Tank turned 41 years old

[MGDMIRAGE]

Very nice Paul, I'd like to see your cold water setup under some reef lighting to see the color of those fish

Also i gotta ask, are the bumblebee gobies still alive and kicking in the reef?

 

[Paul B]

You don't like the "Reef" light over that tank?
Usually those fish don't hardly get any light. That light is really to put over the shrimp hatchery to make the shrimp swim to the lighted side so the shells stay on the dark side. In between hatchings I move the light over the tank to feed those fish.
I still have the bumblebees although I can't swear there are still 5 of them. I don't know how many there are. I never see them all together

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Cool, what are the fish with the stripe through the eye? they look like butterflyfish.

 

[Paul B]

Mistake, just make believe there is something interesting here

 

[Paul B]

Cool, what are the fish with the stripe through the eye? they look like butterflyfish.

Butterflyfish

 

[Paul B]

I did something tonight that I never do and it is against one of my cardinal fish keeping rules.
I fed my fish flakes

That was 15 minutes ago and they are still writing bad things about my family on the inside of the glass.

It was a mistake, I didn't have time to feed them yesterday and I have no worms. I was too tired to defrost fish eggs or mysis so I deserve this.

I will have to make it up to them. Tomorrow I am going out to the east end of Long Island and I will collect some nice juicy amphipods.

I hope they forgive me

 

[Myteemouse]

HUUHH??
What did the flakes do??
They didn't like them?
Or did you have an immediate algae bloom??
I feed forumla two flakes all the time,,, My fish love them.?>?

 

[Paul B]

I don't do flakes, I only use those to feed my worms and snails.
My fish have sophisticated tastes and like fresh food with a nice Merlot:badgrin:

 

[Myteemouse]

very nice LOL

 

[Paul B]

This is my new and improved blackworm keeper.
It holds many more times the volume of water and is operated with a tiny powerhead.

 

[Paul B]

I keep my worms "happy" and healthy. If you look close, you could see almost all of them are smiling, some of them are just brats.

One corner of my workshop

 

[Paul B]

I was wondering what this slimy stuff was in my algae trough and of course, it's algae.
Slimy, long hair algae. The thing is doing it's job because there is absolutely no algae in my tank. just in the trough. Cool

 

[Paul B]

OK this is a test, I want to put these pictures together to see how much this thing has grown.
This was about 2 years ago

This I think was about a year ago

And this is today

It definately grew. I also have two more of them that are growing well also.
I love these things.
Pretty soon I won't need anything else, it will cover the tank

 

[Aristarchus]

Paul, good to see you on this forum too

Always love seeing new pics of your antique tank! What beer was that in the bottle in ur tank?

 

[Paul B]

What beer was that in the bottle in ur tank?

You mean in the can? That was a Bud. There are a bunch of wine bottles and cognac bottles along with a few bottles that I collected while diving.
This year I made about 50 gallons of wine, so I think I have enough bottles for now.

 

[Paul B]

Do you guys ever turn off your pumps? That is my favorite time to watch my fish. I turn off the pumps to feed and sometimes I leave them off for an hour or two just to watch the "creatures" come out. You see tiny brittle star arms and spaghetti worms waving in the still water. Then you see speedy pods flying to the surface trying to outrun the fish that can see them now that the current stopped. The corals grow much larger with no flow, I guess it annoys them, or maybe it relaxes them. I will have to ask them. :worried:

I also enjoy watching the polyps on the SPS stretch out loking for food that does not get to them in a still tank. The snails come alive, I would imagine they can get a clearer idea as to where their food is without the water churning all over the place. The crabs also have an easier time honing in on a meal with no current. In the sea they can follow the scent to a meal but in a tank the water is mixed and the scents come from all directions, confusing them. Snails and crabs have an excellent sense of smell. Just turn off the pumps and put some pellets in the tank. They will head straight for it.
OK back to pod watching

PS I dosed some iron today, there is no algae at all in there except in my algae trough (which is full)and I really don't find the tank really healthy with no algae.

 

[sharps]

Thats really a beauty, i like the natural/tropical mixed approach. My Dad used to dive in NY Harbor quite a bit when he was young. He used to teach marine biology at Rutgers and Wagner college and he would take his students in the winter out to dive. He told me lots of funny stories with girls showing up in bikinis but its freezing water. He showed me lots of cool photos of corals off of Long Island in the middle of the winter.

 

[Paul B]

Your Dad is correct. My favorite dive site is right off this Lighthouse in the center of the Sound. There are all sorts of soft corals under here along with quite a few shipwrecks.

 

[Paul B]

I tried a new experiment today which did not come out exactly as planned. I am looking for a sticky food that I can feed torch corals with. I can feed the horizontal heads but the verticle ones are impossable to feed. They eat blackworms and look much better afterwards but I can only feed a few heads like that. Fish eggs are sticky but not sticky enough. I have a tube of anchovy paste that has the consistancy of toothpaste and looked promising but the torch corals do not like it. I can't blame them, it smells disquesting. It is also packed with olive oil which may be the reason they are cursing me out. I need to find some packed in fish oil if there is such a thing. The fish eat it but they make a "fish face" when they bite it.
Back to the drawing board.

 

[Paul B]

I would like to update this little spiny burfish that I collected this last summer.
He has grown about double in size and is about an inch and a half, up from the 3/4" he was when collected.
He eats worms, clams and plankton. The butterfliesand wrasses we collected that same trip are also growing and doing fine. I will not be putting any of these fish in my reef.