Just an Old Coot ranting

[paul b]

I am finally at the point in my life and the life of my reef tank where I know I can relax and nothing is going to happen. Well, I may become senile and the Earth may be invaded by aliens, global warming may disturb some polar bears and people will lost interest in Myley Cyrus, but besides that, I'm good. I can't get much balder but my tank almost takes care of itself. I am only here to give the hermit crabs something to make fun at. I don't have to quarantine, test, play with reactors, dosers, or controllers, never have to worry if anything is going to eat, or not eat. Nothing will get sick, Rarely do anything but occasionally change the water, and I only do that so people don't start threads saying how wrong I do everything.

 

There is enough microscope life in the tank to feed whatever is in there, the brittle stars and amphipods are so plentiful that they started a rugby team. The "Staropods". The "nitrate factory" reverse UG filter is doing it's thing and almost everything is spawning. Not the copperband but I am playing Barry White music a lot.

 

I think there are three reasons that my tank seems to never have any problems. One is the age of the set up. I assume that after a few decades the bacteria get bored of doing stupid things to mess up the water and I also believe the life and bacteria I sometimes add from the sea may have a positive reaction. Of course I don't know. I doubt it is my good looks or the under arm deodorant I use (and sometimes lend to the hermit crabs) It could be luck as many people acuse me of having that. The last thing is the live food I feed every day. I know I mention that a lot, but it is what it is. That is the reason for the no quarantining, and the fact that everything is spawning and only dying of old age. Except for firefish, they jump out so to save time, when I buy them, I open the bag and throw them on the floor. I almost bought a garden eel this week and was tempted to tell the guy to just throw it on the floor in his store to save me the trouble, but I decided to just let it jump out of his tank and let him clean it up.

 

I do realize many people have all sorts of "problems" and for many years I did try to add my opinion to those threads, but I gave up on many topics as my opinion on those topics just become arguements. Hair algae, ich and ground probes are all but off limits now and I hope the people with those things going on have good luck resolving them. My methods with all of them are very old school and we all know that old school never works. So just keep using that advice of changing the water and see how that ends up. I can't get into those philoshysical conversations that some of you college types can as I don't posess the vocabulary. 

 

I also realize that my tank is no where near as nice as many tanks on here as there are some very talanted and creative people and I am jealous of some of those tanks and very jealous of a few of them. My tank is just there and always seems to have been there. As I get older, I don't even remember most of the things I used to do in those early days, my methods today are so different from just about everyone on here as most people started their reef after the internet was invented by Al Gore or Pee Wee Herman, I forget who, but most tanks today seem to be run the same way. It seems to me anyway, with my high school education that the tanks that are fooled with the most, have the most problems. The ones that have to get the parameters exactly to where they are supposed to be according to someone get all screwed up. I have always felt that seawater is very stable as long as you don't mess with it. The corals use a little calcium and thats about it. (Yes I know, I am way off on that) The rest they get from the normal stuff in the water or the light. Now I know that if anyone is reading this, you are saying, "wow, I can't wait to finish reading this so I could give that Old Coot a piece of my mind". But hold off on that, I am old, crotchity and probably don't care. So start your own thread saying how much of an Idiot I am and I probably couldn't keep a goldfish alive. Actually, I can't keep those dam things alive. 

 

　

 

[Jason Rhoads]

Except for firefish, they jump out so to save time, when I buy them, I open the bag and throw them on the floor.

 

 

Funniest thing I have read in awhile. Thanks Paul!

[sen5241b]

Don't worry, I'm a fan of reverse UG filters

[morgan175]

You sound like the guy with a bottle in your tank. Good luck to you. I will try the fire fish tonight. I will get him out with a net and just throw him on the floor. I will save time in the future.

 

 

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[paul b]

No, only a fool would have a bottle in their tank.  I have 9 of them in my tank. 

 

 

 

 

 

Along with some chains for stability 

 

[makai531]

Oh Paul, I do enjoy your posts and read through your 40+ tank thread. Your perspective is refreshing and more so brought back some fond memories.

 

I had the blessing of growing up as a child in Hawaii and the Bahamas. My parents made their own tank from start to finish and stocked it from the ocean using slurp guns. We all used to go to the jetty at night and spotlight the water and scoop with a fine mesh net. It was a surprise what we would get each time as well as providing live food for the tank. We once got a 1 inch eel that we got to watch grow until he got so big he started eating his tank mates. Circle of life I guess. That tank brought my mom and dad so much enjoyment, and when I read your posts I remembered that. So I thank you!

 

 

 

 

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[morgan175]

That is funny.

 

 

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[paul b]

Makai, thank you for that response.  I was just in Hawaii a few months ago as it was our 40th anniversary and we went there on our Honeymoon.  We also have some friends on Maui.

I grew up on Long Island and I also used to go to the sea with a net and collect things either for food in my tank or just something to keep in the tank.  I remember when I was a little kid.  My parents used to let me stay with my cousins in the Bronx and she worked in a beach club which was on the Long Island Sound which has muddy beaches filled with horseshoe crabs, eels, snails and all sorts of interesting things.  I think that is where I got my love for the sea creatures.  Every day I would wait for low tide as the tide here varies by 8'.  At low tide the ocean would recede about 80 yards and all sorts of cool things would get trapped in tide pools.  I would make a depression in the mud and collect these things.  Once I got a large female angler fish under a rock and she was covered in her babies.  They were so cool and If I found them now, I would take some home as I never saw them so small.  I always had tiny eels, fiddler crabs and shrimp.

Those were the best days of my life, just looking through muddy tide pools with my friends, the sea creatures.

This is the age I was then.  And sometimes my girlfriend Georgia would come with me.

 

[Crob5965]

Look's good to me, I dont know a lot about saltwater, but I do know if it works who cares how crazy it sounds lol

 

So should I finish the bottle of Jack before I toss it in my tank or share the wealth with my fish?

[Big Country]

Always enjoy your stories.  I grew up with aquariums filled with minnows, crawfish, bluegill and the occasional turtle or darterfish caught from the local stream that my dad kept in the living room with the only light coming from sunlight through the window.  Mom had storebought guppies with a incandescent hood in the TV room.  I liked dad's tank better because I could add cool fish I caught to it.

[sen5241b]

I used to live in Hawaii. Went out and snorkled every day after work and said hello to a nice moray that lived under a sunken outboard motor.

[AlanM]

I never saw the chain in your tank pics before.  I like it.  Saving money on adding iron to the water with all those lost razor blades and chains in there.

[JR-Tanked150]

I always enjoy reading your posts. You might have a different out look on things, but it works for you and your tank.

 

And the chain is a nice touch in the tank.

[Origami]

Paul, what about the old asphalt? It's got to still be in there, isn't it? Show 'em that.

 

PVC-rock, too.

[paul b]

Crob, you can finish the bottle of Jack or throw it in half full to brighten up your fishes day

 

Big Country (If that is your real name).  I also had bluegills and plenty of turtles and tortoises.  The Bronx Zoo used to sell desert tortoises for like 3 bucks in the fifties.   I also used to collect box turtles and painted turtles.  Always loved them turtles.  There is a saltwater lagoon near here where there are lots of diamond backed terrapins.  They are protected but I like to SCUBA dive with them.  They are almost to fast to catch underwater.

 

Sen5241b is that your first or last name?  We were just in Hawaii a few months ago.  We went there on our Honeymoon 40 years ago and went back to celebrate our anniversary.  We have friends on Maui.  Love the place.

 

I SCUBA dove here in New York since about 1978 or so and we used to go for lobsters.  These are real lobsters, not those Sissy tropical, make believe lobsters.  Anyway as we were looking for lobsters we would spear any flounders we came across.  I had a lobster friend who was much to big to get caught in a lobster trap and he lived near a day marker in about 30 feet of water.  Whenever I would dive there I would spear a fish and hand feed it to him.  I think he appreciated it even thought I could never quite tell if he was smiling.  I don't know if he is still there as I have not been there in probably 15 years.  But he was a bruiser probably weighing over 10 lbs.

 

We started diving here when no one dove.  And we would like to have fun.  There was a place where small boats gathered to fish for flounder or blackfish and we would swim under their boats.  We would put things on their fish hooks like a sign that read "Sorry Charlie" or just attach a rubber chicken to their line.

 

Alan iron will not hurt your tank although I made that chain out of acrylic.  Once I collected a "rock" in the ocean and had it in a bucket along with some hermit crabs and shrimp that I collected.  That bucket was in my garage for months and one day I looked at it.  That "rock" turned out to be an iron pulley from an old ship and it had rusted so bad I couldn't tell what it was.  That bucket was red with rust, but I never saw such healthy looking shrimp and crabs.  That taught me never to worry about iron in my reef.

 

Tom, that asphalt is still in there and has been in there from the beginning.  I don't have the picture anymore but here in New York they have been dumping asphalt in the sea forever to prevent erosion of the sand or just to get rid of it.

I know of a place that is loaded with the stuff and it is great looking live "rock".  It was dumped in the water about 60 years ago and is very porous.  If you try hard, you can pull it apart.  It is just loaded with amphipods and I use it as a base for my live rock.  Nicest looking "rock" I have and it is unlimited and free.  Don't put pieces of streets in your tank unless they have been under saltwater for 60 years.

Much of my rock I built using cement over PVC pipe.

Here is a piece of it.

 

 

And this was Hawaii last year.

 

Edited April 17, 2014 by paul b

[Rob A]

Great post Paul!

[londonloco]

Great post Paul....I haven't thought about the Bronx Zoo in years, my grandmother used to take me there.....

[paul b]

I still go there, but they don't sell tortoises any more.