Just cleaned thirty year old tank.

Paul B

Paul B

Premium Member
I figured my 100 gallon reef needed cleaning. It used to get cycles of hair algae that would disappear in a few weeks but as time went by the cycles were longer. I also started to get some red algae (cynobacteria) That is a sure sign something was wrong. Even though the fish and corals looked fine (they are all years old) I decided to clean the tank anyway. I was also curious what was hiding under the rocks after all those years.
The tank was originally set up as fresh water about forty five years ago, then salt was gradually added and it became brackish for a few years, then I added more salt and it became a reef in 1974. Anyway, It has a reverse undergravel filter (state of the art in 74) I took out the rocks, which were all large since I collected them myself using SCUBA, then I lifted the undergravel filter plates. I have seen some posts of people stiring up the sand and were surprised at the dirt storm, Believe me, you have not seen a storm until you lift UG filter plates after 25 years (I think thats the last time I did this to this tank) I have an extra large diatom filter and even after removing all but a few inches of water I had to clean it twelve times. I found some three inch worms and a large crab but not much else but mus and a lot of small worms. I left the corals in a spare tank for a day and all the live rock stayed in two garbage pails in the dark for a week, the fish stayed in the tank. (they were not happy) Now everything is back and I have to say, I am not used to seeing the tank clean. I miss the fact that the corals are not growing from rock to rock and that I can tell one rock from another but I am getting used to it. I also can't fit all the rock back in. It was gradually put in there one at a time, when you have all this rock in front of you on the floor it is really hard to fit back in.
I left in the reverse UG filter (why mess with success) and I kept the thirty year old dolomite gravel. The water is new artificial but as soon as I can get to the beach hopefully next week I will get some real water and I will also have to go to a different muddy beach and collect mud and amphipods and shrimp. I do not believe in a sterile overclean tank. There are pictures of this reef the day before I did this on another forum but I don't know how to transfew them here. If anyone knows please let me know.
 
WOW. I didn't realize that your tank had been set up that long Paul. Well I guess you showed all those na sayers about undergravel filters. I used them for years in all of my FW tanks. Don't mess with sucess as they say. When you figure out how to post the pics, pls do. It would be vry interesting to see a 30+ year old reef tank. Hope all goes well with the cleaning and everything survives. Later.
 
Please post a link to your thread on the other site. I'd love to see the pictures amazing that your tank has been set up that long. Has it every crashed?
 
I can try, no guarantees if I can make it work though.

r1.jpg

r2.jpg

r3.jpg
 
Bomber
Thanks for posting my pictures. With dial up service it really does not work. The first three pictures was the tank maybe ten years ago the last pictures were from about two weeks ago. Now that the tank is clean I will try to take a few more pictures and post them. You can see the hair algae in the last pictures.
tcarlson, no the tank has never crashed. I just cleaned it because it needed it, I clean it every twenty five years wheather it needs it or not. The nitrates before it was cleaned was zero, I am curious to see if it stays at zero but I doubt it.
Bomber, I collected some of the rock in your neck of the woods and some in Hawaii and the Caribbean, the rest I built from concrete. In the seventies they just looked at you funny if you brought rock back on the plane and as long as you couldn't smoke it or drink it customs had no problem either.Some of the bottles were found while SCUBA diving in New York the rest I made to look antique and I grew coral on them.
 
Paul B said:
Some of the bottles were found while SCUBA diving in New York the rest I made to look antique and I grew coral on them.
Click to expand...

:lol: I was trying to figure out what those were!

I love to see people like you who end up throwing off all of these "newest trend" kind of guys. :cool:

"Gotta do weekly water changes!"
"underground filters are the devil!!"
"gravel is a nitrate factory"

and on and on and on.

Good job!
 
Paul B said:
You can see the hair algae in the last pictures.
tcarlson, no the tank has never crashed.
Click to expand...

Paul, that's the definition of "crash" to someone that's growing SPS. ;)
 
traip93
It should look like a natural reef off Long Island a lot of the stuff came from there including the water, mud, amphipods, worms,
and some rocks. I also have almost two hundred dives there. I also have an old antique rusted anchor chain that I encased in fiberglass resin and draped over the rock. If you want to create an underwater envirnment you have to add the stuff thats underwater. Someone on another thread asked me why I wanted to show mans disrespect of the envirnment in my tank. I found most of those bottles on ship wrecks, they were not thrown there by polluters but by unfortunate people who may or may not have drowned. The rest of the bottles I made to look like that. If we dumped all the old tires into the ocean it would probably double the aquatic life but thats for another thread.
 
blkwrxwgn
If I threw all the junk in there that I found diving I would need a much larger tank.
 
"I just cleaned it because it needed it, I clean it every twenty five years wheather it needs it or not"


:rollface: :rollface: :rollface:
 
Paul-

Could you post some more info on your tank. I am very interested to see tanks that have been up in running for a long period of time. Most people here usually upgrade to an insanely large tank before their tank is setup for a long. What other equipment do you have? What do you add to your tank? Do you have a generator? I am sure the power has gone out through the decades.

BTW I like the bottles its very unique.
 
Yes, I would love to hear more details. The tank looks very healthy!:)

What are the ages of your individual fish?
 
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