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

[Paul B]

Thank you Andy.
He's still smiling.

 

[Mattl22]

Hi Paul how long have u had the orange spotted is it eating
Amazing looking fish good luck with it


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[Paul B]

I only have it a few days. He is not really eating but I didn't pay much attention to him so far. If he is eating, he is eating my corals. I saw him eat a few live worms but that's about it. At the store he came in with 4 others. One was dead and these didn't look to good but I took one anyway.

 

[Paul B]

I really need to re-design my DIY venture valve in my DIY skimmer. The skimmer used to have 3 air pumps running it because it is about 4' tall and the venturi isn't strong enough to pull air down that far so the air pumps push water into the valve. This worked well for many years but I had to keep replacing air pumps because of the high pressure so I bought a much stronger air pump. You can fill up tires and air mattress with this thing or if you like, blow your brains out through your ears from across the street. Now I think it is putting out to much air and the bubbles aren't small enough. It's OK but I want very tiny bubbles.
My old pumps produced tiny bubbles but not enough of them so I either have to re-design the valve or get a larger water pump to push water through the venture valve. The pump running that now is probably 20 years old and I really don't want to touch it because you know what happens when you touch a 20 year old pump that has never been serviced.
I am in redesigning mode.

 

[Paul B]

I couldn't help myself. I had to take this pump off to clean it and of course one of the threaded studs that hold the impeller housing cracked.
I fixed it but while I had the thing off I found in my workshop a much larger pump that I got a few years ago when a LFS here went out of business and they gave it to me. Brand new.
Now I got it working and I have plenty of bubbles but I still want smaller bubbles so I think I am going to make two venture valves and parallel them into the skimmer.
Soon, if I keep designing this thing, I can turn this thing into a space shuttle.
Here is the old pump

 

[Paul B]

It's a good thing I just looked at the pump to check for leaks. It is making to mush foam that it almost filled up my five gallon bucket that it goes into. Now that it is broken in I have to adjust it way down.
To make these modifications I turned off my ozone generator, of course that doesn't go back on either. You just can't touch these old things. Now I have to take that apart and see if I have any parts from old units to fix it with.

 

[mfs1855]

Thanks for the Sponges!

Paul:

I finally got the sponges to stay in the same place so I could take some pictures of them in the tanks for you. (One got stuck in the gyre but seems to still be doing well.)

I know you wanted to see how they do in other tanks so I put two pieces in my 60g and the other in my 12g. They are hard to see but I put a blue dot next to them in each picture. I tried to vary the light and flow in each place so we can see how they do.

I'll post another picture if I see some growth.

Thanks again for the sponges and great meeting you.

Matt

60 Gallon

12 Gallon

 

[Paul B]

Sponges look great. I even like the blue dots better than the sponges.

Mine healed already and is still growing so I think it is hard to kill them

 

[Paul B]

Hey Long Island Andy, I still have these fish I got from Aquarium Village over the last two years.
Cool striped Wrasse





Very cool red guy



Very purple Queen Anthius





Very nice and pregnant pipes.





Red speckled whatchamacallit





Very colorful clingfish.





Unknown, white pipefish





Latest, very nice file.





And this porcelainn guy

 

[SantaMonica]

Going to have to order me one of those unknown white pipefish.

 

[Paul B]

They don't know what to call it and neither do I. I see him once a month as he is not exactly Mark Spitz when it comes to swimming

 

[Paul B]

So a couple of days ago my Daughter was in Washington Square Park in Manhattan where my Grand Daughter who was riding on her scooter. Greta is 4 years old and a little kid about the same age comes over to her and takes her scooter.
My Daughter sees this happen and follows the kid with her scooter as he brings it over to this old guy who I found out is her Father.
My Daughter says, "excuse me but that is my scooter." The guy says, "do you need it right now". My Daughter says "Yes, I do". So the guy reluctantly gives her back the scooter and seems to be looking at her as if to say, "Don't you recognize me".
The guy was Alec Baldwin who was there with his wife, who is probably younger than my Daughter, but I don't know that for sure. I think Alec Baldwin can well afford to buy his own scooter.

 

[Paul B]

If I could catch this wrasse I would give him away as he has gotten a little big for my tank. He is about 6".
I am talking about the striped one, not the spotted leopard.

 

[Paul B]

shoulder operation #5 today. I hope he used some quality toggle bolts and not from home depot. nerve blockers are great so no pain yet, but I know what it feels when it wears off.
but it is a real man pain and not a girly man pain......besides I got plenty of pain pills.
sorry about the typing. its hard to make capitals with one hand :biggrin:

 

[LongIslandAndy]

Hope your okay Paul, I'd hate to have to find another guy who'll break my balls like you do

Feel better

 

[Paul B]

Andy, I am fine and pain pills are great. If you get me some Caribbean gorgonians and another anemone crab to mate mine , I will be better.

Filefish and clingfish doing well

 

[LongIslandAndy]

I ordered 6 anemone crabs and 2 purple gorgs from the carrib for Friday. The gorg you gave me is doing good

 

[Paul B]

you had doubts!!!!!!!

 

[Paul B]

My Skimmer Is working so good since I changed that 20 year old pump that was running the venturi. Now I get about half gallon a week effluent out of it.


I'm like all tingly inside..
Now of course with an arm I can't move I have a loose ATO hose, a broken coral that needs gluing and a skimmer top that needs cleaning. At least I can clean the glass with one hand

 

[Lam'sReef]

fish

any fish make it 38 years old? what are the oldest fish in that tank?