Tank birthday, 47+ years

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Paul B

Paul B

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Kevin, I really have no visible equipment except for a couple of powerheads that are partially concealed. The feeder stays in there because it is always filled with shrimp and the fish eat all day. My tank is and always has been an experiment and never meant to be a thing of beauty. I am surprised I have not crashed it yet. It's just for my enjoyment, and I enjoy it. There is always an experimental something in there. I have been dosing yeast for a month to see if it does anything to the corals. The only thing I notice is that my Zoa's look lousy and I developed a patch of cyano. I don't know what that is from but I will keep doing this experiment until I learn something, good or bad, I don't care. My sponges are growing like crazy so I guess they are absorbing the years. You can't have everybody happy.
I am going to do a large water change this week. Bigger than I ever did as this is another experiment. I acquired a large container and I can't wait to fill it. I had a gravity feed on it all night from my RO/DI and it is almost filled.
My thrill is watching them spawn and interact with each other.
I have these 3 anemone crabs that keep away from each other during the day but I looked this morning before the lights came on and they looked like they were discussing ways to escape, either that or they were planning a party because they were right next to each other practically holding "hands".
 

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It's just for my enjoyment, and I enjoy it.
I think a lot of people on here, including me, enjoy it too. Thanks for sharing it with us all this time. I hope that I wasn't coming across as being critical, I didn't mean to be.

I have these 3 anemone crabs that keep away from each other during the day but I looked this morning before the lights came on and they looked like they were discussing ways to escape, either that or they were planning a party because they were right next to each other practically holding "hands".

This cracked me up :D

By the way, I was watching Tanked last night (kinda weird that I even watch it), and was thinking that it would be a really good show if they actually had a show on how most reefkeepers set tanks up, show off their tanks, etc., rather than their theme of creating tanks with the themes that they do. The tanks and fish seem more like props than the props. Anyway, while watching, I was thinking about your steampunk creations and how cool it would be to build a steam punk tank...how cool would that be?
 
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Paul B

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I think a lot of people on here, including me, enjoy it too. Thanks for sharing it with us all this time. I hope that I wasn't coming across as being critical, I didn't mean to be.

Kevin, it would be impossible to hurt my feelings or come across as being critical. This is a fish site and not very important in the theme of life. I am old and have seen a lot of horrors in my life so fish won't do it to me. Many people on a few forums do not like me at all and wish I would be exiled to a desert Island populated with Supermodel Queens never to be seen again. That would be fine with me. :p
Many people hate my theories and I am a huge thorn in the side of people who preach that quarantining is the "only" way to go or that nitrates should be zero. (mine are 140)
Many people hate that my fish never get sick because they think I am lucky or possess some magical skill or potion (blackworms)
So I am used to all sorts of negative things being said about me.
Of course there are also a bunch of open minded people who don't mind my theories and either come on here to question them or laugh at me. I hear them laughing now.:rolleyes:
Some people, OK a very few feel that I can teach them something because in the dark recesses of my mind there is still some fish knowledge that I acquired along the way. Some of it I am sure I made up. :cool:

On that show Tanked, I would like to see those tanks a couple of years later as I am sure there is no way to clean them, especially the ones in phone booths, or trucks.:)
 
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Paul B

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I just turned around and looked at my tank and I thought OMG, that thing is crystal clear, the fish are all smiling, the corals are all sticking out their tentacles, the crabs are doing the macarana and all is well. It is amazing after decades that water is so clear and I don't hardly do anything except abstain from walking near the tank in my Speedo or playing Rap music. There is not a scale or fin out of place on any fish and the clowns are spawning even with me looking at them. The bluestripe male pipe looks to explode with babies and the male mandarin is putting his moves on the female so tonight may be the night for them. The remaining Bangai cardinal is probably a little near sighted and senile so the other fish give him a wide berth and leave him alone. A couple of gorgonians hit into different sponges and now the sponges are growing up the stalks of the gorgs. I will have to trim them if I get time or I will have a lot of tall, skinny gorg looking sponges. The 3 porcelain crabs seem to be getting along better and I think they are texting each other with one "hand" and filter feeding with the other. The clingfish is still clinging to the mulm in the back in the tank waiting to attack the clams in the feeder I will use on him tonight. The copperband, who is the king of the tank grew much larger than I would liked him to grow. He is about 5" and I got him as a baby. He is also by far my largest eater. He is getting expensive to feed and loves clams and blackworms. I have to keep feeding one side of the tank then the other to keep food away from him. My yellow wrasses I think are spawning in the back of the tank as they are never apart and disappear together there for a few hours a day. There are 4 or 5 other wrasses that I have no idea what they are but they are not paired so I won't see them spawn.
Over all I am very happy with my tank and I am also very proud of it. Of course there are plenty of much nicer looking tanks on here, but those are not mine. I am proud of the fact that my tank doesn't seem to have the problems many tanks have with diseases, parameters, pH, hair algae, hitch hikers and all those things. It would be better if something would go wrong so I would have something to write about, but since that doesn't happen, I will have to just make up stuff or tell stories. ;)

Need plumbing advice?

 
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Paul B

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It's snowing pretty hard here now. It started this morning so I went out there early and took down all my Christmas decorations. Luckily I didn't have as much up this year because of my shoulder operation but I still had quite a lot. All of the big stuff I built like a train, plane and Jack in the Box. They are supposed to be big toys. They look very cool and I don't do Home Depot Christmas decorations because here in New York I can't swing a dead catfish without hitting 4 or 5 Home Depot's and I don't want my house looking like anybody else's. I really do not like those inflatable snow men, reindeers, Santa etc, but I am partial to inflatable Supermodels. I liked them when they first came out but now some people's homes look like Macy's. I also don't know why the people with those things don't keep them on all day because they look ridiculous all crumpled up when they are off. I know, it's just me and I am weird. o_O
My Son n Law came over to help me put the stuff out.
But now I dragged all the stuff into my garage and it needs to go up high in the garage to be put away. I installed eye bolts in the ceiling so I can hoist the stuff up, but you still need two good arms for that and one of mine is not quite ready to lift stuff up with yet so I am waiting to see any movement in one of my neighbors houses so I can get them to help me put the stuff away. They probably sense me looking out the window so they won't show themselves. :rolleyes:
I also know they will clear my snow today because for many years I did the entire block because I had the best (and oldest) snow blower.
This was from last year so make believe it was from today because I don't feel like taking a picture and snow is snow.

 
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Paul B

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I got another one of these yesterday from my favorite LFS in Westbury. But for some reason they only get one at a time so I have to go back all the time to get more

(Andy get me more. I want more)

I want about ten or fifteen of them because they are just so cool and I want them to spawn, not that I think I can raise them. They are mostly filter feeders but they will munch on a tiny piece of clam when they can get it so I squirt them some every meal. Their claws are lousy at holding anything so it takes some time for them to actually grab something.

 

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Their claws are lousy at holding anything so it takes some time for them to actually grab something.
How do they text you to let you know when they are hungry if they can't hold their cell phones? :confused:

I absolutely love these crabs. Are they difficult to keep? Seems like they are very uncommon.
 

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but I am partial to inflatable Supermodels

Can't find those at Home Depot. I'd link where, but I think that's a quick way to get kicked off this site :D

On a more serious note, do you keep a continuous culture of blackworms going Paul? Or just buy more as needed. My basement is turning into a crazy science experiment as I start growing some live foods, considering adding these in, but not sure if they are worth the time, or if the wife would be ok with that haha.
 

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In a couple of weeks my reef will will have reached 40 years old.
Unfortunately I don't remember when I was 40 but I remember when I set it up. I was a skinny 22 year old just back from Viet Nam.
It is still running very well, still using the same reverse UG filter, same dolomite substrait but none of the fish are original. The oldest one, a fireclown is just over 16, all of the older fish died in an accident that was due to my carelessness.
The tank is mostly LPS, gorgonians, giant mushrooms and a few leathers.
There are only three SPS corals, two of which have been with me for a few years and are growing nicely.
I am not sure is any of the original NSW from the Long Island Sound is still in there or any of the original amphipods but maybe much later generations.
I still can't take a decent picture and the tank is not as blue as these pictures but it is what it is.
opentank008.jpg

Valantinesday017.jpg

monti002.jpg

IMG_0820.jpg

Aquarium014.jpg
Happy birthday .!!!! An amazing accomplishment.. congratulations.. !!!!
 

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I want about ten or fifteen of them because they are just so cool
This is our current Anemone crab "Popeye" . Hes Red, and has much larger claws than the whites
IMG_0107.JPG

This was our lil White Porcelain crab, AL. He lived about 4+ years with us.
SaltyFilmfolks 1 (1 of 1)-2.jpg

In that Pic he's wearing a ricordea. He wanted to host a nem so bad he actually hosted that one to death. He'd walk around the tank holding it on his head like a hat.
 
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Paul B

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Brew, they are actually quite common, but lousy texters. They are not easy to keep unless you have a fairly old, not to clean tank because they are filter feeders. My many wrasses and fireclowns keep the detritus stirred up which is what they like for lunch. I also feed clams with the juice which they like for dessert.

Sde1500, I just came back from Home Depot and today, they are all out of Supermodels which is why I didn't stay there too long.
I keep worms all the time in a worm keeper I built. They reproduce but not nearly fast enough so I buy them every week or two. I only supplement those with the clams, Mysis and maybe some LRS foos

Jason Mack, Thank you

Salty, all he needs is Olive Oyl. :rolleyes:
 
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My basement is turning into a crazy science experiment as I start growing some live foods, considering adding these in, but not sure if they are worth the time, or if the wife would be ok with that haha.
My basement workshop looks like Tesla's lab. I have experiments, parts of experiments, things that some day I want to make into experiments, experiments that I started so long ago that I have no idea what the experiment was for, Copper things, brass things, aluminum things, hoards of Plexiglas sheets, tubes, rods balls. I have springs, pneumatics, relays up the Gazoo, :eek: switches, valves, motors, actuators, hydraulics, pneumatics, worm keepers, shrimp hatcheries, egg separators, microscopes, evaporative chillers, ROs DIs and steam punk lamps.
I could build a Space Shuttle in my workshop, but I wouldn't want to take the first ride on it (or the second) Most of my fish stuff was re built from something else. My worm keeper used to be my reef chiller and before that my wet dry filter.
I have panels on the wall that monitor my alarms all over the house. I even have leak detectors, if there is a plumbing leak anywhere in the house, it shuts off my main water valve. I have solar panels on my roof and LEDs that show me which heating zone is on. I have outside thermostats that adjust the temperature of my boiler. I have rods you pull or push to turn on lights where the switches are inaccessible behind tool boxes.
My big workshop is in my garage where I keep my welding stuff, and mechanic tools along with my radial arm saw.
In the almost 40 years that I have been living here, I built a heck of a lot of stuff .
It used to look like this


Then I added more storage space and a sink



Then I get crazy



Always something going on. That was a prototype of an auto brine shrimp vacation hatchery/egg seperator



The other side has the larger wood tools and the Supermodels.
That one on the right was from 1986 and that's how long she has been there, I didn't get tired of her yet :rolleyes: Of course I also have pictures of my Daughter and Grand Kids all over the place along with the stuff they made me.



I could spend most of my life in my workshop, and I do :D
 
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I completed my 3 hour consultation at the Veterans Administration and it seems that almost fifty years after I got out of Viet Nam I have PTSD. Who would have thought!
She said that may also be why I throw myself at hobbies like this one so much. And why I don't really wait in lines and go nuts in traffic although I never launched a torpedo at the car in front of me or anything.
Who knows, maybe PTSD made me a better aquarist or even maybe a better person.
A good friend of mine who was in Nam just before me also has it, but he is in pretty bad shape and has some noticeable symptoms. I don't feel there is anything wrong but I do seem to have less problems than most people. She told me, it just seems that way to me because I feel these little life things are mostly silly.
They came to some of this decision partly because I was in a very big battle lasting about 5 hours which I have no recollection of 4 of those hours. But unfortunately, I do remember the aftermath and "clean up".
Oh well, this won't change my life, it just gives me a piece of paper saying I have it.
My fish don't seem to care one way or another but they should because maybe I would not have a fish tank if I didn't experience that. :rolleyes:
 

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I completed my 3 hour consultation at the Veterans Administration and it seems that almost fifty years after I got out of Viet Nam I have PTSD. Who would have thought!
She said that may also be why I throw myself at hobbies like this one so much. And why I don't really wait in lines and go nuts in traffic although I never launched a torpedo at the car in front of me or anything.
Who knows, maybe PTSD made me a better aquarist or even maybe a better person.
A good friend of mine who was in Nam just before me also has it, but he is in pretty bad shape and has some noticeable symptoms. I don't feel there is anything wrong but I do seem to have less problems than most people. She told me, it just seems that way to me because I feel these little life things are mostly silly.
They came to some of this decision partly because I was in a very big battle lasting about 5 hours which I have no recollection of 4 of those hours. But unfortunately, I do remember the aftermath and "clean up".
Oh well, this won't change my life, it just gives me a piece of paper saying I have it.
My fish don't seem to care one way or another but they should because maybe I would not have a fish tank if I didn't experience that. :rolleyes:
The real question... after spending 3 hours with you, does she have PTSD now? :eek::p

Glad everything went well!
 

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I got my ptsd from Hollywood. I have whole movies I can't remember making. It kinda bugged me so I talked to people who worked on the same movie and they don't remember making it either until I tell them what year it was and who else. was there. I kinda figure I came out with a little less ptsd than they did. Maybe I just got PTS.
A lot of them got drug problems and divorces. I got old cameras projectors and a fish tank with a decent work shop.
I kinda think my four years kinda made me a little bit immune to the next 25.

Hey who's the poster behind the band saw?
Kate Jackson or Joyce Dewitt.
 
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Paul B

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Hey who's the poster behind the band saw?
Kate Jackson or Joyce Dewitt.
I once wired a picture developing plant. They would make pictures 60 feet long to hang on billboards or anywhere where you would need such a thing. Now you can probably make that from a smart phone.
The place was throwing stuff out and I took that picture of a beautiful girl. I think it was an advertisement for some kind of cosmetics. I don't care, I like to look at her and have been for decades.

Last week my Daughter says to me, Hey dad, what is that mark on your eye lid? I had no idea, probably magic marker, so my wife looked at it and said. OMG, you always had a small spot there, but now it is half the size of your eyelid. She asked me if I noticed it. I said, you can only see it when my eye is closed and I don't see much with my eyes closed, so, No, I never saw it.
So of course she tells me I have to go to the dermatologist. I agreed (the Dermatologist is almost a Supermodel and I like her)
I go to the skin Doc and am waiting in the waiting room when this girl comes in and she keeps looking at her watch. She asks me if I parked on the street, I said yes, Why? She says, do you know it's only an hour parking? I said yes, but you just got here two minutes ago. She tells me, I know but I am paranoid of getting a ticket so should I move my car? Like I care right!
So she leaves to move her car, I guess she moves it every two minutes so she doesn't get a ticket. I think she has PTSD

They call my name and I get to see the Doc and her nurse. She looks at my eyelid and says she is going to take a biopsy. I said, a What! I know what a biopsy is but of all my body parts, my eye lid is way down on the bottom of the list of places where I want someone taking a biopsy of.
I asked her what she thought it was? She said it looks like a benign "Quisymoto Flounder". At least it sounded like that. I figured that must be like a fluke and wanted to ask if she could just give my head a fresh water dip or rub some Prizapro on it.
Before I could ask, she takes this needle and says, I am going to give you this needle to numb the pain for the biopsy. I said, what are you going to give me to numb the pain of the needle in my eye?
With that, she is sticking this needle in my eyelid and telling me not to open my eye. Like, you even had to tell me that! She said, this may be a "little" uncomfortable. I imagine she pulled it off my eye a little to do this.

Then she tells the nurse to get her a sharp scissors. I said, wait a minute, I thought you took the biopsy with the needle, what's with the scissors? She has to cut a little piece out of my eye lid. Oh great, I am really looking forward to this!
The nurse tells the Doc, we don't have any sharp scissors. OK, I am out of here. She tells me to calm down, it's not a big deal. I told her, it would not be a big deal if she wanted to use a scissors on her own eye lid. I told her that yesterday it wasn't a big deal, but today I have PTSD so I have an excuse.
They find this scissors and tell me "Don't Move". At that point I thought of doing sit ups or leg presses but I figured it wouldn't be prudent at that time.

She holds my head and snips a piece off my eye lid. Like "Ouch", Now tell me that doesn't sound uncomfortable. It feels like it sounds. I asked her if instead of Novocain she put coffee in that needle to numb the pain.

So now I am home looking at my fish with one eye because the other one feels like an urchin is doing the Macarana in it :eek:
 
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Paul B

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Hah, if I posted a pic like that on my wall, my wife would turn it into a dart board, or a knife throwing board!

My wife knows I like to look at beautiful girls and even points them out to me on the street. But none of them could compare to her and she knows that I feel that way. After 45 years married I don't have to prove anything to her. :D

She likes Tom Sellic (my double) :rolleyes:
 
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I wonder if I caught this dark spot on my eye lid from my copperband? It looks the same as the spot on his stripe. :eek:

 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

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  • Check valves.

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  • None.

    Votes: 18 25.0%
  • Other.

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