Tank turned 49 this year

Paul B

Paul B

Well-Known Member
I just realized that I can't properly maintain my tank now that I have so many pipefish. Normally once a year I stir up the substrait where I can reach and suck out everything with a diatom filter but I can't do that with the pipefish, especially the blue stripe pipefish as they never live through that. I assume their tiny gills get clogged as I have always lost them when I make those needed typhoons. I will have to forego the typhoons as long as I have the five pipefish and see how it goes. The tank is running very well with the corals growing nicely so there is no rush to do any maintenance even though I think it has been well over a year since I did any. I can tell when a typhoon is needed and so far all is well.






 
Paul B

Paul B

Well-Known Member
My pictures never come out well because I don't do photoshop so my pictures are what my tank looks like. I know many people "enhance" the colors of their corals because from many years of SCUBA diving I know what colors corals are and very few of them are neon, fluorescent colored. Some are fairly colorful but we have all seen pictures of tanks that look like Disney movies such as the Little Mermaid. (I love that movie)
My tank is doing very well and I never seem to have problems, I am not sure why. I am also not sure why so many people have so many problems. Maybe after so many years a tank just knows what it is supposed to do. Maybe it's the reverse UG filter or the retired Supermodels that I have come over to help me take care of the tank. (I wish)
I have been writing a book because I am sure in a few years I will start to forget everything and since I started this just when the salt water hobby started, I want to pass on some of that information.
Also my wife of 41 years has MS so I am not sure what the future brings or how long I will be able to take care of the tank as I will have other, more important tasks to do.

Most of my fish are still spawning, my worm keeping device is working well as is my brine shrimp hatchery that I use every day. The flock of pipefish I have are all doing well and they are the most challenging. The rest of the fish can take care of themselves and if they could reach the freezer door, I wouldn't even have to feed them. This week I changed 25 gallons of water, that is the most water I have ever changed at once. I changed that much because I dropped to much salt in the bucket so I had to add water. The corals didn't mind.

 
O

outeastreef

Member
My prayers go out to you and your family. On a lighter note your tank looks awesome. Keep up the good work you are an inspiration to all in this hobby. Greg
 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
Tank looks great as always Paul. Sorry for the news with your wife. It would be a sad day in the hobby if you take down that tank and I hope it never comes to that.
 
Paul B

Paul B

Well-Known Member
Thanks, my wife has has MS for 15 years but it is a progressive disease and just doesn't get better. If it comes to a choice of taking care of my wife of 41 years or the tank, the tank loses. Some day I will probably give it away if I could find someone who I thought could take care of it. But I can't think of someone who will take a tank with a reverse UG filter. I started this tank when I was about 21, now I am 65 and realize I will not live forever.

I would like to keep it going at least for about another 7 years when it will be 50 years old. That would be a nice accomplishment that I would bhe proud of.
That is the main reason I am writing a book. Not that I am the best reefer on here but because I am one of the oldest and I have seen every "innovation" come and go so I would like to get that information out there before it disappears. I am not writing the book because I think it will make money. Fish things don't make money and none of us got into this to make money. I patented the Majano Wand but if I had to live on that, I would be eating jelly beans every day in a van down by the river.:drool:

I think I like the look without any filters.

 
sirrealism

sirrealism

Well-Known Member
You know Paul as i get older the number doesnt sound so big but then when you say you started the tank when you were 21 and now 65 it makes that number so much bigger. "If that makes any sense" I started my fist reef at 25 and am now 45 but i dont have the that first system as most do not. My oldest system now is about 10years. I would like to know what is the oldest piece of coral you have? Also I for one will buy the book.
 
Paul B

Paul B

Well-Known Member
Sirrealism, I am not sure how old is the oldest coral but it is either this tiny one directly under the montipora on the left at the front bottom of the tank. I don't even know what it is and I have no idea how old it is, but it is probably 10 or 15 years old.



This gorgonian has also been in here for to many years for me to remember. It had offspring all over the tank. I think a piece of it is at the top of the first picture.

 
Basile

Basile

Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear about your wife Paul i have 2 friends who have it and both are at different stages of it . So i know your anguish and your dilemna concerning the tank and your right. I hope for the best for you and your wife. Every year both my friends and i walk for the MS foundation, both are named Nathalie and are very different with different problems too. But we still have fun and life goes on. One actually punched me in are Taekwondo class because i wouldn't hit her lol. I go back and forth in your thread , i hope they make it a sticky when you have less time to write in it, that be cool.
 
D

Danreef

Well-Known Member
In the first picture looks like a pregnant woman on due day....lol

Is That a picture effect or is really pregnant ready to lay the eggs ?
 
Paul B

Paul B

Well-Known Member
I have a slight tank problem. Last week I bought a torch coral with a bunch of heads on it which is very cool as I have quite a few of them. Yesterday I noticed one head croaked, that is not supposed to happen so I broke down and tested the water for PO4 and nitrates. The two kits I have are very old and I have no Idea when I got them. They could be from Columbus so I am not taking the readings to seriously. The PO4 reads practically zero (which I doubt) and the nitrate is hard to read because it looks like ink so according to that kit it is like 4 million. It probably is 50 or so which is higher than I would like as I would rather it be near 25 or so. I am thinking this may be the cause of that coral dying but it could have been damaged when I got it as the rest of my corals seem fine. But The tank is way overloaded, the fish got to big, I feed like an all you can eat buffet because most of them are spawning and I can't do my normal maintenance because of the five pipefish. Every ten years or so I like to remove much of the rock and stir up the UG filter, but whenever I do that, I lose the pipefish. I think their tiny gills get clogged so I can't clean the gravel and it is over due. I also can't catch the pipefish. If I try to remove the rocks I would have to break many of the larger corals as they have grown across everything. I don't see this as a problem but an interesting situation that makes me think. I have a few plans, none of which are good plans but plans none the less. One scenario I will build tank dividers out of plexiglass and section off one quarter of the tank after removing the rocks. Then I would clean that and try to move it to half the tank. Then take all the rock and corals from the remaining side and put that on the clean side, then do that side. This of course would be a night mare. The other plan involves removing everything except the gravel to large vats which I don't have enough. I would break the corals very gently but they would not be happy. Then I would remove the fish and stir up the gravel. If I did this I have interesting ideas on what I want to do with the rock. I want it completely off the gravel and the entire reef would be suspended from above on nylon lines that you would not see from the front. I have been wanting to do this for years but the amount of disruption to the tank would be quite a bit. I love the aquascape I have now as very little of it is actually touching the gravel because I built long fake rock that spans large areas without hitting the bottom. In the mean time I re built my denitrifier coil. It used to be on the tank but during Hurricane Sandy the power went off and that thing was not high on my list to keep going so it stopped and I didn't want to turn it on again until I ran bleach through it. I wanted to try a different model anyway. It is now running in my workshop as I will seed it with bacteria and get it going again. These things excite me and get me thinking other wisw, I get bored.
 
Paul B

Paul B

Well-Known Member
That coil thing is now changed. There is now an inside coil and an outside coil. The entire thing fits inside that blue tube that gets sealed and just makes it look cool. The tank is running well but I surpassed the ability of the bacteria to process nitrates. It will be fine if I could stir up the gravel as it has been to long and some areas clog. My pistol shrimp are not helping because they piled up the gravel in the center of the tank about 8" high so there are places with no gravel and you can see the UG filter plates. I also have to stop adding livestock and feeding so much but that is the consequences of having the fish spawning. They require a lot of food and I feed the pipefish herd a few times a day. All the fish are twice as large as they were when I added them and they eat twice as much. But it's all good
 
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