How this Geezer did it in the beginning

[Paul B]

That pic of the tank you poster (in wall). How old is that pic?

That was in 1979 or 80 I think. That tank is still the one I have now only the basement if finished around it. It was started in 1971 in a 40 gallon tank, then when I moved here, I dumped everything into this 100 gallon tank

This reminds me of listening to my Grandpa tell me about trying to ride their milk cow back from the creek from getting water.

I'll give you "Grand Pa" :lol2:

it was in the olden days when a stick of gum cost a months wages

Wow, you must have been really poor. Bazooka gum was a penny. I made at least five cents in a month.:debi:

It's like reading a book and imaganing Mr. Rogers narrating

Yes that is who I want to emulate. Mr Rogers.
Actually Mr Rogers was a Marine. :thumbsup:

No internet back then and personal computers were just hitting the scene,

we all had personal computers. 10 of them and if you needed to count higher than that, you took off your socks.

 

[Paul B]

hows about a before and current pic? PLEEZ.

OK but this picture has been on here 1000 times so if you saw it 900 times, close your eyes.
You can see my bleached corals and those 7 blue devils, but more importantly, my watch band

And now

 

[Paul B]

it was in the olden days when a stick of gum cost a months wages

I don't know how you children got money when you were younger but I always had money. When I was about 8 I would go to Main street which had a subway under it. Where there are sub ways there are grills in the sidewalk and about 8' down there was dirt. I would take a fishing weight and a string, put a piece of bubble on it and lower it down to get pennies, nickels and dimes. You rarely got a quarter, that was the admission to the movies.
I would do that every few days. There was no such thing as Hey Dad, I need some money. Unless I wanted to hear him laugh. Of course I could have washed our 1947 Pontiac which had no paint on it, I could have made 25 cents for that. :lol2: He bought that during the war and you took what you could get. My Dad died suddenly when I was 10 so I grew up fast and always knew how to make a buck. Until today I never bought anything on time or credit and never owed anyone anything. I always had a bicycle. I would go into the lots and find a handlebar here and a tire there, always had a bike. It had different size tires on it and various color paint, but it was a bike.
Cars also. I once bought a 58 Chevy Impala for 8 bucks, rebuilt the carburetor for another 8 bucks and sold it for $250.00. :lmao:
I bought many cars like that because I can fix anything, maybe not the space shuttle but I would try if they could fit it in my driveway.
I got most of my fish tank stuff by fixing the cars of the guys who worked in aquarium stores. We traded stuff. :thumbsup:

I am currently using one of his old heaters also in my 135g, down in the sump. I call it the "green machine". It's ugly, but it is a beast, and again, its 20 years old.

That aint old, I probably have some of my wooden heaters that worked with whale oil

Speaking about heating do you know why old tanks had a slate bottom? Not because it was cheaper, but because the original tanks were from England where rich ladies used to collect ferns. They were the original Nerds.
Eventually they got tired of ferns and they walked around the shore and collected fish and inverts. Their tanks were not totally water proof and they hired shipbuilders to seal the tanks with tar. The bottom was slate because they would put whale oil lamps under them to heat them.
If the water boiled, it was a little too hot. :crazy1:

 

[DM1975]

Paul, where I grew up we didn't have subways or the movies to go to unless we drove 70 miles to the closest big town. My first car was an '82 Ford Mustang that I bought for $300.00 and got running with parts from an old 8N tractor so that old ingenuity isn't dead on the newer generations.

We were pretty poor but we made due rather well. I know how to sew because I had to sew up my own clothes if they ripped instead of buying new. Most of my toys were handed down from my uncles. If we wanted to have fish for dinner we caught it the Sunday before. As for finding change, we might have found a few coins in a parking lot in town, but other than that cows and cactus don't make for good places to find coins.

I still remember when we got our first convenience store and our first McDonalds (I was in High School when we got the McD's). I used to ride my bike into town when I was a kid and rode it all over town. Now days my kids don't leave my sight in town. My fun when I was younger (kindergarten and first grade) was walking through the pasture with my BB gun hunting birds. I was never supervised doing so either as long as I made sure to check the water troughs to make sure they were still running and didn't climb on the fence or hang on the gates.

Mesquite thorns, cactus, and rattlesnakes were something I knew how to deal with by the time I was eight years old and were pretty commonplace where I grew up. I learned how to drive on a tractor and a farm truck and was doing so by the time I was ten.

I am only 37 but a lot of what you talk about reminds me of my growing up, except I fought in the desert and not the jungle. To me it is not unique to generations but rather the story of the world. I agree the Internet has changed a lot of things, but most kids still have to be resourceful, just in different ways.

 

[spieszak]

Hey Paul... Loving the series of posts lately. They have bit a bit introspective, which while awesome... well, I just wanted to say that I hope its only the fondness of the memories driving you to post....

 

[Paul B]

so that old ingenuity isn't dead on the newer generations

Thank God for that.
I grew up in Queens New York which was part of New York City so we had subways but we also had lots, lots of them because Queens is an outer borough. Next to my grammar school was a horse stable. Of course not as rural as Kansas. We didn't have cows but next to my house was a string bean farm.

If we wanted to have fish for dinner we caught it the Sunday before

We only ate fish because my family owned a seafood business. You know like Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, boiled shrimp, grilled shrimp, steamed shrimp, fricasayed shrimp, cured shrimp etc.

My fun when I was younger (kindergarten and first grade) was walking through the pasture with my BB gun hunting birds.

I remember that well, only we shot rats with a bow and arrow or sling shot. Same principal though.

but most kids still have to be resourceful, just in different ways

They don't seem quite as resourceful as we were but it may be just an old thing, I don't know.
I can't see a 12 year old now with a real job, but I had one. I also can't see a 19 year old as a Sargeant in a war because when I see a 19 year old, they seem like such a kid, but I guess they are in wars. Now even when I look at someone like a doctor or even the President they are so much younger than I am. They used to look so old to me. I go to a doctor and she looks like my Daughter 10 years ago.
It is not you young people, it is me. Your perception of age changes radically as you age. I remember in 2nd grade I was deathly afraid of this tough "girl".
She seemed so tough to me and she was probably 8. Most, but not all 8 year old girls don't scare me as much any more. :uhoh3:

I hope its only the fondness of the memories driving you to post

Thats all it is. I loved my youth but I also love my age now, and everything in between.

except I fought in the desert and not the jungle.

We had monkeys you had camels, same thing, different color.

 

[londonloco]

Whenever I see PaulB has posted, I scramble to read the post. Great reads, always informative. I too am an old geezer, but geezer-ETTE would be appropriate. I also remember the scrubbing board in our basement growing up (tho I always remember having a washing machine), the birth of microwaves, the battle between beta and vhs, using a pay phone, cell phones in bags tied to our cars, no computers or internet. I remember my cousin, who had just started working as an investor, telling us "buy dr. pepper and eat at that new place, McDonalds, please, I just invested my clients....".

I love it when one of your posts gets challenged, not because your getting flamed, but because the flamers usually have a few hundred posts to your 10,000's, most times makes me laugh.

I do have a question for you Paul, a few pages back (or maybe on another thread?) you stated about feeding fish correctly, possibly this was the reason for the various problems posted on RC was due to improper feeding. Tell me, what do you feed your fish? corals? tank....

 

[DM1975]

Paul, I understand. I have tried not to get that perspective but lately especially I notice that it is more of a natural evolution rather than an attitude you can change or control, but rather understand and accept. I am sure I am in for even greater changes and revelations the older I get. I guess true understanding only comes from age and experience combined.

Oh, and I am from Texas, I just happened to have retired from the Army here in Kansas and liked it so much we stayed. I only retired because I was broken beyond reasonal repair according to the Army. Would have been 19 years this September had I been allowed to stay in but I was not very combat effective anymore.

 

[ken55]

"Put your face close to the monitor and squint" is the funniest thing I've read in a long, long, time. Thanks:thumbsup:

 

[DM1975]

Whenever I see PaulB has posted, I scramble to read the post.

You know it... He is the one person in the reefing community I truly respect.

 

[jprime84]

Yes that is who I want to emulate. Mr Rogers.
Actually Mr Rogers was a Marine. :thumbsup:

Technically, that's a myth.

My first exposure to keeping fish was my grandfather. He loved in Florida and we lived in NC. I remember he had a redtail catfish he raised from 2inches to almost 2 feet before letting it go in the canals near his house.

My dad told me how they would go to the keys and catch differ animals snorkeling and keep them as long as they could in NSW tanks.

I wish I had been old enough to ask him more about the hobby before he passed.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Yea Paul, we only had one subway in Fort Worth and that was just to take you from the dillards parking lot under the city to Tandy center. Old man Tandy lived in town. For those who don't know who he is, think Radio Shack, Texas Instruments, Tandy leather & crafts.

So we'd go around the neighborhood knocking on doors and asking for pop bottles so we could walk down to the little local store and turn them in for the nickle deposit. 7-11 was too far to walk to. We usually didn't make it out of the store with all of our money, but we did have a pocket full of candy.

I remember my first tank back in the early 70's. It was a 10G glass tank with a slate bottom and a steel frame all around.

I know that people have been keeping fish in glass boxes for centuries, just not sure when they actually started keeping salt water fish.

I still have some of my old fish magazines, or should I call them small books as they are about 1/4 the size of a magazine, from back in the 70's.

 

[aandfsoccr04]

a great read to start the morning. I hope there's plenty more where that came from Paul!

 

[Paul B]

Technically, that's a myth.

Dam, and I thought he was a Marine, well he never looked like a Marine and you are correct. Thats why you should never listen to me too intently.
I looked him up

A false rumor claims that Fred Rogers was once a U.S. Marine sniper in the Vietnam War. The rumor appeared on the Internet in 1994 and re-emerged several times over the next ten years, most notably after his death in 2003.[45][46] However, Rogers never served in any branch of the military

Oh, and I am from Texas, I just happened to have retired from the Army here in Kansas

DM1975 thank you for your service, where did you serve?

Tell me, what do you feed your fish? corals? tank....

My animals diet is very cheap. Every day they get live blackworms which is the most important thing, they also get new born live brine shrimp. I have some tiny fish like bluestriped pipefish and they need tiny, live food. The mandarins and scooters also love that but the copper band hogs the feeder.
They also get either frozen mysis or clam that I buy fresh and freeze. In an auto feeder there is pellets that are soaked in fish oil and some flakes soaked in fish oil. I only have a few fish that will eat pellets and they hide a lot so I want food in there for them. The few oil soaked flakes that go in there daily are for the few fish that are too shy or slow to get any worms.
I also feed the LPS corals the clams. I don't feed the SPS, I guess they order take out.
Pipefish at the feeder

Getting back to the beginning, I had a Sanders counter current protein skimmer in the 70s and I wanted to use it with ozone. I don't think they made ozonators then, or at least I didn't want to pay for one so I built one. It was just an acrylic tube with two electrodes near each other connected to a neon transformer that put out 12,000 volts. Air would pass through it and pick up oxone. I don't know how much ozone it produced, but that didn't matter, it was cool watching the sparks.

londonloco

We can't have too many Geezer-ettes. Glad to meet you. I also remember those washboards, I don't remember us having a washing machine in those days. But maybe we did. I don't remember my Mother beating clothes on a rock.

I still have some of my old fish magazines

I still got a few

 

[Paul B]

We were pretty poor but we made due rather well.

I don't know how poor we were because as I said my dad died when I was 10 and my Mother used to take in clothes to wash besides her regular job in a sweat shop on the west side of Manhattan.
We always had food and as I said, if I wanted a bicycle, I built one, no problem.
I do remember my shoes, we didn't have $100.00 sneakers. US Keds were 75 cents but you were not allowed to wear sneakers to school. I even had to wear a tie. But my shoes were sometimes handed down from my brother and when they would get a hole in the sole I would just go to an abandoned house and rip off a piece of linoleum flooring to put in the shoe. All houses had linoleum floors which today is Congolium.
When the linoleum wore through you got a bigger piece. After a while you got these soles that you could glue on to what was left of your soles. Eventually you had to get new shoes.
My Mom took good care of us and we never starved but I think my Dad dying young was a good lesson for me and it made me grow up very fast. Which is why I always made money and never had a problem buying something I wanted, but I ususlly built it.
I miss my Dad and I don't remember him too well as I was young, he was 47 and just fell down and died of a massive heart attack with no warning.
He was a brilliant man and a golden gloves boxer. He was not in WW2 and I am not sure why unless he was a little too old. They had him in the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a plumber on new Navy Ships.
It never impresses me when I see a young person with an expensive car. Many times his Father bought that for him and that doesn't take any brains or creativity. (it also goes as fast as my cheaper car)
Once in my life I was offered a new car for free and I refused it. I don't feel comfortable getting something that I didn't work for and it would never feel like my own car.
I never bought a lottery ticket because I just think it is stupid.
Creativity, knowledge, ingenuity, work ethics that is what impresses me.
That and Supermodels, I like them too

 

[Paul B]

OK back to fish. I am not the God of fish feeding but I learned about fish food through my diving career. My first dive was in Sydney Australia while I was on R&R from Nam.
When I came home I got certified and I spent many years lobster diving and every year my wife and I would go to some tropical Island.
Many times I would dive with the groups of tourists but I don't much like that. I like to find a guide and go off with him on my own to a place where tourists don't go to.
I tell the guide what I am looking for and thats where I go. Then just lay on the bottom and watch something until you run out of air. That is how you learn, not the usual way by going on line and argueing with someone about some commercial fish food.
I know many of us have to do that, and I do it sometimes myself but diving is better.
In the sea fish eat fish. Whole fish. That is where I came about with my feeding strategy of only feeding whole, entire animals, guts and all. Actually the guts are more important that the muscle like we eat. We eat fish fillets, scallop, squid, and shrimp. None of those things contain the most important ingredient, fish guts. Virtually all
(OK most) of the nutrition come from the guts. When you buy shrimp in the US, you just get the tail. Most other places, you get the entire shrimp. Scallop is also just the muscle that closes the shell and squid is cleaned of it's guts. That is the part we need to feed the fish. I never saw a fish in the sea filleting a fish or opening a scallop and throwing most of the animal away.
The important oil is concentrated in the liver. Oil is missing in just about all fish food because it goes bad.
If you dive, not like a tourist, you will see fish dipping down to the bottom to snack on fish fry. It is a very important part of their diet and the younger the fry are, the more of a percentage of oil they contain.
My dive partner took this picture of a nurse shark in I think the Caymans. Notice the fry to the left of it? You wil see fish eat these fry all day long. Whole fish, that is what fish are supposed to eat.

 

[Reeferz412]

Mr.Rogers wore long sleeves and pants because he actually had a fair amount of tattoos and he served like Paul said. Fun fact eh?

 

[Reeferz412]

My father used to breed oscars, angels, mollies, and guppies in his shed. He built 3 wall to wall shelves and kept many 10 gallon tanks. He would sell his fish to the LFS for dirt cheap only a few cents. Many times his heaters would break and boil some of the tanks.

 

[Paul B]

My father used to breed oscars, angels, mollies, and guppies in his shed.

I did also including tilipia, fighting fish and ciclids. I always went for the wierd and liked lungfish, leaffish, freshwater flounders, tire track eels and anything else I could find that seemed a little odd. Even today I don't particularly like tangs or angels. I just find them too common and I had so many of them. I would much rather have a brown, plain gobi that is spawning than a beautiful French Angelfish that is just swimming around aimlessly.
It's just me. I guess I am not in it for the shock value or the beauty. I am in it for the
uniqueness, the oddity, the difficult or strange. Just keeping fish alive is like stamp collecting, they are just there. I want to see them spawn, change sex or live to be 100.
I want to discover new ways to keep them in fantastic condition, I want to grow corals so fast that they make whirring noises.
My tank never was and never will be a thing of beauty but an ongoing experiment that doesn't matter where it takes me as long as it is interesting and fun. That is why I used to put lights in caves and make unusual feeders and add wierd stuff from the sea. I have tried and am still experimenting with electricity to grow corals and algae. I use bleach, acid, mud and sparks from DC power sources to try things that I feel will benefit the hobby or at least my tank.
(fish food in the fiftees was dried ants)
I add all sorts of things from the sea without any fear of crashing, you can't crash an experiment, only learn from it. Failure is the best learning experience.
I have operated on quite a few fish that would have died and I never lost a patient.
This is a hobby for God sakes and so many people get so uptite. A "hobby" so it should be fun and not a cause to worry or go broke.
The fish don't care one way or another but we should be having fun and not posting just problems.
I just turned around to look at my tank and for some reason all of the corals are very big looking. Better than usual, I have no idea why but it facinates me. Why do they sometimes look "sad" and now they look great?
This is what moves me. X Lax would also but we are talking about fish tanks.:fun5:
I see a birds nest in there that I didn't even knew was alive, I thought it croaked a few weeks ago but it loks nice and green and great.
I love this stuff. :dance:

 

[jrpark22000]

Fascinating, tagging along for the trip to a unknown yet desirable destination.