Coral Frenzy
RF Sponsor
That is great. That just goes to show you that if you take care of something that it will last. 
Tank turned 41 years old
- Thread starter Paul B
- Start date
Help Support Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum:
Krish
RF STAFF
Paul, do you remember the brand/company that made the tank? That's amazing that the tank lasted that long! Why can't all things be like that?
flatteringchild
Well-known member
38 years
I would give anything to have your knowledge!! I can't even imagine what you dealt with in the beginning. Kudos to you!
I would give anything to have your knowledge!! I can't even imagine what you dealt with in the beginning. Kudos to you!
This week I picked up a long nose butterfly. I like copperbands better but they are almost the same fish. I have had quite a few of these and I thibnk I like them for their shape. I am not really crazy about tangs and angels, just too common and they get too large. The only problem I find with these types of butterflies is that I can't get them to live as long as most other fish. If I can get five years out of one I consider myself lucky. It seems that they die in accidents more than other fish but it's probably just me.
They are definately not as hardy as most fish and need a little special attention. Because of their tiny mouth, they need to eat more times than most fish and they can't really bite off any food so they need bite size pieces. Of course I feed mine live worms every day but he also gets tiny pieces of fresh clam along with mysis.
They are an interesting fish and like copperbands they have a definate personality that you don't find in many fish. Each fish is different, sort of like people and you never know what you will get. Some eat anything and others eat nothing. Some hide all day in the coral and others never hide and will eat from your fingers. I guess they have moods which is why I find them so facinating.
In Bora Bora I spent some time with them while I was trying to learn about moorish Idold whom they share the reef with but eat completely different food.
I took this there.
This is the same reef and you can just about see a moorish Idol at the bottom center.
Both fish are not particularly rare.
They are definately not as hardy as most fish and need a little special attention. Because of their tiny mouth, they need to eat more times than most fish and they can't really bite off any food so they need bite size pieces. Of course I feed mine live worms every day but he also gets tiny pieces of fresh clam along with mysis.
They are an interesting fish and like copperbands they have a definate personality that you don't find in many fish. Each fish is different, sort of like people and you never know what you will get. Some eat anything and others eat nothing. Some hide all day in the coral and others never hide and will eat from your fingers. I guess they have moods which is why I find them so facinating.
In Bora Bora I spent some time with them while I was trying to learn about moorish Idold whom they share the reef with but eat completely different food.
I took this there.
This is the same reef and you can just about see a moorish Idol at the bottom center.
Both fish are not particularly rare.
MadMax
Promoter
Pffffft! I'm a full ten years OLDER than this tank, and you don't even have to change MY water!
Oh wait......
Oh wait......
Yesterday I removed a canister filter that I had running on my reef for a while with carbon in it. I actually forgot about the thing and it was on there for a few weeks.
I opened it to clean it out and found it full of those tiny brittle stars.
I didn't want to throw them out so I spent the better part of an hour picking them out of a quart of carbon with a tweezers. But they were very appreciative.
I opened it to clean it out and found it full of those tiny brittle stars.
I didn't want to throw them out so I spent the better part of an hour picking them out of a quart of carbon with a tweezers. But they were very appreciative.
MadMax
Promoter
Yup, carbon too eventually becomes substrate, just like anything else you put in the water column. The mini brittle stars are awesome detritus cleaners. They get into the cracks and crevices that other creatures can't.
Time well spent
MadMax
Promoter
Damned straight!
though climbing and reaching does get a bit more challenging at times.
My reef is my physical therapy
Today I figured I again would do a little maintenance. The 5' algae trough that sits above my water was encrusted with salt creep. I made a mistake when I installed this tank by putting it right up against a staircase so about 4' of the 6' tank is up against a wooden wall with no air space. That area is filled with salt and I can't get to it so eventually the house will fall down from rot. Hopefully that will not happen for a while.
Anyway, I removed the algae tray and cleaned behind it as good as I could. When I removed it, of course the water drained out of it and the amphipod population living in there all started jumping on the floor on the way to the sink. I picked them up and returned them to the tank where they thanked me profusely.
I didn't need to clean the screen in the trough as there is almost no algae in it now, mostly coraline algae. There is very little algae in the tank so all is well.
The next problem is that some of the rocks are again hitting the front glass. I re located them a couple of months ago but my old fireclown feels the need to make large holes at the base of the large rocks right down to the UG filter. By doing that, the rocks tip forward and eventually hit the glass. I have some of them tied back but I again need to remove much of the rock and re position them colser to the back. I can't clean the glass the way it is now.
You can see the wooden staircase wall the tank is against here and that white horizontal thing is the algae trough.
Anyway, I removed the algae tray and cleaned behind it as good as I could. When I removed it, of course the water drained out of it and the amphipod population living in there all started jumping on the floor on the way to the sink. I picked them up and returned them to the tank where they thanked me profusely.
I didn't need to clean the screen in the trough as there is almost no algae in it now, mostly coraline algae. There is very little algae in the tank so all is well.
The next problem is that some of the rocks are again hitting the front glass. I re located them a couple of months ago but my old fireclown feels the need to make large holes at the base of the large rocks right down to the UG filter. By doing that, the rocks tip forward and eventually hit the glass. I have some of them tied back but I again need to remove much of the rock and re position them colser to the back. I can't clean the glass the way it is now.
You can see the wooden staircase wall the tank is against here and that white horizontal thing is the algae trough.
So far my long nost butterfly is doing great and is a very large (expensive )eater.
Today I also picked up a beautiful dragon wrasse, I never saw one quite like this one and I think tomorrow I will get a heniocus that I also saw today that looks different from heniocuses that I have seen many times. Maybe my eyes are screwing up or I have cataracts or something.
I really shouldn't be putting all of these fish in the tank but the large pair of gobies never come out any more, they just stay with the spawns in the back, the bluestripe pipefish stay in caves, the rainsford gobies kind of stay out of sight and the hippo tang comes and goes. But sometimes if you look at my tank all you will see is a couple of green chromis. Now at least the long nose and dragon gobi swim out in the front.
The pair of fireclowns stopped spawning and a wierd thing happened. I think they both switched back to being males because they both have nests on different sides of the tank. and they don't hang out with each other any more. They are not the most common of the clownfish but I am debating putting another one in there. That is probably not a good Idea. OK, I talked myself out of it.
A few months I got this beautiful red fireshrimp, but of course he stays in a hole.
Too many fish in there anyway.
Oh I also picked up a beautiful, fat gorgonian. I have it stuck in the gravel but I need to cement it to a bottle, they don't grow from the substrait in the sea and I don't like putting them in the tank like that.
I found a nice brand of mysis that is much larger than what you usually get in those mysis packs. For some reason chowder clams are not too available this time of the4 year so I have to buy smaller clams. I don't like to do that because my burrfish can eat a fairly large clam in two days and I like to eat them myself so we fight over the clams.
I would also like to build a larger worm keeper so I won't have to buy them every week. Mine is only 4" wide and about 2' long, I would like to build one double that size.
I still have multitudes of flatworms that just hang out on the rocks and sunbathe, none of them go on any corals, I haven't asked them why.
Today I also picked up a beautiful dragon wrasse, I never saw one quite like this one and I think tomorrow I will get a heniocus that I also saw today that looks different from heniocuses that I have seen many times. Maybe my eyes are screwing up or I have cataracts or something.
I really shouldn't be putting all of these fish in the tank but the large pair of gobies never come out any more, they just stay with the spawns in the back, the bluestripe pipefish stay in caves, the rainsford gobies kind of stay out of sight and the hippo tang comes and goes. But sometimes if you look at my tank all you will see is a couple of green chromis. Now at least the long nose and dragon gobi swim out in the front.
The pair of fireclowns stopped spawning and a wierd thing happened. I think they both switched back to being males because they both have nests on different sides of the tank. and they don't hang out with each other any more. They are not the most common of the clownfish but I am debating putting another one in there. That is probably not a good Idea. OK, I talked myself out of it.
A few months I got this beautiful red fireshrimp, but of course he stays in a hole.
Too many fish in there anyway.
Oh I also picked up a beautiful, fat gorgonian. I have it stuck in the gravel but I need to cement it to a bottle, they don't grow from the substrait in the sea and I don't like putting them in the tank like that.
I found a nice brand of mysis that is much larger than what you usually get in those mysis packs. For some reason chowder clams are not too available this time of the4 year so I have to buy smaller clams. I don't like to do that because my burrfish can eat a fairly large clam in two days and I like to eat them myself so we fight over the clams.
I would also like to build a larger worm keeper so I won't have to buy them every week. Mine is only 4" wide and about 2' long, I would like to build one double that size.
I still have multitudes of flatworms that just hang out on the rocks and sunbathe, none of them go on any corals, I haven't asked them why.
MadMax
Promoter
I was running over 2,000 GPH through my modified Lifereef overflow (HOB no less!)
http://tinyurl.com/375cu95
powered by dual QuietOne 6000 pumps running full bore at 1560 gph each (gross of head loss equated to ~2000 gph aggregate)
http://tinyurl.com/38by349
Last edited:
I still have multitudes of tiny flatworms but they don't go on any corals, I don't know why. They just sunbathe all over the rocks. They remind me of when I was working on a building next to Radio City Music Hall. I was the foreman of a construction crew and lunch time I would go on the roof. From there I could look down in the roof of Radio City and see all the Rockettes laying in the sun.
I was just looking to make sure they were safe and not getting too much sun.............................
What?
Anyway, thats what the flatworms are doing. Even though I like watching the worms, the Rockettes held my interest better, I don't know why.
I was just looking to make sure they were safe and not getting too much sun.............................
What?
Anyway, thats what the flatworms are doing. Even though I like watching the worms, the Rockettes held my interest better, I don't know why.
I was just looking at my tank and I noticed it was very quiet. I checked and the skimmer pump was off. Well not off, but stuck. It very rarely stops but I had to remove it from the tank, (it is a powerhead) and of course as soon as I took it out it worked. (The power went off for a minute today because of a snow storm) I checked inside and all is well so I put it back. The thing is older than many members on here. Of course when you try to put a powerhead back behind the rocks, everything falls down. And of course when you try to put it back together, the rest of the aquascape falls down. My reef is very fragile and some of the rocks are suspended from above but they still are supported somewhat from other rocks. So now I don't feel like re doing the entire thing being I was snow blowing for 7 hours today so the fish will just have to get used to new quarters until I have the time to re do it. In moving stuff around I did find the Mother of all bristleworms, I thought I had a moray eel. This thing was so big it had dental work. He gave me a dirty look and I let him crawl under a rock. Wel actually he first lifted the rock, then walked in.
I noticed my RUGF was not working so I figured the pump croaked as it is a powerhead and also very old as all my pumps are. I don't even remember how old but it is also older than many members here.
I was about to pull it out and I felt it vibrating so I knew it was pumping.
The sponge on the intake which is about 6" long was completely clogged. This has never happened before but it was clogged with mostly starfish and amphipods which is a good thing but I want them to stay on the rocks and gravel and not in the filter screens.
Now I put on a new sponge but I also put in "Keep Off" signs around it.
It seems like I need to maintain these things better, once every 10 years does not seem like enough
I was about to pull it out and I felt it vibrating so I knew it was pumping.
The sponge on the intake which is about 6" long was completely clogged. This has never happened before but it was clogged with mostly starfish and amphipods which is a good thing but I want them to stay on the rocks and gravel and not in the filter screens.
Now I put on a new sponge but I also put in "Keep Off" signs around it.
It seems like I need to maintain these things better, once every 10 years does not seem like enough
Similar threads
