A little tank maintenance

[paul b]

I am in the process of cleaning the tank for a little maintenance. I left everything in and stirred up all the gravel where I could reach with a rigid hose connected to a diatom filter. I think I am going to add another diatom filter to get the job done faster. I do this once or twice a year and this system would not run long without it. When it is fairly clean, I will remove as much rock as I can so I can re-aquascape and move the structure towards the back. Right now it is hard to clean the glass as the reef migrated to the front due to all the digging from the shrimp, the spawning fish and the normal growth of the corals. I only broke a few acropora's so far but I will glue them back when I am done.
The fish are carving curses at me on the inside of the glass and the hermit crabs really hate this as they get buried all over the place. But they get over it.
Oh wait, I think I just found one of Columbus's boots in there

Edited August 26, 2013 by Coral Hind
corrected image link

[Coral Hind]

Is that the same gravel bed you have had since the beginning? Has it dissolved any?

[TheyCallMeMr.703]

Fun fun. Tank looks nice. Huge.

[paul b]

It is the original gravel from 1971, I had to add some more in 1976 when I put everything in a larger tank. I don't think it dissolved but I didn't measure the grains then so I can't be sure.

 

Right now I have 2 diatom filters on the tank, what a mess. I have 4 diatom filters and they are all junk. These things were never built to work in salt water and rust faster than a 55 Oldsmobile. It is tough to get them to start as the "bearings" are garbage, the design is bad, the iron they build them out of is bad, the paint they paint it with is bad the tubes that connect to the hoses are to close together so you can't get a clamp on them or barely get the hoses on, so that is bad. The only good thing I can say is that they clean the tank better than anything else.

 

I have been saying for years that when I get time I will build my own diatom filter, I am still waiting for the time although the ones I have running are partially re-designed. I need a fully re-designed unit. I am working on it, but for now, only in my head.

[paul b]

I am finished cleaning now. One of the diatom filters stalled before the job was done and I will have to take it apart and grease it which you have to do all the time after they get old. The extra large diatom I have running is still working but someone sold me that new a few years ago. It still leaks so I have to run it in a bucket. I always run these in a bucket as they leak.

I broke a lot of montipora and acropora along with gorgs but I just had enough glue to put them back so it doesn't look bad. I have about 5 lbs of rock and a bottle left over which is always what happens when I do maintenance.

It is clearing up and actually looks pretty good. I only did one side as that takes all day and I really need good working diatoms to do this. I don't trust the remaining working one I have and will try to re-design one before I tackle the other side. Most of that side is that giant blue sponge. I gave away a bunch of it but it grew back with a vengeance.

[Mattiejay6]

What is the diatom thing you speak of? I know It's a newbie question...

[Enkay]

I had the same question. Google found me this :

 

http://www.ebay.com/gds/Diatom-Filters-All-about-them-/10000000001619105/g.html

[paul b]

I don't know how you guys keep up a tank without a diatom filter. I could not do it as I have to do this maintenance every year or so.

I found this old picture with the spokesmodel.

 

%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh270/urchsearch/Gobieggs004.jpg

Edited August 26, 2013 by paul b

[Rosco's Reefs]

what was in the bottle BEFORE you started cleaning?

[sachabballi reef]

what was in the bottle BEFORE you started cleaning?

LOL that's what I want to know!!!

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[zygote2k]

Those would be the Vortex Diatom filters.

[paul b]

Those would be the Vortex Diatom filters.

 

 

 

You kids are just to young to have ever seen this stuff.  Now you have test kits, oxidators, reactors, controllers and dosers, but you forgot or never saw the important things this hobby was built on and the things that make it work.

That is a diatom filter, it is filled with diatom powder and it filters out anything larger than a millionth of an inch, that includes paracites and some bacteria.  But that is not why I use it.  It is a very powerful pump and I stir up my entire tank down to the bottom glass or in my case, down to the reverse UG filter.  That is also something you don't know about but that is because none of you have a tank this old.  The reason the tank reached this age is because of that diatom filter, the reverse UG filter and common sence. 

[paul b]

[smallreef]

Paul, being that your tank is older than me, you are correct in I have not seen some of the things you use.....as most of them are now considered platform ideas...though I have seen an under gravel filter...and it scared me...

The diatom filter is a good idea...maybe if I ever have a tank for more than a few years without moving ill have to try it...

[paul b]

Paul, being that your tank is older than me, you are correct in I have not seen some of the things you use.....as most of them are now considered platform ideas...though I have seen an under gravel filter...and it scared me...

Platform Idea? I guess you are correct. But those ideas were what started this hobby and quite a few of those older tanks are still running.

[smallreef]

Oh definitely, , the hobby wouldn't be where it is today without the original ideas and creations of people, people like you and others that kept tweaking things to try and make things easier for us...and the home tinkerers, and just as our fore fathers (four fathers?) worked to try and make things easier for their children and the generations that followed so to has the hobbyist of days ago...

[DaveS]

Jeez, you guys make me feel old.  I used to have a couple of Vortex filters.  Got rid of them when I got out of the hobby years ago.  Reading Paul's post totally reminded me of all the tinkering I used to have to do to get them to to work.  Totally remember having to get 3-4 dead ones so I could reassemble into 1-2 working ones.  My most reliable unit used to give me a little shock when I put my hands in the water.  But since I only used it sporadically I let it go.

 

There are still many times when I'm blow all the detritus off the rocks that I wish I had a Vortex to clear it out.  Hmm, maybe I'll get another one...

[paul b]

  My most reliable unit used to give me a little shock when I put my hands in the water.  But since I only used it sporadically I let it go.

 

 

That's how you know they are working.

[paul b]

I found a fish.  I have not seen one of my threadfin cardinals in a couple of months so I naturally assumed he went home for a vacation.
Now I see him happy and healthy hanging out with his three friends.  I think that because the other threadfins are spawning he felt left out and he may have been sulking behind the rocks, or like I said, maybe he went home.  I really don't know.
It also looks like the mandarins will spawn again soon as will the yellow clown gobies.
The tank looks decent after I re did the aquascaping on half the tank.  It is not the best it ever looked because I had it really nice with all the long branching rocks holding up the structure, but then it partially collapsed and with the stupid acropora, I can't get to crazy because that stuff breaks when a brittle starfish sneezes.  I got broken pieces all over the place.
I also removed quite a bit of live rock because for some reason, every time I stick my fat hands in there, it never goes back the way it was.  I am keeping it in a bucket of water until I figure out if I want to put it back in again.
If not, I will just let it dry and put it away for posterity or if I ever need a paperweight.
I still have that ridiculous bio-pellet reactor connected and I am not sure if it is doing anything.  If you ask me, that would make a better paperweight than the rock.  If I get tired of it I may take it apart and make a vacuum cleaner out of it.  

Edited August 29, 2013 by paul b

[paul b]

Mandarins getting ready to spawn.

Here he is getting ready to put his moves on her

She is very pregnant.  Cute little thing that she is.

I just took these, because I can

[AlanM]

Can someone please volunteer to go to NY to get some of Paul's extra bucket of rocks.  I'd enjoy some of his rock with bio-diversity from the stone ages of reefing! 

 

I'd put it in my tank and name it Mount Baldy!

[TheyCallMeMr.703]

Lol, I'm down for a roadTrip... This tank is quite a sight in person I bet...
 and Those Broken Pieces of SPS on the Ground

[paul b]

Can someone please volunteer to go to NY to get some of Paul's extra bucket of rocks.  I'd enjoy some of his rock with bio-diversity from the stone ages of reefing! 

 

I'd put it in my tank and name it Mount Baldy!

Thats a good name.  The biodiversity comes from the ocean.  Don't you guys have an ocean?  It's that big wet thing on your east coast.

[AlanM]

I was just there last week.  Thought about getting some of the green and red looking algae stuff rolling in the surf with some sand in a bucket to bring home to see if it was full of pods and such, but wasn't sure how safe it was.  You're confident in the water quality off Long Island. I tried looking up info about the Delaware beaches, but couldn't find any.

[paul b]

I am not a Sissy by any means and I also know that virtually all of the stuff in my tank, "and" your tank came from the sea.  And I have been to that sea where your animals and rock was collected and the water off the Delaware beaches is probably cleaner.  None of your animals or rock came from a sterile place that was filled with fake water or sand from an operating room.  Dirt in general is usually not good, but bacteria (or dirt) from the sea is one of the secrets of this hobby and the tanks that are the most sterile, generally don't last as long as more natural tanks.

 

References:

Me

Edited August 30, 2013 by paul b