Tank Thread Tank reached 38 years old...in 2009!

[Kaloy]

WOW.. congrats! mine is only 16 weeks... Oh well, that means i only have 972 weeks to reach 38 years. :splitspin

 

[juan319]

Very nice

 

[chazertis]

strong work.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks.

 

[Paul B]

some more pictures

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Congrats!!!

 

[wxl14]

Wow Paul does this make you the oldest reefer. With a Reefer age of 38

 

[cb747]

Looks good Paul! When we going collecting?

 

[Paul B]

Wow Paul does this make you the oldest reefer. With a Reefer age of 38

Nothing like being the oldest reefer.
Chris I was out today and yesterday but the tide during the day is high now. Maybe we can go out next week. The collecting spot is about 10 minutes from my marina. You just need shoes to walk on the rocks and a bucket. I don't know whats there now but there are thousands of fiddler crabs, shrimp and amphipods. The horseshoe crabs don't spawn yet (not that I collect them)
Maybe we could get a few people who don't mind getting wet. You kind of have to wade/swim to the beach.

 

[DontXtripNfall]

Nothing like being the oldest reefer.
Chris I was out today and yesterday but the tide during the day is high now. Maybe we can go out next week. The collecting spot is about 10 minutes from my marina. You just need shoes to walk on the rocks and a bucket. I don't know whats there now but there are thousands of fiddler crabs, shrimp and amphipods. The horseshoe crabs don't spawn yet (not that I collect them)
Maybe we could get a few people who don't mind getting wet. You kind of have to wade/swim to the beach.

this sounds rlly fun, maybe i could join you guys one of the weekends in july (what kind of things are around in july).. june is booked for meee

 

[Paul B]

There are no tropical fish there, especially this time of the year. Only crabs, snails, shrimp and amphipods. I will have to go on a weekday as my weekends are booked.

 

[Paul B]

The collecting trip a few days went great. We collected thousands or maybe pounds of grass shrimp and thousands of amphipods.
I am planning a trip this tuesday or wednesday in the morning as that is when it is high tide if anyone wants to go, let me know.

 

[lamaseta17]

you feed all that to your fish?

 

[Josh]

Congratulations on the milestone!

Any idea what the salinity is where you find the pods? Can you get them to live for any length of time after you gather them?

Also, any plans to collect tropicals later this summer? I'm looking for a team of divers/reefers who want to try and catch some things for our tanks.

 

[chc]

38 years, wow. Very impressive! Have you ever moved the tank?

 

[Paul B]

The salinity is 1.021 where I collected the pods but it varies greatly to almost fresh water.

you feed all that to your fish?

I dump most of it in my tank, they hide and once in a while swim to the surface where the fish grab them. They do breed in the tank and I find them months later.
I really don't know how long they live in the tank but the water temp where I collect them varies from the fortees in the winter to almost 100 in tide pools in the summer.
I did move the tank after it was set up for the first 5 years, I also transfered everything to a larger tank at the time.
There are very few tropicals to collect in the Sound, even in the summer. We would have to dive (or scene) on the south shore. Maybe near the end of the summer we could organize something.
This is the original 30 gallon tank in about 1972 and that is the original me. The reef was moved to a 100 gallon in about 1978 or so

 

[fernandokng]

That's impressive! Congrats!

How do you keep your nitrates so low, while only doing 5 water changes per year? What's the secret there?

I have not updated the thread in a while and since it went through some large changes I figured I would show it.
The original thread was getting too long

You will notice almost a total lack of corals except for a few gorgonians and the addition of more than 20 gobies.
The loss of corals was due to two accidents last year while I was away for a family emergency. My Mother (who is 97) was found unconcious and we had to stay with her 24/7 for two weeks in a Hospice. I also had a problem when my town added zinc orthophosphate to my water in a large dose exhausted my DI resins.
Anyway, thats another story.
I always wanted this tank to be filled with smaller unusual gobies that would breed and just be interesting. Over the years I have kept just about all the fish that are for sale and it was time to go for something else. The problem was that I kind of like hippo tangs, moorish Idols, and copperbands so I never had the room to do this. The only larger fish I have is one hippo, a pair of Bangai cardinals and an old fire clown.
With all these smaller gobies I still have to hatch brine shrimp every day and I still also feed live blackworms almost every day.
The cardinals are breeding as are a pair of gobies. Unfortunately they do it under a rock in a part of the tank where I can't see.
Everything seems fat and healthy, the nitrates are still about zero, I still only change 20% of the water about five times a year and everything else is the same except I retired and started a part time business in December.
There are five of these gobies in the bottom picture, two of which are breeding and the other three are fighting.
Have a great day.

 

[Paul B]

How do you keep your nitrates so low, while only doing 5 water changes per year? What's the secret there?

Probably having a very old tank and not keeping it too sterile. It may have something to do with the diversity of bacteria I have in the tank from the NSW and amphipods I throw in there. If you use ASW and you never add NSW you will only have the type of bacteria that your LFS has and he will only have what his supplier has. Most fish are shipped in copper treated water so there will be very little bacterial diversity and after a short while you will be left with only a very small bacteria pool which may not be the best type for our purposes. Of course this is only my theory but it seems to me that very sterile captive reefs do not look as healthy and are plagued with ich and other problems. It also happens with people.
Populations such as most of American's grow up in relitively sterile surroundings compared to less fortunate people who are forced to live in what we would call dirtier conditions. I never get sick but when I go to Mexico I always get Montezuma's Revenge. The Mexicans don't get it because their systems were exposed to it from birth. When I was in Viet Nam I had to take a malaria pill every day, those that did not take the pills often got malaria but the Vietnamese people diden't hardly ever get it and they had no pills. I believe (and again this is just me) that if we expose our tanks to less than perfect conditions, the animals will build up some sort of immunity. My fish never get ich even though I add fish all the time along with NSW, local snails, amphipods, shrimp and even mud.
Thats my theory, take it or leave it :bablefish

 

[carpediem212]

Congrats on your successful reefing.

I would like to go out on one of your collecting trips, but during the week is difficult to do. Maybe it could be after work on a weekday, since the sun sets so late during summer.

 

[Paul B]

This week low tide is at 10:00am and you have to collect at low tide. Maybe next week