Moorish Idol

[dizzy]

dizzy the calculations for my tank as follows in english gals because the may be a differance....tank aprox 464.75 sump 140 galls which is a dry figure of 604 gals dry! with rock displacement still probally 530ish or just under+ the skimmer holds 10 gals 5000twin,+ 4 pod TMC u/v steriliser about 5 gals it's all xtra water. iwill be opening a new thread tonight about my tank with some picy's ...GT s.wales ithought this was all about moorish idols where did i go wrong! as they say in llandow chow for now

Hi Garry,

Is your foot measurement equal to 12 of our inches? If so it's 132x30x30 divided by 231= 514 US gallons for the tank 84x24x18 divided by 231=157 sump That would be filled to the top and nothing in the tank. Away that how I got the roughly 650 US gallons figure. Is an english gallon more than a US gallon?

Cheers,
Mitch

 

[Garry thomas]

Hello dizzy ithink english gallon must be less i work it out 604... anyway i'v e mailed the main dis believer pics of my tank! it's down to smiffy to post them on this forum (if he's not to embarrassed) perhaps in the future perhaps he will give newcomer's to the site NOT HOBBY more of a chance ...LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING THE PICS ON HERE AFTER.....
GT.... s wales
THE HOME OF GREAT REEF TANKS


IT MUST BE A TODGER THING?

 

[Lurshy]

Gary, Welcome to the board. You stepped in and immediately began thought provoking traffic. I think you will be quite welcome on this board and can contribute a great deal. I think many people will enjoy viewing and reading about your tanks.

 

[esmithiii]

Here are some of the images:

The rest of the images can be found here:

http://erniesmith.no-ip.com/public/Erni ... S%20Wales/

 

[Anonymous]

WOW!

Louey

 

[samw]

WOW!

Louey

Yeah...What he said...Wow :lol:

I never had a doubt (as per my Email).

 

[esmithiii]

anyway i'v e mailed the main dis believer pics of my tank! it's down to smiffy to post them on this forum (if he's not to embarrassed) perhaps in the future perhaps he will give newcomer's to the site NOT HOBBY more of a chance ...LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING THE PICS ON HERE AFTER.....

I am not in any way "embarrassed" to post your pictures. You have a beautiful reef. As far as being a "believer," there is much truth in the old addage "seeing is believing."

As for giving a "newcommer to this site more of a chance," I will continue to question any person, newcommer or "Old Salt" on this board that makes wild claims (86 fish in a single tank in your living room in my mind is a wild claim be it true or not) or that doles out advice that I totally disagree with (the bit about how keeping moorish idols being difficult is a "load of crap"). If you took offense, that is your own problem.

Read my posts any you will see that I have spent much time and effort trying to help newbies out. I have hosted pictures for many aquarists, taken the time to document numerous DIY projects intended to save aquarists money, answered countless equipment questions, made many diagrams, drawings and explainations. Every time I have done such, I have opened myself to criticism, disagreement and outright flames. I take that risk freely and invite feedback, positive or negative. A close friend and colleague of mine always says "if we never argue then that means that at least one of us is not listening."

Personally I don't mind the criticism because of two basic facts: 1. I dish it out and should expect it to come back. 2. No matter what anyone on this site says I know that I have the best wife in the world (and she wouldn't be married to a looser, would she?), two amazing kids, many close friends and family who put up with me and seem to like my company, food on my table and am quite healthy. When all is said and done, this site is about keeping a fish tank. Not the most important thing in my life. In fact, it doesn't even make my top 10 list.

If I have offended, well that was not my intent. Garry, I hope you stick around because I am sure that we can learn a lot from you. Grow thicker skin, though because I am not one to keep quiet when I read something that I disagree with and believe me, I am not alone in having that trait.

Beautiful tank, by the way. I would love to hear more about your setup- Lighting, list of fish, corals, equipment, liverock, sand, etc.

Ernie (Smitty or was it Smiffy?)

 

[dizzy]

Garry,

What a great tank. You must have a fortune tied up in it. How's the economy in Wales? Where do you have to go to find all those nice corals?I'm sure Ernie didn't mean nothing. Ernie has a great tank and gives out good advice. Come on over to MACNA next year and we can have a beer.

BTW try to find a way to post the articles on another thread.

Cheers,
Mitch

 

[Garry thomas]

THANKYOU FOR DISPLAYING MY PICS. With special thanks to SMIFFY,
DIZZY you impressed? not bad for a tank which was only set up on april 1st 02.... still plenty of time, genuinely i love mytank more than i can say, this is why i'd like to make it my living! dizzy i'v made a lot of sacrafices to make this change from my 7ft to this 11ft but i think.....know they have all been worth it. My wife.......saint is very understanding,smiffy any way u can put these pics with my details on the tank section ? again THANKYOU ALL speak to you soon
GT S WALES

THE HOME OF GREAT REEF TANKS!

 

[esmithiii]

Garry- you can post the pictures wherever you like. It is simple. You open the post where you want to insert the picture, and then you press the Img button (above where you type the message) and then type (or paste) the link to the photo that you want to show and then press the Img button again. You can find all the photos here: http://erniesmith.no-ip.com/public/Erni ... S%20Wales/ (click it and then click on one of the photos to see the pictur and the URl of the photo)

The link (also called URL) to a photo will look something like this:

http://erniesmith.no-ip.com/public/Erni ... 080059.JPG

If you copy and paste the above text (which is a link to the photo) in a post and press the Img button before and after pasting the text, the photo will show up.

Does that make sense?

Ernie

 

[Anonymous]

I think if I had the money for a tank like that, it'd definitely go to something else.

But..... I think the tank looks good.

I just have one quick question. You said earlier that you've had 3 moorish idols in the past 9 months. What happened to the first two?

 

[Anonymous]

I do want to point out that some recent work has shown that many acanthurids live well in to their 50's and 60's in the wild. Keeping one alive for nine months may be better than the rest of the reef keepers out there, but could potentially be a blink of an eye in the natural lifespan of a fish. I personally don't think this justifies the term "easy to keep".

Now, if you can keep one alive for 40 years, I think you can chalk that one up as a success.


I mean, think about it this way. The lifespan of a human is about 60+ years worldwide. If you can keep a baby alive til it is 9 months old, I don't think that is very much of a success.

 

[john f]

I would only disagree in that MOST tangs do not live 40-60 years in the wild. They may be able to, but most would become food for some predator way before that.
My guess is the AVERAGE lifespan of any given tang in the wild is less than 10 years.


John

 

[samw]

I do want to point out that some recent work has shown that many acanthurids live well in to their 50's and 60's in the wild. Keeping one alive for nine months may be better than the rest of the reef keepers out there, but could potentially be a blink of an eye in the natural lifespan of a fish. I personally don't think this justifies the term "easy to keep".

Now, if you can keep one alive for 40 years, I think you can chalk that one up as a success.


I mean, think about it this way. The lifespan of a human is about 60+ years worldwide. If you can keep a baby alive til it is 9 months old, I don't think that is very much of a success.

How does someone extrapolate the lifespan without tracking a wild fish for 60+ years? I am interested to learn more about this study. How many reefers on this board have kept a fish for 40+ years in their tanks? Is that the only way to gauge success? If so, how many reefers have had success with any of their fish? I'm just trying to learn more.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

Garry,
I think your tank is a nice reef tank.
Regarding this topic, I think keeping a MI for 9 months, while is great, does not qualify as a success yet IMO. Certainly if I were you I would not posted "all this talk about moorish idols being impossible to keep! what a load of crap"
Your tank is far from the average tank due to its size. Many fish will e able to live in a 11 ft tank but is impossible to keep in a 4 ft tank. IMO, your statement above is highly inflammatory.
Nice tank. Good luck with your MI. I may want to try one or two sometime in the future.
Minh Nguyen

 

[Minh Nguyen]

How does someone extrapolate the lifespan without tracking a wild fish for 60+ years? I am interested to learn more about this study. How many reefers on this board have kept a fish for 40+ years in their tanks? Is that the only way to gauge success? If so, how many reefers have had success with any of their fish? I'm just trying to learn more.

There are ways to estimate the live span of something without resort to follow the animal throughout its life. One can use population study, exam the body, skeleton of the animal ect.
Minh Nguyen

 

[samw]

I would only disagree in that MOST tangs do not live 40-60 years in the wild. They may be able to, but most would become food for some predator way before that.
My guess is the AVERAGE lifespan of any given tang in the wild is less than 10 years.


John

We can take predation out of the equation in our home reefs though.

 

[samw]

There are ways to estimate the live span of something without resort to follow the animal throughout its life. One can use population study, exam the body, skeleton of the animal ect.
Minh Nguyen

Wow. So 60 years is the concensus for lifespan? That's a long time. I know for a FACT that I won't be keeping ANY acanthurids successfully in my lifetime.

 

[wombat1]

I have no idea how the study referenced was conducted, but the age of an animal could be determined by knowing the growth rate and maximum size of the animal. That's how we know some anemones can live hundreds of years.

 

[SPC]

Nice tank Gary!
As Minh said, in the future you might want to preface your experience with MI's or all the tangs you mentioned with your tank size. Please understand that this board is made up of 99% of the members with much smaller tanks than yours. As members of this board, and conciences hobbiest, we cannot recommend MI's as a viable aquarium fish.
BTW, does anyone know if Charles keeps MI's at the Waikiki Aquarium?

Posted by sam:

How does someone extrapolate the lifespan without tracking a wild fish for 60+ years?

-It is done by examining certain bones in the fish, alot like tree rings.
Steve