Tank birthday, 47+ years

[fish&corals]

wow .. thats awesome ....

 

[Paul B]

would you consider catching and selling a 1000 amphipods?

The last time I shipped amphipods I shipped them to Bob Goemans in Arizona. He called to thank me for the boiled shrimp.
It was just 104 degrees here and it will be about 100 all week.
The things will fry

 

[jiffy]

well maybe in a couple months?

 

[LPAJ5280]

I just spent the last couple hours reading every single posting on this thread (the plus side of not having a boss nearby). I hope I am like you when I'm older. and your jokes are funny.

Amphipods- You could make money sellin' those things, I'd buy some!

Chiller- You mentioned you made a chiller..? I have thought about that for my tank. I've thought maybe i could rig a mini fridge with reservoir of water and then plumbing going in and out. Put the power cord on a thermostat that flips on when temperature reaches a certain point. (I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars for a chiller when a mini fridge is $50). But I'm curious how did you do it? do you have any pics?

Congrats by the way, but a million people said that before me so that phrase seems useless to me. You already know the magnitude of the feat you have accomplished.
-Luke
Denver/Greeley Colorado

 

[Paul B]

I hope I am like you when I'm older

You want to be bald?:bigsmile:

Amphipods- You could make money sellin' those things, I'd buy some!

Money is easy, I need free time :squigglemouth:

The fridge will not work. I did once build a chiller out of an office water cooler. That worked great but I can't go into that now as I am going to the gym. Also the chiller I built, I will get back to that.
This is the evaporative chiller. I just built.

 

[Paul B]

I will be doing this cleaning/aquascaping job tomorrow, monday. I have vats all over the house along with tanks and mixed up water. 2 diatom filters are standing by for after I remove all the corals, fish, rocks, bristleworms, Loch Ness Monsters etc.

I will remove all the water except about 30 gallons, then I will stir it all up (with gloves on because of the huge bristleworms) and suck that out. Then I will add more of the old, clean water and stir that up and suck it out.

After a few cycles of that, I may lift the UG filter plates but it depends on how much time I spend on the initial cleaning because I need to complete this in one day as the next day I have a big job on my boat I want to do. I like to see what is under the plates as I have only done it a couple of times.

Also the fish and corals will be in small tanks and the last time I did this I was called away for a family emergency (my Mother died) and so did a bunch of my fish including a moorish Idol.

So I want to get these things back in the tank as fast as possable.

I built some new cement supports for the rocks and I will put everything back and run the both diatom filters.
I will also catch the 5" dragon wrasse to give it away to someone who can take care of him

It's a good thing I like to do this stuff.​

 

[Paul B]

I finished in just 4 hours. I didn't lift the UG plates because the gravel was not that dirty.
I was surprised. I took out everything except about 3" of water, then I stirred that up and dumped it out. Then I added some of the clean water that I removed, stirred that up and dumped it out.
Then I ran the two diatom filters with just a few inches of water so they didn't have much water to clean. After an hour of stirring and diatoming, it was crystal clear and I started adding the rocks. First of course I added the cement stands that I built previousely. Very little of the rock is touching the substrait. It is almost all suspended on cement pillars so I can see all the way to the back under the aquascape.
This is what I was going for. It is kind of flimsy in spots so I have to be careful not to move too much.

Here is one of the rock supports

All done

 

[Paul B]

Now that I gave away the dragon wrasse one of this pair stays in the front now. Ever since I had that wrase both of them would hide in the back. I noticed after I removed all the rocks that one of this pair is missing. I am not sure how long watchmans live but this pair I got as babies and I think it was about 10 years ago. But I am not sure.
They have spawned numerous times during that time and I saw the both of them a couple of weeks ago. The missing one could have jumped out but I never found her or she could have died of old age, but I would assume them to live at least 15 years.
I am just not sure. I know she was not sick because their last spawning was just a few months ago and my fish generally don't get sick.

 

[Paul B]

My tank now is much too clean. Next week I need to go collecting for worms and amphipods. I will also add some mud for bacteria. I was at my collecting place today but I had a boat full of company so I didn't collect anything.
But I really don't like it this pristine.

 

[Paul B]

Today I added a copperband and long nose butterfly. These have always been my favorite fish and I have always had them in my reef. The copperband is not in the greatest health, he has flukes and some wounds. It is not very easy getting a very healthy one of those.
I knew that when I saw him but I got a deal I couldn't refuse.
There are a bunch of local NY grass shrimp in my tank and the copperband thinks they are cleaner shrimp. He keeps hanging around next to the shrimp waiting to be cleaned, but they just look at him funny.

I just felt like adding these pictures

 

[_Alex_]

Looking good Paul love the rock stands!

 

[Paul B]

Thanks

 

[LPAJ5280]

wow. can't believe you did all that cleaning and work. I cleaned my sand when i upgraded my tank from a 28 to a 36 and I thought that if i told anyone that at the local fish store they'd have a cow. They're always telling me not to disturb the sand bed blah blah. I look at the detritus and can't imagine that it would be bad to clean it. After hearing about the cleaning job you did I may clean my sand once a year or so. The chiller looks interesting, hard to believe that cools the water enough. Those cement stands are a good idea too.....

 

[Paul B]

I run a RUGF, I can stir it as much as I like and that is the reason the tank could last forever with little chance of crashing. If you run a DSB, good luck

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Cleaning job looks good Paul!

 

[LPAJ5280]

I run a RUGF, I can stir it as much as I like and that is the reason the tank could last forever with little chance of crashing. If you run a DSB, good luck

Sorry I'm not hip on all the acronyms. What's RUGF and DSB?

 

[Come Monday]

That is simply amazing! And thank you for your service in Vietnam.

 

[Paul B]

RUGF = reverse undergravel filter and DSB is a deep sand bed.

Come Monday, thanks

 

[LPAJ5280]

ooooooo... yea. I understand now. shoot......

 

[Paul B]