Unorthodox ways to do things

[Paul B]

Thats the main reason I have a boat. They are always bringing models down to the boats to take pictures for magazines. I try not to look though.
Once when I was working in Manhattan I was on the sidewalk at the GM Building on Fifth Ave.
One of those open top tour buses stopped in front of me and the most beautiful girl I have ever seen stood up on the top. So as I was looking, another one popped up, then another. Like Wow. They were the Miss Universe contestants arriving for a photo shoot all decked out. I had to call my company to tell them I was going to be very late for whatever it was I was supposed to do.

You got to do what you got to do.
I also was the foreman on the New York Playboy Club and Penthouse Magazine, but lets not dwell on that. :thumbsup:

 

[ackee]

Bob Straughan definitely collected live corals. I remember seeing them in his store on Rickenbacker Causeway. There wasn't anything he didn't try, it seemed. He was a great guy, adventurous, with an eye for the ladies. I was a teenage undergraduate at the time, back in the very early 60s. He wrote several books, and was an adventurer of sorts. I think Dick Boyd worked for him at one point, but my memories now tend to merge, overlap, and do strange things. I remember Bob with real fondness. I learned a few things from him, especially about collecting and figuring things out for myself. Florida was a paradise in those faraway days, when the Eath's population was only about 3 billion, Florida bay's were crystal clear, and John D. MacDonald was just starting to chronicle the adventures of Travis. Though my academic field was literary history, I developed a love affair with tropical seas that has never faded.

 

[perpetual98]

Ill bet water changes will become a thing of the past. I think they are a little over rated now.

That reminds me... A few years ago I had a 120g tank at work. I used to have two at home and we were moving so I took one to work so that I could transfer the home one to the new place with minimal interruptions to tank life. The tank ended up staying at work for a couple years and we never set up a tank at home. Money was tight and I didn't have cash to fix stuff that broke (like the IceCap 660 ballast that took a dumper) and before something big broke I decided to sell it.

All the time I had it at work just being topped off with RO/DI with probably zero water changes the last 18 months, it turned into just a beautiful tank. Almost the entire back wall and top 1/3 of the rock was covered in (in my opinion) beautiful GSP that flowed in the current, and the bottom was dominated by mushrooms. I would scrape mushrooms off of the glass when I was scraping coraline and they would go where they pleased. I probably sold the tank with 1000 purple/blue stripe mushrooms that all originated from one mushroom that was a hitchhiker smaller than a pencil eraser on some LR I bought years prior from the LFS when I was setting up a tank when I got into reefkeeping.

 

[Paul B]

I am running out of un orthodox things to post about but I think just about everything I do is unorthodox and when someone comes to look at my tank, they seem kind of surprised. Everyone notices the bottles. I like old coral encrusted bottles (and chains)
Old rusty chains to me just remind me of the sea. Here in NY I am a boater and there are rusty chains all over the place in marina's and in shallow water. They came from ancient barges or tug boats, sunken shops or debris from bridge construction. Who says a reef tank has to be just fish and corals? I, myself never want to have a tank like everyone has, that would be boreing. I know I can keep animals alive, of course that is the first priority, but the next priority is to make it interesting.
I collected all of my rock in the Caribbean and Hawaii but after a number of years I wanted something new so I started to build rock. Eventually I developed the method I use now which is bent gnarly PVC pipe covered in cement. This produces a hollow rock that could be any interesting shape and being hollow offers increased area for bacteria to colonize. You also can't buy these interesting shaped rocks because it breaks in transit and we are left with roundish, boreing rocks. I never liked boreing.
I also collected most of the bottles in the sea but some of them are modern bottles that I "enhanced" by sandpapering them, then breaking them and glueing most of it back together. Then I smear on some cement and maybe some dead corals and barnacles. Those bottles look like they came off of Columbus ship. I guess it is un orthodox but I have always done it.
I would love to put a real anchor in the tank. The ones I have for my boat are about a foot and a half long but they are galvanized and I don't want to put that in but if I can find one an old one that is just iron, I will coat it with acrylic resin and re do the reef around it with it's associated chain. I think that would be interesting.
The most interesting tank I ever saw was many years ago in Manhattan in Aquarium Stock Company which was a huge aquarium store. In those days it was only freshwater and they had a large discus tank of about 300 gallons. In it was a real old toilet bowl, kind of broken along with all the associated plumbing and construction debris. It drew most of the oohs and aahs because of it's oddity. It sounds awful but it was anything but. :fun5:
Before and after "rock"

One of my older "rocks"

Structures like this supports my entire reef off the substrait.

Making a bottle

More PVC, hollow "rock"

Another home made bottle

How old is this bottle? Not very

I had to include this

 

[dixiedog]

Bill, we always get these wierd invasive species. Why can't we get an invasive species of Super models? :spin2:

With my luck, they'd all be of the hermaphroditic variety.

 

[lgray13]

This is an awesome thread!!

 

[Paul B]

I am glad you like it. :wavehand:

I am in the process of re designing my blackworm keeper. I am having a problem convincing the worms to stay where I want them. There is no screen small enough to keep worms out. They go through baby brine shrimp screen like it is a revolving door. It has to be done with water currects instead of screening. I almost have it perfected.

 

[dixiedog]

It is definitely a great thread!

Paul B, you are like Edison, Curie, Lister and MacGuyver all rolled into one. Maybe with some Yoda thrown in.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, I am a little taller than Joda, but we have the same hair style. But my real Idol is Justin Beeber :wildone:
I don't know how all of you guys top off your water but being I started this thread I will get into it a little the way I do it.
I guess you figured out that I like to build and modify things. My top off system is totally automatic and I only have to touch it every year or so.
I hung this (blue) bucket from the ceiling in my workshop so it is higher than my reef. The water flows to the RO unit through an electric valve. As long as the valve is energized, water flows. From the RO unit below the bucket, it flows to the acrylic DI to the left of the bucket. From there it enters the bucket. As the bucket fills, it raises the float which is a film container connected to that pink string. The string is connected to an old thermostat mercury switch so that when the water rises, the float rises lifting the mercury switch which shuts off power to the electric valve and the water to the RO stops. The bucket stays filled.
There is also a tube coming out near the top of the bucket in case this arrangement fails and the overflow would go down a drain, but that has never happened.
There is a PVC hose running from the bottom of the bucket, over my ceiling about 25' to another acrylic container on the tank with more DI resins and from there to a float switch on the tank.
This arrangement is designed to only supply water to the tank at about a drop every 3 seconds. The tank normally only needs a drop every five seconds so in the event the float switch gets stuck (which also has never happened) it would take a few days before the tank would overflow and it would only overflow a few drops an hour.
Under the tank is a DIY overflow safety switch which consists of a wire from a GFCI receptacle. The pumps on the tank are plugged into that GFCI so if there is a leak, the GFCI would trip off, shutting down the pumps.
I am sure everyone on here uses the same system.

Float switch

 

[KafudaFish]

Now that you mention it, that is so not like I do mine.

I lost my water bottle with a hole in the bottom so I just fill up a container every morning and evening and top off until the water reaches the plastic lip.

I do have my own low water warning system though because the MJ will inject air into the tank if it gets too low.

It can even wake me up in the middle of the night.

 

[bprinehart]

Paul- Thank you so much for sharing all of your experiences. I'm a WAMAS member, and every time I see you've chimed in on a thread I read it too. I think there's a lot to be said for "unorthodox" practices. And, quite a lot to be learned from those have come before us. At one time, most fields of medicine were quite unorthodox as well. See how far that has come?

 

[TheHoove]

I would love to put a real anchor in the tank. The ones I have for my boat are about a foot and a half long but they are galvanized and I don't want to put that in but if I can find one an old one that is just iron, I will coat it with acrylic resin and re do the reef around it with it's associated chain. I think that would be interesting.

I stole you bottle idea....And Ive been thinking about going to the hardware store and getting some plastic chain. It would look tacky for a couple months until the coraline took over. Then no one would know. As to the anchor, Ive seem fake ones like wall hangings, or maybe make a casting of a real one and mold a fake one out of something inert? I would love to simulate the broken up side of a ship wreck. Holes for fish to swim in and out of, corals growing on it. Maybe molded out of plaster or something to look like wood. Hmmm.

 

[Paul B]

I'm a WAMAS member, and every time I see you've chimed in on a thread I read it too.

Brian, thanks, I spoke at WAMAS last year about the history of the hobby.

TheHoove I made my chains out of acrylic rods and now they are covered in coraline so they look natural. The only problem with plastic hardware chain is that it is too perfect and is either black or white. I think it may also float but I am not sure. I have thought about it also. Occasionally I use real, old rusty chain that I coat in fiberglass resin but the coating does not last too long. I am not worried about iron much but I don't want too much of it in there. I also could cast an anchor out of something But I would rather put in a real one. It is just an idea of mine.
As for iron, I once had a 2 gallon tank that I just kept grass shrimp and mud snails in along with amphipods. In this tank I also had a large "Rock" that I collected with the amphipods. The "rock" took up most of the tank and it was in there for almost a year. After the year I noticed that there was a red covering on the bottom of the tank and realized the "rock" was a large iron fitting from a ship that had corroded beyond recognition. They were the healthiest looking shrimp and amphipods I have ever seen and it did not bother the snails. That was about a 5 pound piece of rusty iron in 2 gallons of salt water for 10 months, how toxic could it be?
I never tested it on corals or fish but that is next. I know what everyone thinks about metal, but not all metal is created alike. I like to find out things myself and not rely on 2nd 3rd and 20th hand accounts.

 

[billsreef]

Paul, black chain would be perfect. Heavy anchor chains on ships is often painted black.

 

[Paul B]

Heavy anchor chains on ships is often painted black.

Bill, must be good paint.

 

[doctorgori]

bump (this thread was/is a good read)

 

[TampaSnooker]

Here's one: 75 gal tank, 4 x T5, main pump pushing 300 gph. No skimmer, no other flow. 20 gal w/c monthly.

Full coral coverage on rocks - my only surviving Z. sociatus colony, protopalys, asst zoas, anthellia prefilters, FL rics to 6" per adult single, over a dozen fish including a couple big, fat and happy ones to irritate the tang police, breeding ocellaris and one Acro that managed to grow as a hitchhiker into a respectable 4" colony.

The pic is from a year and a half ago. I'm sharing this one because the tank is severely underpowered and very overfed with spirulina flake. The low light has never allowed algae to prosper and the emphasis on nutrient loving species has allowed what is now full coverage. I do not have a current FTS. One way I've discovered to slow down active or aggressive fish that roam is overfeeding. Given that it's turkey week, we can all relate. Yes, overfeeding and obesity shortens our lives and theirs, but perhaps there is room for a tradeoff, given that a fat fish in our care never has to worry about a meal and probably never has to consider predators. I'm going to ponder that as I go get a new beer...

 

[Theomi]

Clear is "clear" right?....I recall I got flamed like the mutha when I said I simply dumped my ASW in a bucket and ran a powerhead until it was clear then used it immediatley; chlorine and all ...I've never admitted it since, but I still do and haven't noticed one modicum of ill effects ....this is of course doing less than a %25 H2O change

edited to add: I use RO so no chlorine issues but I still have no nevermind about it for FW

I´ve always done that, did not know it was bad lol :spin2:
Great thread Paul, i always enjoy reading your stuff :beer:

 

[Paul B]

I´ve always done that, did not know it was bad lol

I am mixing some water now, I filled a 20 gallon bucket and stir it with a wooden stick while I dump in salt. I will stir it again later and check the salt (and the temp) then throw it in my tank. Always did it like that, no one complained yet.
Is there any other way? :spin2:

This stuff is so easy and so many people make it much more complicated than it is. It isn't rocket science. I have never lost a fish by mixing salt and as soon as it is disolved (and the temp is the same) I use it. If you keep it an hour or a decade it is not going to change much as long as it is disolved.
Some people get so scientific using things like refractometers to get the salinity of the new water exactly like the tank water. Of course it has to be the same but not to the extent that some of us go to. Trust me, the fish don't care and the corals never complained either. I have had my share of fish and corals over the years to not worry about this stuff. It is supposed to be fun and not a source of worry. :headwally:

Reading some posts about additives also makes me laugh. Some people spend astronomical amounts of money on this stuff that is not needed.
And then keep fiddling with the pH. My pH is the same as it has been since the 70s with no help from me and I never adjusted it. I use home made calcium and alkinity which costs me about $6.00 a year.
All the other stuff also stays the same. For some reason I don't have to add Vodka, miracle mud, phosphate remover and all this other stuff that I can't pronounce or spell. I wonder why it doesn't change in my tank?
I don't know, maybe it's me.
But I would rather take that money and go to Hawaii. :smokin:
It is true that I don't have the best tank on here, by far. But it is also not the worst. :fish2:

 

[atreis]

Oh good grief. I don't pre-mix it. When I do my water change I always remove the same amount of water (3% of total system volume), and measure the salinity in the first container full. I know from experience roughly how much salt I'll need to get it to where I want it. I remove the water, let the ATF start replacing it, and poor the correct amount of salt straight into the overflow so it can dissolve and disperse through the sump while the ATF finishes the water replacement.

I've been doing this for 3 years and keep SPS (acro and others), closed brains, anemones (LTA and RBTA), and more, with great success. (No fish, coral, or anemone deaths at all for over a year now, and only two deaths in the last two and a half years.) I tried this with my previous tank years ago, and discovered that so long as the water change is smallish (around 5% or less) and the salt is added someplace where it can dissolve independent of most of the tank (like the overflow) nothing seems to even notice.

I just do water changes weekly instead of monthly to compensate for them being smallish.