Reef 35 years old this month

[burning2nd]

thats great! keep on the reefer.

 

[57reefer]

Happy b-day to you and your tank. Looks great. Perhaps you could include a picture on your cleaning tool on your next post. Also, looks like you clean the glass on the back of the tank. Do you clean all 4 sides?

 

[Krish]

Krish as an update, it seems that algae trough is working as planned. There is very little hair algae if any in my reef. It seems to have broken the cycles of algae I used to get every year. The trough is full of all sorts of algae and cyano. It is also full of pods. As you know I am not a real big fan of a "clean up crew" to eliminate nusience algae. I have a clean up crew because I find hermit crabs interesting and they do eat the food that the fish miss but I would not depend on them to eat a lot of algae. In my opinion it is better to let it grow, just not in the main tank. I have always felt that a tank with algae is healthier than a tank with none. Just a personal observation.
Have a great day.
Paul

Sounds great Paul! Keep up the good work and being an inspiration to up and coming reefers

 

[Paul B]

57 Reefer, thanks but it is not yet the tank birthday. This post was started about 9 months ago. The tank will be 36 in about feburary. I don't have a cleaning tool for the glass. I use a magnet cleaner. I only clean the front.
Which cleaning tool are you referring to?
Paul

 

[57reefer]

The one to clean off your rocks.

 

[Paul B]

Oh that cleaning tool. Thats a diatom filter made by Vortex. It removes everything up to about a millionth of an inch. They sell them in any LFS or on line.
Paul

 

[sausage fingers]

Hi,

Thats a nice setup and although not new to keeping fish I am to marine reef keeping. It is those images that made me spend the hard earnt £s and in my opinion one of the more interesting hobbies one could have. Everyone who sees my tank are drawn to it, best television in the street.

 

[57reefer]

Thanks Paul, What kind of "Power washer" attachment did you make for the diatom?

 

[Paul B]

57reefer, on the end of the outflow hose of the diaton I got one of those things that florists put carnations in to keep them fresh. It is like a tiny long skinny funnel. It fits over the filter hose and has about a 1/4" opening on one end. The water comes out very fast and I powerwash the rock with it. I have to be careful because it would tear the LPS.

Boomer, here is a picture of that asphalt, It is hard to see but just about the entire picture behind the gorgonian is asphalt. It grows coraline faster and thicker than "real" rock. I don't know if thats good or bad but I do know that there is a lot of the stuff around.
Paul

 

[Paul B]

I guess it diden't work, try again

 

[Paul B]

This post is a mistake, sorry, go back top what you were doing

 

[Brenden]

Paul. In post 79 what is the center pic of?

 

[Paul B]

Thats my brain on steroids :lol:
Oh 79, yeah disquesting isn't it. It is an encrusting sponge I collect on wooden pilings and floating docks to feed the moorish Idol and copperband butterfly. It looks nothing like that when it's growing. It just looks like mushrooms but when you scrape it off, it looks awful. I freeze it and scrape off pieces. They can't really eat it fresh but it gets soft when it's frozen and thawed.
Paul :

 

[burning2nd]

ill 2nd that Best tv on the block

 

[Brenden]

Pretty gross. From the looks of it.. seems like it would foul water easy if not careful. It gets softer than whats in the pic? Looks like mush.

 

[Paul B]

It looks like mush because I collected it in the morning and it has been in that container on the boat all day. I rinse it off and it cleans up nicely.
Paul

 

[patmayo]

Has it always been reverse flow Paul?

When did you first put live rock in it?

Regards,

Pat

 

[Paul B]

Pat, for the first ten years or so if I remember it was not reverse flow. It got very dirty and I had to clean it often. Now I can go 25 years between cleanings as I just did but I do stir up places where I can reach ocasionally.
There was no live rock in the seventees and since I collected all of the rock myself in the Caribbean it was mostly dead coral skeletons. Then I gradually replaced the coral with dead rock. It was dead because I carried it on the plane and I bleached it first so it would not smell. Most of my rock became live in my tank. Then I added a lot of very porous local New York rock for the bacteria. I never bought live rock
Paul

 

[Paul B]

a few days ago I noticed a problem in my reef. There was some hair algae and some of it was almost 6" long and made it to the surface. This doesen't usually happen so I figured something was wrong. It was. I unplugged the RUGF about a week ago to clean the intake sponge and forgot to plug it back in. That is the third time I remember doing that and the result is always the same. Now all is well again. Can't live without that RUGF :lol:
Paul

 

[Paul B]

I guess I will have to update this old thread. I mentioned somewhere that two weeks ago when it was 7 degrees my power and heat went off. No one was home so I diden't know about it. The tank went down to about 60 degrees. Not too good. I noticed a few days later that I had hair algae starting to grow, no doubt from some animals that died in the gravel. It was wierd hair algae. I have never seen it like this before. It was not everywhere but in enough places and it grew about 3 or 4" a day. Some of it was almost 2' long. Very interesting. Also some of the fish got ich. My fish had not gotten ich in 25 years but it just proves my theory that ich is always in my tank and it only infects the fish due to stress. I would say 60 degrees is stressful. When I came home that day the moorish Idol was laying on his side. I quickly warmed the tank and he perked up but then became covered with ich. He was again laying on his side so I fresh water dipped him with formulin added. He seemed fine for a week but of course has some ich again because I can't get him into great condition in a tank full of ich and I don't have a large spare tank. Now two weeks later the corals look OK, not great but OK and the fish are still infected. All of the fish did not get it as some of them were in better health. The 12 year old fire clown does not have it nor does one goby or of course the mandarin. But the copperband, moorish Idol and two gobies do. I figured this is the time to change the tank around as to aquascaping I just can't decide if I want to go with SPS or keep it with LPS (which I kind of like better) I caught the moorish Idol and copperband butterfly and put them in a 15 gallon tank with copper. The only problem is that the Idol will not eat in that tank so I will have to put him back soon which is kind of self defeating. I now have the opportunity to test some ich theories I have that I was never able to do.
Anyway that is the story. I am not disappointed or worried. This tank had 25 years of good health and this is only a little set back. It will be better than ever.
Have a great day.
Paul