Tank birthday, 47+ years

[fraghunter]

40 Yrs Man that reef is almost as old as me.

 

[MattL22]

Nice paul I gotta stop by one day and check it out we r within 5 minor each other!

 

[Paul B]

Matt, anytime. I will send you my cell number

 

[Paul B]

I had to re design slightly my algae trough. The LEDs I had over it just were not bright enough so I got a strip of LEDs that are about twice as bright. When I had MH lights the trough used to get the spill light but the LEDs are more directional so I had to add supplimental light to the trough because it was only growing red and brown algae. Now hopefully It will grow green hair algae. I also re designed the way the water enters the trough from the skimmer. I used to have unacceptable splashing that used to make salt creep all over the place. Now I have multiple layers of plastic screening around the skimmer outflow and now there is no splashing and no bubbling which burst and splash on the lights and rear wall.

This acropora has grown at least three times it's size in a year and I can't clean the glass in front of it any longer. Whenever I go near it I accidently break off pieces so I have frags of the thing all over the place. Now I am going to try to move it to a larger space and move the giant mushroom in that place to where the acropora is now. I wonder how many frags I am going to have because there is no room to move it so I have to lift it out of the tank to re locate it.

Matt, did I ever give you my phone number

 

[_Alex_]

very cool paul!! also what color LED's are you using over ther algae trough? from what i have read is that the red spectrum works best for algae growth!

 

[Paul B]

I don't know what spectrum they are because they are not aquarium LEDs. But they are supposed to be super bright and daylight color so I will see in a few weeks if it grows the type of algae I am looking for. If not, it's back to the drawing board.

After moving this all over the tank, getting bit to death and breaking a few pieces off this and other corals, I realize there is no room for this acropora. I temporarilly put it on this rock but it is just about out of the water and not sitting well. When I get time I need to do a major rock move. Of course I just re-aquascaped and removed a bunch of rock, but it is time again.

 

[Paul B]

Of course a large rock in my reef fell down taking much of the structure with it so I had to go in there and re position everything. It is all precarious because I am very busy now and I don't have time to do it correctly. I got everything back and I even like it better now than before. I think this is the best aquascaping I ever did even though it all came about by accident. Now I have a bunch of acropora frags because I keep breaking the thing whenever I put my hand near it. I still don't have a good place for it but I am getting there.
That yellow wrasse I have is also much better but I can't figure out why. He is swimming much better and much of the swelling went down. He still has a dark patch on one side but it is also faded. I never saw a fish recover from that before as I know from autopsies that that is from internal bleeding. I will be amazed if he continues living but he seems fine. A week ago he was just swimming in spirals and could hardly catch food.
Wierd.

 

[Paul B]

 

[Paul B]

I hate flash pictures but I am trying to show the new rock configurations.

 

[CJO]

OfI think this is the best aquascaping I ever did even though it all came about by accident.

That seems to be the way it usually happens! It's looking good. Glad to hear your wrasse is doing better.

CJ

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, I can't find that wrasse now as he doesn't get up this early, he is a night owl but yesterday he seemed almost cured. 2 weeks ago he was just swimming like a corkscrew and now his swelling is down and that large spot is faded but still there. I know the fish still has something but I have never seen this heal. I am happy about it but concerned that I don't know why, and I want to know everything.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looks good to me! :D And your right it is hard to show rock structures via pictures.

 

[Paul B]

I just got back from a week in Europe. We were on a riverboat cruise from Budapest to Vienna, Munich and Hungary. Had a great time but when I got home I see the water in my reef is down about 7" and some corals are above the water and of course dead. I lost a few corals but not entire corals. My gorgonians are the worst as the salinity rose a lot. I am not sure if anything happened to the fish because the lights are off and I won't know until tomorrow. The pump I put in that the tank babysitter was putting food in was not even touching the water so the fish did not have food in a few days. Most of them should be fine but the copperband needs food every day as does the pipefish so I am concerned if they are still with me. I can't blame the girl watching the tank as she was doing me the favor and she knows nothing about fish tanks. The next time I go away I will put in a back up system for my ATO.
My ATO fills the tank very slowly so to avoid overflows but it may be too slow because sometimes air enters the system and it stops, which is what happened.

 

[Paul B]

The fish are all fine, even the pipefish and the corals are not that bad. I removed the dead pieces and even made a bunch of frags. The acropora must have fallen and a few large pieces broke off so I glued some to bottles. They look cool.
Today I went to a LFS to get some epoxy and I talked them down to $29.00 for a 10" bubble coral. It has some dead places on it but I am hoping I can re grow it. I have good luck with bubbles. Of course I have no place to put the thing but I stuck it in there with a shoehorn.

Here is our riverboat on the Danube. I took this from a chopper.

And this is a castle which are like Starbucks there, they are all over the place.

 

[Paul B]

I was looking at the tank today (with the top opened) and I saw a spark, then another one, then another, then the LED strip over my algae trough sputtered and started to melt and smoke. The thing melted through the acrylic tube I had it attached to.
Cheap LED strip from China.
Luckily it was 6" from the end and I was able to cut off the melted part, the rest of the strip works fine but for how long?
If I get time I will just make a LED strip for the algae trough myself.
I really hate buying ready made stuff and like to build everything myself, that way I know what I have and it will last forever.

 

[CJO]

Wow, that's scary. Glad you were close by.

CJ

 

[Paul B]

Such a councidence. That thing is low voltage and I think it would just have melted. I doubt it would have caused a fire.
I fixed it and now the light is just 6" shorter. I wonder how long the rest of it will last.
Piece of junk.

 

[Degener8]

I am a bit dizzy I just read the entire thread. I hope once my wife retires from the army.. in 19 years that we settle in a place and I can put up a long standing dream tank like this. I love the attitude you have toward your reef and enjoyed reading of your successes and setbacks alike. I feel humbled and inspired at the same time.

Best Wishes,
Garnet

 

[Paul B]

I feel humbled and inspired at the same time.

Thanks, I feel old. :sad:

 

[Paul B]

The thing keeps evolving by collapsing and being re built. I am sure all tanks go through this

This is a fairly new gobi, I don't know what type it is and I am to lazy to look it up.
You can also see a red scooter bleeny above his tail.
I love this stuff