Tank Thread Tank reached 38 years old...in 2009!

[Paul B]

I had a little concern this week. (and I don't get concerned often) Actually a month ago I had a physical and I asked them to check me for asbestos and agent orange exposure. I asked because most of the guys I served with in Nam died of lung cancer and for almost fifty years I either installed or worked around asbestos while is was being removed. I even have an asbestos license. So they gave me a cat scan and it showed something.
If a cat gets a Cat scan do they call it a "Selfie" I am not sure. But anyway I went to a lung guy today and although the asbestos shows up in my lungs in pockets, it is not doing anything bad except forming some nodules. He told that is normal with people who worked with asbestos and nothing to worry about "yet". So that is great news as I always wanted my reef to get to at least fifty years old and it looks like I will live long enough for that to happen as long as I don't get run over by a Supermodel with a Mazda.

 

[Paul B]

I just collected some mud for the bacteria on the South Shore of Long Island. The water is 45 degrees and the mud is loaded with amphipods. I will dump them in my tank tomorrow.

 

[Paul B]

Last night I collected some scurvy seaweeds, algae and muck from the side of a wooden dock on the south side of Long Island. It is now suspended in a net in my tank as I just want the bacteria and amphipods but not the slimy looking algae. This is another one of my methods that purists will say is going to crash my tank due to parasites, anthrax, Godzilla fry, invasive algae, etc. My tank depends on these infusions as I think bacteria is necessary and I also feel that it gets stagnant if you just have bacteria from a LFS. Of course this is also just something that bounces around in my head and may be completely wrong.

 

[Paul B]

I have some time to just look at my tank and I like to do that with the pumps off. All the fish come out, the crabs look around in astonishment, the brittle stars peek out and the pipefish get a chance to hunt without their prey flying all around them. Occasionally I see some sort of amphipod make a B Line to the surface or, I would imagine, to a close friend. If he is lucky, and fast, he will make it. The pair of pistol shrimp come way out of their burrows along with the watchman gobi. They seem to be wondering what happened to the pumps and maybe could be of some help fixing them. The copperband darts back and forth because he knows that no pumps mean feeding time.
The very old fireclown stirs up the gravel with his tail to impress the smaller, younger female, but she plays hard to get and doesn't even notice him. Then he goes back into the bottle to clean out the detritus.
The pair of mandarins find it much easier to hunt in calm water and they take the opportunity to go to places where it is normally to turbulent to search for pods.
I can't tell what most of the pods are doing but you can see them climbing up from the gravel to the lower parts of the glass where I didn't clean. Maybe they find more food there or maybe they just go to hang out with friends. The possum wrasse seems to do cartwheels behind the rocks. I never figured why he does that but he seems to enjoy it.
The only ones who don't seem happy are the corals. Especially the LPS with the long 5" tentacles. They just hang limp and look very sad.

 

[anselmo145]

You're truly an inspiration, Paul. Stay clear of all supermodels! We're all counting on seeing your vibrant NSW tank after 50!

 

[Paul B]

So am I.

Look at these stupid clown gobies,
How many eggs can these guys lay? Every two weeks or so and they lay more eggs than looks like can fit in the fish. I am surprised the ocean isn't over run with these guys. You can see the eggs just over the fish. This is a new acro they are killing, they already destroyed another one.

 

[ohana888]

:lol2::lol2::lol2:

 

[TUSI]

Paul what do u mean killing the acro. I thought they just kill the tissue on the acro where they lay their eggs. I did loose a big colony that they layer eggs on but I thought it was rtn. I'm looking forward to your input since you are more experienced

 

[Paul B]

The place where they lay the eggs dies and algae will grow there, in 2 weks they move over to another place and lay more eggs, then that place dies and it keeps going until the entire piece is dead. You can see some coraline algae growing on this piece, that is from eggs. You can see the eggs here also just to the right of the gobi on the left. The eggs take up about an inch and a half of coral tissue.

 

[rookie07]

Paul,

Have you ever tried to raise the fry of any of your fish? Seems like a project you would enjoy.

 

[Paul B]

Hi Phil, I have raises seahorses, clownfish and bangai cardinals along with many freshwater fish. I don't have the time to do it any more. I am busy with other things now as my wife is pretty ill. But if all goes well, someday I will again try to raise some fish. Maybe clown gobies or their close cousins, manta rays.

 

[Paul B]

These suckers do eat a lot. They now compete with the coppperband which is the biggest eater by far. I still think the two pistol shrimp are spawning but I can't be sure, they just have that look on their eye stalks. Right now I have the pumps off because I always do that when I feed the tank. All the fish are out like it is the first day of summer. The dragon face pipefish is my favorite fish and right now he is eating new born brine shrimp from the surface. He learned that all the shrimp he didn't see at first head towards the light and congregate at the surface of the water. The mandarins see the shrimp up there but they are Sissies and only make it half way to the surface. Then they go back down to the feeder where they know there are shrimp. All the fish including the copperband and possum wrasse eat the shrimp, but it is just a small snack for them and doesn't even seem worth it. The bangai cardinals look silly with their big mouths eating baby shrimp. The clown gobies are still spawning and should really get a room as they are annoying me.

 

[Paul B]

We are having a lot of company so I had to get creative as kids are coming over.

 

[Paul B]

I have to hold off on some UG filter maintenance for a couple of years as bluestriped pipefish don't survive typhoons. A couple of times a year I normally use my diatom filter to mix the gravel all the way down to the UG filter plate but every time I have done that, I lost the bluestripes. Their lifespan is only 2 or 3 years so I can't do it until they are gone. I can gently do some mixing but I think the bluestripe gills are so small that they get clogged during a really good storm. It is what it is.

 

[oh207]

What is this mixing you're referring to?

 

[Paul B]

It looks like this

 

[Sharkbait420]

How do you clean a underground filter? Backwash? What kind of substrate do you use?

 

[oh207]

Whoa! It certainly looks like a typhoon. So you do this every 2-3 years?

 

[Paul B]

Actually I am doing it right now but it will take all day as I don't want to kill the bluestripe pipefish. If it were not for them, I stir up the entire tank with a strong diatom filter and suck everything out. That is what you call maintenance and nothing lasts very long without maintenance. 10 years is not a long time in the life of a reef tank.
My substrait is dolomite

 

[lanacane214]

Paul do the banana fish usually hang out together.I got 1 yesterday really cool fish thinking maybe a should have gotten 2