almost 35 year old reef pictures

[cristhiam]

Good luck with your goni, I have one for over 2 years, never feed it but started receideing about 4/5 months ago due to my clowns hosting it/or after the upgrade to the 125, not sure if it will recover , maybe it's time to try and feed it some cyclopes. I've try before to feed it but it didn't seem to grab anything. Keep us posted. your tank it's amazing!!

[Paul B]

I had a few of them and I think I only had them for two or three years before they shrunk.
Paul

[Paul B]

I would like to update this old thread. The tank is now over 36 years old and still going but it had some major problems, or I did anyway.
My family is going through some rough times which I described in another thread and because of that I lost most of my fish in one day. I still have three of them and all of the corals.
Anyway. Because I "had" the moorish Idol for four years the gravel and the tank in general, badly needed a cleaning. I use a RUGF which ran for 25 years with no cleaning but now after three or four years I had to clean it again. Much of the rock was out of the tank anyway to give the moorish Idol more swimming room so I just removed the rest of it and kept it in water while I cleaned the gravel. I used two diatom filters and just swirled everything up for a few hours. I left the fish and corals in the tank which looked like mud. After about 6 or 8 cleanings of the diatom filters the tank is once again pristine and looks like Tahiti.
I replaced the rock and added some fish. A baby hippo tang, a purple psudo and a gobi. I still have the 10 or 12 year old fire clown, a small green gobi and some other gobi which I have no Idea what it is and I don't care to look it up. I want to get another small copperband and five or six more gobies.
The plan, many years ago was to have a lot of small reef type fish instead of a 7" moorish Idol. The Idol is what destroyed my water with so much food. A few weeks ago I had wanted to do some experiments because as I may have mentioned there was a power failure and my tank went down to sixty degrees. After that some fish got ich. I cured the ich in a spare tank with copper and I did nothing to my reef for the ich. I purposely added a hippo tang (so called ich magnet) to test one of my theories that even though ich is present in the tank, if the fish are healthy enough they may not get it. So far it has been over a week and no sign of ich. Of course if they get it my experiment will be a failure and I will have to cure the fish in another tank and experiment further on my reef. I originally wanted to do that ich experiment but as I said we are having a family problem that takes up much of my time.
One odd thing I found was that I have hundreds of tiny (1/2") brittle stars, they are all over everything. I can only attribute them to the massive feedings of the moorish Idol. I doubt they will all survive now with a very clean tank. Time will tell but they are cute little suckers.
I re aquascaped and am not real happy with it but I have so much rock that has to go back in that I am sure I will be happy with the end product.
Anyway, have a great day.
Paul

[Swanwillow]

well, theres pluses and negatives to every reaction, and loosing the Idol may only help you in the long run, although he was a really neat fish.

[nanorfj]

I'm very sorry to hear about your tough times...best of luck.

I'm very interested in the results of your ich experiment.

[Sullyman]

Tennesse Tuxedo has left the building.
Sorry to hear of your troubles Paul, I hope it all gets straightened out.
Bob

[Micki]

Sorry to hear your family is going through a hard time. Sounds like the fish/tank was on the back burner as it should be. It's till hard to lose critters in even those situations. Good luck and keep us posted on the experiment!

[Paul B]

I will. I am kind of excited to get the tank back to where it was pre Idol. They are a really nice fish but they should be in a much larger tank, the maintenance is just too much if you want to feed them like you should. I think I can get the next one to the ten year mark but only if I get a 300 gallon tank which may happen in two years. As I said most of my time now is taken up with other things but that will pass in time and I can concentrate on the tank more.
It does look good now after just one day of good maintenance.
Take care.
Paul

[graveyardworm]

Sad to hear of all the things your dealing with at the moment.

On a brighter note, I cant wait to see how the tank looks after the new setup. Whatever you do I'm sure it will look wonderful.

[2fishy]

I can't wait to see what develops with the new redecoratin! Um, you do remember that the hippo tang is going to get big, too! I love the idea of a lot of little fish and that was what I had hoped to do til I found out what a stinker the pygmy cherub was! Those brittle stars are cute and saw them in my aquarium. I was very startled to see my mandarin eat one not to long ago. She pulled it up, spit it out and then sucked it back in never to spit it out again!

Enjoy redoing your tank, it may be just what you need.

[TIMMYE]

Very nice

[Lion_Babe]

really nice pics!!

[Paul B]

Um, you do remember that the hippo tang is going to get big, too!

I hope not too big. This one I had was about ten years old and it diden't get much over 4". I have seen them almost ten inches but if he gets much over four I will give him away. I also have to get a copperband being I have always had one in my reef but they are the only fish I would like to get that size. The rest I would like to be gobies, bleenies, and any odd thing I can find.
I am very picky about fish I buy. I have to look them in the eye for a while to see what they are thinking
They also have to be eating, not just brine shrimp and they must be acting like they are supposed to. You can usually tell if a fish is going to live a long time just by the way it reacts with other fish.
I also removed the glass from my MH fixtures to get more light. The glass is always cloudy and hard to clean. Now of course the reflectors inside the fixtures will tarnish so I will have to work something out there. I am working on a way to suck out debris from under the RUGF. The way it is designed it is hard to do that properly.
This hippo was about 9 or 10 here. I don't remember why he died but usually after many years there is an accident, or experiment or something stupid on my part which causes a fish death, like most of my fish this time. They were very healthy and it was my fault that I lost them. But sometimes unforseen circumstances pop up that requires your time elsewhere.
Have a great day.
Paul

[sunfishh]

The hippo looks good Paul.
Nice to see that your hardships of late have not taken away from your passion for reefing.

[Paul B]

sunfishh, Thanks, that hippo is no longer with me but he was about 10. They probably can live to about 15 but that is just a guess. I have a baby hippo now and maybe today I will get another copperband.
I've had fish continousely from the time I was born. I remember always having goldfish from before I could walk. I guess someone else changed the water. Then of course I graduated to guppies, mollies and other fresh water bait, I mean fish. Then it was brackish but you are limited to three or four fish with brackish. My parents had a fish market, other kids played with toys, I played with dead sardines.
I also remember setting up my toy soldiers on the floor of the fish store and I would let a live crab loose to see how many he would knock down. It was like a video game only without the video and without the game.
Paul

[Micki]

LOL, you have certainly had an interesting life! Some memories can be awesome!

[Paul B]

This afternoon I decided to take some water to a local LFS to do some water tests. My test kits are older than most members here so I doubt they are even close to accurate. People always publish their water parameters so I was curious what mine were and instead of buying kits the store tests them for free so it's a no brainer. I really wanted to test the salinity because I use one of those swing arm testers and they are close to useless so I test it against a refractometer then I draw a line on it where my salinity should be, but if you really need to spend $150.00 on one of those, by all means, go for it.
I found my salinity to be low, my nitrates to be zero and my calcium to be 400. I was very surprised at the nitrate reading but that was no doubt my very thorough cleaning a couple of weeks ago. I also have about a third of the rock still out of the tank. It takes me a few weeks to put everything in because I get ideas along the way and if it is all in there it is harder to visualize.
I still have hundreds of tiny brittlestars, they go sailing often when they crawl on the powerheads and get onto the outflow.
I bought a copperband because I have always had one and they are my favorite fish, I am not crazy at the way he eats but he does eat. They can be finicky at first. I hope to have him eating salami sandwiches soon, maybe with bananas
The tank is very clean and I am not used to seeing it that way. The crabs seem bored. I want to fill the tank with gobies as that was always my wish. I hope I don't get sidetracked with some moorish Idols along the way.
Have a great day.
Paul

[Sullyman]

Paul, in my new tank, I swore no fish, just coral. It's been up and running 3 1/2 months and so far 4 fish
Vlamingi tang, clown tang, radiant wrasse, twister wrasse.
Good luck avoiding an Idol.
Glad to see you back to work on the tank.
Bob

[Paul B]

Bob, it is much easier keeping coral without fish. Especially a certain fish which I will not not mention.
Paul

[jefathome]

Originally posted by Paul B
This afternoon I decided to take some water to a local LFS to do some water tests. My test kits are older than most members here so I doubt they are even close to accurate. People always publish their water parameters so I was curious what mine were and instead of buying kits the store tests them for free so it's a no brainer. I really wanted to test the salinity because I use one of those swing arm testers and they are close to useless so I test it against a refractometer then I draw a line on it where my salinity should be, but if you really need to spend $150.00 on one of those, by all means, go for it.
I found my salinity to be low, my nitrates to be zero and my calcium to be 400. I was very surprised at the nitrate reading but that was no doubt my very thorough cleaning a couple of weeks ago. I also have about a third of the rock still out of the tank. It takes me a few weeks to put everything in because I get ideas along the way and if it is all in there it is harder to visualize.
I still have hundreds of tiny brittlestars, they go sailing often when they crawl on the powerheads and get onto the outflow.
I bought a copperband because I have always had one and they are my favorite fish, I am not crazy at the way he eats but he does eat. They can be finicky at first. I hope to have him eating salami sandwiches soon, maybe with bananas
The tank is very clean and I am not used to seeing it that way. The crabs seem bored. I want to fill the tank with gobies as that was always my wish. I hope I don't get sidetracked with some moorish Idols along the way.
Have a great day.
Paul

Obviously you have been at this for longer than most people here but... Have you thought about a bunch of Wrasse instead?
Gobies always seem to hide.

[jefathome]

Originally posted by Paul B
Bob, it is much easier keeping coral without fish. Especially a certain fish which I will not not mention.
Paul

Tell me about it.
I have a Nano (10G glass with DIY baffles to make a filter area and fuge)... anyway, I've had it out in the garage for over a year and I have never fed it, or changed the water. All I do is add RODI topoff. If you had an automated top-off, I could get away with only messing with the tank (in any way) once a month or so.
If you have enought light, corals can be pretty easy. (Zoos, Shrooms, and some LPS at least).

[Paul B]

My gobies do not hide. I have strict rules about that and if they want to be in my tank they will stay in the open
Besides wrasses hide more.
Firefish, mandarins, sand sifting gobies, Neon gobies, there are all sorts of gobies and they are really the perfect reef fish. They spawn, they don't eat much, THEY DON'T HIDE, their cheap, colorful and readily available and most of all, I like them.
They are great with a little cocktail sauce
I am sure I have had every kind of gobi and I never had one I diden't like.

[omni2226]

As for sucking the stuff from under the plate.

Mmm. Have you tried hooking a large can type filters inlet to the tubes? Kinda like a shop vac but the water goes back into the tank.
You still making the beer bottles?

And how about the overhead algae tray? How did that work out?
Been a while since I was here poking around in the threads.

Remember the rubble bottom thread?

[Paul B]

Yes I sometimes suck out the debris with a diatom filter but it gets stuck and every 25 years you have to lift them to really clean good
The overhead algae tray is still in there. There is no algae now because I cleaned everything too well I think.
I still have the beer can in there and I have another one looking for a home, you want one?

[omni2226]

Sure why not. My room looks like a junkyard anyway...the box of water not much better but the critters seem to like it

I remember your talking of cleaning it. Everyone seemed shocked that there wasnt 4 inches of gunk under there lol.

First time I tried to keep a marine tank you HAD to have undergravel with crushed coral and oyster shells for substrate.
And if ya was rich powerheads not airpumps to push the water.
Some of the "fancy" systems used diatom earth filters and wet drys.

And scraping hair algae off the back and side glass was a big no-no. It was a "good" thing to have in those days.
Not to mention using pennies as copper treatment for disease.

Guess things have changed a bit heh?