Signs of a healthy tank

[Paul B]

Just for curiosity I felt like moving some rocks (and bottles) around in my tank to look underneath to see what was living there. I guess I was bored today in between getting a tooth pulled, doing an electrical job and painting my ceiling.
Anyway I am more interested in whats hiding than whats actually swimming. I know whats swimming because I bought most of it but I really like the unusual stuff, the stuff that just turns up or grows on it's own. For instance, any rock I lift and turn over will be covered in calcium covered tube worms about 3/8th inch long extending down into the gravel like tree roots.
The rest of the rock are teaming with spaghetti worms and in all the nooks and crannies are tiny creatures most of which are just pods but as I look with a jewelers Loupe some of them appear to be tiny lobsters. They are of course not but they are similar.
If I look with a flashlight into the caves I will see hundreds of tiny red fan worms. Amphipods 1/4" long also appear as I stir things up but I add these from the sea.
I feel that these appearances mean a healthy tank. These animals are all invertabrates, some crustaceans and some mollusks.
I don't know how many of these things I added with my many collecting trips or how many have been reproducing for years but just having them is a good sign. If a tank can not support myrid microscope life than it would have a problem housing higher forms of life.
Just my thoughts.
Paul

 

[tosiek]

Where are our pictures of the cool lobsters =0)

I think it would be interesting to see the myriad of organisms that hitch along with you on your way home on your collections Paul. Alot of members don't have the benefit of collecting things from our local waters. And alot of the cool stuff is often flushed or dead by the time it gets into our tanks from the live rock. Or cycled when we start them.

 

[Paul B]

Like these guys?

 

[cb747]

Pretty cool Paul. Id say your tank is quite healthy

 

[juan319]

That, is a good description, of a healthy tank.

 

[Paul B]

Probably out of all the stuff I collect and throw in there 99.9% dies but the rest multiplies. I have never bought rock from anywhere, all of it I collected in the sea or built so I imagine all the life came from there.
I still say that your tank will be the healthiest if you put "fresh" life in it from the sea.
Not only from a store which is pretty sterile.

 

[ihatefish]

thats cool i wish i could buy stuff like that who needs fish and corals i want all that cool stuff that you never see unless u are looking for it

 

[Paul B]

thats cool i wish i could buy stuff like that who needs fish and corals i want all that cool stuff that you never see unless u are looking for it

You live in Long Island? Just go to any muddy beach and collect stuff.

 

[boozeman]

I want to see the 'lobsters' too .... don't make me go there with my camera !!

 

[Paul B]

I wouldn't take you. The last time you came I had to clean your blood off my nice white boat :lol:

 

[saggese820]

you find rocks in the mud? all i ever find is...mud. in what areas do you collect? and you collect anything besides rocks?

 

[Paul B]

You have to go to the north shore. The Long Island Sound was carved out by a glacier and it left rocks all over the place. There are no areas without rocks.
A good place is the boat ramp at Bar Beach in Roslyn. Go at low tide.
Any beach on the Sound would be good.

 

[saggese820]

thanks, sounds like a plan. any pics of them in your healthy tank possibly?

 

[Awibrandy]

Always a brain pleaser Paul.. Missed your writings..... Thank you!

 

[KathyC]

You have to go to the north shore. The Long Island Sound was carved out by a glacier and it left rocks all over the place. There are no areas without rocks.
A good place is the boat ramp at Bar Beach in Roslyn. Go at low tide.
Any beach on the Sound would be good.

Collect rock near a boat ramp?? Wouldn't there be a lot of gas & oil in/on those rocks??

 

[Paul B]

I don't have a picture of a spicific rock but I collected or built all of my rocks. I can't tell which I collected in the Caribbean, Hawaii, New York or made. They all have been in there too many years for me to tell them apart.
Kathy, gas is worth a lot of money today :bablefish
Gas evaporates and oil floats. In fifty years of collecting I have never had a problem. I collect rocks all the time and put them in my tank just for the amphipods and bacteria on them, then I remove them as I have too much rock.

I don't have a single picture of a rock.

 

[saggese820]

wow, thats a beautiful tank. thanks for the pics!

 

[CHEMCHEF]

I Have been using NSW from the LI sound in a 6 gal nano that i have in my office at work. My parameters are great and my water is crystal clear.
It only has live rock and 2 tomato clowns in it. Oh and one feather duster.
Everybody seems to be happy.
So far in the past teoweeks i have changed out 4 gal. of water.
So far so good

 

[Bob 1000]

Hello Paul... I think I have an idea of a healthy tank...... Things stay alive a long time... lol... I am still waiting for crab season,, please let me know when your ready???

 

[Paul B]

How are you doing Bob?
For some reason crab season came and went but no one told the crabs. They were gone this year. Maybe I took them all last year. How are those shrimp doing? I still have a bunch.