Tank birthday, 55+ years

[Paul B]

We took friends out boating last night for a test and it ran perfectly. I looked at the plugs that were removed after about an hour of running and the porcelain on some of them had hairline cracks in them.
Those were AC plugs which is a department of GM and were always in my opinion the best.

To my horror I noticed on the box they are now made in China!!!!

I don't buy things from China so when I have time, I will try to find American plugs and replace these.

 

[RC51]

In a couple of weeks my reef will will have reached 40 years old.
Unfortunately I don't remember when I was 40 but I remember when I set it up. I was a skinny 22 year old just back from Viet Nam.
It is still running very well, still using the same reverse UG filter, same dolomite substrait but none of the fish are original. The oldest one, a fireclown is just over 16, all of the older fish died in an accident that was due to my carelessness.
The tank is mostly LPS, gorgonians, giant mushrooms and a few leathers.
There are only three SPS corals, two of which have been with me for a few years and are growing nicely.
I am not sure is any of the original NSW from the Long Island Sound is still in there or any of the original amphipods but maybe much later generations.
I still can't take a decent picture and the tank is not as blue as these pictures but it is what it is.

Wow. Thats a crazy long time for a reef to stay!

 

[Paul B]

 

[Jekyl]

Well gee whiz

 

[Paul B]

One of my "art" pieces sold in a gallery yesterday.

 

[atoll]

One of my "art" pieces sold in a gallery yesterday.

Nice money making machine Paul. A thing of scientific wonderment for sure.

 

[atoll]

Yes, of course. It's all in my book under this post. But a lot of it is controversial to many posts on many forums. 100% of the profits go to MS research in my wife's name. :)

Paul, controversy is my middle name no doubt yours. So just what is controversial? Not QTing seems to be one on most forums and perhaps the biggest of all but you and I along with a few others have more.

I don't use prefiltration of any kind unless you want to call a skimmer prefiltration. I hardly ever do a water change and when I do I'm not sure why.

We make or breed our own foods instead of buying pellets and flake. Have lots more rock than most recommend in our tank. We don't medicate our fish, ever.

These are probably the most controversial and yet seem perfectly natural to me. These are also all the things mother nature taught us and we couldn't have a better teacher.

 

[Paul B]

Yes, and yet, we don't have any problems. But if it were not for problems, there would be no need for these forums and we would have to go bungee jumping all day long. :cool:

 

[Fudsey]

@Paul B I have an interesting read for you..... Basically what you've been saying all along.
Posted over on Humble's site

https://www.easylifeint.com/articles/voogle

 

[Jekyl]

@Paul B I have an interesting read for you..... Basically what you've been saying all along.
Posted over on Humble's site

https://www.easylifeint.com/articles/voogle

@Jay Hemdal

 

[Paul B]

Jekyl, this stuff seems to be a miracle "drug", "tonic" "immune booster". Especially for stores and shippers but mors so for people who can't seem to get or keep their fish healthy.

Of course I would still feed what I think is needed but the stuff looks great.

 

[Paul B]

Yesterday as I was feeding my fish, of course they get all excited. I am not sure if they are excited because I am feeding them or I am walking around in my shorts. ;Wideyed

But, either way, my long nose butterfly was frantically catching mysis next to my larger copperband who shoved the long nose sideways into my Gyre powerhead that takes up an entire side of the tank and is on full blast.

The poor long nose got stuck to the intake and he is very lucky I was there as I saw him and pulled him off.

He went right back to eating but I lost my last long nose butterfly from that thing so I haven't seen the tank today yet so I hope that fish didn't go back and get stuck again.

If he did, he croaked. I have the thing on the slowest setting but I am not sure that is slow enough.

Today, before I go boating I will devise a grill to keep such fish away so I hope it is not to late.

 

[atoll]

Paul thete are people who print guards for powerhead and gyres and sell them on eBay worth a look.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks. The fish is fine and I already made a guard. :)

 

[Paul B]

Now I know where my second Possum wrasse and filefish hang out so I can find them occasionally. But they disappear for months.

 

[Paul B]

I would really like to collect some water before it gets to cold but it has been raining and I have been partying to much. ;Wideyed

Hopefully next week I can get the energy to get down to the sea (a couple of hundred yards away)

 

[Paul B]

This morning I came to look at the tank and OMG!!!! another flood. This is the second flood in a week. :confused:

The water level was about 5" down and the powerheads were splashing water all over the place. AAAAAahhhhhhhh

I quickly turned off the pumps and waded through the water looking for the leak, hoping it wasn't the tank.

I looked all over and couldn't find a leak but many of my corals were out of the water so I needed to fill the tank. The splashing from the pumps were keeping them wet.

I tried to mix some saltwater but my RO water was empty because as the water in the tank went down, freshwater kept going in with the ATO.

OMG!!! I immediately found a bunch of bottles, mostly wine bottles and Clorox bottles. I strategically placed them in the tank to raise the water level so most of the corals were under water. :D

All through this the copperband and long nose butterfly was just starring at me and I could see by the smirk on their faces that if they could, they would be laughing. :rolleyes:

It is pouting rain but I jumped in my Jeep and drove to the sea. I then jumped (OK walked) into the sea and filled two 5 gallon water jugs with seawater.

Luckily, the ocean was calm like linoleum and fairly warm. Very clean also.

I took the water home and dumped it in the tank. I didn't have time to heat it up but the look on the copperband told me the water was fine. ;Meh

Now that the tank was full I turned on the pumps and powerheads.

I found the "leak". One of my powerheads has two outflows. One of them I have plugged with a rubber plug and I have a stainless steel wire going through it to keep the plug in.

The wire rotted off allowing the plug to only be partially in and the water was spraying out straight up and over the rim of the tank. :(

 

[Paul B]

This morning I went to buy sneakers so I went to "New Balance" as they are the only manufacturer that has a plant in the US.
They only had one style in one color American made but they didn't have my size. :rolleyes:

So now I have to drive 60 miles one way to another New Balance store. :confused:

 

[Paul B]

I see that Jeep is coming out with a plug in electric vehicle that will be made in America so as soon as the paint is dry on the thing, I want one. :cool:

It won't be fully electric until 2025 and I really want a fully electric one so I will have to wait a while. :(

 

[Paul B]

I got bored and made another video