47 year old tank

[Bruleyii]

I'd figured you be part of a local club up there. I'm sure if you are you can find someone to stop by and help out for a few weeks.

[paul b]

I am not in any club.   I know that is odd but I started this way before clubs and just never joined.  I am sometimes invited to the local Long Island meetings and know a few people but I hate to ask for help.  I will see if I could do this with one hand.

[Origami]

Paul, any promise in running a wetvac up against some of that algae to pull it off the screen?

[paul b]

I could do that, but it may be overkill. It would get the thick stuff off. Good Idea.

[paul b]

Tom, not only is that a good idea, but it's a GREAT idea and I just did it.  Due to the nature of the screen the shop vac is able to clean the thing almost perfect.  I still have to take it apart eventually to get in the slot where the water comes through but it will last long enough for me to not have to do that right now.

Thank you.

[Origami]

Tom, not only is that a good idea, but it's a GREAT idea and I just did it.  Due to the nature of the screen the shop vac is able to clean the thing almost perfect.  I still have to take it apart eventually to get in the slot where the water comes through but it will last long enough for me to not have to do that right now.

Thank you.

I'm glad that it worked out. 

[paul b]

It worked great. Now I need you to come here and clean all this algae out of my vacuum

[Origami]

It worked great. Now I need you to come here and clean all this algae out of my vacuum

I figured that now that it's down where you can easily reach it, it's a one-armed job.    Nothing like the smell of decaying algae, huh?

[paul b]

Maybe I will throw my urchin in there.

[madweazl]

Now you use the Mrs. vacuum to suck all the muck out of the shop vac and then just play stupid when she asks what you've done to the vacuum.

[paul b]

I don't think so.  Who do you think is going to have to fix that thing?

[paul b]

I just decided (possibly stupidly) to feed my corals yeast. I feed it to my worms and they are always smiling but now my tank is all cloudy from yeast. So either the tank will crash or It will make one heck of a salty loaf of bread.

When I get bored, I sometimes do stupid things. 

Edited November 12, 2016 by paul b

[Origami]

Or you'll soon have a hundred gallons of salty vodka. How much yeast did you start with? Try running your diatom filter. It may cut their numbers back. This could be interesting.

 

Sent from my LG-V510 using Tapatalk

[paul b]

The tank is now crystal clear, like Vodka.  Good Russian Vodka not the cheap stuff so tomorrow I will up the dosage. 

I am trying to discover a formula that will make the corals grow up my walls and out into the street.

I don't need to drag out the diatom filter.  Remember I am operating with one arm now so it wouldn't be pretty trying to get that rusty sucker going now.

Edited November 12, 2016 by paul b

[paul b]

I just came back from the Doctors office. I had shoulder surgery 3 weeks ago so I had to go for the follow up appointment.

 

I didn't see the doctor, I assume he was playing golf but I did see the physicians assistant which was good because she was a Supermodel. She took out the stitches on the four places where the guy dug holes in my shoulder and we talked a while being I had five shoulder surgeries already and I liked her boots. I worked construction all my life so I wore out some of my parts. The Dr. put two bolts, anchors or toggle bolts in the bone but he had trouble doing that because all the good real estate was already taken from the last 4 times I had this done. The tendon was to thin, probably from lifting Supermodels up on my shoulder so he had to take a piece of something to re inforce it. I am not sure if he used a sliver of muscle or a piece from the sole of my shoe but in 6 months I will be cured as long as I only lift very skinny Supermodels and only buy light fish like bluestripe pipefish and clown gobies, no groupers.

 

I still have to wear a sling for a month and go to physical therapy. I went to the therapy place after the Doctor to make an appointment. I like physical therapy because they also have Supermodels working there and I know them from the last surgeries I had. They also have good candy on the desk and a Siamese fighting fish that we spend time talking about. Next door is a bakery and coffee shop so what's not to like?

 

In between the doctor and the physical therapy I noticed that a new LFS opened up. I went in just to be nosy and the guy recognized me from one of these forums. He showed me how he feeds the fish using flake food. To me that is a no no and I explained to him what I think he should feed. He never heard of blackworms, or much else so I explained it to him. The guy actually hugged me and kept asking me to come back. I probably will as the owner is a very nice guy and I hope he makes it as it is a tough business.

[paul b]

I want to talk about quarantining, or not quarantining. I get in trouble for my opinion for this all the time and that is one reason I don't post on that big forum any more. People have the wrong idea and for some reason very few people grasp the concept. Quarantining if fine, if that is what you want to do, go for it as it is one way to run a tank. But if you don't want to quarantine, there are things you should do or you will lose your tank to disease. You can't just have a normal tank that you set up a year or two ago and decide to not quarantine. There is a process that goes along with it just like there is a process that goes along with quarantining and if you do it wrong, you will lose your fish and condemn the system you are using.

First and foremost your fish need to get into excellent shape, which we should strive for no matter what system we use. It takes about two months to get most fish into excellent shape if it is done correctly. I know it takes about 7 weeks with damsels so I am guessing on other fish.

Just because they are swimming around looking at you while whistling doesn't mean they are in great shape. If they are not spawning or making spawning gestures, they are not healthy no matter what their doctor says.

To do this we need to eliminate the dry, sterile foods like flakes, pellets and freeze dried anything. Use them in an emergency or if you go on vacation and you need to put it in a feeder but never as a way to feed fish every day. If you want to use dry foods, "keep quarantining". I mean that. ( yes, even expensive dry foods)

 

I wrote many articles about this so I won't go into the scientific research on it.

Next get some fresh frozen foods or the absolutely best, live blackworms. By fresh frozen I mean get something like clams that you can buy live (not if you live in Arizona). Buy the biggest live clams you can. Chowder clams here in New York can weigh a couple of pounds. Partially open the clam and insert something inside like a nail. This will make it easier to open the thing after it is frozen. It takes 2 days to freeze a big clam.

Open the clam and shave off paper thin slices with a knife. Make a dent like you would do in chocolate and slice off ribbons of clam. I supplement the clam with frozen Mysis, LRS food and live worms.

 

This diet, "every day" will get your fish into spawning condition. That won't necessarily make them immune especially if they have been in your tank for a long time or were quarantined for 72 days.

I think the best thing to do if you are really worried about disease is to keep your quarantine tank and put the new fish in there when you get them. Set up that tank with hiding places of rock, not pvc. Give them hiding places and light it as you would a regular fish tank. Feed them the diet I stated and observe the fish for a week or two but do not medicate with anything. If you see one or two spots on the fish, I also would not medicate as that is usually normal. Of course if the fish gets a bunch of spots, starts shaking and texting SOS there is something wrong and you would have to replace the rock with PVC and use copper.

I personally would use copper "and" a diatom filter as that would clean the fish of any parasites in a couple of days.

 

Remember, I never have to do this part because my fish don't get sick and yours probably won't either. I am talking about a healthy "looking" fish you buy from a LFS. That fish was probably in the ocean 2 weeks ago and has some sort of immunity in it's system. Our goal is to nurture that immunity, not suppress it, with the proper food and very low stress.

We want the fish immune, not sterile and to do this we need to get food into it along with "live" bacteria at every meal.

After a couple of months your fish should start to spawn (if you have fish that will spawn). Even fish that are not paired will start to clean a nest, bite you when you put your hand in there and chase other fish away.

 

If you do all this and if your fish are now in spawning condition, you can now add fish from an LFS without being concerned about parasites as now parasites should continue to boost the fishes immune system.

I have been running my tank like this for decades and I may have invented this system (along with the internet, unless that was Brian Williams) It works, I can prove it works and if you don't like the idea of this, keep quarantining as there is nothing wrong with that as long as you can quarantine everything and never want to use anything natural from the sea. Most inland people need to do that anyway.

Now you can write an article saying I am advocating Russian Roulette and don't know a fish from a duck billed platypus.

[Bruleyii]

It's really the gut part of the clam that is most beneficial isn't it? I'd figure that's what holds the most good bacteria or natural probiotics in it. 

[paul b]

Yes, but in a clam, most of it is guts. Clams are also full of calcium as that is what they make their shell out of. Fish need calcium because in the sea they eat mostly fish, bones and all and they use the calcium in the bones to help build their own bones.

[paul b]

Today I went to physical therapy for my shoulder. The Supermodel who took care of me told me she never saw so much work done to one shoulder because she read the doctor's report of what he did which covers two pages. I explained to her that I am a real Man and not a Sissy, Girly Man so there was a lot of parts in there that I broke.

 

It was a pleasant experience but I am used to it after having five of these rotator cuff things. (and I like Supermodels)

 

The "exercises" she gave me to do seem to be geared to a 97 year old Lady so I should have no trouble doing them.

 

To keep this about fish, there is a Beta fish there.

 

I am not allowed to lift anything but we are bringing a lot of food to my Daughters house in a few days so I needed to invent a way to carry stuff with one hand. My wife has MS and can't really carry stuff up stairs.

 

I built this (with one hand) to carry heavy pots using my good arm. I think it is very cool. What do you think.

 

 

 

[Origami]

You are truly an innovator, Paul. It's inspiring.

[paul b]

Thank you.  It would have been very easy to build, but I had to hold the pail with my feet while I used  Jig saw with my good arm.  

[Bruleyii]

Thank you.  It would have been very easy to build, but I had to hold the pail with my feet while I used  Jig saw with my good arm.

And that's how Paul got to have surgery on his leg too!

[madweazl]

Bah hahahaha. The tool is actually pretty awesome.

[paul b]

I have an update on my mandarin feeder. A lot of people are having a problem finding an appropriate size mesh for the top of the think. I now use a piece from the inside of a reverse osmosis cartridge. If you cut off the ends of a used RO cartridge there is a large screen rolled up in there that has the perfect sized holes and it is enough to last you the rest of your life. It is also plastic so it lasts a long time and my urchin so far has not eaten through it.

 

[paul b]

Lets talk about detritus. If you feel detritus is bad, don't read this. You can still see re runs of The Brady Bunch which will be much more interesting, I think Mrs, Brady has bunions this week.

I like detritus. My tank runs on detritus (and worms) Of course I use a reverse undergravel filter. State of the art in my head. If you don't use a reverse undergravel filter your fish probably hate you, but they will get over it.

My UG filter stores a lot of detritus and that's what I want It to do. Yes, I realize much of the stuff I post is exactly opposite what everyone reads about but if you don't want to watch, or never heard of the Brady Bunch, you can still catch Kathy Lee with whomever she is hosting with today.

Detritus is organic left overs. It is composed of pod shells, bacteria, dust, and the shells of the Mysis you feed your fish. Of course it has other stuff in it like the end products of poop and whatever the Pilgrims tossed overboard.

If you feed mainly flakes and pellets your fish are most likely sick, or will be sick so you need not worry about this stuff. 

I use detritus for a few things. It helps my UG filter reduce wastes by restricting the water flow through my gravel thus limiting oxygen flow and increasing anerobic bacteria. (I think anyway as I can't see the bacteria and they are not talking) but what else I use it for is to feed corals. I have a bunch of wrasses that quickly dig into my gravel. I also have mating fireclowns that constantly dig deep holes with their tails. These things create huge detritus storms that the pumps swirl around the tank. The corals were designed, probably by Briant Gumbal, to eat this stuff. It's organic and can be further broken down into it's basic chemicals by corals.

Almost every day (when I am not entertaining a Supermodel, in my head anyway) I take one of my many baster things and blow around the gravel especially in the corners producing huge "dust" clouds. I suck this up and distribute it over the corals and especially the gorgonians, some of which are very old.

Now that you have nothing else to do you can read all the threads about how bad detritus is and reverse undegravel filters. If you read about a tank that has no detritus and undergravel filter, and is older than mine, send me a self addressed stamped envelope and I will steam off the stamp so I can re use it and throw away the letter.