Unorthodox ways to do things

SK8R, that black stuff is asphaltium varnish. Terrable stuff. But it beat chewing gum.
The very first tanks in Victorian England were mostly wood or metal and they were sealed by ship builders because they knew how to seal ships.
The bottoms were slate up to a couple of decades ago because the houses were not heated and they used to put oil lamps under the tank to warm it. Whale oil lamps.
 
Someone mentioned the use of peroxide earlier in the thread. I just wanted to say that the company I work for uses peroxide religiously on fish only tanks. If dosed properly and often enough it will keep algae growth to nearly inexistent. If you overdose it will drop the ph too much and cause the tank to cloud.
 
I was so happy when the switch to silicon sealant was made. I hated digging out that old black stuff and resealing tanks every few years :D


jubjub47 said:
Someone mentioned the use of peroxide earlier in the thread. I just wanted to say that the company I work for uses peroxide religiously on fish only tanks. If dosed properly and often enough it will keep algae growth to nearly inexistent. If you overdose it will drop the ph too much and cause the tank to cloud.
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The peroxide doesn't drop the pH, the overdose simply kills stuff.
 
Got home at midnight last night, opened the front door and could hear my PH sucking air.
Great.

About half a gallon was on the floor.

I grabbed a gallon jug, turned on the warm tap water, added half a cup of salt, shook it for a minute, poured it in and went to bed.
 
When I started out, aged about 6 and in charge of my own tank, we had Metaframe tanks whose joints were sealed with a tarlike substance, and capped with a longish triangular metal corner frame and rim. If you got a leak, you emptied the tank and either pressed in more tar, or, later, shot in a nasty black plastic substance. For years, filtration was a small plastic box with two tubes, one for the airline in, one for the flow out.
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ha ha...brings back warm & fuzzy memories ....

my 1st tank was a Metaframe 5gal in 1967 ...those filters were called "bubbleup" corner filters /// Hartz made the charcoal and glass wool, I'm guesing the pump was either a metaframe or "silent Giant" ....
 
Paul B said:
SK8R, that black stuff is asphaltium varnish. Terrable stuff. But it beat chewing gum.
The very first tanks in Victorian England were mostly wood or metal and they were sealed by ship builders because they knew how to seal ships.
The bottoms were slate up to a couple of decades ago because the houses were not heated and they used to put oil lamps under the tank to warm it. Whale oil lamps.
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Paul B said:
And scraping the rust off the angle iron corners and re painting.
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billsreef said:
I was happily forgetting about that until you reminded me :lol:
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What is it going to be like in 30 more years? I wonder what we're doing now that will seem silly then?
 
What is it going to be like in 30 more years? I wonder what we're doing now that will seem silly then?
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In 30 years computer monitors will be mounted right into fish tanks so you can post on these forums while you are looking at your fish.
Also instead of taking pictures, everyone will be able to see your tank as you type.
(as well as you in your underwear, but lets not dwell on that) :eek:
 
Actually, the fish will have cyborg implants that they install in China. The factory is right down the road from the place where they tatoo kissing gouramis and parrot cichlids. They will communicate directly with your controller and you will just have to hit "OK" authorize some Jetson's gizmo to fix it. We won't even be getting our hands wet in 30 years.

I met a guy who swore by using brass fittings in the drain water's flow as a means of controlling ich. He'd been keeping a nurse shark like that in an 8' horse trough for some time. The riccordeas he was selling me didn't like it too much, but they came back quickly enough once in better water.

Also, I met another guy who owned a bait shop. Despite being right on the water, he used a synthetic mix in his shrimp and pinfish tanks that was mostly water softener salt. Not sure, but I think that's potassium chloride? His mortality was no worse than other bait shops that used nsw. The shrimp are a bit more sensitive. For those who don't know pinfish, they are decended from vampires and can be quite tricky to kill - unless a cobia or grouper is swimming by and he will gladly do it for you...

About the peroxide - that one first came to my attention from one of the guys at Living Color that I met at MACNA last year. That's how they keep their fake coral inserts looking so brand new all the time. What's the minimum and maximum dosage? 10% mix of standard store bought 3% is about the maximum strength that I can get away with to clean up zoa frags. (and half hour at that strength is a tad too much...)

Then there's this guy who was killing aiptasia and majanos with electricity...

Great thread.
 
Then there's this guy who was killing aiptasia and majanos with electricity...
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OMG, that would be me. But in the future we may use gamma radiation to kill them or some other nuclear waste. I love the Idea of microbots that we could unleash in the tank to wrestle with any unwanted organism.
 
Jacob, you didn't change the tone of the thread, it had no tone.
Over the years I think I did a few things that most people think is odd for some reason. To me my tank is supposed to be like a part of a reef or at least a part of the sea so I add whatever I find in the sea that I feel will either enhance the feeling or at least be interesting. We all know what a real reef is supposed to look like but if you see enough of them you may get bored. Thats why I add some things that I feel "enhance" it.
After so many years I have had every coral, fish and aquascape and I don't want to get bored so whenever I am at the sea, which is almost every day in the summer, I search tide pools and drag my net through the shallow water. Besides shrimp I find bottles, crabs, snails, cans, chains and various flotsam and jetsom that I find interesting. Much of it of course I can't put in the tank but if I feel I can coat it in some type of acrylic resin or if I think it can live in the tank, I take it home. I don't take anymore hermit crabs or horseshoe crabs because I know they will not live, but snails, shrimp and codium seaweed I bring home. Codium is cool seaweed and is very common on the east end of Long Island where I live. The stuff lives about 5 months in a tropical tank.
The local mud snails and shrimp live forever and are free. I can collect enough snails to fill a 50 gallon bucket easily and I can collect enough shrimp in 5 minutes to fill a 5 gallon bucket, with no water, just shrimp.
I also collect tiny anemones and amphipods.
Those things are just for interest but the most important thing IMO is bacteria. I collect a little mud every time I go just for the bacterial diversity. Is it needed?
I have no Idea. Is it good for the tank? I have no clue. But to me it seems to work.
I don't know of anyone else who does that, but it is what it is.

Codium007.jpg


1/4" rock anemone

Anemone1.png


Rock crab (very cool)

Localtank008.jpg


Grass shrimp. (even cooler)

Project17.png


Old bald guy collecting in a tide pool

Project6.png
 
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Anemone1.png


These anemones are actually an invasive species in LI waters. They get those nice stripes when under bright light, and are practically translucent in low light areas. Practically indestructible also. Had some infesting the plumbing of an old aquaculture system in one lab. Tore that system down to relocate it, the piping spent several weeks with no water running through it, and they survived to reach plaque proportions within a couple of months :eek1:
 
These anemones are actually an invasive species in LI waters.
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Bill, we always get these wierd invasive species. Why can't we get an invasive species of Super models? :spin2:
 
Paul B said:
Bill, we always get these wierd invasive species. Why can't we get an invasive species of Super models? :spin2:
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I haven't found an invasion like that down here either :( :lol:

Though I did see a temporary migration of models on a photo shoot a number of years ago. Using the docks and beach in New Suffolk for swimsuit shoot...in late October :D
 
billsreef said:
I haven't found an invasion like that down here either :( :lol:

Though I did see a temporary migration of models on a photo shoot a number of years ago. Using the docks and beach in New Suffolk for swimsuit shoot...in late October :D
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Were they trying to sell raisins?

I want to live near an ocean someday!
 
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