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47 year old tank


sen5241b

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You and your pipefish, Paul! Ha. Pretty cool.

 

I like the longspine urchin! I used to see them when diving/snorkeling off Okinawa when I was a teenager.

 

Looks like things have adjusted well to the new tank after the move. 

 

What's all the "snow" about? 

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You mean "snow" in the tank?  You can only see it in the close ups.  Some of it is bubbles the rest must be detritus as the spawning clownfish keep digging holes with their tail and it makes a mess. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I made it downstairs to my workshop to see my fish.  It wasn't easy and it's the first time I got off the walker since the operation but my fish needed me. 
I was going to jump down,but I figured it was prudent to use a cane.   I had to take extra drugs to get here but I saved some for my fish, who look very good by the way.  Nothing at all has been done to the tank in 2 weeks and I have had multiple people who have no idea what a fish is besides dinner feeding them.  I made up some frozen food packates and thats what they use.  I normally thaw and rinse them but I can't ask people to do to much so I just tell people to toss them in.  By doing this, I really should change the water but thats not going to happen.  I only did one water change since I moved here 5 months ago which is almost normal for me but not after all this abuse.
My algae scrubber is growing produce and my skimmer looks like a cement mixer but the fish have to live with me, I don't have to live with them, so they will have to conform.

Everything looks great, no dying corals or croaking fish and the spawning fish are still spawning.  I am surprised the 2 dragon faced pipefish are still in the front and partying as I have not target fed them yet.

Of course if I ran a sterile, quarantined tank, I would be looking for a new hobby by now as those tanks can't take any abuse.   I also have no idea what any parameters are but whatever they are, it's the same as the Long Island Sound where I got the water from.  Now that I am thinking about it, I may dose some calcium.  I don't remember doing that yet.

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If I choose to lose the walker for a few minutes and use the cane, I pay for it. That titanium in my leg may have come from a Snowflake titanium mine
In Girly Man town because it won't let me put my full weight on it yet. But I keep pushing it. They also forgot to put a grease fitting in it.
I spent the day yelling at elevator construction workers but I think I got it to where they are coming at 8:00am and I am not allowing them to leave until I ride the thing down. Then they will have to get every greasy fingerprint off my siding and every piece of saw dust off my driveway, and remove every piece of trash before I pay them. And they have to take that trash with them as it is not allowed to go into my dumpster. I made sure that was in my contract.

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I am all excited, soon I will go to my Doctor to get my "glue" removed. You can't get stitches removed any more because they don't use them. Only glue which they stick you together with and put a piece of tape over. The glue and tape is all scurvy and filthy looking from the last 2 weeks. I assume they will need nail polish remover to get this stuff off of me but it is itchy and ruins the beautiful shape of my leg. :rolleyes:

I asked Greta my Grand Daughter if she wants to see it. I said it is all yucky and oozing. She ran away and yelled DISCUESTING, NO.

Today I will also buy some fish food because my Dr, is right near a large LFS and I am almost out of food. Another day and my fish will have to eat linguini can clams like the rest of us.

The tank is doing great but needs a water change. When I can walk better I will collect some water and hopefully some mud.
Everything is doing what it is supposed to do and nothing jumped out in quite a while. I do need a new white worm culture as mine is just to old and stinky. It is many years old. Luckily I have some fresh clams to feed the fish.

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A little Viet Nam I learned about this morning.

This morning I called my old Captain from Viet Nam who is now a retired General. We stayed friends after the war but he lives in DC. He has a great memory and I barely remember why I started to write this. I remember almost nothing from my time in Nam. I have PTSD which may have something to do with that. I also have two Bronze Stars for Valor that I have no idea what I got them for. It must have been for my winning attitude or great smile. :D

I stayed on LZs or landing zones for helocopters all over the Jungle mostly on the Cambodian border. Thats the way that war was fought, from those small clearings.
Anyway I had a duck there. I have pictures of the duck but I remember little of my duck except he was the best pet I ever had.
My General friend told me that one day we were going on a raid. It was me and him in a Jeep, a Duster, which is a lightly armored, tracked anti aircraft vehicle, a few trucks and 3 Howitzers.
About 20 infantry were also with us. Bill, my Captain told the Duster driver to lead the way.

The guy says: "I am not a bomb detector so I am not leading the way" (big sissy) So Bill says "No Problem, me and Sgt. Baldassano (me) will lead the way in a Jeep." (lucky me)
It was raining so hard and it was so muddy that the rain would kick up the mud all over you so we had to wear goggles. Army Jeeps had no windshields or roofs. He told the "convoy" to keep going and not to stop no matter what.

After a while I looked back and there was no one behind us. With the roar of the monsoon rain we couldn't hear anything. The Captain called them on the radio and they took some fire so they all stopped and started firing into the trees. It was probably one NVA or Viet Cong with nothing to do.
Now we were so far ahead and it was raining so hard we couldn't find them. We also had to keep emptying our goggles of mud. Bill told them to fire one red shot straight up in the air so we could see their location. They did that and eventually we found them.

This was supposed to be a one day raid but it took five days.
We get to the village where we were supposed to be and set up the three Howitzers. The infantry set up a perimeter. There was something happening a few hundred yards away so I said (stupidly) I will go and see what it is.
He said I was gone for half an hour and he sees me coming back with this duck. I don't remember what else happened there, but I got a duck. He was my best friend for the rest of my time and he would not leave my side.
But my Captain said he got into a lot of trouble for that duck.

We were loading a Schnook Helocopter with ammo and the Colonel was there.
Me and Doc, the Medic were carrying a stretcher into the helocopter and tied to the stretcher was our dog "Ratsass", on the stretcher we had Judy the monkey and Pete the other monkey and my duck.
The Colonel was furious and yelled at Bill.
Then another time the Colonel came to visit us on an LZ and I had my duck in an enclosure made out of artillery shells with a roof for shade and a pond. He again went nuts. But Bill told him "Just leave Sgt. Baldassano alone, He will do anything or build anything I ask out of bamboo or crashed helocopters".
He also told me I made chop sticks and cups for everyone from bamboo. Another memory I lost.

My fiend DukDuk

[IMG]

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I looked close at my tank last night and I still have a load of those flatworms but they are darker. That usually means they are on their way out (or they got a tan) They did not hurt anything and are welcome back. I don't know what is in Flatworm Exit but I doubt it exists in the sea. Almost all "pests" will leave on their own and I have never in my life dipped a coral in anything. Maybe I am very lucky or just stupid. [IMG]

I also don't fresh water dip my fish or ever had to de-worm anything. I am not sure why. I never remember losing a fish to worms or flukes. Maybe the naturalness of my tank somehow alleviates those concerns. I find that a natural tank with natural methods and foods, with no Alien chemicals equals success in this hobby.

I consider quarantine an Alien method that short circuits my entire method and, to me anyway, almost guarantees disaster "eventually". A tank can not be self maintaining for an extended amount of time using that method unless you continue to use un-natural methods because by short circuiting the natural life style of the fish you are dooming them to a much shorter lifespan.
All of our fish should only die from jumping out or old age. Anything else is a total failure. If a clownfish dies of something at 15 years old, that is a failure as that fish can live 30 years.

But for a fish, any fish to complete it's presumed lifespan, it needs to be a complete fish, eating it's normal complete food which means parasites and bacteria. A complete fish has a complete, working immune system that is used constantly for what it was designed for. Quarantined fish lack that ability and IMO, not a complete fish but a fish artificially being kept alive by extra ordinary means in an un natural, quizi sterilized system.


Of course there is bacteria in every system, but disease bacteria is needed along with good bacteria, viruses and parasites as they all work together to keep each of them in check.
I know I am beating a dead horse with this and that horse is beginning to stink, but just look at the disease threads on any forum. Look at all the medications used. See how many fish are dying un needlessly.

It is all due to un natural conditions that people invented through out the history of this hobby to try to fix a situation that we ourselves created.

Quarantine "causes" disease, not the other way around. Of course if you get a fish in the process of getting last rites, you need to do something, but you should not have gotten that fish in the first place.

Most threads start out with . I bought such and such a fish, it was eating well then in 4 days it developed spots. I dipped him, treated with Prizapro and watched him deteriorate for a week until it died so I blame the store.


Isn't it odd that that never happens to me. Am I that good an aquarist? No, I am not. I do have experience and common sense that came from killing many many fish.
Unfortunately these methods have been rumored into us for decades and we will never be successful in this hobby until we turn to a more natural approach which is also much cheaper and easier.
Just my pain induced, drug related opinion of course.
I am also a year older today so that makes me more senile. I am old, senile, in pain and crotchety so if you don't agree with any of this. Forget about it and plant some tomatoes.

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Happy Birthday, Paul. 

 

Sounds like you were keeping a small zoo, I enjoyed reading about your duck.  

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They called us Noah's Ark.

 

I feed my fish live white worms, clams, LRS food and if I can get them live blackworms.  The pipefish get new born brine shrimp or Cyclopese. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So yesterday we went to see the Kids and Grand Kids in the East Village in Manhattan. I worked in Manhattan for 40 years and would rather have Nancy Pelosi stick me in the eye, twice with a sea urchin, then step on my busted knee with a high heel than go into Manhattan. So I have to stop before I tell you how I really feel about Manhattan. :eek:

Anyway we drive to the Jitney, depot and get on the bus. It's about 100 miles to downtown from here and busses are not built for people with new knees. You can't stretch your leg because for some reason they always put a seat in front of you.

An Hour and a half later we get to 44th st and Third Ave. And have to get a Taxi.
It's cold.
We hail a cab and it was a tiny cab with a driver who barely speaks English, but that is a requirement to be a Taxi driver in NY. If you can speak perfect English, they won't give you the job and you would have to run the French Fry cooker at Burger King.

My left knee is new and I can hardly bend it. My wife has MS and can barely bend her right leg. We are trying to get into this cab at the same time and to do this you have to put your butt in and slide all the way over to the other side to get your leg in. While I am trying to do this (carrying a cake, Christmas presents and a pie) My wife is trying to get in on the other side.

I don't know if you know what 44th st and Third Ave in Manhattan looks like but it is not like somewhere in Idaho.
WE have both doors wide open, I slide all the way in and pick up my leg with my hand to get that in. My wife has to slide in and get on my lap so she can get her foot in. (It's OK because we have been married for 45 years) Now we are both in and we have to close the doors with her cane. I have a cane that folds up so you can't pull anything with it or it falls apart. I am holding in my screams because this is very painful as my leg is practically on the drivers shoulder and my wife's leg is almost out the window.

The traffic is horrendous like it always is and it is a 20 minute ride.
WE get to our Daughters house and I have to get out to pay the guy. I slither out onto the street like a snake and my wife got out some how. Now I can't stand because new knees take a while to move. It must be some kind of aluminum problem. I get to straighten up to almost half my height and pay the guy.

Then my wife and I limp into Our Daughters house where there is a long walk to the elevator. We looked like those guys from the Civil War where one is carrying the flag, one has a flute, one has a drum and they have bloody bandanas on. :rolleyes:

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The knee is taking its time in healing, but your sense of humor has come back. :biggrin:

 

Do you have a grounding clip for that knee. Could be dangerous around all that electricity near the tank.

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I think  the knee is starting to rust and needs some WD-40.   This is a horrible procedure and I had an idea for the Doctor.  I told him they should make the thing hollow and fill it with Novocain.  This way it would slowly ooze out and give you some relief until the thing stops hurting.  Walking on a new knee feels like your leg is on crooked and there is no position that doesn't hurt.

I don't take the pain pills because they do nothing but make you woozy and constipated.  Then you are still in pain, but now you are falling down and can't poop, and it's hard to be sexy when your constipated. :eek: 

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I have been looking over a few other forums where I wrote that I sometimes add, or used to add garden soil to my tank. I didn't invent that, it was Robert Straughn, The "Father of Salt Water Fish Keeping" and many people are aghast at that (I love that word and wonder where it came from)
Anyway as I was thinking about that I realized that for many years, long before Nancy Pelosi was born the sea has been coming in contact with garden soil. I realize this is very radical thinking but many people have never seen the sea. I personally think they should move but I digress.
The ocean normally contacts a beach which is in almost all cases just sand. It's sand because if it was soil, as many beaches were due to volcanoes, earthquakes and builders who make shopping centers near the shore, the organic material in the soil washed away leaving sand.

But all that soil including what runs off celebrities lawns including Seinfeld and Billy Joel, goes into the sea. Why is it such a foreign concept to see that soil is in the sea and always has been.
I added soil in the beginning for biodiversity. Do I know if any of that biodiversity lives in salt water or reproduces at all, No, I don't, but I still like the concept.

I know the tide pool where I collect things like mud, amphipods, messages in bottles etc. at low tide is almost all fresh water because it gets run off from a lake, but at high tide it is full salt water as the tide here rises 8'. Those amphipods, worms, crabs and I assume bacteria don't seem to mind the change and if I put my ear to the ground I can't hear them screaming when the water turns fresh. Even tiny horseshoe crabs are there by the thousands but I didn't really count them.

I think those small creatures can and do make the transformation to salt water quite easily, maybe not all of them but enough to add bio diversity to a tank. Just my thoughts of course and I could be totally wrong, especially about Mrs. Pelosi. :rolleyes:
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  • 2 weeks later...

I just remembered a Viet Nam story. If I wrote it already just go and watch Oprah.
We were on an LZ (Big clearing in the jungle) which is where I usually was and me, my Captain and a couple of other guys were talking and having a hot beer that we got from the Air Force. This guy comes up to us and he had face camouflage on, sticks in his helmet, grenades hanging all over him. 2 knives, a 45, an M-74 rifle with a grenade launcher (I am not sure if it was an M-74 or what number it was) He thought he was Rambo and we figured he just came in from the bush or was special forces or something. I asked him when he got in country. He said Last Tuesday. 
The guy looked like he was born in the jungle but obviously saw too many war movies. 
We all said, "Get away from us, you are the first guy they are going to shoot." :rolleyes:

So we asked him if he would like to see what a charge 7 + rat was. He was all excited. We had 6 105 Howitzers there (big cannons) and we got a rat, which were all over the place. We put the rat in the gun and put in the powder charge. We let him pull the cord to shoot the thing. He was all excited.
Then we made him clean the gun. :rolleyes: For the animal activists there were rats all over the place and I even got bit by one and had to get shots. I would wake up with rat foot prints all over me and they would eat my food, even out of my hands. They would walk up your leg if you were in the "bathroom", which had no bath and wasn't a room, it was a barrel. We used to shoot them with soap filled bullets. So if you were in that situation and you feel you want a rat for a pet, join the Army. :cool:

Edited by paul b
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Hey Paul. I'm almost through with the Illingworth book. (Thanks for referring it.) FNG was used to describe the greenies. I guess Rambo hadn't yet caught on, eh? And the 55 gallon barrels... yeah, they made an appearance in the firefight, too. Made a bit of a mess.

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I finished therapy for my new knee a few days ago but the Dr. said I have to go to the gym and use the incombant bicycle for exercise and try to get the leg to bend more.  I kind of like it straight but he said it needs to bend if I want to walk.  So I go to the gym with my wife who goes almost every day.  This Gym is in a hotel and there is no changing room so I went to go into the Mens room to change into my Jogging pants.
I wanted to change fast before anyone came in so I ran into the room and threw my Gym clothes into the sink.
 
Of course it was an automatic sink and the water came on as I had one leg out of my pants.  I can't hop very well due to the rusty knee so by the time I took the stuff out of the sink, it was all soaked. 
 
I had to put those clothes on and get on the bike where I was dripping all over the place but I just made believe I was working so hard that I was sweating.  :rolleyes:
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I just did something that I rarely do, I tested my nitrates and Calcium. My calcium is 440 and nitrates are 5. Not bad and I am surprised being I feed so much. But it is all new NSW from 7 months ago so I guess it is all good. :rolleyes:

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Good numbers. But they only confirm a vibrant tank. There's nothing like our eyes to tell us how the tank is doing. Tests provide (possibly useful, but maybe not) input when things aren't going well. People get too hung up on numbers. You probably last tested, what?, a couple of years ago? :lol: What in the world possessed you? Are you sure that the test kits were still good?

 

I finished the Illingworth book, right through the "where are they now" ending. The timeline/mini-scene approach to the battle was ideal. And, it helped me begin to piece together some of the strategy & tactics on the ground with the air support described by my old Cobra-pilot friend who passed a year ago this month. I'm glad that I'm taking the time to learn more about the war. It was prevalent as I was growing up, even into my early- to mid-teen years, but I  never dug into it and the prior conflict (First Indochina War) that set up so much of what followed. It's the experiences of friends like you and Forrest that have me going back to look back at what are contemporary but clouded events that shaped my childhood world (as a military brat).

 

I'm now on to reading Skunk Works on another recommendation. This one I'm closer to.

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Tom that day of that battle changed my world and life totally for the rest of my life.  It also gave me PTSD which is a good thing because it was about a five hour battle and I have no recollection of about 4 hours of it.  I have no idea what I did or didn't do.  I must have done something more than hide my head under sand bags because they gave me two Bronze Stars for Valor.  I probably would have run away but there was no place to go.  Maybe I got all the Communists together and taught them how to have a reef tank and bored them to death. :wacko:

 

My Captain who is now a retired General tells me some of the stories from there of what I did, but I am totally in awe as I don't remember any of it.  But it made me a much better person and I don't seem to have the silly problems that many of the people have today.  If you live in the US you have much smaller problems than people in much of the world.  All we have to worry about is health, but the rest of the world worry's about that and eating, drinking and not getting shot. 

 

Besides that. 

 

Today started out at 5 degrees and my titanium knee is letting me know it is not happy so I didn't feel like doing anything.  I took a ride to a LFS just to see if I could waste some money and they didn't have anything that peaked my interest.  I figured I was there anyway and I saw a couple of striped cardinals.  They were swimming around and looked fine so I told the guy, I will take those.
 
He caught the pair and brought them up to the counter. 
As he was putting the plastic bag into a paper bag I noticed one of them was swimming funny.  The guy saw it too so we both looked closer.  He was not swimming funny, he was not swimming at all.  He croaked in the 20' from the tank to the counter.
I never saw a fish croak so fast.  I mean my tank is good, but the fish has to at least be alive when I throw it in. 
 
This is not him, but one I had a few years ago.
 
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I collected more water today, not that I needed it but it was so warm I wanted to do something in the sunlight and didn't want to put on my Speedo to get a tan.
I went down to the beach expecting it to be empty but almost all the parking spots were taken although no one was swimming.
I had no trouble parking because I just backed down the boat ramp and threw a pump in the water.
I am diatom filtering it now as it is a slime green color.  After a pass through the filter, it is crystal clear. :D
 
I am not sure why the water is that color this time of the year but the last two times I collected it, it was the same color.  I used 40 gallons the last time I collected it and nothing got the horrors or croaked so I assume it is fine.
If you put your hand in it you get instant frost bite. :rolleyes:
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It's warm weather here in DC today as well. Nice to have pumps and diatom filters, keep that knee from doing too much extra work. 

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