Tank turned 41 years old

[Saltyreefkeeper]

Sorry just to make the water change thing more spicefic he only does 2 water changes a year and only tops of with fresh water!!!! Sorry to bother u I just like the oldschool ways and my dad taought me alot of wat I kno now!!!

 

[Saltyreefkeeper]

I'll send u pics if u would like!!???

 

[Paul B]

Salty I don't use sand in my reef but I use dolomite gravel. With my system I need to stir the bed a couple of times a year. It helps my reverse UG filter run eficiently. While I am diatoming, the filter removes the gunk that would clog my gravel. If you use sand I would only vacuum it if you see a lot of detritus that you don't like. To me detritus is not bad because it is mostly inert and a great place for pods and worms to breed. These animals have a hard time breeding and living on clean substraits.
I want some detritus in my tank. The sea is full of detritus.
My tank is set up differently than most because it was started well before computers and internets and I had to learn by accident.
I personally don't like sand systems but that is just a personal choice for me. Many sand systems run very well for a long time.
Paul

 

[Saltyreefkeeper]

Thanks alot Paul!!! And again ur tank is awesome!!!

 

[Paul B]

it's raining here now and cold so as I was looking at my tank trying to get into my fishes heads I thought I would post something, I don't exactly know what but it will come to me. I notice that my two fireclowns now are no longer breeding with each other but have two different nest sites on opposite sides of the tank. This is a problem for the other fish because each fireclown attacks any other fish that come near. My long nose butterfly has to navigate through both territories on his circumnavigation of the tank every minute or so and on each pass must confront both fish. The two clowns do not invade each other's areas but they do meet at the boundry of each ones domain and give each other dirty looks.
The hippo tang has learned to take a short cut to by pass both fishes nesting sites and has no problems. Hippo tangs are much more comfortable navigating in close quarters of rock than long nose butterflies. In the sea a hippo tang will take cover in the rocks while a long nose butterfly will try to swim away just above the rocks.
I would imagine their long nose would make it difficult to get into tight spaces, or get out anyway. Also a butterfly has more of a defense mechanism in the long sharp spines of it's dorsal fin that it thrusts in it's opponent's face and a hippo tang has an offensive weapon in the scalpel that it has just before it's tail. That is why they call them surgeon fish but we all knew that.
I also think that the clowns know about the other fishes weapons and know which fish they should not mess with. They don't seem to bother with all the other bottom dwelling fish and pay no attention to the gobies, mandarin or pipefish. I guess they consider rthose fish as sissies and no threat.
Just my observations on a rainy day

 

[Paul B]

To update my tank seems to be doing wery well. The only thing I notice is that my 4 SPS corals are growing very fast as my LPS seem to be shrinking a little. This happens when you mix the two types of corals and I may start to introduce more SPS but I know what will happen to the LPS which I kind of prefer. At one time, years ago the tank was all SPS. I get bored and need to change it around every so many years.
The tank looks no where near what it looked like a couple of years ago before I lost most of the corals to a make up water problem but it looks pretty good, not as good as many tanks on here but it is the way I like it.

 

[Paul B]

I know I have been saying this for months but I really need to remove all of the rocks and re aquascape. Due to some of the spawning fish and the dragon wrasse digging holes and re arranging everything all of the entire structure moved almost all the way to the front glass and I am having a hard time cleaning the glass or positioning the corals. The gorgonians are jammed against the front glass and I don't have room for anything. There is plenty of room in the back where I don't need it. I know I should have done this in the winter as now it is boating season and this will take all day.
If I ever do it I can also remove the dragon wrasse and give it away as it has grown too large and he has become a pain in the wrasse I will also stir the dolomite and clean it.
One problem is that I really like the aquascaping now and I know I will not be able to re create it. I always have a bunch of rocks left over when I do this. I also need to find tanks for all the corals. I guess I will also collect some water, pods and bacteria the next time I take out the boat as I have not added any of that since last year.
Oh the joy of reefing.

 

[Paul B]

This week I ordered LED lights for my reef. I will start building the fixture tomorrow. It was a no brainer because my MH lamps are almost due to be replaced and that costs about $125.00 so for another $200.00 or so I can build a 36 light LED system that will have the same 14,000K as my MHs plus put out 25% more light for one quarter of the electricity. and probably a quarter of the heat. The electricity saved will pay for the system in less than a year.

I am very energy concious which is the reason I have an extreamly efficient gas boiler and solar panels on my roof.

This tank went from regular light bulbs to regular flourescent, to VHO, to MH with actinic to just MH and now it will be LEDs. I hope they don't invent anything else.

 

[Paul B]

The LED fixture is completed, now I just have to wait until the LEDs arrive, probably tomorrow.
This fixture is purposely made very light because it will be on pulleys and it is in a closet so you won't see it. The aluminum tubes are of course cut under the fans so the fans will pull heat through the tubes there by cooling the fixture.

 

[Paul B]

The thing seems to work

 

[Paul B]

Now the thing is 99% completed. Here it is with the control box with the 3 dimmers and fan switch.

Here are the old (Plaza Hotel) MH lights. Anyone need any slightly used 150 watt 14,000K MH lamps? free.

Here is the new fixture hung over the tank, that of course is in the blue mode

This is with all the lights almost at full brilliancy.
So far after 30 minutes the fixture is still at room temperature.

All I have to do next is to build the pulley system so I can raise the fixture out of the way to remove rocks and what not. Now it is still hung on string.

 

[Somethings Fishy]

man that tank looks good! really glows with the led's!!!

 

[charlypooh]

that's gorgeous with the leds! is that a 100% diy led setup?

 

[Paul B]

Thanks. Yes, everything in the tank is 100% DIY.

 

[Paul B]

Now the system is 100% done. I installed a pulley system that raises the LED fixture about a foot so it goes out of the way for maintenance. I just have to slightly tough it and it rises. The plastic container (counterweight) is filled with lead shot.
I love this stuff.

 

[Paul B]

I am happy to say that my reef is 5 degrees cooler than it should be for this time of the year. Outside it is almost 100 degrees and my tank usually runs about 87 degrees in the summer which is a little hot.
Now the tank is a comfortable 82 degrees which is fine.
The LEDs emit just about zero heat and you can put your hand right on the lenses without feeling anything.

 

[Paul B]

I re-designed my algae trough this morning. I thought my LED lights would supply enough light to the trough but they were not positioned enough above it so the hair algae in the trough died in a week. I bought a 4' strip of waterproof LEDs and mounted them about 2" above the trough where they illuminate it very brightly for practically free.
It took a while removing the screen from the trough as it was full of brittle stars and amphipods and I didn't want to lose any so I had to pick them out betwen the tube worms that grow all over the trough bottom.
You can make out the strip of LEDs here but I should have shut them off to take the picture as they wash out the photo.

Here it is with the tank lights out

 

[Paul B]

To update my tank, for the last 4 weeks I have been adding some SPS corals because I changed the lighting to LEDs and increased the circulation.
I have some nice montipora's and some acropora. The monti's actually have been growing nicely for almost a year so I added more. The acropora's look good but it is too soon to see if they will grow in my rather "natural" tank. Many years ago it was all SPS but I liked LPS better so I had mostly those. I still like LPS better and don't like mixing all of this but I want to see what happens. Gorgonians seem to grow wild in the tank so they predominate.
This monti grew from a tiny frag that broke off the main piece. It quadrupled in size in less than a year.

There are two of these, this one and a green one. I don't know the name and am too lazy to look it up but they have been growing for a couple of years also.
I only posted this because quite a few people said to me that SPS will not live in my tank because of my limited water changes and slightly "dirtier" conditions than many tanks

 

[Paul B]

Today I added some more acropora that I got for a good price. Now the tank has about half LPS and Half SPS. Well maybe 3/4 LPS, I don't know but I made a mistake tonight. I am diatoming the tank like I do occasionally and there must be a hole in the bag in the diatom filter so there is diatom powder all over the tank.
I just told the corals it is "Marine Snow" so they don't freak out. Now I have to take the thing apart and make a new bag. I have three of these filters and between all of them I can make one decent one. They are a horrible design and the engineer that designed them should be smacked. They are real bad in saltwater, they rust and they shock you also. I love designing and building things and I hate to see such a badly designed piece of machinery. I use them because the end product is what I am looking for and they have very good preasure, when they do not stall, over heat or just rust away.
Today I used it to blow preasurised water down the UG filter tubes, there is a lot of smutz under there. That is a polite word for detritus.
When (and if) I get time I will build my own diatom that will work much better than these things.
With my reverse UG set up I need something to stir up the gravel and canister filters don't have enough umph.

 

[Myteemouse]

the brown thing is a PAVONA!