Tank turned 49 this year

Paul B

Well-Known Member
A few weeks ago my wife gives me this stuff you are supposed to spray in the shower to disinfect the walls and glass doors.


Yesterday I decided to use it. after I took a shower. It is strong stuff and you can't stay in there as it smells like nerve gas.


Anyway, after I used it I accidentally left it in the shower and by mistake put my liquid soap away. My liquid soap comes in a bottle that looks similar to that disinfectant stuff.

(I think you know where I am going with this)


So this morning I get into the shower and pick the stuff up and spray myself.

It is like a mixture of Clorox, Battery acid and riot gas. It wasn't pretty.
drool.png
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
My tank is doing really well, even my wife came and said that and she didn't even know we had a fish tank.

I have life all over the place as well as some cyano which I think looks kind of nice. All the corals are trying to reach the ceiling and the fish can't smile any broader. I think my young watchmans are spawning, or watchman and watchgirl.
I want to be PC just in case there are any Snowflakes that mistakenly fell into this thread.

I think my experimental Sodium De-nitrifier is working, or at least it looks cool. My algae scrubber that is hanging over the tank is growing algae. But I changed the grow bulb to a red bulb which was a mistake. The stuff grows much better with the normal bulb.

I am all excited, I got a rare look at my Janss pipefish as he never comes out. He must have thought I was out of town.
I never expected this guy to live this long as they are considered difficult. He did bite my male bluestripe almost in half, but besides that he is a great and beautiful fish. If you could ever see him of course.



I also finished (almost) my fireplace. The entire structure is on wheels and I can move it away from the wall in case I want to hide back there. All I have left to do, if I decide to do it, is to add hydraulics to that stone below the hearth so it lifts up to store stuff. It's about 400lbs and almost 10' long so I am not sure I want to do it or not.

 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
I had to bite the bullet and order a new culture of white worms. And I really hate biting bullets.

My old culture is just to old and the flies and Godzilla larvae over took the thing and are eating all the worm food.

If I had a small lizard I could easily keep him fed with these flies but I have no place for a lizard right now so I will just dump the entire culture in the dumpster so those flies can fight with the flies already in the dumpster. It will look like Star Wars in there. .


I wanted to order them before it got to cold because I doubt they ship them in an insulated container. As it is they may freeze before they get here anyway but they are not that expensive.


My old culture may be 10 years old so maybe the worms are Geezers and can't fight flies. Bunch of Sissies. :cool:
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
I got up at 5:00 today and baked some really nice looking apple, nut muffins. I get bored in the morning waiting for the world to get up so I have to do something and my fish don't want to be bothered.

I will invite my neighbors (and best friends) over for breakfast because they are snow birds and will be heading back this week to "Sissy land" I mean the Florida Keys for the winter. upload_2019-11-4_6-34-0.gif


Soon we will be getting real Man weather with snow and all.


I would like to collect water at least once more before it freezes and this time of the year it is tough as the sea is angry and very rough. I take it from shore and will probably get soaked. But I am a Man so it doesn't matter. I just have to go a few hundred yards from here to the sea.


My tank is doing really well but a lot of people wouldn't like it as it has some cyano, a little algae and the tips of some of the SPS bleached. That is fine and just the way it is in the sea. It is very natural, the corals fight each other and some win and some lose. My pistol shrimp makes a lot of noise because my purple psudo keeps trying to eat him and he will have none of that. He sounds like he could break the glass which is difficult for a 3/4" crustacean.


I don't like a pristine reef tank as that is not the way Mother Nature designed it. I also have quite a few flatworms which are just free life. I am sure a few of my fish are feasting on them because 3 of my fish are so fat, they can hardly swim and I rarely see them eat. The flatworms are sun bathers and contrary to popular opinion don't hurt anything. Of course there are some species of them that cover corals so we need to make sure what kind we have, if any. But the reefs all over the world house flatworms and a lot of fish eat them. I would never use Flatworm exit or any other chemical for sun bathing flatworms. If I had Godzilla Larvae, I may use something, maybe Alka Seltzer.


Of course I never dip any corals as I think that is just silly.


I didn't collect one amphipod this summer. Amphipod collecting in my new home isn't very productive and it is mostly sand here. You need rocks for amphipods so next year I may have to take a trip to the old neighborhood to do some collecting.


My muffins are ready,, Have a great day upload_2019-11-4_6-34-0.gif:celebrate:
 

Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
"the corals fight each other and some win and some lose."

I think I may be related to you :) I used to move corals around the tank when they started fighting, but I gave that up. I just let them get on with it and now it's survival of the fittest, as Mother Nature intended.

PS - As a non-American I used to think Muffin the Mule was a sexual offence !
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
This morning my wife and I went to the Supermarket. We didn't see any Supermodels but as she was picking through eggplants, tomatoes and whatever I got bored and went over to the coffee machine where they also have a few tables.


There were three nice looking Ladies there and they were laughing and having a good time. A white Lady, a Black Lady and a Middle Eastern Lady. They asked my name and I said "Paul". They said Oh, like the Saint. Then they invited me to sit with them. They were very nice and friendly I was thinking, "I still got it."


Then they gave me one of those "Jehovah's Witness" Booklets and I realized, I got nothing. :confused:upload_2019-11-5_11-27-14.gif
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
My wife and I were just talking about going back to California for more stem cell treatments (for her MS) but it is quite costly and the slight benefits only lasted for about 6 months.
We are really hoping and preying that something better comes along.

I posted this the last time we went in 2017 and figured I would post it again because I have nothing else to write:

This week I took my wife to La Jolla California for Stem Cell treatment for her Multiple Sclerosis. It is kind of an experimental treatment but we hope it works.

Before the "visit" began we spoke to the nurses a few times there on the phone and they were so nice I thought they were putting me on. The nurse asked my wife questions like they would before a medical procedure.



She asked my wife for her name, and my wife told her "Dale". The nurse said Oh, Awesome. Then she asked her for her birthday. My wife told her and the nurse said Wow, that’s so cool, thank you for telling me that. She asked her weight and said, Fur sure, totally awesome, you are so nice to tell me that. And the rest of the questions went like that. She didn't want to know anything about me or my fish tank.



I figured marijuana is legal there so maybe they were all "happy".



It was a six hour flight and they picked us up from the airport and brought us to the hotel where we checked in. The Supermodel at the desk spoke the same way and gave us cookies which were totally awesome, Fur sure.

The next day they brought us to the clinic where my wife will have the stem cell treatment. The Supermodel nurse comes in with the same attitude, thanking us and explaining the treatment and all that.



Then the doctor comes in with his arms stretched all the way out and says to my wife, First of all, let me give you a big hug. I don't remember any of my doctors here hugging me. Then the doctor explains her treatment to us for an hour and twenty minutes, all the while joking and making my wife at ease. She was really happy when the doctor told her that she doesn't have any belly fat so he has to harvest the fat from her thighs. (They get the stem cells from your fat) He couldn't believe her age and told her she is in the best shape out of almost anybody he treats and that she must spend a lot of time in the gym. She has gone to the gym four times a week for forty years. He didn't mention anything about my thighs or me not having any belly fat or anything.



After the treatment they bring us back to the hotel and call us to see how she is feeling and if she would like another hug, or cookies.

It was the nicest visit to not only a doctor’s office, but to anything.

We got home late last night and I see I got three E mails from them thanking us and asking how my wife is.

That entire experience is so different from a doctor’s visit here in New York.



A visit to the doctor’s office here would go something like this.

First thing in the morning you would call the doctor’s office and get elevator music with a recording that says "Your call is important to us, stay on the phone and your call will be answered by the next available operator". You would get that message twelve or thirteen times with 20-30 minutes of elevator music in between. Then someone would answer and say

"Please Hold."

Now you hear the music again with that same message.

You are now eating dinner with the phone on speaker on the table right next to the bread and mashed potatoes.

The operator comes on and says "can I help you?" You finish chewing and say: Yes, I am trying to make an appoin......... "OK, I will connect you with the appointment desk." Click

You hear:

"Your call is important to us, stay on the line and a representative will get back to you"

Now dinner is over and you are sitting on the couch watching TV with the phone still on speaker. It's hard to concentrate on the TV with Beethoven’s sixth symphony playing through the phone.

"Hello, can I help you? "

Yes, I would like to make an appointment.

"Sorry, the office is now closed; please call back in the morning."



After a few days you get an appointment the week after Easter. It is now December.

You get to the office and park, in the next town because the lot is full and there are a pickup trucks and wheelbarrows in all the handicap parking spaces.

Finally you get into the office and get in line at the desk. You grab lunch.



"The doctor will see you now"


The nurse or the lady who washes the windows shows you to the little room where you get naked, put on a paper gown and wait.

You finish your lunch while you read, "Pregnancy Today or Golf Magazine". Two things you wanted to read but never had the time.

The nurse comes in and asks for three forms of identification with a picture ID and wants to know your medical insurance group number and if they are still in business and how you will pay if the insurance doesn't cover you and how much money do you make as well as what kind of car you drive and what sign are you.



The nurse then says, what’s your name? "Paul", "How do you spell that?" Like the Saint, "Which Saint, Peter?"

No, "P" as in pin head, "A" as in "Are you kidding me", "U" as in are "U" kidding me, and "L" as in "Let me know the college you graduated from".

The nurse leaves.

After you are finished with Golf Digest and have learned 14 ways to breast feed in a subway, the doctor comes in. He doesn't hug you or look at you but looks at your chart and says. I don't see anything blaring here maybe you should see a Podiatrist.
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
I just cleaned my pumps and venturi valve in my skimmer. It's amazing the amount of stuff that grows on things in a salt tank. Everything is clogged with those hard tube worms, brittle stars and bristleworms, especially the intakes for the powerheads and I really hate those Korilia type pumps with the exposed grills, they are the worst and the hardest to clean. \


If I get ambitious I need to cut back the blue sponge because it wants to take over not only my tank, but my Man Cave.


I think the possum wrasse I added last week is fine but I am not sure because I have two of them and I rarely see one of them so I doubt I would ever see the both of them at the same time. There are a lot of hiding places in my tank so a lot of my fish I almost never see but those tend to be the fish I like the best.


I also have a huge decorator crab but I see him before the lights come on.


Those acropora "sticks" I added a few weeks ago which I thought croaked colored up nicely and are covering the epoxy that I stuck them on with.


I still haven't seen the last Queen Anthius I added a week ago, but as Queens, they do that and I am not concerned.


I took some video's

I wanted to get this purple guy. I think he is eating flatworms




 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
What you have is an objet d'art. I think it's kind of clever, and some one would likely be interested acquiring it if you ever put it in a show.
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
These Fireclowns just won't give up. They just spawned again as they do every week, it looks like they only laid a dozen eggs this time. That large male is I think 28 years old.


I devised a thing to collect the eggs but I won't use it as I don't have the time to raise them anyway. Maybe after the Holidays I break it out if I can find the thing.

The eggs are the orange things to the left of his (or her) pectoral fin just below the coraline algae.

It's not exciting to spawn clownfish as they will spawn in last weeks damp newspaper.


 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
I noticed on my 4 newer pieces of SPS acropora that I had originally thought were dying are growing faster than they should be. I think it's from the clam juice I have been adding by feeding clams.

I also have not been rinsing the clams because I have so much sponge growing that there is no need.


I have been feeding more clams than usual because my copperband has some sort of neurological problem and can't get his mouth close enough to food to snap it up so he is getting frustrated. He is actually getting worse and there isn't mush I can do about it.


But the coral is all growing new "arms".


Besides my fireclowns spawning my watchman gobies are also spawning but now they are the only paired fish I have.
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
I just spent almost an hour cutting sponge out of my tank with a friend of mine. We removed over a pound of the stuff which will now go in my dumpster along with all the associated bristle worms that live under the stuff. I just couldn't clean the front glass any longer and it had to be removed.


It will grow back in a few weeks and need to be done again.

This is last nights bristleworm haul


 
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