almost 35 year old reef pictures

[Paul B]

Jent, unfortunately you are correct. I picked a lot of those bottles up while diving in NY. I have been diving for many years and I have never found a place without bottles. Some of those bottles are over 100 years old but the one in the above photo I "built " to look old. It is only about two years old and there is cement on it which is now covered in coraline algae. I like the look of bottles because I think it looks natural. There is also some rusty chain in there. I guess it is a harbor biotope or whatever.


Paul

[McNeal]

Love the pic., also the bottles are so neat, just what you would find in the ocean. What size is the tank, and do fish get in the bottles. I love it thanks for the show hope to see more.

[Paul B]

McNeal, as a matter of fact the fish like to go in the bottles. especially the six line wrasse and the purple psudo.
It's a 100 gallon long tank, and you also have a blessed day.
Paul

[menard]

PAUL, thats what I called PLENUM. Congratulation to you and hail to your system 35'th aniversary. PEACE

[Paul B]

menard, thanks. Yeah, I guess it's a plenum. I took out the UG filter last year for a cleaning, I do that every 25 years wheather it needs it or not. There is a thread on RC called "just cleaned 34 year old reef"
It seems to work.
Take care.
Paul

[want2reef]

You going to give the tank party? I think your fish are old enough to have a beer or two.

And again, thanks for your service.

Kevin

[Ereefic]

Nice tank Paul.

I'm curious though. None of your corals are really big, like I would expect corals to be after 8+ years. Are you fragging like crazy?

[maxvan1]

I bet some of those fish are older then me.

[Sindjin]

Paul,

I, too always enjoy seeing your tank!
I still think it should be tank of the month!!
Great job!

[Paul B]

Ereefic, LPS corals do not grow as fast as SPS corals. That bubble coral does not seem to have grown much at all but since I see it every day I have no Idea. The mushrooms just multiply, sometimes they are huge and sometimes there are a lot of small ones. The clam grew about an inch from last year and the gorgonians grow about an inch a year. None of the hard corals are very old, I think ten is the oldest. There has been three accidents in the tank since 1972 which killed a lot of the larger corals and all of the very large mushrooms. The accidents were my fault. I never had everything die in an accident but you get losses. That candy cane on the bottle lost some tissue because the bubble coral toppled on it and was like that all night. That happened to a few of the gorgonians too.
I do not frag and only one or two of my corals were given to me as frags. Here is an old picture that appeared in "Marine Fish Monthly" about 12 or 15 years ago, see the large leather coral? that thing had offspring all over the place then one year the leathers stopped growing and another coral took over. Some years mushrooms are huge then they will shrink and the LPS will look larger. There are cycles even with algae and coraline algae that we don't yet understand. I think that if you just keep one type of coral you will not notice this. If you look at the SPS tanks, those things grow very fast and fill the tank, but if you mix everything like I do they get into a chemical warfare and every few years someone else wins.
Take care.
Paul

[Dubbin1]

Paul the tank is still a joy to look at!!!

[Paul B]

Sindjin, I don't think my tank would qualify for tank of the month, it is not your normal tank and my methods scare people. Just mention UG filter and people think you are a newbe.
The tank is an experiment and everything goes.
Dyayne, thanks. I still like looking at it and I am still in awe when I see something slithering around and I have no Idea where it came from. I still sit there like a kid with a magnifying glass looking at the rocks. Of course when my wife comes downstairs to see if I am still alive, I pick up a dumbell and start grunting.
Take care.
Paul

[dead beat reef]

Paul talent is as thick as a brick. Thats the best low tec. tank
I ever seen. Take a good look I ammm.

[pangea]

"There is also some rusty chain in there."

Paul-is this an actual metal chain? Is that ok?

"I still sit there like a kid with a magnifying glass..."

I totally relate, get a flashlight!

Take care

[Paul B]

pangea, there is some rusty iron chain in there that I found underwater in my marina, but I incased it in fiberglass resin. I also have a plexiglass chain that I built that is completely covered in coraline algae and star polyps. Iron will not hurt corals (IMO) You don't want much iron because algae can't grow without iron and it is a limiting factor. If you could dump powered iron on a reef, algae would grow everywhere. You need some iron for the corals but there is enough in the salt you use. That is also one of the elements that gets used up in a reef and one reason why people have algae problems even though they change a lot of water. Anyway, thats another thread and another thing people will disagree with me on.
Time to get my flashlight.
Take care.
Paul

[craftytony]

very nice paul...

[Lordhelmet]

Paul. Your tank always impresses me. keep up the good work and keep showing everyone that you can do this any # of ways.

[dastratt]

Paul -- I've got a 20L with dolomite gravel and a UGF sitting empty down in my basement from the 70s, and this makes me want to set it up again!

Is the set up something like what's shown in the link? What flow rate do you push through it?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113424

[DizziDezi2]

how many fish do you have? how old are htey?

[Paul B]

Dastratt, set that sucker up. Go with reverse UG filter. I use about 50 GPM down each tube in a 6' tank. I think it should be run very slow, It's hard to get a powerhead that slow but they are adjustable. If you run too much water you will push too much organics under there and you will never build up any anerobic bacteria. You will basically almost have a wet dry,(but not quite)
Run it slow my man (if your a man) .
DizziDezi2, There may be 10 fish in there. The oldest which was a cusk eel I killed in an accident, it was 18 years old. That clownfish is up there too maybe ten or so. When the cusk eel
(brootiloid) died (from my stupidity) I also lost most of my other very old fish like my mandarin, hippo tank, six lined wrasse and a few other oldies but goodies. I screw up about every ten years with an experiment that doesen't exactly have the outcome I was looking for. I never lost everything but it thinned out the herd.
I don't get attached to my fish and I don't name them, but I miss this guy, he was my favorite and I had him since a baby. I have another small one now but he is not as good looking.
(I'm so shallow)
Take care.
Paul

[Paul B]

what happened to the picture?

[stevebydac]

Originally posted by Paul B
I took out the UG filter last year for a cleaning, I do that every 25 years wheather it needs it or not.

That got me chuckling. Talk about planning ahead!

Nice tank, and simple to boot. A reminder to all of us that you don't need $20,000 invested in a tank to make it work.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Good to see some new pic's of the tank Paul. I always love looking at your tank and am with you on the simplicity way of keeping things. After the cold passes, I'd like to send you a small birthday gift for the tank. Keep in touch. And keep the information of you many years of experiments flowing as well as new pic's.
Take care Brother.

[fishfanv]

every time i see pics of your tank i love it even more! the bottles are really cool looking. and i love the clam!

[dastratt]

Paul

50 GPM do you mean gal per minute? that is 3000 gph which would be 30X tank size per tube. Did you mean 50 gph per tube?

Do you have just two tubes?

I'm assuming I would scale down the flow rate, for a 2 1/2 ft tank maybe half that or a little less.