49 Year Old Tank

well if you post a pic and small blurb per day i will make it into a downloadable pdf
 
I just added another pair of bluestripes. Here is the old, larger female with a new small male. There is also another small female.
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I have a dilemma. A couple of months ago I built this piece of rock (pictured) that was supposed to cascade over the right side of the tank and give me more room. It has a place on the end for a large coral and a place in the center for a smaller frag. I can't put it on the right side with out moving major rocks and corals which I am reluctant to do because I have to work with one arm. I have a place on the left side I think I could put it but I would also have to move major stuff including the large bottle the fireclown wants to mate in. That bottle also has 2 large pieces of corals growing off of it.
I could deal with that but then I still have to move the three largest gorgonians and I have no place to put them without them hitting the front glass. I don't want to do a major aquascape for two reasons, first, I just did that a couple of months ago and second, I can't do that with one hand.
This new piece of fake rock is about a foot tall and it extends out about a foot. I want it in there but it may have to wait a couple of months until I can at least raise my arm up to the top of the tank. I am sure I will be dropping everything if I tried to do it now. I hate waiting
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I have plenty of friends but they are reluctant to start messing around in the tank. They are afraid of breaking something but that does not concern me at all. Also I don't like asking for help. This gives me an opportunity to get creative.
 
Paul B said:
This month my tank is 41 years old. I don't remember when I was 41 years old.
Click to expand...
WOW...as in Original 41 yr Tank..?...sorry...:blush:..was reading a Thread the other day of a Tank that "expired" and it was well into it's early 20's..:p..you not afraid time has taken it's toll on the...I don't know...say the silicon...:p
 
I finally got that new DIY rock into the tank, but I had to remove about 15lbs of rock to do it and make a mess. I am still working with one arm so it was a little job.
You can see it on the right side of the tank, it starts to the left of the large gorgonian under the back of the bottle and arcs up and to the left. It was supposed to span over the rocks freestanding but I really don't have the room. Maybe if I remove most of the rock someday but it aint going to happen now. I had to move some large cement stands to the left side of the tank and I was able to return all the rock to the tank. It is still a little cloudy and the corals are not fully open but here it is.
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This is the rock I put it. It is over a foot high
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Then I did some work on the other side of the tank. That acropora is too close to the glass and I can't move it back so I ether have to frag it or do more major work.
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Now I will have to make a bristle worm trap because every rock I move is loaded with them. I don't mind them but there is just too many. I will build something that collects a lot of them at once.
 
I had to re design slightly my algae trough. The LEDs I had over it just were not bright enough so I got a strip of LEDs that are about twice as bright. When I had MH lights the trough used to get the spill light but the LEDs are more directional so I had to add supplimental light to the trough because it was only growing red and brown algae. Now hopefully It will grow green hair algae. I also re designed the way the water enters the trough from the skimmer. I used to have unacceptable splashing that used to make salt creep all over the place. Now I have multiple layers of plastic screening around the skimmer outflow and now there is no splashing and no bubbling which burst and splash on the lights and rear wall.
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This acropora has grown at least three times it's size in a year and I can't clean the glass in front of it any longer. Whenever I go near it I accidently break off pieces so I have frags of the thing all over the place. Now I am going to try to move it to a larger space and move the giant mushroom in that place to where the acropora is now. I wonder how many frags I am going to have because there is no room to move it so I have to lift it out of the tank to re locate it.
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After moving this all over the tank, getting bit to death and breaking a few pieces off this and other corals, I realize there is no room for this acropora. I temporarilly put it on this rock but it is just about out of the water and not sitting well. When I get time I need to do a major rock move. Of course I just re-aquascaped and removed a bunch of rock, but it is time again.
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Today I decided to clean the algae out of my algae trough. There was just too much algae and the water was having a hard tiime getting through. The thing has a plastic window screen in it that I normally just roll up, then brush off the algae in the sink and put it back in but this time it was just too much of a job. The screen was covered in those hard tube worms and bubble algae. There was also just too many amphipods in it to save. I swirled the screen in some salt water and collected as many amphipods as I could and threw them back in the tank. Then I threw out the screen and installed a new one. I don't like to do that because I like a coating of algae on it and algae takes a long time to grow on a new screen.
I also like to smear a coating of cement on the screen because algae grows very fast on cement but I didn't have time to prepare a screen so I just put in a new one. Now it will take a good 3 weeks before algae grows significantly on it.
I may make a cement covered screen in the meantime for next time.
Today I will go to my marina to "play" with my boat and I will collect a bunch of amphipods to replace the ones I lost.
Have a great day
 
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