Why so many problems

[MisterTang]

Thanks for the info, Paul - I believe I'm going to try a white worm culture once my new setup finishes cycling.

 

I don't have any particular problem with Cyclo-Pleeze or any of the other botique marine foods on the market other than they seem to be really bloody expensive for a small container of sea bugs. I already have a pretty good brine shrimp hatchery set up and will add your white worm suggestion along with a plastic 5 gallon kids tank for breeding amphipods and copepods.

[collettk]

We want more!!!...we want more!!!...This entire thread was a great read.

[paul b]

Read it over again, only this time, close one eye.  It will bring an entire new aspect to it.

For me it is easy because I am so old, that I forgot what I wrote yesterday, so it is all new and exciting for me.

[paul b]

I posted this on another forum and I am tired so I pasted it here.  Don't tell anyone.  Besides I can't think of anything right now.  I just want to look at my feet now as that is my other hobby.

 

As I said numerous times I am not the God of fish but I did have to learn everything the hard way as the hobby was not here when I started.
In 1971 I started SCUBA diving in Australia, then acquired my own equipment and boat and after 40+ years have spent some 300 odd hours underwater. That is how you learn about fish, not on a forum and not by looking at your girlfriends tank. If she is really good looking you are probably not even concentrating on her fish.
If I want to learn about a fish, a Moorish Idol for instance, I go to Tahiti, then to an outer Island like Bora Bora, find a guide and tell him what I am looking for. He brings me to a spot where there are Moorish Idols and he gets lost for an hour while I lay on the bottom watching Moorish Idols. I learned more about those fish in an hour than the numerous books I read which were mostly wrong.
When I go to the tropics, that's how I like to dive, not in a resort with 50 tourists, but by myself. Swimming over a reef, looking at fish will teach you nothing, you need to get up close and spend time there.
That's what I did to learn. Yes it was expensive and it took a lifetime, but I am not dead yet and the ocean is a big place.
I know most people can't do that. Well not every week anyway.
That is also why many of my methods are different and outside the box, there was no box then.
A few years ago someone invented the internet and all of a sudden there is a plethora of information, much of it wrong.
I get the horrors when I read that someone is using garlic, or cleaner shrimp to cure something, but I try very hard not to comment.
People say you have to change water every week, day or hour to combat pollution. I would "like" to say: What are you putting in your tank? Battery acid? How much pollution could a few fish make in a few weeks?
Why doesn't my tank get polluted?
Then they mention trace elements. If you are changing water every week, why are you worried about trace elements? How much of a trace element could a couple of corals use up in a couple of weeks?
Why don't they get depleted in my tank, or in the guys tank why never changes water?
I think people with test kits are the worst. Throw those dam things out, "especially" if you are a water change Geek.
I have not tested pH in......................Remember Nixon? Maybe when he was elected.
Tweeking is not a good thing because when you tweek something, something else goes nuts. I was on a kalk kick for a while. My tank looked horrible and I also had to "tweek" things as the parameters would constantly change. Now I don't use kalk, don't test anything, don't dose anything but calcium in the form of ice melter and alk in the form of baking soda..
I know people use refractomers, that is fine and accurate, but the ocean is not stagnant and your salinity does not have to be exactly textbook perfect, close is fine. I have a cheap swing arm hydrometer and when I buy a fish or coral I ask the guy in the store to check the salinity of the water in the bag with his expensive refractometer. Then when I go home, I check my swing arm hydrometer and put a line on it with the reading he gave me. That's close enough. Last year I went to Germany and left someone in charge of my tank. She let the water level go down about 7". That is about a third of my tank and the salinity was off the chart.
My fish and corals didn't seem to mind. I did lose the animals that were out of the water, but that is to be expected. Of course I don't recommend raising your salinity 300%, I just mentioned it to prove a point.
Also if you have a new tank, you need test kits and experience. You need to learn whats going on, but eventually you will find that parameters don't hardly change, especially if you don't tweek every time some parameter goes up or down a point.
My fish don't get ich and I explained why many times, probably to many, so I don't want to mention it again. But people PM me for some help and say they can't do that because it is to much trouble, or they can't get that food or they want to watch Miley Cyrus or they have herpies, whatever.
This hobby is not that hard, or expensive. People make it that way because of all the eronious information put out by the internet with no safeguards on it.
Hows that for a rant?

 

This cute female will pop anytime now as she is so pregnant she can hardly swim.

 

 

And I just posted this because I can.

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2013 by paul b

[countryboy]

Bravo! I too have kinda went to the easy way! I don't test that often and have gotten away from the processed fish foods. I feed a lot of shrimp, and have been feeding blackworms for awhile now, also Mysis and norie. My tanks are doing great. My fish are thriving and my corals are beautiful. But I must confess Paul I am doing water changes every other week. When I raised discus I kinda got hooked on the results water changes did and I can't let that go even since I'm in the saltwater thing. You were spot on with the blackworms, my fish are healthy and growing great!

[YHSublime]

I posted this on another forum and I am tired so I pasted it here.  Don't tell anyone.  Besides I can't think of anything right now.  I just want to look at my feet now as that is my other hobby.

 

 

There is a forum for that. 

[paul b]

 

 

There is a forum for that. 

 

 

 

Yes and don't bother me as I just lost count of my toes.

 

 But I must confess Paul I am doing water changes every other week.

You can change water every 10 minutes if you like.  IMO it is not needed but if you like to do that, go ahead.  Did your tank look really good when you first set it up and it had all new water?

Pistol shrimp video, just to break up the tension.  There are two of them

 

Edited September 4, 2013 by paul b

[gmerek2]

Your happy pants fish need to stop spawning. Your special diet doesn't cure or even prevent fish herpies.

[paul b]

That is true, it also doesn't cure a host of social problems.  It doesn't raise their IQ or help with acne or increase their vocabulary

[howaboutme]

.....I think people with test kits are the worst. Throw those dam things out, "especially" if you are a water change Geek.

I have not tested pH in......................Remember Nixon? Maybe when he was elected.

Tweeking is not a good thing because when you tweek something, something else goes nuts. I was on a kalk kick for a while. My tank looked horrible and I also had to "tweek" things as the parameters would constantly change. Now I don't use kalk, don't test anything, don't dose anything but calcium in the form of ice melter and alk in the form of baking soda......

 

......You need to learn whats going on, but eventually you will find that parameters don't hardly change, especially if you don't tweek every time some parameter goes up or down a point.

 

I love your rants, Paul. Funny, I posted a few weeks ago that I don't usually test parameters since I don't dose and I suggested that it's possible others can do the same if you're not dosing and I got hammered by a couple of people for it. So I tested and guess what? The numbers are the same! Ha ha. Nothing's worse than number chasing. But if there were no numbers chasers, we would have no forums...Then what would we do at work? I guess I need a few extra decades in the hobby before what I say gains weight.   I agree that things go wrong when "tweaking". If you don't tweak, which I am a fan of, then chances are slim that anything drastic will happen...But I also respect people that just can't seem to walk away and observe as there are many ways in reefing. Please continue to rant as only someone w/ your experience can get away with it...though I hardly think "getting away" with it is the correct term.

[paul b]

The only reason I get a pass on not quarantining, not testing and not using Rowaphas, GAC, ABC, IRS, NBC, Doe Ray Me or any other abbreviation is because I have an older tank than anyone who would want to yell at me or argue.

If my tank was started last Tuesday, I would get laughed off this forum.  They are all laughing now, but they keep their windows closed and I can 't hear them.  They also turn up the volume on their Lady GaGa music.

I know what they say about my reverse UG filter, or my method of adding bacteria by digging up mud in a bay and dumping it in my tank.  I also know they think I am lucky and my tank is a time bomb that will crash any time now.

They have been thinking that since Carter was President.   They can make fun of my methods all they want.  Those are the people you see on the disease forum talking about their tank crash.

I have seen many people come and go in this hobby.  I do realize that I don't have the nicest tank on here, but it is as nice as I want it to be.  I am not in a contest, I don't need to be TOTM.  If I want, I will name it MOTOTM

(My own tank of the month)  or IDCIIITOTM  (I don't care if it is tank of the month.

My methods are tried and for the most part invented by me decades ago.  If something turned out to be a detriment, I change or eliminate it.

People ask me my parameters, I am 64 years old, fairly bald and a little overweight, but in great shape.  Those are my parameters.  My fish tank test kits came in wooden boxes and the reageants look like tar so I doubt they would be much help.

The instructions on my pH kit say to keep in a cool bilge away from grog so it may be outdated.

One of my corals died this week, but it had nothing to do with my nitrate, pH, calcium, temp, or Paris Hilton.  My 2 pistol shrimp dig such big holes that it toppled a frogspawn into another coral, then it got covered up for a while and some heads died.  It is what it is.  I also have a montipora that the shrimp is using for the roof to his cave.  It is hard to keep up with these little suckers and I should have speared them when I had the chance.

But I let everything live in peace in my tank as I didn't have a right to remove them from the sea.  Now they are getting back at me by digging up the tank.

It's a hobby for God's sake.  Have some fun, throw a bowling ball in your tank.

 

This morning I had the honor of taking a WW2 Navy Veteran out on my boat.  He is one of my good friends Father N Law and is starting to lose his memory.  He loved the ride and just kept saying it reminds him of his Navy days.  His wife died last year and he is alone.  He is 89 and can't walk to well and doesn't remember much, but I was honored to take him out.  I think he had a good time and the sea did bring him back some pleasurable memories.

No, this is not him.  This is Greta. I just posted this because I can

 

Edited September 4, 2013 by paul b

[Origami]

This morning I had the honor of taking a WW2 Navy Veteran out on my boat.  He is one of my good friends Father N Law and is starting to lose his memory.  He loved the ride and just kept saying it reminds him of his Navy days.  His wife died last year and he is alone.  He is 89 and can't walk to well and doesn't remember much, but I was honored to take him out.  I think he had a good time and the sea did bring him back some pleasurable memories.

Thanks, Paul. Darned nice of you to give him that back. It's an honor to know you and to know someone who would do as you have done. I have a good family friend in similar circumstances. A different story for a different time.

[Enkay]

I am (un)officially declaring this the TOTM(Thread of the Month) !

[paul b]

I am (un)officially declaring this the TOTM(Thread of the Month) !

 

 

 

No don't do that.  Lets keep this thread a secret.  Once people start coming on here, they will start to ask things about parameters, Po4, H2o, CO2, hoo hoo, BooBoo and things like that.

 

Tom, my friend called me a little while ago to thank me for taking his Father n Law out.  I said, are you kidding, it was an honor for me as it would be for any true American.  There are very few of those hero's left.

My closest friend's Father died last year and he was also a WW2 navy Vet.   He was also in quite a bit of combat.   I attended his funeral and he received a full Navy burial with all the due honors of a Hero.  I think he would have been very proud as it was well deserved.

I never witnessed a Navy funeral before that although i have attended quite a few Army Funerals.

Edited September 4, 2013 by paul b

[paul b]

Collecting water.  I keep reading that if you want to collect NSW you should go 40 miles offshore.  40 miles.  Like Really?  40 miles.  That's like half way from Miami to Cuba.  I could see some poor guy rowing out 40 miles and getting picked up by the Coast Guard as an Illegal Alien.  I usually go out maybe 40' sometimes 40" depending on how cold the water is and how high the waves are.  Do you think the water is better 40 miles out?  Why not go all the way to Tahiti to collect water?

Is the water that is only 20 miles out twice as polluted as the water that is 40 miles out.   Is there a brick wall with tar paper on top, 40 miles out and all the water past that OK to use? 

My tank was started with water from the Long Island Sound, right near where the East River enters it from NY Harbor, was that a bad thing?   I still collect water from there, maybe I shouldn't tell my fish or they may get the horrors.

Where do people come up with this stuff?

Another poster asked if California water was OK to use because it is cold.  I mean, is it me?   If I bring a gallon of water to New York from California, will it still be cold when it gets here, and if it is, should I put it in my tank and let the heater heat it up?   Maybe instead of air conditioning we should all collect water in Alaska and run it through pipes in our homes to cool them.  After all Alaska water is cold.

I think that as long as you don't collect any sea lions with the California water, it should be fine.

I like to collect from here.  Good old New York water with no sea lions in it.  Those may be sea lion footprints on the sand. (If you accidently collect a sea lion, you can easily filter them out.)

 

Edited September 5, 2013 by paul b

[AlanM]

I've grown bio films in a lab.  The population sometimes changes based upon temperature.  Some only live in a narrow range.  The "cold water" folks are probably guessing that the bacteria or micro-whatevers that like 68 degree water are different from the ones at 78 in their tank.  Like you, I bet there's no difference and if there is, does it really matter?

 

The 40 mile people are probably the ones that are afraid to get a little bit of people generated doodoo in their tank.  They're also surely not ones to start their cycle by peeing in it, but depending on what you drank I think that's cheaper than store-bought ammonia.

[paul b]

I think you are correct.  As for temperature, here in NY the water temp goes from about 32 degrees to about 75 degrees.  I never saw the bacteria or amphipods flying south for the winter so I assume they stay here and just wear coats like the rest of us do.

[Enkay]

I have always believed that living things that have evolved over millions of years and are still living on this planet are hardy. More hardy than you might think. Now, if I go to antartica and not wear a coat, I will probably die of cold but I think I can handle a wide range of temperatures and so can other creatures. Especially bacteria and fish.

 

I have also lived to survive 30 years of my life in the pollution laden air and water in India. So considering our fish come from the "tropics" they surely can live ina bit of doo doo polluted water.

[holedup82]

I've grown bio films in a lab. The population sometimes changes based upon temperature. Some only live in a narrow range. The "cold water" folks are probably guessing that the bacteria or micro-whatevers that like 68 degree water are different from the ones at 78 in their tank. Like you, I bet there's no difference and if there is, does it really matter?

 

The 40 mile people are probably the ones that are afraid to get a little bit of people generated doodoo in their tank. They're also surely not ones to start their cycle by peeing in it, but depending on what you drank I think that's cheaper than store-bought ammonia.

That's not how to cycle?!? No wonder

[Mattiejay6]

Paul B.. I was reading I think ln RC that you will feed frozen blackworms with mysis shrimp and your fish can't tell the difference really is this still true? So frozen is just as good?

Edited September 6, 2013 by Mattiejay6

[paul b]

Paul B.. I was reading I think ln RC that you will feed frozen blackworms with mysis shrimp and your fish can't tell the difference really is this still true? So frozen is just as good?          

 

I feed live worms to my fish every day.  The only time I freeze them is when I go out of town and have a girl feed my tank.  She doesn't do live worms so I give them to her frozen and tell her they are corn flakes.

I never saw frozen blackworms for sale.  That doesn't mean they don't sell them, but I never saw them.  Bloodworms are frozen but they are not worms and IMO not a good food as they are insects.

My fish can't tell the difference in frozen worms or live worms, but they also can't tell the difference between someone with talent like Linda Ronstadt verses Paris Hilton.

[Mattiejay6]

http://www.aquaticfoods.com/FrozenBlackwormsM.html

 

I'm heading your advice here and I'm building my live worm trough like yours and I'm gonna cycle it. But I'm gonna try frozen guys as well.. For same reason as you for when I'm out of town.

 

Are they in your living room? We're they able to see Miley and her dancing skills?

Edited September 6, 2013 by Mattiejay6

[paul b]

 

 Are they in your living room? We're they able to see Miley and her dancing skills?          

 

 

No, that would be ridiculous

 

I don't give advice, I just post what I do.  If you want to feed your fish dried up lint balls from under your couch, or hairballs from inside your cat, that is your perogitive. 

Edited September 6, 2013 by paul b

[Mattiejay6]

Lol... Ok.. Words of wisdom.. Not advice

[paul b]

So I tested and guess what? The numbers are the same! Ha ha. Nothing's worse than number chasing. But if there were no numbers chasers, we would have no forums...

 

Remember, I didn't say that testing was bad.  I never said that anything was bad, well maybe Paris Hilton's singing I don't know.  Test if you like, the LFSs need to make money which is good for the economy.  Also if your corals are all falling over and puking outside the tank, you should test.  But if all looks well, I feel you are wasting your money.  But it is yours.

Speaking of singing, last night 2 of my friends came over and we went out to dinner in this tiny Italian restaurant.  Our wives all went out for someone's birthday or wherever they go, we don't pay attention.

Anyway we ordered and this drop dead beautiful Babe comes over to our table and says she is the disk jockey.  I ate there a few times and never saw a dish jockey as the place was kind of a dump. 

We later found out it was Karokie night and out of the 6 old guys in there (besides us) all of them sang, (they all also sucked).  Then she comes back to our table and says is there anything we would like to hear?  She said I have music from the forties as well.  I said, wait a minute, how old do you think we are?  The forties?  She said, Oh no, you guys look great.  She wanted to add, for 3 Old Coots, but I think she wanted a tip.

But she was a Babe and had a great voice also.  Much better than those Coots who were singing.