• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

My Reef just reached 50 years old

Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
It was started in 1971 and was moved three times. The longest it was in one place was 40 years. The last move was almost 3 years ago.
The glass was also changed three times as it got scratched from cleaning. It was started in a 40 gallon glass, then for 45 years it was in 100 gallon glass and now 125 gallons.

It uses 100% NSW and the oldest fish, a firefish is about 35 or 40 years old. His mate is a couple of years younger and they spawn constantly.
There are about 25 fish. Watchman gobies are spawning as are 6 line wrasses, fireclowns and rainsford gobies.

It uses dolomite and a reverse Undergravel filter. The ATO, algae scrubber and skimmer are also DIY
Nothing was ever quarantined or medicated.

(Actually it's birthday is in March of this year in 2 weeks so I cheated a little)
012.JPG


Longnose and Copperband.jpg



FTS Feb.jpg



https://ww
File.jpg


Red - Copy.jpg


Hippo.jpg








w.youtube.com/watch?v=2y_FFCN5ZBo&feature=youtu.be
 
Salted

Salted

NJRC Member
Wow pretty impressive. The tank is almost as old as me. Do you sell any of the fish as they breed? I'd be interested in a pair of firefish.
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
No, they just spawn and get eaten. If I shut off the pumps for a while, I can sometimes see tiny fish but I don't raise them any more and have not in decades.
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
Thank you. I also feel it is a milestone but to me it is also the last milestone.
Here is a stupid video of a milestone.

I think we all need to set milestones for most of the things we do. I always did in my job and my life (which rarely go as planned) :rolleyes:

I feel I had milestones for my tank but at the time of each one, I didn't think of them as milestones.
Of course as pertaining to this hobby our first milestone was to get the tank, water fish etc.

It takes a while to figure what lights you want, how to build, get the money, win them on "Name That Tune" or buy them.
So that was everybody's first milestone.

The second milestone was to get them to live a few days or a week. That took a little time. Some people are still stuck on that milestone.

After we get them to live, our next milestone is to keep them healthy enough that they only die of old age like they are supposed to do and what I want for myself. I would like to live to at least 157.

That last milestone is where 95% of the members are still stuck. I myself was lucky because I passed that milestone probably between 1979-1983. That was because Steve Jobs and Bill Gates didn't perfect computers yet so we didn't have so much wrong information and we had to think about this stuff using our brains and common sense.

Our brain is that often unused blob in our heads that is normally used to control our thumbs so we can text a person of the opposite sex (sometimes the same sex) and try to mimic conversation that makes us "seem" intelligent without actually having to have words come out of our mouths as many of us speak in Klingon using "words" such as LOL, ROTFLMAO, DUH, ERRRR, OMG etc.

I discovered, mostly by accident, somewhat through SCUBA diving "alone" and not in a tourist resort with 57 other people that learned how to swim last Tuesday and discovered SCUBA diving that morning about 8:00 - 8:30 am after breakfast of pancakes with that fake Maple syrup instead of the real stuff.

I dove with fish in places I couldn't pronounce, laying on the bottom which was a DSB until I either ran out of air or remembered my wallet was still in my Speedo that I was wearing to impress the cute little French girl that I met that morning sitting next to the guy who just learned how to swim.

From that I learned a few things. French girls don't like me, and fish are getting along very well without us.

There are predators all around them but they don't swim around shaking in fear like we do if we see a Great White Shark smiling at us. ;Jawdrop

I also learned that the majority of fish do not eat flakes or pellets and very rarely eat anything freeze dried although a Great White Shark will eat an accountant no matter how dry he is.

Fish eat fresh seafood. Mostly whole seafood and they don't even spit out the bones like I do.

I also learned that fish in the sea do not "look" sick. They are all much better looking than the fish in tanks but not that French girl with the long hair and..........OK forget her.

That milestone in the early 80s I learned that as long as I "left the fish alone" and fed them the right stuff they lived forever or until they jumped out like many of my fish do. Unfortunately healthy fish in spawning mode jump very high. :rolleyes:

When fish in tanks die, it is "always" our fault. Not the drunk who hit the power pole causing your power to go out (buy a generator) the owner of the LFS that told us that Achilles tangs stay smaller than an inch and can be fed goldfish pellets, (read a book) or the guy in the canoe in WacaWaca land in the South Pacific who was just trying to make a few cents so he could feed his pet iguana.

It is our fault. 100% all the time.
And if we fail to learn or don't want to know how to keep fish healthy, we will lose the fish. Probably all of them then get out of the hobby and work in Home Depot loading toilet bowls onto minivans.

You want to learn? Don't ask that guy eating pancakes or that French girl. Ask somebody who has never been on the disease forum. Not me because I am old, cranky, ornery, set in my ways and past my milestones. My milestone was 50 years and I achieved that so maybe now I will start to feed all my fish nothing but boiled gold fish flakes, install a DSB, quarantine everything in hydrogen peroxide for 75 days and soak my corals in tree stump remover like many people do. You can usually find those people in the disease forum with a heading of "HELP"
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
Thank you. The secret is that you have to get old. :cool:
Most people who are 25 years old don't have 30 year old tanks. :huh:
 
diana a

diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
Congratulations! I was only 3 when you started your tank.

Stay healthy and happy! cheers
 
radiata

radiata

NJRC Member
Paul B,

Have you really had a marine aquarium in operation contiguously since 1971? We didn't even call them "reef aquariums" way back then.
And, it seems to me that you've actually written articles to the contrary...

Bob D
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
You are correct, it wasn't a reef aquarium as all we had was fish and crabs. Then shrimp and anemones came. I added animals as they were imported.

Here is the tank is about 1971



Here is the first page I wrote in my Log book.



This is one of the first Blue Devils imported in about 1972 or 3 over his nest of eggs in that barnicle shell.



Here are his eggs



This picture of my tank appeared in FAMMA Magazine in about 1979



These spawning Banded Coral Shrimp were among the first imported to the US in the 70s. They lived and spawned for 7 years.



Here is where I moved to a different home a few blocks away
, (I got married) :rolleyes:

This was a 100 gallon tank and it stood there for 40 years. You can see one of the dead coral skeletons we used as decoration as there was no rock for sale. We would remove the white corals bi monthly to bleach them. Tanks were not very healthy. I took everything from that earlier 40 gallon tank and put it in here. I had to add more dolomite gravel and I started the reverse Undergravel filter which is the heart of my system. I moved here 3 years ago and left that tank there because it was scratched and I couldn't get it out of the wall without demolishing the house.





 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top