Signs of a healthy tank

[Paul B]

At the start of this thread people were talking about the supposed cyano all over my tank. I explained that it was Long Island Sound algae and as you can see it is all gone now. That is probably because it is winter now and I have not collected in the Sound for a long time.
In the summer when I again collect pods and other fauna there, it may return

I do have a bunch of mojanoes though, and, no, I am not trying to kill them, I want them right where they are. If I get too many, I persuade them to leave.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

I actually kind of like majanos. I've never had any but I think they are kinda pretty. And since you want a 'natural' ecosystem of the Long Island Sound, they make since being in your tank because they are natural to the area. I love your tank and have enjoyed looking at your pictures many times. I love how your tank goes through 'cycles' like the algae which I'm guessing kind of mimic cycles that the Long Island Sound goes through. I especially like the bottles...nice touch. Most people just want a pretty, pristine tank which isn't necessarily natural.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

I'm close to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it town called Pe Ell in the west end of Lewis County.

Aaron

Kind of like where I grew up in Kentucky

 

[molsen187]

wow i just read this whole thread and your tank is awesome. somthing to shoot for.

 

[Paul B]

Most people just want a pretty, pristine tank which isn't necessarily natural.

I want a healhty tank and I do like unusual. I don't really like the look of sterile tanks, as you said they are not normal. My tank is modeled on many years of diving and of course the Long Island Sound where a lot of the water, rocks and fauna came from.
I think the cycles are due to the natural things I add from the sea. Our seas do go through changes, some overnight. I once called the Dept of Envirnmental Conservation after a dive in the Sound to tell them that something was wrong with the lobsters. They blew me off. But now all the lobsters in the Sound are dead

 

[MrPex]

(not trying to hijack thread, sorry!)

Hey morbius18 and l3fty999- Longview is my second home... heading up there this Weds for Christmas... nice to see you guys on here!

 

[staresatrocks]

How beautiful! If my tank looks that good in 20 years, I'll be thrilled.

 

[Paul B]

If my tank looks that good in 20 years, I'll be thrilled.

Thanks but there are many much nicer looking tanks on here than mine.
I think of my tank as more of an experiment than a thing of beauty which is also the reason I put a lot of things in there that most people think is wierd.
I try different foods, different chemicals and different inverts from local water.
Some of these experiments did not go exactly as planned which is the reason I don't have any 20 year olf corals.
Now the tank is in a growth cycle. The mushrooms are growing like crazy, the couple of SPS are doing well but some of the larger LPS don't look too great. They seem healthy and eat good but it is hard to get the SPS, LPS, mushrooms and leathers to all look great for long periods of time all together.
They do fight by exuding chemicals that we can't measure so all we can do is try to remove them by skimming, carbon or changing water. I don't change as much water as I should because of time but I do have some carbon type stuff in there. It is almost summer and I will get the boat in the water soon so I will be able to collect some real water.

 

[1Reefer]

I'm also in a blink an miss it town in Washington....

Great job on the tank Paul B! Its nice to see a different aproach, and I think it looks wonderful... very natural

 

[burning2nd]

there is no set path, there is only one set result..

paul has one long path behind him..

he changed my view.. I havent tested in years (not advocating)

 

[Paul B]

I havent tested in years (not advocating)

Ok But I didn't say to do that, or not do that.

 

[Paul B]

I just went back and re read the beginning of this thread.
Thats where people were saying my tank was full of cyano
It really did look like that. Now there is almost no algae in there except in my algae trough.
It was not supposed to be a thread about my tank, it just turned into that, it was a thread about reef health or signs of a healthy tank.
The biggest sign of a healthy tank is if fish are spawning or at least making spawning jestures. Fish do three things, eat, spawn and poop.
Eating is of course important but that just means the fish is living.
Spawning or attempting to spawn (if you have a fish that can do that in a tank, no tangs, engels etc) is a sign that everything is great. Fish, unlike us can not spawn unless they are in excellent shape. We can eat potate chips and drink beer for years and still "spawn" fish can not.
It takes some energy for a fish to stay alive but it takes a lot more energy for a fish to produce eggs which are mostly oil.
Fish produce this oil but they need to be fed a food that has some fish oil in it. I use live blackworms, fish eggs or fish oil on pellets.
A fish in breeding condition is also "almost" immune from many diseases including paracites, No really. I know most of you don't believe that but it is what it is.
So if our fish are not building nests or at least biting us when we put our hand in there, the tank is not as healthy as we think.
There are of course other factors that allow a fish to spawn besides food but that is a big one.
Another sign of a healthy tank is seeing all sorts of life crawling around in there. I am lucky that I live near the sea and I can collect a lot of stuff but there should at least be pods and spaghetti worms and a little algae.
Sorry to start up this old thread but I came across it and realized it is mostly about my tank, that was not the reason for me to begin this thread.
So have a great day.
Paul

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Thanks for the bump ! Lots new members still enjoy finding and reading !

 

[Paul B]

One drawback to having healthy fish is that when they are spawning, they stay out of sight.
I had to buy some cheap fish to give movement to the tank so I got some green chromis and you can see the tail of one sizzortail. These fish are very common and cheap. They also don't go behind the rocks so it looks like there is something actualy swimming in there. All the gobies and pipefish hang out in odd places where I can never find them. Even the old fireclown keeps messing with his nest and gave up swimming to the front anymore.
The one in the picture is a newer one, I forgot how old but the 17 year old guy just keeps cleaning his nest hoping to get that young female in there. She usually plays hard to get.
Maybe if I turned the tank around, he wouldn't notice.

Under the rocks are loaded with worms and tiny brittle stars, the coral rock is full of spaghetti worms and pods. I really don't have to feed the smaller fish but I do hatch brine shrimp every day just for the heck of it. All the fish get some live worms every day and many of them are spawning. Another good sign is that most fish live pretty near forever.

 

[SecretAgent]

Mr Paul, I am SO glad to know of another person that has an outlook as I do on these tanks. Its like my tank habits mirror yours. Although, I have only had mine 7 years. But in those 7 years, Ive not ever had a major catastrophy happen, not like what I read about.....I must be doing something right....SPS grow very well in my tanks as do anything else I put in them. My fish nip at me to where I have red places on my hands and arms when Im done playing in them....I had something spawn in my tank a few weeks ago, Im thinkin the damsel but who knows...I have a video of it...HUNDREDS of eggs all over the tank where something laid them on the creeping gorgonian, at the time I thought was GSP but since found it is gorgonian...when the gorg came out the next morning, it turned loose all those eggs....I was all amazed n stuff lol

 

[SecretAgent]

I agree about having some algae in a tank. Ive never had a problem with algae but have had traces of it in the tanks with no tangs....but I have a bi color blenny and some sally crabs in the 155 now so they will probably wipe out the few dime size spots thats in there.....I think it looks more natural when there is a trace of algae....I dont want one of those tanks with a snow white sand bed or perfectly clean back wall....or rocks with nothing but corals growing on them

I have a dark maroonish colored stuff growing all on my rocks in the 155, I guess its a kind of algae....it sorta looks and feels like filter material but its pretty to me...feather dusters float around the tank and land in that stuff on the rocks and make it home, very pretty to see white feather dusters against that dark maroon color....the stuff also anchors my sps to the rock cause it is growing so fast. If I dont want it in a certain spot, I just get my needle nose pliers and yank it off....its there but not a problem

When I read your stuff a few weeks back, I scrambled to my cabinets to see what kind of glass I could put into my tank, and I found a wide mouthed, slender vase and glued neon green centered cloves in the rim....looks like flowers in there lol

Months ago I took some pavona and fraged it on a glass paperweight angelfish and now it has almost completely covered it...Glass fish is approx 4" wide and 5" tall and 1/2 thick....cool looking

 

[SecretAgent]

Ha! I even have the same corals as you......I just dont have my clam any more....=(

 

[Paul B]

SecretAgent your tank sounds wonderfully healthy and I am sure it is beautiful.
I have had a few catastrophies but they were all my fault. Once was with Clorox and once was with the stuff my town puts in the water to control corrosion in the pipes.
I think many tanks are on the verge of crashing, I keep hearing about something happening and the tank starting to cycle again. That is a very bad sign and it means the bacteria are not doing their job or just barely so.
If you ever get cloudy water that is a bacterial bloom and it means your water is on the verge of a crash. Your water should be able to process a certain amount of wastes on it's own, thats what ORP is, the ability of the water to oxidize substances in the water.
If a large anemone (which I don't have) died in my tank or a few fish, nothing would happen. If the power went off for a few days, also nothing would happen. I used to have an urchin collection business and I had so many that I had to put 25 of them in my reef in the summer when the temp was in the high 80s. The next day they all spawned at the same time. Those things are just containers for eggs and sperm, my tank looked like Half and Half.
And it stunk, my skimmer over flowed about 10 gallons. I was sure the tank would crash as I could hardly see into it.
Nothing happened.
You need to make sure your bacteria are up to the job, they work for us for free but they need circulation and a substrait to live on.
I know a lot of people use DSBs but IMO, they have little to no capacity to avert a tank crash due to organic material.
Just my opinion of course and I am not the God of fish tanks, just a retired electrician with an old tank.
Have a great day
paul

 

[Paul B]

....I dont want one of those tanks with a snow white sand bed or perfectly clean back wall....or rocks with nothing but corals growing on them

Very unhealthy

 

[SecretAgent]

I guess my tanks are very healthy then cause Ive shut off the PH before and forgot to turn them back on and they would be off for days until I realized it, I was tripping, looking for dead stuff cause maybe something didnt get enough oxygen.....but everything was trodding along, business as usual

My water isnt ever crystal clear due to this brat clown that digs all the time, but as far as algae blooms, never have them

I feed three times a day, skim a little on the wet side, (and this next bit of info is where I will get objects thrown at me) and do 30g water changes about every 6m on my 155 and 125 and 15g on my 45g

I dont really have to dose anything but calcium and mag during that time and that is only once a month....I keep the calcium around 450 to 500 with no ill effects....I run the mag way up to 1400 which makes the skimmer work like a horse. I feed the corals cyclopeeze and coral frenzy and I feed the fish shrimp, frozen brine shrimp and flake frenzy and the tangs I hang seaweed on clips

Ive always got my hands in the tanks, makes the skimmer flop for a few minutes, but once Ive been playing in the tanks for 15 min or more, they resume skimming like Im not even there

My glass has kind of a white film on it every now and then, I just scrape it off and it stays clear sometimes for days before I have to do it again, then other days I have to scrape it more often....but other than that, no problems

I allow the feather algae to grow in my DT as well as the sump.

If I see aiptasia, which is rare now, I shoot it with pickling lime, as many as I want with no worries about it messing with the water params. When I had them bad in the 155g, I would do 100 or more at a time, then my arm and neck would get tired so I stoped until the next day and I would do 100 more until one day they were basically done. Went and got me some peppermint shrimp and now the tank is, as far as I can see, aiptasia free

I dont generally test the water unless the corals tell me something is wrong, which is like, never. My test kits have gone bad sitting in the closet because I just have that "feel" for my tanks and intimately know them through and through, so if something were to start pouting, I basically know what needs to be done

Some people wont believe this because they arent "at that place" with their tanks but there are those of us that can and do go by look and activity whether or not the tank is in need of something

I have life all over my tanks, even the 20g I just set up that used to be a frag tank....I just borrowed rock from my other tanks, the sand was already teaming with life so it didnt even go through a mini cycle when I put it all together.

I will have to get you some pics of the vase with the cloves growing on it and the fish with the pavona growing on it......pretty cool
=)