Tank birthday, 55+ years

[Clownfish_Boy]

That is simply amazing, Paul ! A reef with an UG filter maintaining low nitrate for 40 years ! What other filtration equipment do you have on your tank ? Do you have a skimmer or particulate filter ?

 

[Paul B]

Clownfish_Boy. Thank you. The tank will be fifty years old in March and I moved it 3 times. The last move it was in that house for 40 years.
I use a reverse undergravel filter (state of the art in 1971 :cool: ) but I would not run a tank any other way. I also have a 5' DIY HOB skimmer, a DIY algae scrubber and no sump.

Thats my filtration except a couple of times a year I stir up the dolomite gravel where I can see and suck it out with a diatom filter. I change water about 4 or 5 times a year and now I live next to the sea so I use NSW. Thats my maintenance.

 

[Paul B]

Yesterday I picked up another one of these little Hawkfish. Now I have two. I am not sure if they will kill each other, dance or form another political party. I hope they mate because I like to have a pair of all of my fish. I got it at a IFS. Something like an LFS but it is more of an Ich local fish store

 

[atoll]

I had to take my wife somewhere today and it was near a LFS so I went in. Total waste of time. All he had was a bunch of Bangai cardinals. I bought two small ones just because i was there but I don't know why he even opened.
He didn't even have a hermit crab, not that I want one.

I tested the salinity in the water that they were in and I could have drank it as it was almost fresh water. My swing arm hydrometer didn't even float a little.

But I threw the fish in after about 15 minutes and they were eating in 20 minutes. :cool:

Are you sure you never wandered into my LFS Paul. We have one shop here that's poor for stock and what they do have is overpriced. I go now and again but am.not always sure why, I guess to see if it's improved but it never does. I drive many times the distance to find a good LFS and it's always worth the drive.

 

[Paul B]

I never go to an LFS on purpose. I am always someplace and if there is one near by, I will go in. This one is terrible but I don't care about parasites and all that, I just want a selection of something besides goldfish and tangs.

No one carries anything interesting any more, it's the same old stuff.

 

[atoll]

I never go to an LFS on purpose. I am always someplace and if there is one near by, I will go in. This one is terrible but I don't care about parasites and all that, I just want a selection of something besides goldfish and tangs.

No one carries anything interesting any more, it's the same old stuff.

We call that bread and butter fish here. Same old same old same old stuff.

 

[Paul B]

They call it the same thing here, boring stuff.

 

[Paul B]

Now I have way to many fish, but I like pairs of everything because I like them to spawn or at least be friends. In the last month or two I got another Hawkfish, another, possum wrasse, two ruby red dragonettes, another 6 line wrasse, some black looking wrasse thing and probably 2 or 3 that I forgot about.
The last few fish I got since I moved here was a hippo tang, a copperband butterfly, and two sunburst anthius. I also got 8 emerald crabs just because they are cool.

I have not lost much since I moved here and I had quite a few fish before I moved. I did lost two or three wrasses from jumping as they always jump. One sunburst anthius was bullied and just stopped eating and croaked.

No ich, velvet, dropsy or any other silly disease that many tanks seem to be plagued with. :p

 

[Paul B]

Another Video eating worms. The fish, not me.

 

[Paul B]

One of my 3 reef lights failed. This is the second time in two years I had to replace one of these things. I really wish some of them could be made in America as they don't last very long even though LED lights are supposed to last for like 200 years or so. I am lucky to get a year out of them and I don't even run them full brilliance.

I took it apart and shorted out some LEDs to at least get most of them to light temporally but it is time consuming and a pain to do.
Out of my last two fixtures that failed, I used parts from both of them to at least get some light.

I ordered another one and should get it next week.
I would rather pay double and get something that will last. But no one makes a good one. :(

 

[NDIrish]

One of my 3 reef lights failed. This is the second time in two years I had to replace one of these things. I really wish some of them could be made in America as they don't last very long even though LED lights are supposed to last for like 200 years or so. I am lucky to get a year out of them and I don't even run them full brilliance.

I took it apart and shorted out some LEDs to at least get most of them to light temporally but it is time consuming and a pain to do.
Out of my last two fixtures that failed, I used parts from both of them to at least get some light.

I ordered another one and should get it next week.
I would rather pay double and get something that will last. But no one makes a good one. :(

What brand are the lights? Reason asking is Reef Spectrum has a Sbox Retrofit Upgrade PCB Board for ~ $70.00.

 

[Agsellers04]

That is absolutely incredible

 

[Paul B]

I don't know, two of them that failed say "Light Time Tunnel", I don't know if that is the name of them, or where they were stored before I bought them. I ordered another, different kind and I think they are all the same coming from the same LED factory who knows where in China. The electronics are OK. It's the individual LEDs that burn out. I have plenty of spare electronics but the LEDs themselves are time consuming to change although I have enough parts to fix them.

They are not very expensive so it's no problem to just change them every two years. But I would like it if I didn't have to.

Also the screws on the sides of the things are iron instead of stainless steel so they rust badly making it hard to disassemble them. For another 3 cents, those screws could be stainless steel. The clips that hold them to the cables are also iron which rusts badly over a salt tank but those would cost about 50 cents to make out of stainless.

I can get new lights for about $75.00 so a $70.00 retrofit would not be good business sense. I think the new lights I just ordered were $129.00 and the only reason I ordered them is I can get them in a few days.

I don't think it matters how much you pay, the individual LEDs are probably all made in the same place.
I would change all the screws for stainless steel like I do for many things but they are metric and here metric stainless steel screws are a little difficult to get but I may just tap them out for American SAE threads and replace those screws on the new fixture with stainless steel so in a year when I have to take the stupid thing apart to fix, it will be easier. :)

 

[Paul B]

That is absolutely incredible

What is?

 

[Rybren]

I guess that I was lucky with mine Paul. My cheap black boxes like yours ran for 7 or 8 years without breaking down or rusting. I replaced them last year for some newfangled ones but the old ones were still working fine. I only replaced them because a friend basically gave me the fancy ones.

 

[Paul B]

Thats because you live in a colder climate so yours stay fresher. :rolleyes:

 

[Rybren]

Thats because you live in a colder climate so yours stay fresher. :rolleyes:

It does stay quite cool in the igloo, but the tank heaters need to run 24/7 and costs me a fortune in electricity.

 

[Paul B]

I think the more expensive lights cost more because they have remotes so you can dim the light from two blocks away or timers that know when it is daylight savings time. I have all my lights on a cheap $8.00 timer and I have never dimmed them. They also stupidly come with two electrical cords for the same light. I am en electrician and can easily install more outlets but I am already using 6 outlets for 3 lights which is stupid, and I hate stupid so I just spliced them together to have one plug per light.
Like Really!!!!!

I may have to go back to building my own water cooled lights. :p

 

[Agsellers04]

What is?

A 40 year old reef....

 

[Paul B]

Oh OK. That would be an accomplishment for sure. This one will be 50 years old in March. :p
But I am very old and that is the key, you have to be a Geezer to have an old tank. :oops: