Tank birthday, 40 years

[Paul B]

I have a problem. There is absolutely no algae growing in my reef and I can't even remember a time when this has happened. My nitrates are around 40 so I know there is enough nitrates, and I over feed due to so many fish.
The corals and everything is doing great but I can't figure out why no algae is growing.
That is not normal or healthy. I don't have any tangs or algae bleenies and I don't eat the stuff myself.
It's an inigma

 

[Paul B]

I found some algae. There is one strip of LEDs that melted over my algae trough but I was doing some maintenance today and I found that the hair algae is only growing on the front side of the trough which I can't see from the front of the tank. That is the only part that the remaining LED strip is lighting. I would imagine if I replace the burnt out LEds it would fill the trough.
Now I am happy

 

[rookie07]

How did the lights burn? Did they get hit with water?

 

[Paul B]

No they didn't. But they are from China even though they are sold as water proof LEDs, they are water proof in the respect that you can put them near water if you like, but if you do, they melt, spark, smoke and burn when they get damp. So their meaning of water proof is slightly different from mine.
Maybe they mean that you can put them near a picture of water or you can say the word "water" when you are near them. I am not sure what their meaning of water proof means.
But in their defence, they did last a week or so.

 

[Paul B]

I took some pictures. I also made a mistake and added a little too many fish, I sometimes just can't help myself but the fish will get over it. I wanted a school of cardinals and I already had two, so I bought two more, then three more, then I needed one more, so I have 8 of them. Real cool fish and they school. There is actually two different kinds, when I get time I will make a video of the school. They float around facing the current and grab baby brine shrimp all day, my feeder allows some shrimp to get loose all day so they love it.

 

[rookie07]

Looking good Paul!

 

[Paul B]

Today I added a bunch of new LEDs to my algae trough, one string of LEDs croaked.
It is much brighter now but the problem is that I clean the thing so infrequently that those hard tube worms grow all through it and it is hard to remove the screen. When I removed the screen I had to break many of them and I have amphipods and brittle stars al over my workbench. I caught as many as I could and threw them back home.
Soon I will install my new revolving algae grower.

 

[Paul B]

That revolving ALGAE scrubber has been running well and is growing some algae but nothing to write home about, I may have to tweek the design by making the lights brighter.
Anyway, I took a picture, the tank is doing well although it has been neglected by my being real busy now. Too many projects at the same time.

 

[Paul B]

My pair of mandarins spawned last night. I am not sure if they spawned before and I won't be hunting for eggs in this 6' long tank.
The young female I got about a year ago and she was very skinny at the time. She fattened up nicely partially due to the baby brine feder I added even though my tank is full of pods.
One pair of cardinals is also spawning as are my fireclowns, but they always spawn. The male is 19 years old now but the female is only about 10.
I am curious of the number of fish I have so I am going to try to count them.
6 glass cardinals
5 unidentified cardinals
2 mandarins
2 fireclowns
1 copperband
5 or 6 different gobies
1 clown gobi
1 shrimp/gobi combination
1 6 line wrasse
3 chalk bass
unknown number of crabs
2 urchins
I think thats it. So about 27 or 28 fish. Most of them are small so I assume the tank can handle it with no problem. Time will tell.
I would like to get the tank to last at least until it is 50 years old in 8 years, then I will consider it a success

 

[ohana888]

very nice pair, paul!

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

I won't be hunting for eggs in this 6' long tank.

Subscribed! This tank is legendary and looks amazing!

 

[beastium]

Subscribed +1. Happy Belated 41st. Awesome tank for several reasons mainly for me that you have real water from our MR area's ocean and all the microorganisms let alone fish and crabs/snails. Like you mentioned the "manta ray fry", we wont know completely what is there and what it is actually that makes the ancient ocean 'work so naturally'. Also that there is no sump rather alot of flow like the ocean and as much natural bacteria/microfauna as possible over 40 years. First time seeing an algae trough too. That to me mimics the algae on exposed rock on the shores. That tank keeps it mad real.
So what kinda fish were wild caught? Would u share a picture please? Haha Would be great to witness that. Also How did the iron/cement experiment turn out?

 

[Paul B]

Beastium, the only things wild caught in there now are the snails, some grass shrimp and all the amphipods. Usualy I put the wild caught fish in a diferent tank because NY fish are not usually reef safe.
The key to this tank as you said is the life that was imported from the sea, mostly the bacteria and other microfauna. If you want to keep small or delicate animals they need to eat all the time and the sea has everything you need to feed them. Commercially bought foods are not going to cut it for many animals.
Here are some of the wild caught animals

 

[Paul B]

Also that there is no sump

They were not invented when I set up the tank.

First time seeing an algae trough too.

My first time also

This tank is legendary and looks amazing

Thank you, I am a legend in my own mind. Or is that in my own time?
I don't know about a legend, just an old electrician with a fish tank that shouldn't actually support any life.

 

[beastium]

Very cool. Hey guess you don't need a sump when you have the LI sound.

 

[Paul B]

I guess not

 

[beastium]

Here are some of the wild caught animals

Those fish are all from the sound?
Had no idea we had such colorful fish. Ever consider a horseshoe crab tank?? Lol

 

[Paul B]

Those fish are all from the sound?
Had no idea we had such colorful fish. Ever consider a horseshoe crab tank?? Lol

Yes they did and plenty more over the years.
I can collect horseshoe crabs by the bucketfull but I don't. I know a place which is loaded with them from 1/8" to full grown. They are mud animals and not reef animals.

 

[Paul B]

I just wanted to move one litle thing in the tank so I stuck my big hand in there and of course the entire structure, which was very precarious crashed so I had to re-aquascape one side of the tank. It ain't easy because some of those rocks I built are 20" long. I broke some acropora of course, so I had to get the epoxy and crazy glue that stuff back, now I am going to dinner and my hands are all stuck together and white from the crazy glue.
I hate that stuff. In all the years this tank has been up with all sorts of corals, now it has more corals and fish than it has ever had. I guess this is the longest I ever went with out an accident so the corals had a chance to grow. Even though I break them all the time. The acropora is the worst, that stuff is so delicate and it grows so fast that you have to keep moving it, and moving it means breaking it.
This is also the first time I have SPS and LPS all living together without killing each other.
I am not sure why it is all getting along, maybe the high nitrates are making them woozy and they don't know what they are doing.
One of the chalk bass I bought the other day had a little Pop eye when I bought him. I noticed it when I got him home. Yesterday I thought his eye would pop out but he is much better today. He may have heard that I usually operate on fish to cure that (although I could never catch him)
Also one of the new glass cardinals has this fungus. I thought that was his coloring because it is nice white lines. That will probably go away but again, it is what it is. Whatever goes in that tank, stays in that tank.
I really should look more closely when I buy these things but I usually just tell the guy to catch me something and I don't check it out until I get home.
And I ain't going back.
I think my fireclowns will spawn again soon as they are doing that mating dance and clean the nest together, something I have never seen two clowns do but these may be senile as one is 19.
I also think a pair of cardinals are spawning because they hang out in a bottle and they are very fat. But I am not sure how they spawn. There are so many places in this tank to hide, I can never find anything.

 

[Paul B]

My glass cardinal seems to be cured of his fungus or whatever it was that I got him with but my chalk bass still has a little PopEye but now the eye is back where it is supposed to be but there is a little air bubble in the covering of the eye. I could eliminate that in a few seconds but there is no chance of catching him and it too will go away by itself.
Everything is doing very well. The little shrimp gobi is still in his tunnel that is about 18" long. His companion shrimp keeps digging and clearing it out so I throw him a pellet occasionally. He may even have found a way to get under the UG filter where there are plenty of worms and amphipods so he is not as stupid as I thought.
I made a new bottle this week and I want to remove an antique milk bottle that I collected in a tide pool last summer. It is in water now getting ready to go in the tank, I needed it to hold a piece of hammar coral that I don't know where to put.
This is the most corals and fish this tank has ever had and now it is impossable to remove much rock to do my bi yearly stirring up of the gravel so I will have to do it the best I can through the coral branches. It is what it is.
I never wanted to have a tank with wall to wall corals like some of the beautiful tanks I see on here but I know that is what most people go for and that is the way corals grow in the sea. The Acropora's are growing faster than I thought they would and they are very delicate. If I never broke the original 2" frag it would now be about 15" across, but it is fragged all over the place and keeps growing towards the front glass. I will have to break some of it off soon and frag in the back.
I don't see anything spawning this week. It will take about another month before they spawn again. The cardinals are getting fat but they were much fatter before they spawned last week.
I find it interesting that this wierd red bubble algae was supposed to take over my tank last year and it is all but gone now. I kind of miss it but it did leave some nice red stuff on the rock.

This picture of Greta has absolutely nothing to do with fish but I am a Grand Pa so you have to look at it as I do all the time. :lmao: