Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[kschweer]

Glad to hear everything is well with the pipefish. I have always wanted a pair just nervous about how picky they are when it comes to eating. How was key largo? Me and my girlfriend are heading down there on the 8th for a much needed vacation. Still planning things to do when we are there


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[Paul B]

We have friends there with a boat so we had plenty to do. I am not sure what else there is to do but eat. All the restaurants are on the water so we had a great time.

 

[Paul B]

I have a leather coral that is so old I can't even imagine when I got it. It is not looking to good and is kind of leaning over. I am not concerned about this because this is normal coral wars and they come in cycles. Something in the tank is exuding a substance that the leather coral does not like. The other corals including the LPS and SPS seem very healthy and healthy corals hate other corals, especially corals of a different family. When a coral dies and we don't know the cause we usually blame water parameters, temperature, Lady GaGa, Rap music, global warming, the hole in the Ozone layer or Al Gore. I think it is a combination of all of those things including coral wars. Having a coral war is kind of a good thing because only healthy corals can start a war.

It's like when we see algae. Many people, especially Noobs will say OMG what can I add, how much water should I change, what type of snail should I put in or what is the best church to go to and what is the most potent prayer I can say to eliminate it. Experienced aquarists realize algae is a good thing (in moderation) and grows on every healthy reef in the sea. It probably grows on those under ice seas on the moons of Jupiter but I am speculation and would have to ask Al Gore.

 

[Paul B]

Shrimpfish

 

[Paul B]

These razor shrimpfish I added are extreamly cool but I doubt they will live long. They eat very well but only live new born brine shrimp and for the last two months there has been a problem with brine shrimp eggs. They are very hard to find and the ones I have have a very low hatch rate so I am using 4 or 5 times more than normal and still can't get a good hatch of shrimp. I also have a few pipefish, mandarins and ruby red dragonettes that rely on shrimp so this may be a problem. I even ordered them on line a wek ago and they are not supposed to get here for 2 more weeks. My selection of fish depends on new born brine shrimp but there must be a problem with them at the collection site.

 

[Paul B]

I eat fish almost every day but they are dead before I eat them. I talk to them about my old girlfriends and bore them to death. Then I eat them. But the fish in my tank live long and prosper and are very lucky because almost all of them are spawning. So my fish know life's pleasures while I am slaving and driving through snow to get them worms for dinner. I just got them lunch and took this picture of my house just before I parked. By the way, on my way home from the LFS on the highway. The Jiboni in front of me in a silly car without 4 wheel drive spins out of control right in front of me and stops facing me on the road. This is what I go through for my fish
I just took this picture of my house.

 

[Paul B]

Doing some much needed maintenance. Once a year or so I stir up the gravel as good as I can all the way down to the reverse UG filter. This typhoon makes a mess and the pipefish are making nasty faces at me as I normally lose my bluestripe pipefish when I do this, but I am going slow and taking all day to do it to try to save them. I still see them so they may be fine, if not mad. The rest of the fish don't seem to mind and never do. This bit of maintenance is the secret to my tank's long term health and it would crash from Old Tank Syndrome (or boredom) if I didn't do it. I would like to leave this diatom filter on the tank all night but it is a terribly designed piece of machinery and if I kept it running it would burn my house down. I have 4 of them and out of the four, I have enough parts to get one working. The bearings are garbage the seals are useless and the overall design is horrible so I really need to re-design one because I need to do this all the time. I also have one Eheim running with some floss in it but that doesn't filter to well like that. I may design a diatom filter using the Eheim as a base. I just need time and I never have enough of that. It's been running for about 4 hours now and I keep stirring it up. I could do this for 12 hours and still find plenty of gunk to suck up but I don't want to make a career out of this today. The diatom is very hot and I want to finish before the thing stalls like I know it will.
Maybe I will do it again next week (but I doubt it.)
I realize most people don't stir up their gravel or sand but most people also don't have a very old tank. Don't stir up a DSB unless you want to take down your tank and take up stamp collecting

 

[JRWOHLER]

Paul I have a DSB and I stir up mine too. I do sections at a time for what it is worth. Of course my tank is only in kindergarten compared to yours.

 

[Paul B]

I thought you couldn't stir a DSB or you will be cursed and spend the rest of eternity in the fusion zone.

 

[JRWOHLER]

I hope I am cursed with a tank that lasts as well as yours. I think the fish get a little pissed at me but the coral love the junk that gets kicked up.

 

[Paul B]

My workbench looks like a diatom re-design factory. The XL is on the left, I think I have two more units stored away somewhere in various stages of disassembly.

It is odd, that the motors are the same but the large XL unit on the left has a much smaller impeller. I never figured that out. I can probably figure out how to change it around to have the large impeller on the large unit.
The middle unit above has a custom built bag.

 

[Paul B]

I got one filter going great and made another typhoon because you can't have to many typhoons. This is s a good one as I can't see the back of my tank so I know I am sucking out a couple of years worth of muck. I think the diatom will last for the entire cleaning. I repaired the bag, stopped the leaks, oiled it up good and drilled more holes in it to cool it so I am sure it will work at least for this cleaning and maybe next years also.

 

[Paul B]

The tank cleared up nicely after the 2 typhoons. I didn't even lost the bluestripe pipefish as I usually do. Maybe they took a trip when I did it. I may still do it again if I get time before boating season because I cant hit all the places because the corals are larger than they used to be and I really can't remove rocks. The 3 razor shrimpfish are doing well and I really like them.
I also need to make another strip of LEDs to supplement my lighting as I don't think my home made fixture is bright enough. I only have 108 watts of lighting over a 6' tank which is way to low for some corals. I would like to increase it to at least 150 or 200 watts so I need to either build an entirely new fixture or just add some strips to my existing fixture. If I make a new fixture, I will add a splash guard because my existing fixture has salt deposits all over it. I can keep my old drivers and just buy some more LEDs which are only $3.00 each so it is not a big deal. The big deal is having the time to do this because the lights will be off on the tank for maybe 2 days. Not a problem unless I get side tracked and the lights stay off.
This is the other side of my workshop that I rarely show.

 

[Paul B]

I took a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZA8aJnkVJM&feature=youtu.be

 

[redfishbluefish]

A little disappointed............I was expecting more than just two supermodels!

 

[Paul B]

The date on the Supermodel on the right is 1986 so she may be a Grand Mother Supermodel now. The one behind my band saw I took off the wall in a photo processing plant in about 1980 or so. I think it was an advertisement for make up or something.

 

[Paul B]

I just ordered 10 more 3 watt LEDs and a driver. The next time I go to the hardware store or HD I will get another 5' aluminum square channel and just build the thing. My reef now only has 36 LEDs and the tank is 6' long so it is way under lit. This will increase it to 46 LEDs which is still not real bright but that's what I want to stay with for now. I still need to find an enclosure to house the fans as mine will be to small. I will probably just build another one from PVC 4X4s unless I can find a small piece of 6X6 as I don't want to buy a 10' piece of the stuff. I may even have a piece left over from my fence. Put some end caps on it and add the fans. I have the acrylic for the splash guard. Now I just need a few hours before boating season and that is the toughest part.
This is my existing fixture

 

[saltkreep88]

Is that a fan on top? If so does it blow down the inside of the channel?

 

[Paul B]

That is 2 fans. There are holes in the fan housing and matching holes in the tubing so the fans suck air through the tubes and blows it upward. My new addition will make it 4 tubes and a larger fan and fan housing. The principal will be the same.

 

[Paul B]

I had to change this on my PT Cruiser today and I am happy to say that I can still crawl under a car. It's not real easy to get up, but I still got it. This is a motor mount I think. It was rattling as the rubber bushing is shot. I really didn't pay attention to what it's function was but it is called a lower strut and it goes from the frame to the engine. When I was a mechanic they didn't have front wheel drive cars except Toronado and that was the last year I worked as a mechanic. That was in1968. So they didn't use this part. If I get time, probably next fall, I want to change the bushings on the A frames because I like my cars sounding brandy new and to achieve that, you need to keep changing bushings. I can't wait to start collecting those amphipods and mud. My tank misses all that and the early summer is when amphipods spawn by the millions and they swarm all over the place. I will be there with buckets.
Tomorrow I will start working on the boat outdrives as it is almost boating season and there is a lot of preparation and (and money to be spent) to get it ready for the water)