47 year old tank

[paul b]

One of my experiments didn't go as I planned and I lost some nice, very old corals.  I hope the rest don't croak but it is what it is and even a bad experiment teaches us something.  My tank is and always has been an experiment and was never meant to be a part of my house decoration.  Most of my experiments do fine but some go south.  That's why I love this hobby.  If nothing went wrong, how boring it would be and anyone could do it.

 

But on the bright side. The fish are still spawning 

[dave w]

I like your white worm feeder.  I'm guessing that you drop white worms down the vertical tube and you made the horizontal tube small enough so that only your target fish can get it?  But it also looks like your horizontal tube keeps the white worms in place so you can remove any uneaten ones.  Is this correct?  

 

I think it's a simple and ingenious solution.  

[paul b]

That is correct.  I mainly need to keep the copperband away because he eats everything just after it hits the water.  The Mandarins and Ruby Reds can just sit in there and take their time eating worms.  They can only eat a few at a time, then they leave and come back in a few minutes.  In their spare time, they sit on the brine shrimp feeder

[paul b]

I am to busy this week but soon I want to replace those staghorns.  The rest of my montipora's are fine and in a few months I am sure they will re grow over the dead part.  Only part of one died, I am not quite sure why.  The other corals look fine, even better than they did.  I am also not sure why but whatever I did, if I didn't do it so much probably would have been a good thing.  The dunkins especially look like they want to grow up the walls.
Today we are going to my Grand Daughter's school (preschool) she is not quite 3.  My wife and I are giving a SCUBA and underwater demonstration.  We have a live lobster, some SCUBA stuff and underwater pictures as well as her Mother (out Daughter) SCUBA diving.  We also did this when our daughter was about 4 or 5 so she was a little older.  These 2 and 3 year olds will not understand and will just pick their nose, and maybe take a nap but it is fun and I am looking forward to it.  We hope to do it again in a few years when they understand.

[dave w]

How do you find time to watch your aquarium when you have such a beautiful granddaughter to dote on?

[paul b]

She helps me.

 

 

Her Brother Teddy, is sometimes to dressed up to help.

 

[paul b]

Today I did something with my tank that I rarely do.  I took some water to get tested for calcium and alkinity.  I did that because many times people ask me those readings and al I can do is stutter and make up a story.  But today I had it tested and the calcium is like 525, which is a little high, but no one is complaining.  The alk is about 12.  Not to bad for using driveway ice melter and baking soda for dosing.  Those were almost the same readings I got by a lab about 10 years ago when they tested my water.  Now it is just a little higher so I will stop dosing for a month or until I remember again.

[paul b]

I spent about an hour on my tank today which is much more then I ever do. I decided to remove half of the screen in the algae trough because there was no algae growing just tubeworms and corals which completely filled the trough almost preventing the water from getting through. I had to pry up the screen with a large screwdriver because it was completely cemented to the bottom with coral and coralline algae. Underneath the thing looked like a bristle worm farm. I removed those as they were large and I am sure on the side I didn't touch there are dozens more. The stuff I removed would have made a great starter culture for a new tank. I threw it behind the rocks in my tank because I didn't have the heart to dump all those tube worms and brittle stars.

The part I cleaned I replaced the screen with a new one but this time I placed a cotton cloth on top of it. I have been experimenting with cotton cloths for a few months by draping a cloth over the side of the trough so that just a little water gets wicked up into the cloth and drips into the tank. That experiment was a huge success and that cloth is covered almost 1/2" thick with algae.

When I get time, probably in the winter I plan on taking advantage of that experiment and completely removing my algae trough and re-designing it so that the algae is not submerged. I just want water spraying on it but I want it to be exposed to the air. I think this is going to have a fantastic outcome.

Just my opinion of course.

[JR-Tanked150]

Pictures of that, it sound interesting.

[paul b]

Today my wife and I did a little boating as we always do in the summer and I took the dinghy to shore to do a little collecting just before the storm rolled in. We just made it back in time but I managed to get a bucket full of amphipods. This is the first collecting of the year and I hope to go again this week depending on the weather. I like to dump thousands of amphipods along with some mud in the early summer. My tank depends on it.

 

[paul b]

Because of salt creep and some defective LEDs I had to take my fixture apart and re do a lot of the solder joints, drill and tap about 50 holes and replace the fans. I really should have put a splash shield on this thing when I built it. If I ever get time, I will build another fixture.

[Bruleyii]

Was this your only light you were using for the tank or was it just supplemental lighting. A splash guard wouldnt be too hard to rig up after seeing all of your other projects. To you it should be like as easy as hanging a picture on the wall.

[paul b]

A splash guard is simple. The only concern is that this fixture is on thin stainless steel cables that allow the fixture to be raised or lowered as it is on a counter weight. Since I built it I added another strip of LEDs on another aluminum frame adding 25% more weight. I think the cables are at their maximum weight so I would need to get some slightly larger cables and pulleys along with a heavier counterweight. When I put those things together, I will attach the splash guard. I already have plenty of plexiglass.

[Bruleyii]

Ah. That makes a little more sense.

[paul b]

After about 16 years one of my fireclowns feels he must bond with an anemone.  I don't have any anemones so he is using a very large (and expensive) Duncan for a host.  The Duncan is not amused and has not opened in a couple of weeks.  I would like to spear the fireclown but probably would miss and make a hole in the bottom of the tank.  Her 24 year old mate just looks at her and laughs.  I am glad he doesn't need an anemone and just stays in his cognac bottle.

[paul b]

I posted this someplace else and decided to put it here, because I like it. If you don't want to read it, I think Oprah is giving away free Cadillac's to homeless cats.

I have killed so many fish that I probably have helped with the extinction. Why do you think we thought Coelacanth's were almost extinct? It was me. When the hobby started (and I have written extensively on it and dedicated a chapter in my book about it) aquarium keeping was a challenge, but it was a challenge that was good for the hobby as that was when much of the critical knowledge was gained as there was no internet, so no wrong information. No information at all as a matter of fact but what we did know, we learned from trial and mostly error. Very early in the hobby, so early that it was in my fresh water phase, or "bait" as I like to call fresh water fish, I learned the biggest secret of the hobby. The secret that overshadows all other things in the hobby. Much bigger than Obama's college records or where Brian Williams gets these stories. The secret (which I have also written about ad nausea) is still helping me today and it is the one thing that is so important that everything else in this hobby falls by the wayside. No one wants to use my secret so I stopped mentioning it. People would rather take a fish from the sea, put it in a small, bare quarantine tank for 72 days. Try sitting for 72 days in a small room with no friends and not even a Supermodel or reality show to look at. So in 72 days the fish is so stressed that it is thrilled that now it is put in a tank of creatures it has never met and we feel it is just going to forget what we did to him and go about his business of living a happy healthy life.

Unfortunately that fish in many cases will be fed a diet of flakes, pellets and frozen whatever that is supposed to keep him healthy. Of course many times, in spite of all that quarantine time it comes down with parasites and we read:

OMG, I quarantined everything including my Old Aunt Ester, put my quarantine tank 157 yards away from my reef so the ich didn't get in from osmosis and the fish are still dropping dead from the disease. You know I am right as you can easily search and find dozens of those threads right on reef Central. Now why is that? Maybe 72 days isn't long enough, maybe we should quarantine for 3 years. Maybe we shouldn't have reef tanks, just large quarantine tanks. Would that stop the dreaded ich?

DSBs, SSBs, no sand bed, reverse UG filter, starboard, Dutch Mini Reef, Jaubert system, the fish don't care and it doesn't matter what type of substrate we have. There are all sorts of successful tanks and it has nothing to do with substrate. Yes, I do joke around (a little) because, to me, this is a hobby and supposed to be fun. But all we hear is problems. Why is that?

It's because many people don't use my secret. No, I am not lucky. My fish don't live long enough to get social security because they are lucky. It's not even because of my UG filter although I would like it to be. It is not because of quarantining or not quarantining (but that does have something to do with keeping fish healthy and not because of what you think, just the opposite)

I don't go on so many threads on here any more because of the arguments and I am old and tired. It is so simple but people refuse to take the time to do it.

The secret is live worms.

That's it. Live worms every day will keep the fishes immune system so fine tuned that you could put the fish in a meat grinder and he will come out fine. OK, maybe not. Now I realize many, or most, OK, "all" of you think it can't be worms. The old guy is nuts. He is senile. Maybe so. But I am right now looking at my tank. I am watching the 24 year old fireclowns playing with each other and the other 15 or 20 fish that have never been quarantined, have no DSB, have never even had a headache but all of them eat some live worms every day with their regular meal of mostly clam. They also know I don't have test kits or a hospital tank and they are not worried. They know that if they are in my tank, most of them will die of old age.

I bought them all and after a little acclimation, threw them in my tank (gently). Even if they had parasites because they are a non issue. Even in spite of the mud, amphipods, flounders, worms, crabs, shrimp and seaweed I collect from a bay and dump in with no fanfare.

I wrote an article about slime and the fishes immune system but I am not allowed to link it here. It is in my book that is not out yet but I probably can't link anything from it here either. But the main thing is live worms. Not bloodworms, not freeze dried worms, not mealworms but blackworms (or earthworms). If you remember your fresh water days, if you wanted to spawn fish the first thing you read was to feed live food. Many of us forgot that bit of advice. We prefer to read the ingredients on a can of flakes and see all the wonderful things they put in it (before it was processed, baked, dried and canned) Live worms have one ingredient, worms. That's the secret. Take it or leave it.

[elbowdeep88]

Cant wait to buy your book so we can have an awesome DIY reference to pair with your methodologies/recommendations. Will it be out in time for Christmas?

[paul b]

The publisher tells me closer to September or October. I don't know why it takes so long.

[Bruleyii]

You joke about not being able to link to the articles in the book but you might be able to if you have a digital copy. Just saying. I've read your posts about your black worms before and would love to do this with my fish, but it's just a lack of space. Unless you have some other creative ways to keep them in a small space without my girlfriend kicking me out.

[paul b]

That remark about not being able to link was not for this forum. I can link my articles here and sometimes do. The book is in an E Book and a printed version.

I have been keeping blackworms for fifty years and have had my wife for only 41 years. She knows she goes before the worms. It's a matter of priorities. Just tell your girlfriend if she would rather have you playing with your fish or hanging out in a bar

[Bruleyii]

haha. I do both though. I think she would win that argument and I would lose my bar time. 

[paul b]

Last night we again took my boat to the Statue of Liberty as we do a couple of times every year. I still get teery when I get near her. It was a nice trip and we stopped for dinner at a sea side restaurant in Queens. These pictures are from last year but it is the same scene so just make believe I took them last night.

 

 

 

 

 

[rtelles]

My tank has battled ich because I'm not a perfect reefkeeper and, though I do quarantine and have had long, fallow periods to rid the ich, sometimes I put things into my system (dipped corals, etc.) that may have a few remnants of the disease, and sometimes it pops up as a dot or two on new fish in my system. I only have the space to run two relatively small tanks, and sometimes a third quarantine when necessary. That said, although I don't feed blackworms every day (I've tried and failed various methods of keeping them going and they typically only last a week or so, so I'm doing something wrong), I do my darndest to feed them high quality foods (reef frenzy/enriched brine/mysis/newly hatched baby brine/fresh seafood/blackworms every week or two), and the only fish I've lost have been new additions with weak immune systems (both in quarantine tanks and in my main), and fish that have taken suicide plunges during water changes or other times when they cover is off (RIP my favorite frozen food eating ruby red dragonet). Paul, you've been really helpful and I've stolen a few of your ideas (my extremely fat male mandarin and female ruby red dragonet both learned to eat frozen brine and mysis because i spot feed above your baby brine shrimp feeder, which they still hover over), and I always appreciate your posts and input. I, and I'm sure many others, look forward to reading your book.

[paul b]

Thank you Rtelles, as you found out, to keep a fish immune from just about everything you have to feed them good food "every day". Some worms a few weeks at a time won't do it, they need high quality food every day. If you can't do that, you should quarantine everything. I don't think there is a way around it. Reef Frenzy every meal also won't do it even though that is a good food. They really should have live food like worms along with the Frenzy. I normally just feed clams that I buy live and freeze along with some worms. The entire meal doesn't have to be worms, just a few worms for each fish every day will do it. Flakes are not part of their diet except in an emergency. It should only be whole foods with the head, guts etc, not just shrimp tails, squid, octopus or scallop as those are just the muscle and not the guts. That is the only way you can get away without quarantining. Healthy fish are constantly pregnant, like Mormons. If they are not constantly pregnant, they are not healthy and suseptable to disease, those fish must be quarantined. All female fish in the sea are pregnant, thats the way fish work. The same immune system that keeps fish healthy also keeps them pregnant and imparts that immunity to the fry if they hatch. If not, they just get expelled or re absorbed. It takes a lot of energy to make eggs and only the right foods in the right amounts will do it.

[paul b]

I couldn't find my male blue stripe pipefish or my male ruby red dragonette for a week. Then they both showed up. I have no idea where they went or if they left together to go on vacation or get a bite to eat. But they are back. Maybe it was osmosis, I have no idea.