Signs of a healthy tank
- Thread starter Paul B
- Start date
steveoinlvnv
Member
That is a cool looking tank you have. I also agree with you on saying who cares about what others think of your tank as long as your happy with it. I know on my tank I do a lot wrong but every thing so doing great. Ill sit at my tank at night with a flash light for hours looking at all the different stuff in there that you don't see in the light. Almost every time I look I see new critters growing and moving around. My tank is in my room so I am the only one who really looks at it and all I can say is that its relaxing and peaceful to watch. What more can you ask for if the tank is doing good and you are happy with it.
Jeremy0322
Active Member
The more and more experience you get with the hobby the more you realize that there really isnt an "expert" when it comes to the hobby. Yea, people can know all of the science behind everything, and then you see something happen that is beautiful and defies all of their rules.
hagadiii
New Member
Great thread guys!
I love this hobby no matter what people say.
Wife said its too expensive, takes away too much time, kids say too nerdy but my shrink and I agree it is very relaxing.
Got back from operation Iraqi Freedom a couple of years ago with some injuries. The nightmares and the night sweats was off and on even after months of getting back home.
Last year I started this hobby and I find it soothing and relaxing and gives me a certain happiness which is a bit hard to explain.
I love my tank buddies and with the satisfaction I get watching them in their glass world, they don't need to love me back.
Alex
I love this hobby no matter what people say.
Wife said its too expensive, takes away too much time, kids say too nerdy but my shrink and I agree it is very relaxing.
Got back from operation Iraqi Freedom a couple of years ago with some injuries. The nightmares and the night sweats was off and on even after months of getting back home.
Last year I started this hobby and I find it soothing and relaxing and gives me a certain happiness which is a bit hard to explain.
I love my tank buddies and with the satisfaction I get watching them in their glass world, they don't need to love me back.
Alex
Reddog170
Active Member
Just amazing Paul. What is that last pic? I really like its coloring. You are proof of what I believe, that a reef tank is not a final goal but a long jurney that we embark upon with no end, just a lot af little steps. It truly is the never ending story here. I am sure that after fourty years and all the changes you still learn new things and find new critters. I can only hope that in fourty years I will be able to post a thread like this of one of my tanks. My hat if off to you, great job and you are truky a master of the hobby. Shaun
l3fty999
Member
I would certainly agree with the relaxing part, and I've been told that's why doctors offices, especially where kids are concerned have them. I'ts also a great way to chase away the winter blahs, especially if you live in a place where it rains most of the winter like it does here in western Washington.
Aaron
morbius18
Member
Where exactly are you in western WA?
ChiaReefer54
Member
Hey paul, just wanted to say this thread is awesome! It's so cool to see someone who can defy all the rules and do their own thing and be successful at it. I had a FOWLR tank for years, but dismantled it when we had my son, (Couldn't keep up with him and the hobby) but now he is three and has found interest in "fishies" (he loves going to the FL aquarium. Ok! Daddy does to!! 
) so I decided to get back into it and go all out with a reef tank. This place and people like you have been a wealth of knowledge through the process. I love the fact that you pull water and critters from your dives. I live in FL and have always been tempted to try but with all the quarantining and precautions people do and suggest it seemed like a bad idea. It's refreshing to find another perspective on the idea and gives me hope that I may become brave enough to try it some day . Keep up the posts, it's been a very interesting read.....
) so I decided to get back into it and go all out with a reef tank. This place and people like you have been a wealth of knowledge through the process. I love the fact that you pull water and critters from your dives. I live in FL and have always been tempted to try but with all the quarantining and precautions people do and suggest it seemed like a bad idea. It's refreshing to find another perspective on the idea and gives me hope that I may become brave enough to try it some day . Keep up the posts, it's been a very interesting read.....
Paul B
Well-Known Member
Chia, thank you. As for the rules, there were no rules when I started my tank.
These "rules" came about because of the internet. Now there are thousands of people with reefs and many of them are having problems. We all have problems in the beginning and it is not our fault or the fault of the fish. New un-established tanks have problems. Eventually "rules" came out of all the advice, both good and bad. Unfortunately many of these rules were originally rumors from people with little experience experiencing problems.
Someone would add a cleaner shrimp and the ich would go away so they figured the shrimp cured the fish, it diden't.
How many times we read someone put a snail or sea hare in a tank and the algae disappears so they think that 1/2" snail ate all the algae, it diden't.
The truth is that ich and algae often (usually) disappear overnight on their own.
Reverse UG filters were lost because of these rules. People don't know how to use them so they invented a rule that they don't work in a reef. Using NSW also became involved in rules because, in part, not many people have access to it and also because of all the negative presss the oceans have been getting from envirnmentalists. The US coastal seas are actually much cleaner now then they were in the seventees because of dumping regulations.
There are "rules" on what size tank you need for a tang". I had a hippo tang in a 40 gallon tank for years.
I add bacteria from the sea, there is a rule for that because it may add paracites. I have been waiting for those paracites since Nixon was President.
There is one that says that if you use copper in a tank, you can never use that tank or rocks again. How long is "never?" I have used copper for years in my tank. Still waiting for the crash.
Unfortunately this is not anexact science so rules have to be very flexable.
We look at our tanks and try to find problems but many of the problems are associated with bacteria. If we could see them, bacteria covers every grain of sand in our tanks. That bacteria is all that is keeping the animals alive.
There are thousands of types of bacteria and we all have different strains of them depending on where we collect our water or where we buy animals and where they were collected and how they were treated.
If we never added bacteria from the sea, our tanks are a desert when it comes to bacterial diversity. Thats where tank crashes, algae blooms and diseases come from. Thats alas why so many people have problems with nitrates which should be taken care of by the correct type and amounts of bacteria.
We need some rules but we have to understand that they are very flexable.
Have a great day, we have a foot of snow here now.
paul
These "rules" came about because of the internet. Now there are thousands of people with reefs and many of them are having problems. We all have problems in the beginning and it is not our fault or the fault of the fish. New un-established tanks have problems. Eventually "rules" came out of all the advice, both good and bad. Unfortunately many of these rules were originally rumors from people with little experience experiencing problems.
Someone would add a cleaner shrimp and the ich would go away so they figured the shrimp cured the fish, it diden't.
How many times we read someone put a snail or sea hare in a tank and the algae disappears so they think that 1/2" snail ate all the algae, it diden't.
The truth is that ich and algae often (usually) disappear overnight on their own.
Reverse UG filters were lost because of these rules. People don't know how to use them so they invented a rule that they don't work in a reef. Using NSW also became involved in rules because, in part, not many people have access to it and also because of all the negative presss the oceans have been getting from envirnmentalists. The US coastal seas are actually much cleaner now then they were in the seventees because of dumping regulations.
There are "rules" on what size tank you need for a tang". I had a hippo tang in a 40 gallon tank for years.
I add bacteria from the sea, there is a rule for that because it may add paracites. I have been waiting for those paracites since Nixon was President.
There is one that says that if you use copper in a tank, you can never use that tank or rocks again. How long is "never?" I have used copper for years in my tank. Still waiting for the crash.
Unfortunately this is not anexact science so rules have to be very flexable.
We look at our tanks and try to find problems but many of the problems are associated with bacteria. If we could see them, bacteria covers every grain of sand in our tanks. That bacteria is all that is keeping the animals alive.
There are thousands of types of bacteria and we all have different strains of them depending on where we collect our water or where we buy animals and where they were collected and how they were treated.
If we never added bacteria from the sea, our tanks are a desert when it comes to bacterial diversity. Thats where tank crashes, algae blooms and diseases come from. Thats alas why so many people have problems with nitrates which should be taken care of by the correct type and amounts of bacteria.
We need some rules but we have to understand that they are very flexable.
Have a great day, we have a foot of snow here now.
paul
l3fty999
Member
I'm close to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it town called Pe Ell in the west end of Lewis County.
Aaron