Tank turned 49 this year

[Paul B]

I have a little valonia algae but I think I always had a little of that. My sponge grows into the gorgonians and takes over them. I need to cut them back. The montipora keeps breaking because some of my hermit crabs grew large and when they fall on them from above, they break and I don't have time or will to glue them back. You can see one in the video. My surface skimmer broke and I don't have time to fix it which is why you can see that film on top of my water. That film is so thick that birds can land on it. I rarely add calcium but I just cleaned my algae scrubber because people were parking in front of my house because they thought I was selling lettuce.

 

[Paul B]

I am in the process of designing the new room in my new house where my tank will go. Right now it is a cement room with no windows about 18' X 20'. I need to build my workshop and some closets for myself and my wife. The most important thing is my tank and my workbench. I will put the tank in a closet with the front showing so I will just have to heat that closet while I am not home. I will also heat the rest of the space. Of course I will have multiple heaters in the tank. I am designing my RO/DI in the fish closet as well as my auto top off bucket like I have now. Also the effluent from the RO will feed the blackworm tank as it does now. I will also put in a bathroom and slop sink.
I will use metal studs for most of the construction and wood in the fish closet (for the rust). My galvanized stand now is very rusty and metal studs will rust right away. I will also sheetrock the fish closet with green (moisture proof) sheetrock. I was in construction all my life and have build many such places. The work is easy. The design I want to be perfect before I build. There is also a Home Depot and Lowes with in a mile which will be convenient.

I also need to put in an elevator for my wife who doesn't do stairs well due to MS. The place is all on one floor but that floor is over the garage and workshop.

I am cleaning out to move and I just threw out almost all my SCUBA pictures from all over the world. I also found a bunch of old tank pictures from the 80s. I can't take everything and being I have not look at them for years, I don't need them.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Post us pics, so we can follow along !

 

[Paul B]

I will be sure to take a bunch. Hopefully, none will be me chopping my fish out of ice.

 

[Paul B]

These guys spawned again last night. Before I went to bed they were, like my Mother used to say "Mushing it up". This morning the female is a lot skinnier. I don't know where they lay the eggs but I am sure my pipefish will enjoy the fry when they hatch.

 

[Paul B]

My Bangai Cardinal finally died of old age. He has not eaten in over a month. He had a good life and is now in the big fishbowl in the sky.

 

[Paul B]

Video, anemone crab and pipefish

 

[DaveK]

My Bangai Cardinal finally died of old age. He has not eaten in over a month. He had a good life and is now in the big fishbowl in the sky.

Sorry to hear about the loss. Even though it was expected for some time, it's still something you never get use to.

 

[Paul B]

With that fish it was a relief. He wasn't suffering but I felt bad for him. He lost his lifelong mate a while ago. For the last month he wanted to eat and did manage to get a worm down occasionally but he couldn't eat anything else but I could see he wanted to. He would go up to food and almost eat it. He was also very near sighted. As my largest fish I don't need as many clams now and if he lived I don't think he would have survived my tank move in a few months. I am not sure anything will survive.

 

[Paul B]

I will be building a tiny bathroom in the workshop of my new house and I was ordering a toilet bowl. I found the one I want but I am a little Leary because it is not allowed for sale in these countries:

This item has been restricted from sale in the following countries: Andorra, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Albania, Armenia, Angola, Antarctica, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Barbados, Bangladesh, Belgium, Burkina-Faso, Bulgaria, Bahrain, Burundi, Benin, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Bolivia, Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba, Bahamas, Bhutan, Bouvet Islands, Botswana, Belarus, Belize, Cocos Islands, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Congo, Switzerland, Ivory Coast, Cook Islands, Chile, Cameroon, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cape Verde, Curacao, Christmas Island, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Djibouti, Denmark, Dominica, Algeria, Ecuador, Estonia, Egypt, Western Sahara, Eritrea, Spain, Ethiopia, Finland, Fiji, Falkland Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Faroe Islands, France, Gabon, United Kingdom, Grenada, Georgia, French Guiana, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greenland, Gambia, Guinea, Guadeloupe, Equatorial Guinea, Greece, S. George & S. Sandwich Islands, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Hong Kong, Heard and McDonald Islands, Honduras, Croatia, Haiti, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Isle of Man, India, British Indian Ocean Territory, Iraq, Iran, Iceland, Italy, Bailiwick of Jersey, Jamaica, Jordan, Japan, Kenya, Kirghizia, Cambodia, Kiribati, Comoros, St. Kitts and Nevis, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Cayman Islands, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, St. Lucia, Liechtenstein, Sri Lanka, Liberia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Libya, Morocco, Monaco, Moldavia, Republic of Montenegro, Saint Martin, Madagascar, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Macedonia, Mali, Myanmar, Mongolia, Macau, Northern Mariana Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Montserrat, Malta, Mauritius, Maldives, Malawi, Malaysia, Mozambique, Namibia, New Caledonia, Niger, Norfolk Islands, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Netherlands, Norway, Nepal, Nauru, Niue Islands, New Zealand, Oman, Panama, Peru, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pakistan, Poland, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Pitcairn Islands, Palestinian Territory, Portugal, Paraguay, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Republic of Serbia, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, Seychelles, Sudan, Sweden, Singapore, Saint Helena, Slovenia, Svalbard, Slovakia, Sierra Leone, San Marino, Senegal, Somalia, Suriname, Republic of South Sudan, Sao Tome and Principe, El Salvador, Country of Sint Maarten, Syria, Swaziland, Turks and Caicos Islands, Chad, French Southern Territories, Togo, Thailand, Tajikistan, Tokelau Islands, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Tonga, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Taiwan, Tanzania, Ukraine, Uganda, American Minor Outlying Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vatican City, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, British Virgin Islands, Vietnam, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna Islands, Western Samoa, Yemen, Mayotte, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Like REALLY! Is it me or does that seem like a lot of places where you can't buy this. I mean places like Futuna Islands, Mayotte, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Burkina-Faso, Djibouti. Like whats the problem in those places? Not that I ever heard of any of them.

Instead of listing all that, why don't they just say: This item is only available in Bayonne New Jersey on a Tuesday between 2:00 and 2:15

 

[Paul B]

Tonight I am making my wife one of these because she hasn't been feeling very good. I myself don't like lobsters because my family had a sea food business and I used to have to eat the lobsters that died in the store so I am sick of them. (you can't sell dead lobsters) My Mother made them every way possible. Peanut butter and lobster sandwiches, Ham and lobster, lobster with Cheerios, Deviled lobster, Grilled cheese and lobster, and my favorite chocolate chip ice cream with lobster sauce.
I am making myself grilled cod steaks.
So we went shopping this morning at the Supermarket. In Supermarkets I get that "Supermarket look" where I am in a trance and counting the seconds to when we get out. I probably also have my eyes rolled back in my head.
Supermarkets are not Man places but my wife needs some help so I go with her.
My wife has to go down every aisle even if she just needs milk. Us Men shop differently. If I need to pop in to a store (which rarely happens unless it is a chain saw or cro bar store) For something quick like that black paint bald people put on their heads to make it look like they have hair, and in my case the roller to apply it. I just go to that section without looking at anything else except for the free tiny pieces of cheese on toothpicks that they sometimes give out as samples. I pick that paint up and find the quickest way to the cashier, and if there is a line, I put it back and leave as I don't do lines.

Anyway.

As we were going down one aisle my wife was busy reading the ingredients on something boring because she needs to know the salt, carbs, calories, fat and just about everything else and in my stupor this middle aged woman comes up to me and starts talking. At first I thought she knew me but she didn't look familiar. That doesn't mean too much to me because I have a lousy memory for faces, names, places or numbers so she could have been my sister, but I don't have one. She continued talking to me but I didn't quite know what she was talking about and her sentences didn't seem to go together, so I smiled and said something like, "Oh, thats too bad or OMG thats great". I don't remember. But she was looking right at me and saying things that didn't seem to have anything to do with me or anything familiar. Then she walked right past me like I wasn't even there and continued talking. I assumed she was nuts until I realized that she had one of those stupid bluetooth things in her ear and was talking to someone else. Probably her Psychiatrist. I mean aren't people embarrassed to walk around in public speaking out loud so everyone can hear them! That drives me nuts, especially when they are looking right at you.

 

[DaveK]

Up until the mid 19th century, lobster was considered a cheep food mostly for indentured servants and the like. Unconfirmed stories have claimed that lobster could be fed to indentured servants only two or three times a week in some states.

 

[Paul B]

I know that here by the Sound there were so many lobsters that the local "Native Americans" used to be able to collect them near the shore at low tide.

I think those things taste like snot. I used to SCUBA for about 20 years here in NY and I had a lobster license so we used to dive for lobsters. You are allowed 6 lobsters a day which is 6 too many for me but my wife was in heaven. You ever get bitten by one of those? They can take your hand off and not even smile as they are doing it.

But like I said they should have Men stores. I know I mentioned it a few times in this thread but every time I go to a store I think about it.
Women stores need a lot of aisles with shelves going up to the ceiling stocked with all sorts of things of different colors most of which no one needs. Like those silly little "cozy"s" that they sell to put lemons in so when you squeeze them, the pits stay in it. I mean, really! does anyone need that. But people buy it so I guess it has a purpose. I also think my wife, and I assume all Ladies like to look through the aisles, especially if it's a clothes store.
I may buy clothes every 7 or 8 years and I still have some bell bottoms from the 70s. But they don't fit, I keep them for nostalgia.

A Mans store would have one aisle. The Man goes in (and shows his Man card at the door) then asks the person at the door where the chain saws, drills, plungers or demolition hammers are and the person at the door says something like, go down here to where the floor turns blue and they are right there. The man goes there and the price is written on the thing clearly with magic marker including the tax and anything else they want to charge you for rounded off to the nearest dollar.

The Man then grabs the thing and walks to the door where there is a bucket for you to throw in the money. The Man rounds it off to the nearest ten and walks out. Sometimes he puts in a little more and sometimes a little less as it will work out at the end of the year.
The Mans store needs very few employees except once or twice a year someone needs to walk through and sweep the floor.
No lines, no returns, no receipts and no change. If I buy something and it doesn't work, I throw it away because I know if I bring it back, I will have to wait in line and I don't do that well.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Lobster and hot melted butter yum ! Alaskan King Crab legs hot melted butter and YUM YUM YUM !!!

 

[subsea]

Paul,
Thank you for making my day more rosy.

Next week, I am setting up a 120G new build. As I am interested in producing live food with larvae from sand bed detrivores, I planned on using < 2” of CaribSea “Special Reef Grade” aroggonite with a reverse flow undergravel filter. What depth and what grain size of sand bed do you recommend?

 

[Paul B]

Patrick I can only show you what I do. Here is a picture of my dolomite gravel. I keep it about 3" deep but it varies a lot due to digging of the animals. I run my reverse UG filter very slow like 150 GPH down each tube.

Nano I first par boiled that lobster for 5 minutes, then I filled it with Italian seasonings along with butter, garlic, parsley etc then I broiled it. My wife loved it but I ate cod which was delicious.
My wife and Daughter also like crab legs which I can also pass up. I would rather clams or squid.

 

[Paul B]

I think it's going to be hard to move all the sponges I have growing in my tank as there are more sponges than anything else. The blue one is about 18" across even though I keep trimming it and there are white sponges 8 or 9" long in the caves. I think the sponges are the best filters and I am sure all my water goes through a sponge a few times a day. My water stays crystal clear even though I add clams which are loaded with juice almost every day which is probably why the sponges grow so well.
My 4 pipefish are doing very well and the bluestripes are still spawning even though they are well past their supposed age which is only a few years old. I don't remember how old they are. My Janss and dragon face are also real good and after I move I would like to get mates for them, if they don't croak in transit that is.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

I'm impressed and delighted that this thread has gone on for nearly a decade. Is this still the same tank as the beginning?

Nice pipefish, by the way. Always a joy to see those.

-Kamran

 

[Paul B]

Kanran, I moved the tank in about 1979 or 80 to my new home and transferred everything into a larger tank where it still sits today. I will move it again in a few months to a yet larger tank.

 

[subsea]

Paul,
You and I are doing a new build at about the same time. Because 90lbs of uncured diver collected rock from the GOM is curing in outside 150G Rubbermade tanks, I need speed my project up so as not to incur winter heating requirements.

I agree with you on the sponges and three months ago, I turned out the lights in 30G mud macro refugium. It is now a mud cryptic zone filter as a mimic on Steve Tyree “Cryptic Zone Filtration System. I am focusing on filter feeders and I feel that the biodiversity as brought in with sponges will help with establishing multiple food webs.