Reef 35 years old this month

[Paul B]

Rainier, for additives I add water. OK I also use Kalk and two part calcium.
Thats it.
Paul

 

[CarlaW]

Congrats, 35 years is an awesome thing!!!!

 

[Paul B]

Dabears, I had to take another picture of that clown because I can't find the closeup. I still can't get him to the front. He does not bother anything as long as they keep away from his bubble coral that I guess hge thinks is an anemone. He just chases the snall gobies and he really doesen't like the copperband but he's old so I will let him get away with it.
Paul

Here he is and I added a picture of gorgonians just to fill the space.

 

[chazbier]

Wow!

 

[fishcrazee]

It's like an aged fine wine, very nice.......

 

[Krish]

Paul...Have you ever gone through a stage with your setup that algae got the best of your tank? I know a lot of people have to do some major work sometimes to get nuicance algae under control in their main display and I was just wondering if that ever happened with the method of filtration you are using...

 

[Paul B]

Krish, I have been getting cycles of hair algae about once a year for about 25 years. Since I installed the algae trough about a year ago I have not had a problem. I am not nieve and I know the algae will return but I am hoping it only grows in the trough. The last time I had a really bad hair algae attack was about two years ago. Thats when I lifted the UG filter plates to clean (and see what was growing under there) That was the first time I cleaned them in 25 years. If your reef is old enough, hair algae comes and goes. It is a natural part of a reef. I am just trying to control it by forcing it to grow where I want it to grow. In my opinion, all of the stuff you read about how to eliminate it is nonsence. Snails, crabs, tangs, rabbitfish and grenades will not eliminate hair algae. These animals work in the sea but not in a tank. The sea has practically unlimited water and most of it is far too deep for anything to grow, the nutrients from animal waste have a lot of space to disperse. In our tanks it just stays there. And the more "clean up crew" you put in means more food you have to give causing more poop. If a thousand six inch tangs were to decend on one of our tanks, how soon do you think the algae would be eliminated.
Anyway I shouldn,t be ranting, sorry.
Have a great day.
Paul

 

[Krish]

LOL...That's not ranting man. Only when you've gone over the maximum charaters allowed per post Yeah, algae is something I guess we will eventually all have to deal with. I'm hoping that my OCD will prolong it though. I clean like crazy!!!!!

Thanks for the reply

 

[Paul B]

Krish, yeah an "OCD" is great.... Whats an OCD?
WOW, you have a lot of things under your post that I have no Idea what they are. Mine are all IBTMs (I built them myself) If I can't build it, I don't need it.

 

[liveforphysics]

I'm pretty sure he means obsessive compulsive disorder.

You know Paul, if he cant see it on the glass anymore, and if he blows it off the rocks then its gone. Just teasing Krish

Two thumbs up for the ITBMs!!

 

[Krish]

I'm pretty sure he means obsessive compulsive disorder.

You know Paul, if he cant see it on the glass anymore, and if he blows it off the rocks then its gone. Just teasing Krish

Two thumbs up for the ITBMs!!

Yup! That's what it means Here's the routine...Every week, I shut down everything, blow off my rocks with a powerhead, run a polishing cartridge to remove all the free floating junk, and then I siphon up what's left on the bottom while I change out 15 gals. Then I vacuum out my sump with the same polishing cartridge (in the HOT magnum). Daily, I clean my skimmers neck and cup, I wash out my pre-filter sponge everyday (or alternate between 2) wash out the pre-filter for the aqualifter for the CPR overflow every 3 days and then of course change my carbon every 3 weeks instead of 6 and phosban media every 2 months instead of 3. But I have to tell you, with the (2) Tunzes in the tank, not much comes off of the rocks anymore when I go to do my water changes. I may have to reposition those Tunzes to give me something to clean(LOL) I've got it bad really...But atleast I enjoy it

 

[ldrhawke]

Great tank Paul......I've only got 32 more years and I'll catch up to you.:badgrin: I know your nutrient secret. It's that empty Heinekens bottle in your tank:lol:

 

[Paul B]

Krish, my routine is, when I walk by the tank and I have some time, about every week or two (sometimes three) I rinse out 4 sponge prefilters I have on intakes. When I go boating and I remember to bring some empty bottles I collect some water, maybe twice in the summer, Then I change some water. If I happen to collect some wierd thing along with the water and it looks like it won't eat everything in my tank I take that too. I powerwash the rocks and gravel about three four or five times a year, again, when I get time.
Time is very important to me. Money is a renewable resource, they throw it at me every week but time is something I can't find enough of.
The problem is that we have so many close friends ,(from high school) and we are a big crowd, someone is always having a party for something :badgrin: and we spend the entire summer on our boats, some of these boats are huge. Last night was another late one. Today it is supposed to snow a foot so after snowblowing I will have some time for the tank. My light needs rebuilding before it falls in the tank. I will retire in about two years and hope to get a much bigger tank and spend some "time" wrighting a book that I started in the seventees. Well, now it's "time" to start the snow blower.
So have a great day and keep sucking that detritus out of that tank.

Hawk, most of the bottles in my tank are not Heinekin :badgrin: But some are "Eichler" beer, out of business for a while I would imagine, and "Grand Marnier" bottles, Maybe all the dertritus goes in there :lol:

Paul

 

[ldrhawke]

..................

Hawk, most of the bottles in my tank are not Heinekin :badgrin: But some are "Eichler" beer, out of business for a while I would imagine, and "Grand Marnier" bottles, Maybe all the dertritus goes in there :lol:

Paul

I didn't mean the nutrients from the bottles going into the tank. I meant where the nutrients in the empty bottles ended up before they went into the tank empty...:lol: All your boating parties confirmed my suspicions. Your using the vodka process on youself and not your tank.....good to see it works both ways

My way to use Vodka I only have happy fish. Your way you have a happy reefkeeper I like your way better :razz:

 

[Krish]

Krish, my routine is, when I walk by the tank and I have some time, about every week or two (sometimes three) I rinse out 4 sponge prefilters I have on intakes. When I go boating and I remember to bring some empty bottles I collect some water, maybe twice in the summer, Then I change some water. If I happen to collect some wierd thing along with the water and it looks like it won't eat everything in my tank I take that too. I powerwash the rocks and gravel about three four or five times a year, again, when I get time.
Time is very important to me. Money is a renewable resource, they throw it at me every week but time is something I can't find enough of.
The problem is that we have so many close friends ,(from high school) and we are a big crowd, someone is always having a party for something and we spend the entire summer on our boats, some of these boats are huge. Last night was another late one. Today it is supposed to snow a foot so after snowblowing I will have some time for the tank. My light needs rebuilding before it falls in the tank. I will retire in about two years and hope to get a much bigger tank and spend some "time" wrighting a book that I started in the seventees. Well, now it's "time" to start the snow blower.

Do you think this method of taking care of your tank has been the reason you have had so many outbreaks over the years with algae? I personally can't see anyone just leaving thier tank like that and it being that successful (that's just my opinion though...not necessarily right). I figure it will cause a person more time to take down there whole system because of a crash or algae out break, when 10-15 minutes can be taken here and there weekly to take care of the tank. So i'll go...

previously posted by PaulB
have a great day and keep sucking that detritus out of that tank.

and enjoy my tank looking like it looked the first day I set up Thanks for the reply

 

[Paul B]

Krish, I don't want you to get the wrong Idea, I spend a lot of time on my tank, just not on a scheduled maintenance routene. Every morning before work at 4:30 AM I check everything out. I have been looking at this tank for three decades and I can tell from across the room if there is a problem or if some animal is sick. The tank is fully automatic and has safety controls in case of a leak or overflow. The animals never get sick and they usually die of old age, one was 18. I do not quarintine (although you should) only because my fish are immune from ich. This was not always the case, the first seven or eight years I had to always have copper in the tank, we all did in the seventees or you could not keep fish. As soon as the copper level fell and you put in a fish you would get a full blown case of ich. For at least 20 years or more there has never been a paracite in my tank and thats with using New York City sea water and adding many fish, rock, seaweed and animals. I don't know why they are immune and I can't find out but if I put a fish in there with ich it will either die or get cured but no other fish will ever get it. I can only assume it is due to the health of the tank. My experience tells me when the water needs changing or a sponge needs cleaning.
Last year I went to Tahiti just to study moorish Idols and long nosed butterflies. I also have been diving mainly to learn all I can for almost 40 years. I can easily cure ich, and popeye but I have some unorthadox methods that some people may not think will work so I don't like mentioning them much.
As for your original question about my methods causing the algae cycles, I don't think so. My opinion on algae is that you can not cure it, it is not a disease, it will grow on any rock in the sea if it has light and you remove the herbifores. I also believe that if there is no algae in your tank it is either because the tank is not old enough or it is not as healthy as you may think. Of course, this is only my opinion, there are not that many ten year old reefs out there to study. I had no algae for the first ten years or so.
I know you have read about all the people with algae problems and all the "cures". All of these "cures" will work somewhat but none will eliminate algae. It is self limiting and will leave on it's own when it exhausts whatever it needs to grow. If you constantly change the water you maycause it to last longer depending on what is depleted. This is one aspect of reef keeping that I don't like discussing because almost everyone will tell you to change water to eliminate algae and this will not always work. As you know I let it grow in a trough, I am happy and so is the algae. I also think that a reef is healthier with some algae, again my opinion. From experience, I can tell that corals look better if there is algae present as long as it is not shading the corals.
I hope that somewhere in here I answered your question, and I respect your opinions and concerns. I also mean no disrespect, I just get carried away sometimes.
Anyway we are supposed to get a foot of snow here any time now so time to go.
Have a great day.
Paul

 

[Krish]

It's cool man...Thanks for the reply I have algae in my system, just not in my main display. I use more watts per gallon of light in my sump (freshwater lights) as well as a longer photoperiod on the sump than my main display tank not to mention not very turbulent or strong flow in the fuge section of my sump as well. I figured, if I didn't do this, algae would grow in the tank. I guess this is keeping it down in my tank as well as the fact that I don't really have much fish to talk about and don't over feed. Your "system" like "Luke's" (liveforphysics) seems to work well for you guys. That's good. My method, with what I have, works great for me and like Mike (Mojo) stated before, remove it before it has a chance to break down and cause water quality issues, is something I do. Without excess nutrients in the tank, algae cannot survive on just light alone...So I keep them down. This is a great hobby though! Everyone has a different approach with their own positive outcomes. Thanks again for your reply

 

[sryder]

just curious guys as to the clownfish. could it be a red saddleback and not a fire or deeper red tomato.

 

[Paul B]

I know it's not a tomato or saddleback.
Paul

 

[sryder]

check out oceanlight.com saddlebacks and fire clowns.