How to make a tank last over forty years with few problems
- Thread starter Paul B
- Start date
- Tagged users None
marinworld
New Member
Paul B.
Robert P.L. Straughan, now there is a familiar name from the past. Not to many people on this forum these days that I would imagine know/knew him. Met him oh those many, many years ago. Use to look forward to his small magazine "Saltwater Aquarium" truely the infant days of the saltwater hobby. I also knew Dick Boyd quiet well; the original developer of Chemi-Pure, and was a nationwide distributor of that product way back then. Surprised you East Coasters were behind us Midwesterners with products in those days. Could wax nostalgia about many things about our wonderful hobby. Glad to see you're still involved. Imagine what Bob Straughan would say if he were alive today to see our beautiful aquariums filled with live coral and fish.
Regards,
Don
MARINE WORLD
Robert P.L. Straughan, now there is a familiar name from the past. Not to many people on this forum these days that I would imagine know/knew him. Met him oh those many, many years ago. Use to look forward to his small magazine "Saltwater Aquarium" truely the infant days of the saltwater hobby. I also knew Dick Boyd quiet well; the original developer of Chemi-Pure, and was a nationwide distributor of that product way back then. Surprised you East Coasters were behind us Midwesterners with products in those days. Could wax nostalgia about many things about our wonderful hobby. Glad to see you're still involved. Imagine what Bob Straughan would say if he were alive today to see our beautiful aquariums filled with live coral and fish.
Regards,
Don
MARINE WORLD
marinworld
New Member
Paul B.,
You might try googling the title. It was published by a small publisher in Springfield, Illinois. If I had more than 1 copy I would send it to you, however, unfortunately I only have one left in my personal library. I will investigate and if I find something will let you know.
Regards,
Don
MARINE WORLD
marinworld
New Member
Aliyanna
Community Member
Thank you Paul for this great post, I am a fan 
There is something I am thinking of. In sea you will not find any blackworm. Why is blackworm bacteria the best food for sea fishes? What do they have in common?
Another thought: Is every blackworm fine? I am living in germany, in the middle of nowhere, I will not get fresh clams except of Mytilus edulis in the month with an "r" in it. In all other months i have blackworms in my garden ^^
Do you cut the blackworms? Maybe a silly question but I observe my fishes and I could see, that all of them like other particles of food. It depends on size. Samson is looking for big pieces, De, Li and La look for small pieces and Indie, Jack & Jill for middle size. So I am doing my own food from frozen clams, shrimps and so on und I cut and mix it in different sizes.
Shen and Rai are taking the powder like rest when it fells on the ground and doesn't move - Mandarins.
So do I have to cut the blackworm in different sizes too or are they so fantastic for them, that they will snap it either way? Really, I don't want to cut worms. I like them.
There is something I am thinking of. In sea you will not find any blackworm. Why is blackworm bacteria the best food for sea fishes? What do they have in common?
Another thought: Is every blackworm fine? I am living in germany, in the middle of nowhere, I will not get fresh clams except of Mytilus edulis in the month with an "r" in it. In all other months i have blackworms in my garden ^^
Do you cut the blackworms? Maybe a silly question but I observe my fishes and I could see, that all of them like other particles of food. It depends on size. Samson is looking for big pieces, De, Li and La look for small pieces and Indie, Jack & Jill for middle size. So I am doing my own food from frozen clams, shrimps and so on und I cut and mix it in different sizes.
Shen and Rai are taking the powder like rest when it fells on the ground and doesn't move - Mandarins.
So do I have to cut the blackworm in different sizes too or are they so fantastic for them, that they will snap it either way? Really, I don't want to cut worms. I like them.
OP
OP
Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
Yes Mzoi, those are the worms.
Aliyanna, thanks for posting. You are correct a salt water fish will never find a blackworm in the sea and the reason I "know" that they have good bacteria for fish is a guess on my part. In 1971 when I started with salt water fish I kept fish like anyone else feeding flakes. They lived but always had parasites and never spawned. I fed live blackworms for 7 weeks and they spawned for 7 years. After a few years I discovered that I no longer needed to keep copper in the water as we did then because my fish would no longer get sick and all my paired fish, and even shrimp continually spawned. I attribute that to the worms. In the last few years we have been learning about the role of bacteria in the guts of fish and us. I don't think the type of bacteria is as important as they have bacteria. In the early days to set up a salt water tank it was written in many publications (I think Straughn even noted it) to add a handful of garden soil to your tank for the bacteria. I am not a scientist I can only go by my experiences and my seemingly immune fish for that information.
And I do not cut the worms. You can also use white worms and they stay alive for many hours in salt water and mandarins love them and will spawn by eating them along with baby brine shrimp.
The puffer was my favorite fish and he developed a large tumor inside his belly and could no longer swim.
I put him on some wet cotton and with a razor blade cut the skin under the tumor and I scraped it and pulled it out with a tweezers.
I put some iodine on the incision and put the fish back in the water expecting him to be dead in the morning. I don't remember if I used any medications on him. The next day to my surprise he was still alive. Every morning I removed him from the water and put some clam in his mouth.
in a few days he started to swim and lived (I think) five more years.
I was asked many times in those days to go to wholesalers in Manhattan and remove tumors from fish. The worst was a large green moray who had a large growth on his lip. There is no way to hold a moray eel. I did the operation but it was a fight and the fish won most of the time.
Don, you are a Geezer like me. Albert Thiel and Bob Goemans are friends of mine. Bob came here to see my tank about 20 years ago and I have written a few articles in his "Salt Corner" publication. I know Albert since his Thiel Aqua Tech days as I am sure you know those products. He has been sick lately but seems to be getting better
Here is that blue devil over his nest of eggs. This was a big deal then but today anyone can breed blue devils. At one time they were almost the only salt water fish you could get.
Here are his eggs in a gooseneck barnacle shell. I could not raise them then because I didn't even know what a rotifer was much less where to get them.
I do have pictures of that little figure 8 puffer someplace but I have been living in this house almost 40 years and have no idea where those pictures would be.
This was my tank at the beginning and was considered big then. Remember all glass tanks just came out not much sooner than that. I don't remember what size that tank was. 30 or 40 gallons but I had all those fish in my log book in there. Tangs, Moorish Idols, copperband butterflies, French Angels and spawning damsels. I look exactly the same today from the hair to the watchband I had just gotten back from Viet Nam then and was still adjusting to civilian life.
Aliyanna, thanks for posting. You are correct a salt water fish will never find a blackworm in the sea and the reason I "know" that they have good bacteria for fish is a guess on my part. In 1971 when I started with salt water fish I kept fish like anyone else feeding flakes. They lived but always had parasites and never spawned. I fed live blackworms for 7 weeks and they spawned for 7 years. After a few years I discovered that I no longer needed to keep copper in the water as we did then because my fish would no longer get sick and all my paired fish, and even shrimp continually spawned. I attribute that to the worms. In the last few years we have been learning about the role of bacteria in the guts of fish and us. I don't think the type of bacteria is as important as they have bacteria. In the early days to set up a salt water tank it was written in many publications (I think Straughn even noted it) to add a handful of garden soil to your tank for the bacteria. I am not a scientist I can only go by my experiences and my seemingly immune fish for that information.
And I do not cut the worms. You can also use white worms and they stay alive for many hours in salt water and mandarins love them and will spawn by eating them along with baby brine shrimp.
Dingo, that fish I had from freshwater and when salt came out I added it to my salt water tank. Him and a scat, an archer fish and a monodactylis.
The puffer was my favorite fish and he developed a large tumor inside his belly and could no longer swim.
I put him on some wet cotton and with a razor blade cut the skin under the tumor and I scraped it and pulled it out with a tweezers.
I put some iodine on the incision and put the fish back in the water expecting him to be dead in the morning. I don't remember if I used any medications on him. The next day to my surprise he was still alive. Every morning I removed him from the water and put some clam in his mouth.
in a few days he started to swim and lived (I think) five more years.
I was asked many times in those days to go to wholesalers in Manhattan and remove tumors from fish. The worst was a large green moray who had a large growth on his lip. There is no way to hold a moray eel. I did the operation but it was a fight and the fish won most of the time.
Don, you are a Geezer like me.
Albert Thiel and Bob Goemans are friends of mine. Bob came here to see my tank about 20 years ago and I have written a few articles in his "Salt Corner" publication. I know Albert since his Thiel Aqua Tech days as I am sure you know those products. He has been sick lately but seems to be getting betterHere is that blue devil over his nest of eggs. This was a big deal then but today anyone can breed blue devils. At one time they were almost the only salt water fish you could get.
Here are his eggs in a gooseneck barnacle shell. I could not raise them then because I didn't even know what a rotifer was much less where to get them.
I do have pictures of that little figure 8 puffer someplace but I have been living in this house almost 40 years and have no idea where those pictures would be.
This was my tank at the beginning and was considered big then. Remember all glass tanks just came out not much sooner than that. I don't remember what size that tank was. 30 or 40 gallons but I had all those fish in my log book in there. Tangs, Moorish Idols, copperband butterflies, French Angels and spawning damsels. I look exactly the same today from the hair to the watchband
I had just gotten back from Viet Nam then and was still adjusting to civilian life. 
OP
OP
Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
I have great respect for that man as he not only kept everything but he also collected everything. I try to dive with every fish I ever had but of course that is very difficult if not impossible unless you are a millionaire. I did collect all of my original rock in the sea. I did my first dive in Sydney Australia in 1970 while I was on R&R from Nam. I have been diving ever since and have been to places I didn't know existed but most of my dives were right here in New York exploring the almost 2,ooo shipwrecks we have and lobster and urchin hunting. I even had an urchin collecting business "Urchin Searchin Enterprise". I collected urchins and sent them all over the US for people who wanted something to eat algae. I used to feed a tank of them a head of lettuce every 2 days. I kept them in a DIY refrigerated tank.
Once I had to many so I put 24 of them in my reef. Big mistake. These urchins are not tropical and they all decided to spawn that day. My reef looked like a Pina Colada. Luckily I ran a reverse UG filter and I had a couple of diatom filters and I cleared the water. Nothing happened but my skimmer over flowed about 5 gallons on the floor.
You can see one of those NY urchins here (you can tell by their accent) This picture or a very similar one of my tank appeared in "FAMMA" magazine maybe 30 years ago.
That hermit crab avatar I have is a New York crab. I took that underwater here from a couple of inches away as our visibility is only about 18" in the western Sound where I do most of my diving,
Aliyanna
Community Member
Thanks Paul, really helpful and interesting.
Shen and Rai (the mandarins) are dancing all night. I have a Zooplancton "farm" in an old coca cola plastic bottle. Brachionus, Tisbe and Tiggerpods and I put them in the tank every week, because many of them get caught by filter/skimmer. Shen and Rai love eating them and I have small copepods on the windows. So i think they are happy with me and my feeding and for this to my pleasure they are dancing ^^.
But I want to add some tangs on the tank - now we have a big one - plus Chromis viridis and Halichoeres leucoxanthus. I want to give them as natural feeding and environment as possible. So i am very thankful to read an article from someone who has really lots of experience in what he is doing. I hope this isn't too wrong in grammar...args....
Here in good old germany we have lots of self proclaimed experts but unfortunately mostly in talking, not doing
I am in this "hobby" for 4 years and I learned a lot by watching the fishes and corals and I lost some precious little diamonds (a blenny for example) by doing things those experts told me (you may not have this and you have to do that).
I like your "IMO" style
Shen and Rai (the mandarins) are dancing all night. I have a Zooplancton "farm" in an old coca cola plastic bottle. Brachionus, Tisbe and Tiggerpods and I put them in the tank every week, because many of them get caught by filter/skimmer. Shen and Rai love eating them and I have small copepods on the windows. So i think they are happy with me and my feeding and for this to my pleasure they are dancing ^^.
But I want to add some tangs on the tank - now we have a big one - plus Chromis viridis and Halichoeres leucoxanthus. I want to give them as natural feeding and environment as possible. So i am very thankful to read an article from someone who has really lots of experience in what he is doing. I hope this isn't too wrong in grammar...args....
Here in good old germany we have lots of self proclaimed experts but unfortunately mostly in talking, not doing
I am in this "hobby" for 4 years and I learned a lot by watching the fishes and corals and I lost some precious little diamonds (a blenny for example) by doing things those experts told me (you may not have this and you have to do that).
I like your "IMO" style
OP
OP
Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
Aliyanna, those worms you find in your garden are not the blackworms I am talking about and I doubt you can get them there. The worms you find are probably very good as long as they have no chemicals or fertilizer on them.
Here in good old germany we have lots of self proclaimed experts but unfortunately mostly in talking, not doing
All our Experts are also self proclaimed because this is a hobby and no one has a degree in a hobby. We can call ourselves experts, professionals, or Supermodels. No one is listening except ourselves.
I like your "IMO" style
OH, I thought you said "Hair Style" I don't have much of that.
Last edited:
i am fairly new to this hobby, about 3 months into the hobby. i find your past experiences pretty helpful. I will keep this thread in mind when i upgrade my tank, i currently have a 20 gal. Not sure when that is going to happen because i am going into the military and i dont want to have to move my tank every couple of years. And Thanks for your service, sorry to hear that you have PTSD.
OP
OP
Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
Battman, thank you for your future service. I started my reef tank a couple of weeks after I came back from Nam.
I think my PTSD actually made me better. But my wife may disagree with that. She didn't really know me before I went to Nam so she doesn't know if I changed.
I think my PTSD actually made me better. But my wife may disagree with that. She didn't really know me before I went to Nam so she doesn't know if I changed.
Aliyanna
Community Member
Oh I see, it is a sister family. One is kliving in the ground, the other in water. Interesting, I will try both, let's see what the fish like more.
Oh dear, you have never been in germany. We have experts for all and everything without even an idea of degree or education or an idea of the topic they are experts of. Believe me, this is a mess.All our Experts are also self proclaimed because this is a hobby and no one has a degree in a hobby. We can call ourselves experts, professionals, or Supermodels. No one is listening except ourselves.
gnihihihi
OP
OP
Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
Actually I have been to Germany a couple of years ago. I was on one of those river boat cruises on the Danube. We also too a helicopter over a lot of the castles and cathedrals.
Aliyanna
Community Member
Hey you have seen the best parts of germany No, one is missing, the Eifel, full of volcanos, full of maar, with soft hills and green trees.
I hope germans treated you well. Not all of us are bureaucratists. But nearly all of us are "know-it-all"
No, one is missing, the Eifel, full of volcanos, full of maar, with soft hills and green trees.I hope germans treated you well. Not all of us are bureaucratists. But nearly all of us are "know-it-all"
OP
OP
Paul B
10K Club member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Article Contributor
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
We were treated very well. . Now that we are older we have been going to mostly land based places. For many years we only went to places we could SCUBA dive.
I am just about finished with my bucket list and have gone to more places than I can remember. I think Mars is next.
. Now that we are older we have been going to mostly land based places. For many years we only went to places we could SCUBA dive. I am just about finished with my bucket list and have gone to more places than I can remember. I think Mars is next.
Shaun Sweeney
Active Member
Shaun, Thank You.
The reverse UG filter just pushes water down the tubes instead of up the tubes. I run it very slow.
The algae scrubber has been there maybe 15 years in different configurations. My tank is and always has been an experiment and never was designed to be a piece of artwork or beauty.
Thanks Paul. Another question, my tanks are "1/2 pipes" so it makes for an odd bottom shape. Plus, I've already aquascaped my new 140 so incorporating a UGF is not practical. That said, I could easily create a rectangular patch about 1' x 2'. What do you think? Some benefits to be had? Mind you, when I refurbish the old one I'll be starting from scratch so I could easily build the same UGF I had originally. I suppose by "slow flow" you mean slow enough so it doesn't lift the gravel.
Marine World, thank you for commenting. Here In New York the only store that has salt water fish in 1971 was "Aquarium Stock Company" in Manhattan a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center. Here we had no salt water medications or fish. I guess where you come from, you did so I should have said, I didn't have any salt water medications and we used pennies. I did not invent that, it was Robert Straughn "The Father of Salt Water Fish Keeping" who wrote the "Salt Water Aquarium in the Home" which was my bible. But as I am not the God of fish you are probably correct.
Zieg, thank you also for posting, but we will have to agree to dis agree because I disagree with your entire post. I suggest we treat our fish as they are treated in the sea, parasites and all. You mention that I will say that I have been successful for many years and that is true. If you can keep your fish "spawning" and disease free for their entire "normal" presumed lifespan, which in some cases is 30 years, I feel that you succeeded. Anything less is failure. All of my paired fish are spawning and all my fish live long enough to die of old age (or jump out) That is all I can hope for
Here is a thread I started on fish immunity. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a-discussion-on-immunity.209701/
Thanks for replying Paul. I can see that you're not ignorant of the facts because you were corrected by an immunologist in your other thread who knows a touch more than myself as a quantitative ecologist. Regardless you believe you're doing something better and you're not my doctor prescribing diseases so what the heck, happy reefing and hope the best for ya.
Similar threads
