almost 35 year old reef pictures

[sunfishh]

Maybe Reef Central could give Paul a lifetime achievement award. He certainly deserves it

[Paul B]

You guys are killing me
I really am very happy with my wierd tank with no TOM or awards.
There are much better looking tanks here. Maybe I should get a wierd tank award
This is just a hobby and one of many. I enjoy it for what I get out of it, especially the knowlege. I even enjoy (in a wierd kind of way) whan I have a problem like I have now so I can tax my brain to find a solution. If it always went well I would get bored.
Take care.
paul

[IslandCrow]

Glad this thread got a bump. You definitely have an original tank, Paul B. Keep it up. Guys like you who have been in this hobby since its infancy really do impress the hell out of me.

[Paul B]

Thank you Mike. I think I am just older than most of you guys.
Originality comes from boredom. If you look at your tank for enough years you tend to change things and after changing things enough times you tend to create new and unusual methods, and after experiencing those methods long enough you tend to figure out the methods that don't work and try to remember which ones did.
This is really my pride and joy. My wife of 34 years.

[Damsel13]

I just finished reading this thread. Loved it! Your tank is awsome. You and your wife do not look old enough for you to have set up your 100gal. in 1972. You and your wife look great, just like your tank

[plandy]

Paul, does the name Robert Straughan ring a bell? I still got a couple of years of his magazines collecting dust in my storage

[Paul B]

You and your wife do not look old enough for you to have set up your 100gal. in 1972.

My first tank was set up in the fiftees. That was when Linclon was President

Peter, Robert Straughn was my hero. He practically invented salt water fish. He is commonly called "The Father of Salt Water fish keeping"
The man was collecting in the early fiftees and maybe the fortees. He kept just about everything (except corals)
He also advocated UG filters although he diden't have the Idea correct on how they worked.
I have his book "The Salt Water Aquarium in the Home 1964" and it is full of very good information about many different fish.
It tells what each fish eats and it's habits.
I think he was the first to raise damsels also. (I was the second
)
I also got my information from him about using bleach to treat NSW and I also once took his advice when my entire tank was killed by ich I used a cup of Clorox in that tank to sterilize it. I diden't have to change the water. That water from that tank with the Clorox in it is still the water in my reef. (Of course I am sure very little of it is left after three decades) But the point is, it worked. People would be very scared of that today but his Old School Methods paved the way for todays technology.
He relied on experience through observation of the animals in their natural habitat, todays author's rely too much on technology and gadgetry.

Here we are doing an observation of the drinking habits of the local population of Tahiti. You need this experience to succeed
Have a great day.
Paul

[Micki]

Clorox for ich huh? Care to explain! Sounds interesting...

Great looking couple by the way!

[IslandCrow]

Yeah, I'd love to hear about bleach to treat NSW as well. I'm not sure if I'm quite that brave, though. And you have a beautiful wife. Congratulations on 34 years. That truly is something to be proud of.

[Paul B]

Thanks guys, As for the bleach you can add a tablespoon of Regular Clorox Bleach for five gallons of water to treat it. It will kill all bacteria, paracites and other small creatures. It will also oxidize any organics in the water. The chlorine will evaporate leaving nothing in the water.
I did it tonight with some lousy water I collected in the Sound.
You can clear up an entire tank by using one cup of "Regular" Clorox to fifty gallons of water. Of course the chlorine must be eliminated before you add fish. You do this in both instances by airating the water for a week then add twice the amount of chlorine remover. If it still smells like chlorine wait a few more days or carbon filter it. The first captive squid eggs were hatched in Clorox treated water.
I don't like to recommend this because if you are not careful or if you use the wrong bleach you can easily kill everything in a few seconds.
Be careful.
Paul

PS I have to send this computer out for repair tonight so I will be off line for a few days

[Micki]

I've bleached my tank and all the rock in my FO tank. I then used extra dechlor and rinsed it well then started the tank back up. I had no problems.

[DiSkuStiNg]

35 years WOWOWOWWO

[Paul B]

Micki, I am talking about bleaching the water and "not" changing it. This procedure is to save the water that is full of paracites or bacteria.
Of course you could just change the water. I diden't invent the procedure.
Sometimes you can collect NSW but it may have things in it that you may not want in your tank, or you may want sterile water for breeding or disease eradication.
Paul
Time to send this computer out for repair. See you soon

[plandy]

Paul, the two of you are in superb condition!!

Now that you mention it I've got one or two text books from Robert Straughan(RS). Your right about his flawed concept on the UG filter. It worked for him because he literally vacuumed and sieved (with hand net) his sand daily. If I were to try UG again (doubtful) it would be the way you have yours set up. As you said the era of RS were the pioneering days. He did get one or two species like the neon goby to breed and flourish. I recall back then we did use clorox for quiet a few things. But I learned real quick not to cure/clean bleached coral with clorox in the aquarium because it dissolved the silicon bonding ooops!

Best Regards!

[Absolute Reef]

Wow !

[Paul B]

I got my computer back. That was quick.
Absolute Reef. Thanks for the Wow, (I think)
Plandy, my wife is in "superba" condition than me thanks to going to the gym 4 days a week for thirty years.

Don't forget Robert Straughan had salt water fish when no one else except researchers kept them. They were not even for sale in NY until about 1970 or so.

I noticed a lot of people are concerned about how much electricity their tank (and everything else in their home) uses so I bought a device that tells me exactly in cents how much it is costing me per hour to run everything in my home. It is really nice and just wraps around your meter. There is a remote device that you mount anywhere in your house and it tells me how much it is costing me. When I turned off a light it went down from 38 cents an hour to 31 cents an hour. I haven't turned off the tank yet to see how much that is costing. Maybe I shouldn't do that.
I like it so much I became a distributer. I love this thing.
Maybe I could design one for the tank that would tell me how the fish feel

Have a great day.
Paul

[lukinrats]

That gadget sounds like something handy to have around... What does one cost?
By the way great thread... I started it and did not even notice that it was a couple of years old... I love your tank

Later,

[snapper1]

Energizer Rabbit still going ,very nice pictures

[Paul B]

Lukinrats, you mean you read this entire thread? I also diden't think it would go this long.
My tank has gone through a lot of changes since the thread started. You wouldn't recognize it. I like the mix of animals I have in there now because I like diversity and oddity. The many different types of gobies and other smaller fish finally settled down and are happilly defending their territory. I am hoping I can get some babies out of there besides bluestripe pipefish which spawn all the time.
An urchin died this week which is not a good sign. Urchins are really a guage to water quality and are fairly sensitive. I still have a few but the one that I lost was many years old. I can't even remember when I got it. I am also not sure if I collected it or bought it.
The fish look good and almost all of them are in breeding condition. Some of them I have not seen as they are types that hide most of the time.
Hopefully I can get out to the east end of Long Island to collect some good water, I really need a large change as I know there is still something in my reef that will kill corals and clams, (along with one urchin)
Of course it would be nice if I could find something that filters this stuff out. I have been running carbon but that does not work.
Lukinrats that device sells for $149.99
Have a great day.
Paul

[plandy]

Originally posted by Paul B
I noticed a lot of people are concerned about how much electricity their tank (and everything else in their home) uses so I bought a device that tells me exactly in cents how much it is costing me per hour to run everything in my home

Paul, the way energy prices are soaring lately I think the future points to supplementing our energy needs with solar and wind power generators. And maybe even geothermal energy for our heating/cooling needs.

We'll be building a new home around 6yrs from now. The entire south facing side of the roof will have solar shingles. And there will be one or two "sun tubes" to help ease our dependence on high output lighting. Wind turbine will not be an option where we'll move because of the heavily wooded site with tall old growth trees.

I'd be interested to hear what kinds of fishes/invertebrates good for aquarium you can collect in around your area.

Folks, the comment I made in the preceding post about clorox. I dumped an entire gallon into a 55 gallon glass tank to bleach dead corals. Extreme heavy concentration of clorox of course will melt a lot of things. However used properly clorox is a wonderful multi purpose tool.

Best Regards,

[Paul B]

Peter in the Long Island Sound I have collected and kept, sea robins, sculpins, seahorses, pipefish, blowfish, snails, hermit crabs, green crabs, Japanese Shore crabs, horseshoe crabs stone crabs and blue claw crabs (which I also eat). There is also soft coral and anemones which I can't keep.
The Long Island pipefish require a lot of food and it is not practical for me to keep them. The snails live forever unless you have hermit crabs which eat them instantly. Most of the other fish get very large and I have to release them eventually.

What do solar shingles do?
My new home will be on the east end of Long Island and I would like to fool around with wind power (I am an electrician)
Paul

[turnburn]

35 years! That's Incredible!

I was still in diapers when you set up this tank.

[plandy]

Originally posted by Paul B
What do solar shingles do?
My new home will be on the east end of Long Island and I would like to fool around with wind power (I am an electrician)
Paul

Paul, take a look at these two links...
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/know...205866,00.html
http://www.oksolar.com/roof/

They are pretty much solar cells integrated with roof shingles in one piece. As of this writing I think these offer the best bang for the dollar with the best overall finished look. I've read rumors that sometimes in next few years they are going to come out with some sort of solar "paint" which could be applied on the side of a building and it will be real cheap.

The area where you're going to build will offer you tons of solar and wind power options and tons more potential to save. It should be exciting to read about your building your new bigger tank
I'll be building next door to the Berkshires mountains in Columbia County, NY. Not much seashore here but plenty of shade trees

While still lving in Brooklyn, I had the opportunity to catch tons of kilifishes, a blackfish and your mentioned pipefish. Have not seen for the much hoped star fishes, urchins or anemones. But then again they'd probably require a special cold water tank system.

[Paul B]

Peter those shingles look promising. Good luck with that.
I forgot about the urchins which is odd because I owned a business called "Urchin Searchin Enterprise" where i would collect NY purple urchins with SCUBA to sell to hobbiests for algae control. I collected and sold thousands of them.
They eat a lot of algae in a tropical tank because unlike tropical urchins which kind of stay in one spot for weeks, cold water urchins move around a lot in warm water. They live about one and a half years in warm water as long as it does not go up to about 82 degrees. Starfish also live if you want to feed them shellfish.

Turnburn, you must be one of the young ones.
Take care.
Paul

[lukinrats]

Originally posted by Paul B
Lukinrats, you mean you read this entire thread? I also diden't think it would go this long.
My tank has gone through a lot of changes since the thread started. You wouldn't recognize it. I like the mix of animals I have in there now because I like diversity and oddity. The many different types of gobies and other smaller fish finally settled down and are happilly defending their territory. I am hoping I can get some babies out of there besides bluestripe pipefish which spawn all the time.
An urchin died this week which is not a good sign. Urchins are really a guage to water quality and are fairly sensitive. I still have a few but the one that I lost was many years old. I can't even remember when I got it. I am also not sure if I collected it or bought it.
The fish look good and almost all of them are in breeding condition. Some of them I have not seen as they are types that hide most of the time.
Hopefully I can get out to the east end of Long Island to collect some good water, I really need a large change as I know there is still something in my reef that will kill corals and clams, (along with one urchin)
Of course it would be nice if I could find something that filters this stuff out. I have been running carbon but that does not work.
Lukinrats that device sells for $149.99
Have a great day.
Paul

Paul,

I have read the whole thing, very interesting indeed, I probably wont do things like that later on when I have as much knowledge as you... For now, I just read anything that I can see might benefit me in the hobby... I will have to admit that I only read the things that I felt were important... I would start reading a post, and if it did not look like useful info, or something interesting, I just moved on... You had me @ 35 year old reef

About the product that you sell... Can you maybe detail a little bitty bit, about how it is hooked up? Does an electrician have to come hook it up, or can I? Etc

Nate,