Hello, Geezer coming back to this forum. Paul B
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Paul B
Premium Member
Next week we decided to have a Christmas Party for some of our friends here. They are so good to us and everyone here helps each other.
We figured we would invite about 26 people thinking half would have other plans. Nope!, so far they are all coming. WE will have it catered and hired a girl to help with the food and cleaning up. It should be a blast.
Yesterday we put up the tree and started decorating.
In a few days I have to start baking.
We figured we would invite about 26 people thinking half would have other plans. Nope!, so far they are all coming. WE will have it catered and hired a girl to help with the food and cleaning up. It should be a blast.
Yesterday we put up the tree and started decorating.
In a few days I have to start baking.
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While I prefer to be proactive in removing nuisance algae One system I maintained demonstrated very well how a system will shift it's equilibrium from algae to coral with minimal maintenance. The house the system was in became vacant in 2007 and the owners had me continue weekly maintenance and it eneded up being vacant over 3 years. In that time the system was crashed 3 times, once when an electrician left power off a couple days and twice when people/realters looking at teh house left the doors to the filter room open letting teh tank get too cold or too hot. Each time teh decision by the owners was just to continue teh basic maintenace (there was a pair oc clowns that mananged to survive all three crashes) and not to do remediation. With just small weekly water changes removing what nuisance algae I could with the weekly water changes and adding overflow animals from other systems the nuisance algae dissapated and corals started to thrive and propagate.
Enjoy your party! Think of me when you're stuffing your face.
Enjoy your party! Think of me when you're stuffing your face.
Paul B
Premium Member
My tank condition is two fold. First I killed all the invasive sponge and the remnants of it are still in the pores in the rock. I didn't want to bleach the rock and kill the bacteria so I left much of it out in the cold and it died. Now it has plenty of nutrients in it for algae.
The second stupid thing I did was collect 50 gallons of NSW after a huge rain storm. The area here is all sod farms and golf courses so when it rains the ocean gets inundated with run off from those places and it fuels algae. Even the sea here is covered in algae as you can see here at the shore. (thats my friend, not me)
The second stupid thing I did was collect 50 gallons of NSW after a huge rain storm. The area here is all sod farms and golf courses so when it rains the ocean gets inundated with run off from those places and it fuels algae. Even the sea here is covered in algae as you can see here at the shore. (thats my friend, not me)
Paul B
Premium Member
Lets remember that December 7th 1941, 81 years ago today the US was attacked on Pearl Harbor by Japan getting us involved in WW2.
2,335 Americans were killed.
It was also 30 years ago when a gunman on the Long Island Railroad massacred 6 people and wounded 19 on the train. That train was the train right after the train I took every day and the murders happened right near my house.
2,335 Americans were killed.
It was also 30 years ago when a gunman on the Long Island Railroad massacred 6 people and wounded 19 on the train. That train was the train right after the train I took every day and the murders happened right near my house.
Are you sure this fish is real, it appears to be becoming encased in coraline.
I've been tempted to add a Red Wasp Fish. The tank is old (30 years) with a lot of pods and algae. Do you have to target feed live foods until established?No, but this one is becoming encased in cyano.
Fantastic fish ain't it?
Paul B
Premium Member
The 2 of them eat what all the other fish eat. LRS food, Mysis and live whiteworms. I think they would eat anything but they are kind of stupid and the food bounces off their head a few times until they realize it's food. Then they go after it even if it is on the bottom. They prefer meaty foods like clams.
They won't eat pods or algae.
They won't eat pods or algae.
Paul B
Premium Member
My last working Diatom Filter is croaking. I couldn't be in this hobby without a diatom filter because I run a reverse undergravel filter and it needs by yearly stirring up. I also like to blow detritus out of my 50 year old rocks. Yes, I could use a canister filter as I have 2 Eheim filters but they are not very powerful.
I also sometimes use my diatom filter on newly collected NSW as it is filled with mud and seaweed.
Most of them are pretty rotten
But this one I changed the motor years ago.
I dropped it a few times and it needs some help. I am not sure if I want to put on a new motor or make an entirely new filter so I am in a quandry.
I also sometimes use my diatom filter on newly collected NSW as it is filled with mud and seaweed.
Most of them are pretty rotten
But this one I changed the motor years ago.
I dropped it a few times and it needs some help. I am not sure if I want to put on a new motor or make an entirely new filter so I am in a quandry.
Paul B
Premium Member
The real diatom motors are really garbage and don't last in salt water which is why I have 5 or 6 corroded ones. They also don't make them any longer. Even the motor I replaced it with are not made any more but it's easy to build a completely new unit with a much better design. I already designed it years ago. I may order the parts this week. It will cost about $100.00 to make a really good unit.
You should probably stop submerging them, wow.The real diatom motors are really garbage and don't last in salt water which is why I have 5 or 6 corroded ones. They also don't make them any longer. Even the motor I replaced it with are not made any more but it's easy to build a completely new unit with a much better design. I already designed it years ago. I may order the parts this week. It will cost about $100.00 to make a really good unit.
Paul B
Premium Member
No, not really. The bags are not very good but I can make a better replacement. The real problem is the seal. It gets chewed up by the diatom powder which is like glass. The things leak terribly after a while so I always ran them in a bucket. The motor housing is also made of iron which rusts badly in salt water and the bearings are brass in an iron housing so that rusts and destroys the bearing.
I normally drilled a hole in the top of the casing so I could oil it because some of them didn't come with an oil tube and the bearing near the shaft is very hard to oil especially with all the rust.
I have been using them since the 60s.
I normally drilled a hole in the top of the casing so I could oil it because some of them didn't come with an oil tube and the bearing near the shaft is very hard to oil especially with all the rust.
I have been using them since the 60s.
Paul B
Premium Member
You mean they are not submersible!!!!.. Maybe thats the problem, especially when they are plugged in.You should probably stop submerging them, wow.
When the seals leak, which they always do, the salt water eats them up.
