47 year old tank

[paul b]

Today I needed to remove my algae scrubber to scrape off the algae. To do that I have to reach in to the back of the tank that is in a wall to remove a hose clamp. AS soon as I touched it ZZZZZAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I got a shock. Not one of those little Sissy shocks that some people complain about like when they have a cut and feel a tingle. This was one of those throw you across the room while your shoes stay put shocks that real Men get. I know what a shock feels like because I was a construction electrician in Manhattan all my life. I couldn't figure out where the shock came from so I stuck my hand in there again. That was real smart, and this time the lights went out, GFCI tripped and I will be awake for a week and if I had acne, it would have cleared up.

Now I figured it was not my imagination so I got my meter. I can read 70 volts from my water cooled LED system to ground. I should read zero because LEDs are DC current and shouldn't induce any power. I am not sure yet why I am reading 70 volts AC but I will get around to fixing the problem. If I ground the system there is a chance that I will burn out half or more of the LEDs so I don't want to do that. I don't want to remove the fixture to work on it on my workbench (which is what I should do) as I am sure one, or more of my 144 solder connections is touching the copper frame. It will take a little deducing but I am sure I will straighten it out before I electrocute myself. But at least it brought back memories from when I used to get shocked all the time.

[sen5241b]

Today I needed to remove my algae scrubber to scrape off the algae. To do that I have to reach in to the back of the tank that is in a wall to remove a hose clamp. AS soon as I touched it ZZZZZAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I got a shock. Not one of those little Sissy shocks that some people complain about like when they have a cut and feel a tingle. This was one of those throw you across the room while your shoes stay put shocks that real Men get. I know what a shock feels like because I was a construction electrician in Manhattan all my life. I couldn't figure out where the shock came from so I stuck my hand in there again. That was real smart, and this time the lights went out, GFCI tripped and I will be awake for a week and if I had acne, it would have cleared up.

Now I figured it was not my imagination so I got my meter. I can read 70 volts from my water cooled LED system to ground. I should read zero because LEDs are DC current and shouldn't induce any power. I am not sure yet why I am reading 70 volts AC but I will get around to fixing the problem. If I ground the system there is a chance that I will burn out half or more of the LEDs so I don't want to do that. I don't want to remove the fixture to work on it on my workbench (which is what I should do) as I am sure one, or more of my 144 solder connections is touching the copper frame. It will take a little deducing but I am sure I will straighten it out before I electrocute myself. But at least it brought back memories from when I used to get shocked all the time.

 

 

You were an electrician for how many years? Seriously, if you are going to fix the problem you should do it right. On the occasion I tried to fix or do something half-a$$ed on my own tank it ended up causing issues.

[paul b]

I was only an electrician for 40 years. I didn't realize there was a problem until today. When I get around to fixing it, I will fix it right. For now, I just have to turn off the light when I am sticking my hand in there. It felt much more than 70 volts so I think something else is also going on as the shock was AC and the LEDs are DC

[paul b]

I will get back to my tank when this is all over. If I still have a tank because I am ignoring it for now. I am having some issues now because my Wife's Mom is on the verge of dying in a nursing home and it should be any time or any day now so we are spending all our time doing that.

[madweazl]

Ugh; wishing you and the family the best. Take care.

[paul b]

I will probably go collecting on this beautiful Father's day after we visit my Mother N Law who is near the end of her life and in a nursing home.

My tank has been without fresh mud all winter and I think it needs a new infusion. I will also collect amphipods, worms, mussels, snails and anything else that looks muddy, dirty or full of life. I realize many people cringe at the thought of putting that type of stuff in their tank, but the majority of those sterile tanks have fish with a very weak, or missing immune system which is the reason for all the disease and getting out of the hobby threads. It is the bacteria, specifically the gut bacteria that keeps our fish (and us) disease free.

The "inside the box" thinking is to try to keep fish away from disease. My thinking is to encourage these bacteria and parasites to live in my tank so the fishes immune system can recognize them and destroy, or at least ignore these things. I don't think most aquarists will ever fully grasp this theory so we will keep having disease threads suck as :My fish have ich, what can I do"? We all know that is the most posted question and IMO there is no need for it.

Soon I will be gone and I fear that this theory will also diminish leaving all those fish prone to un necessary diseases.

Just my opinion of course.

 

https://www.army.mil/article/161643/Army_s_Research_Institute_conducts_MRE_study_to_improve_gut_health/

[sen5241b]

I will probably go collecting on this beautiful Father's day after we visit my Mother N Law who is near the end of her life and in a nursing home.

My tank has been without fresh mud all winter and I think it needs a new infusion. I will also collect amphipods, worms, mussels, snails and anything else that looks muddy, dirty or full of life. I realize many people cringe at the thought of putting that type of stuff in their tank, but the majority of those sterile tanks have fish with a very weak, or missing immune system which is the reason for all the disease and getting out of the hobby threads. It is the bacteria, specifically the gut bacteria that keeps our fish (and us) disease free.

The "inside the box" thinking is to try to keep fish away from disease. My thinking is to encourage these bacteria and parasites to live in my tank so the fishes immune system can recognize them and destroy, or at least ignore these things. I don't think most aquarists will ever fully grasp this theory so we will keep having disease threads suck as :My fish have ich, what can I do"? We all know that is the most posted question and IMO there is no need for it.

Soon I will be gone and I fear that this theory will also diminish leaving all those fish prone to un necessary diseases.

Just my opinion of course.

 

https://www.army.mil/article/161643/Army_s_Research_Institute_conducts_MRE_study_to_improve_gut_health/

 

I am heading to the eastern shore this weekend. I have decided to add some bay muck to my tank. I figure if you have been doing this for so many years its worth a try. You just grab any mud from the bottom of the bay or is there some special trick to it?

[paul b]

No, thats about it.  But if you have been keeping a sterile, quarantined tank you may not want to do that because your fish will have almost no immune system and mud with all  the stuff I call 'good" may not be so kind to your fish.  ​

[sen5241b]

No, thats about it.  But if you have been keeping a sterile, quarantined tank you may not want to do that because your fish will have almost no immune system and mud with all  the stuff I call 'good" may not be so kind to your fish.  ​

 

If it goes south, its on me.

[paul b]

Fresh amphipods

 

[paul b]

I changed one of my seawater circulating pumps this morning. Now it is nice and quiet again. This of course is the engine with the pump removed. It covers those two holes in the block.

 

Now I can get on with some collecting again.

 

 

 

 

[paul b]

Today I finally got a chance to take care of my tank. I cleaned the glass and immediately noticed one of my newer gorgonians fell on top of a large mushroom and most of the gorg croaked. That is not a big deal as it happens all the time. Gorgonians are tall and top heavy so if you don't glue them (and your fish don't like the place you put them) they fall down.

I am sure my fireclown picked it up and toppled it. That is a big problem with spawning fish or fish in excellent health, they think they are the boss of you and feel their way of aquascaping is better.

 

I reached in to move that gorgonian and he bit me, causing me to pull back my hand breaking off a large piece of montipora. This also happens all the time and I was going to break that piece off anyway because it was growing to close to the front glass. So I glued that piece of monti back and while I was doing that, the other fireclown, who must have seen my pain when her mate bit me, also bit me also causing me to pull away breaking off a piece of slimmer coral. Now I got smart. It takes me a while. I removed the broken piece of slimmer with a "grabber" while both fireclowns were scowling at me. Then I glued it back on the other side of the tank. A place where the clowns never visit and probably have never seen. I then decided to give up on maintenance for a while.

 

I glued back the monti just below the bottle neck and a piece of the SPS near the top a little to the left. (Those monti's always break)

 

[madweazl]

Hahaha, those clowns can be some cantankerous lil suckers. I broke a piece of a monti a couple years ago and was so distraught; thought I was going to kill it but you couldnt even tell two weeks later it grew so fast (was only a thumbnail sized piece).

[paul b]

Every piece in my tank was accidently broken off another piece and I re glued it on someplace. They are delicate, but like you said, they grow very fast

[paul b]

I soaked the tiny pump for my worms in bleach and I noticed that the hole in the magnet is large and egg shaped. This happens all the time with those cheap pumps and it can be fixed, at least for a while by putting shrink tubing over the shaft. That takes up the space and the pump will run for may be another year. Then you just put on another piece of shrink tubing. I have a few pumps running with tubing on them now.

I am also going to slightly add something to my worm tank. I need more eggcrate to put in the trough of the thing. For some reason the worms love to congregate in the holes and it makes a convenient place to suck them out in the correct amounts for my tank. I have some in there now, but not enough.

I am also mixing up some water for a water change as it has been a while and I have been over feeding for a long time.

I was also thinking now that I only have one clown gobi I may again add some acropora. They always do well and grow fast and now that my clown gobies won't spawn all over them, they stand a chance.

Those stupid gobies spawn almost every week and kill over an inch of coral each time. They also always pick a new, live place on the coral to deposit their eggs. I was always more excited that the gobies were spawning than keeping those corals.

They are in this video which I took to show the possum wrasse.

http://s258.photobucket.com/user/urchsearch/media/2013-07-20170924_zpsa27e514d.mp4.html?sort=3&o=383

[paul b]

This morning I helped my Sicilian neighbor, (who was born in Sicily) to put up his 20' flagpole and put the American Flag on it.
Many Americans don't even have a flagpole so I am truly honored to have such good American neighbors. 

[madweazl]

This morning I helped my Sicilian neighbor, (who was born in Sicily) to put up his 20' flagpole and put the American Flag on it.

Many Americans don't even have a flagpole so I am truly honored to have such good American neighbors. 

Awesome!

 

I'd like to have a flag pole (probably some HOA BS associated with it) but we fly ours from a holder on the house daily. My neighborhood is mostly retired service members so there are flags all over the place on a daily basis. 

[paul b]

I love to see flags all over the place.  They are all over my neighborhood also.

[paul b]

Today I am making a typhoon in my tank using a diatom filter. I do this once or twice a year to stir up the gravel as much as I can right down to the UG filter plates. The fish seem to like it but the corals always look mad, they will get over it.

In my tank this needs to be done as I run water in reverse through the gravel and if I didn't occasionally do this, the gravel would clog.

 

This is from an older typhoon a few years ago as I see I had my old lights then. Today I am only using one diatom filter but in my reef, two are really needed. I just don't have the time today.

 

[paul b]

I just bot back from a great day of boating. Those are my favorite kind of days. It was low tide so of course I went collecting. Amphipods are much more numerous last month but I got a nice haul. Maybe a few hundred but I didn't count them. I also collected some mud (for the bacteria) and some mud snails (by accident) My fish are smiling and all is good.

 

 

[paul b]

While doing some cleaning up in my workshop I came across my fish tank logs from 1974 until the 90s. I listed what I paid for fish, how much they cost, where I bought them and how long they lived. When I get time I will scan some of it and post some of it. This was way before computers so it is mostly hand written until we got an Apple 2 computer in the 90s. I can't scan it all as it is to long but I will look for the more interesting stuff.

I also noticed my tank had some diseases like HLLE and how I cured it.

 

 

 

 

On another topic, I installed this thing on my boat that tells you how much fuel each engine is using. I wanted to do this for a long time, so a week ago it came in and I went to the marina to install it. It took a couple of hours to install because the cables have to be snaked from the engines to the dashboard and these sensors have to be cut into the gas lines. When I turned it on I got nothing. I checked all my connections, tested the power a few times (the thing needs to be fed power from 3 different locations) Nothing. So I called the company that makes the thing and this technician talks me through all the steps. It is all hooked up correctly. He tells me to take home the chip and update it.

 

The next day I go there with the updated chip, turn it on and ........Nothing.

 

So I call again and go through the same thing with another technician. He decides my unit is defective and tells me they are sending me an entirely new unit. It arrived yesterday and today I go there and install the new unit. Turn it on and I get......Nothing.

 

I call back and this time I get a female. She was very nice and I knew she must be a Supermodel. But I didn't think this Supermodel would know how to fix my problem. Well, I was wrong. I love this girl. I explained the problem to her and we went through the same steps I have done four or five times. Now I am in the engine compartment checking the power connections. She asks if the red wire goes to power? I say yes. Then she asks if the striped wire goes to ground? I say, No. She says, Why not? I say, because in your instructions, it clearly states that if you are not using this to tell you how much gas you have left in your tank, "do not connect the striped wire, instead, connect the brown wire to ground".

 

She says, Oh yeah, that's a mistake in the instructions........"A WHAT, in the WHAT?" . A mistake in the instructions! And when exactly was I supposed to know about that? I spent the better part of 3 days trying to fix this thing.

 

But the Supermodel was very nice and talked me through it. She is going to tell someone to change the instructions. So a Supermodel saved my day and all is well.

Edited July 13, 2016 by paul b

[paul b]

I was just on my deck feeding my tomato plants when I noticed a wasp nest in my air conditioner. I didn't know if it was an old nest as I didn't see any wasps. So I (smartly) banged on the air conditioner and immediately got my answer. One of them, the meanest one I assume because he seemed to have a tattoo on his ankle, made a "Beeline" or more accurately a "Waspline" for my face. He was to quick for me and got me between my eyes. It feels like I got hit with a hammer. A small hammer but a hammer none the less. Not to worry. I got even with him and he won't be siring any more babies. The rest of his family also better have better insurance than Obamacare because they are going to need it. 

[Bruleyii]

You dont learn from your past do you? haha

[paul b]

Apparently not. 

[paul b]

Wow I just looked at the disease forum on here and it boggles my mind how many fish get sick in this hobby. IMO there is no reason a fish should ever get sick but because of my Old School Methods and "radical" practices I don't go on that thread much. There seems to be more fish getting sick now than there was in the 70s and 80s. It's really a shame. So much time is spent curing things than preventing fish from getting sick in the first place. The current methods obviously don't work very well.

 

 

 

 

On another note, we do sometimes get sick, or hurt. My wife (who has MS) fell on her arm and wrist last night and today I took her for X rays. We are happy she didn't break anything because that is the arm she holds her cane with.