes down the 3 tubes as soon as it goes into the manifold. But for the last few days, that manifold has been filling with a few inches of water. I never built an overflow on to it because the water always instantly drained down the tubes. If the manifold overflows the way it is now designed, the water will be pumped on to the floor which my wife frowns on. The fish also frown on that as the tank would completely empty.
Now I have a few things I need to do very soon.
The first thing I will do is drill a hole a few inches up in the manifold in case it fills, the water will just flow back into the tank.
The next thing I will do is make a tiny "Rotor Rooter" snake to twist down through the tight bend the tubes make near the gravel. I will try to grind up the growth in small enough pieces that they get deposited under the UG filter plates.
I can't remove those tubes without breaking many year old coral growth to get to the back of my tank so I will try not to go that route.

I can't remember when I removed those tubes for cleaning but it may have been 20 years ago before I had a lot of things growing back there. There was a time when I could remove the corals and rocks, but now it is mostly montipora which are very delicate and I would rather not break.

The thing gets fed from the big white pipe that is the bottom of the algae scrubber.

Sounds like your tank has really really really old tank syndrome!

Paul B · Aug 1, 2017

It's got really, really, really old everything. :p
But that is what makes it interesting to me. If nothing ever happened, I would call it stamp collecting or worse, "Golf" and I would fall into a coma. :eek:

Paul B · Aug 2, 2017

I couple of weeks ago my wife and I are invited to go out on my friends boat with him and his wife. Great, let someone else use some gas for once.
He has the same size boat as I have but some people really shouldn't be allowed to own a boat.
We get on the boat and his wife tells me that everything is wrong with the boat even though it is very new. They only use it once or twice a year and they bought it new for like $130,000.00.
So it costs them like $10,000.00 every time they use it so far.

We are supposed to go to Connecticut which is about an hour ride. I figure "everything: is wrong with the boat so I will ask a simple question. (It's the Boat Captain in me)
I asked if he has flares.
He says "Of course I have flares"
I ask if they are expired?
His wife tells me, "they don't know because they are in that cabinet, and they can't open it".
OK, great. I force open the cabinet and ask for some WD-40 so they can open it easily.

He tells me the mechanic is fixing "something electronic" on the boat.
I ask, "What is he fixing?"
He doesn't know. That makes me feel great now that we are taking this thing for an hour ride to another state, Thoughts of "Gilligans Island" flash through my head.

I say, what do you mean "You don't know what he is fixing?"
"I don't know but he fixed it temporarily". Temporarily with what! Like a paperclip!

OK so we head out. I say, put on some music!
"The radio doesn't work" Of course not!
I say I think we are in for a storm so we should not go to Connecticut (or anywhere else further than the lines tied to the dock)

So his wife convinces him to stay in the harbor.

The storm I predicted hits us with a fury. I yell, "Drop the Anchor".

(In a storm, the first thing you are supposed to do is drop the anchor so you don't crash into the other boats moored there.)

So I see him climb out to the front of the boat and start to kick the anchor.
I ask, "What are you doing? " Don't you just push the button near the steering wheel to drop the anchor?

Of course, but first I have to "kick it".
Why, are you mad at it?

He asks, "Don't you have to kick your anchor?"
No, I don't. Why would I? I said "Does the Captain of the aircraft carrier Enterprise have to kick the anchor?"

He said, it doesn't go down unless you kick it. I ask if he ever read the manual. He told me that the boat came with too many manuals and he doesn't like to read manuals.
I said "It Shows!"

So he kicks the anchor a few times until it falls into the sea. We ride out the storm and get ready to leave for port. Now it is pitch black and about 10:00pm. He is driving with the plastic front window wrapped around his face and trying to see through the inky darkness. We are traversing through many boats and moorings. I said, "Don't you have a floodlight?"
He says "Of Course", I say "Where is it?" He says "In my garage" I said "I hope it's on".

Then I stupidly ask, Why don't you just follow the dotted lines back on the Chart Plotter?

(The chart plotter on a boat puts dots on the screen that follow the boats course, this way, when you want to return, you just follow the dots so you know exactly how to get back.)

He asks "What Dots?"
I look at his chart plotter and the entire screen is white. Since he has the boat he never deleted the dots so they kept adding up until now the screen is pure white as it is "all" dots.
I said Why didn't you delete the previous courses? He says "You can do that?" Like Duh, and I almost went to Connecticut with this Jiboni. (He is one of my closest friends)

Now we are getting near his dock and I see a wooden work boat, then about 35 feet back a nice Yacht and we had to "park" in between them. Our wives are in the cabin probably discussing cellulite or anti perspirants that don't leave stains on silk and all of a sudden, it was like the Titanic. CRASH, we hit the work boat. Our boat runs up on to it and slides back into the water.
I said, "Would you like me to dock this for you?" He said, Would you please.

So tomorrow I am going there to fix his radio, chart plotter, anchor, cabinet and everything else wrong with the thing.
His boat is very similar to mine but a foot longer.

Brew12 · Aug 2, 2017

Paul B said:
So tomorrow I am going there to fix his radio, chart plotter, anchor, cabinet and everything else wrong with the thing.
His boat is very similar to mine but a foot longer.

Sounds like you are going to fix everything but the real issue. To do that you would need a camera. That way you could post pictures on boattrader.com and help him sell it! :p

Paul B · Aug 3, 2017

He really should sell this thing before he sinks it. :eek:

chris85 · Aug 3, 2017

I have a lawsuit against the crackerjack people for giving licenses out as prizes I am sure we can add this to it!!!

Good on you for helping him, but I would try and make him fix it with you. It sounds like he has to much money to me and doesn't care.

Paul B · Aug 3, 2017

I just got home from fixing stuff on his boat. The radio didn't work so to access the wiring I had to remove the AC panel with all the wiring. I got the radio out and found two fuses blown. The reason they blew is the 10 pin connector that fed the radio and speakers had some melted sockets and pins in it. It looked like it got wet but I can't see how. I had to by pass that connector by connecting the wires together one by one with separate plug in connectors. Then I "fixed" his Chart Plotter by showing him how to delete all the existing routes and plot a course.
Next I removed the anchor pulpit which was a stainless steel "trough". It was bent up like a pretzel. I took it home and straightened it on my large vise in my garage but I still want to go there to install it because it should not bend when the anchor comes up.
I fixed a few small things but the boat is not a well built boat and a lot of the hardware is not even stainless steel so it will always have some problems.

Paul B · Aug 3, 2017

I just got home from fixing stuff on his boat. The radio didn't work so to access the wiring I had to remove the AC panel with all the wiring. I got the radio out and found two fuses blown. The reason they blew is the 10 pin connector that fed the radio and speakers had some melted sockets and pins in it. It looked like it got wet but I can't see how. I had to by pass that connector by connecting the wires together one by one with separate plug in connectors. Then I "fixed" his Chart Plotter by showing him how to delete all the existing routes and plot a course.
Next I removed the anchor pulpit which was a stainless steel "trough". It was bent up like a pretzel. I took it home and straightened it on my large vise in my garage but I still want to go there to install it because it should not bend when the anchor comes up.
I fixed a few small things but the boat is not a well built boat and a lot of the hardware is not even stainless steel so it will always have some problems.
He keeps this boat on a mooring which would drive me crazy. The guy there has to take you out to your boat so you have to wait for him.

When we get to his boat he has it covered in this big fish net. I ask him what that is for. He tells me it is to keep off the cormorant birds. Cormorants eat large whole fish and excrete large almost whole fish which are now all stuck in this net so that idea doesn't float because it is easier to clean the dead fish off the roof than this stupid net.
As we are bringing the boat to the work dock we pass another boat that had all sorts of things to keep the birds off. He had the same net along with an orange construction plastic net, a large stuffed owl that is supposed to scare birds, a thing that spins around in the wind and is supposed to keep the birds away and this thing called a spider that looks like a giant steel spider with bright red balls on the ends.
Sitting right in the center of all this, facing the fake owl is this large sea gull smiling at us. :confused:

Paul B · Aug 5, 2017

My bluestripes are 2 of my favorite fish and I have been trying to find out their lifespan. (3 or 4 years) I can find out other members of the pipefish family but nothing specific of bluestripes. I don't know how many years I have had mine but I did replace one of them a couple of years ago. I can't remember if it was the male or female. The older one I may have had for five years but I can't remember. One of them now has a little of his tail missing and I don't know if he got bitten or if it rotted off hopefully from age.
They are still spawning and I hope they live a few more years.