Stupefying! 35 Year Old Reef Tank!!

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Fickie

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Dear All,

Came across this post on RC. The corals are not as old as the tank and it is not SPS dominated but I nonetheless found some of the facts about this tank to derail some of the staus quo wrt running a reef tank.

Like that it mostly runs on one powehead for 100gal
or that it has the original 30 something year old substrate!
and that it runs the reverse UG filtration system!

Quite Freaky really check ot out:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=727454&highlight=bubble+alage

Regards,
Rafiq
 
what does the chlorine bleach serve a purpose for?
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Jetta style luv, I treat NSW with it if looks questionable. It makes the water much better by oxidizing all organics and also killing any bacteria and paracites.
Paul
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Can anybody comment on the above statements.

Thanks
 
cool.a moorish idol in a reef tank.
 
Thanks guys, Chris, this stuff comes and goes in cycles. It all works out. If you get an algae bloom, it will disappear if you don't change the water much or add anything. I know the first thing people do with a bloom is change the water but you may be making it worse depending on whats feeding the algae. Algae will exhaust whatever it's feeding on in a while and new water adds more elements that may have been stunting the algae in the first place. For instance, if there is absolutely no iron in the water, algae can't grow or it will be severly limited, if you change the water you may be adding more iron (along with other trace elements) I am just saying to not go crazy all of a sudden with algae. See if it goes away by itself in a few weeks by doing nothing.
Croman, I get a lot of my water from the ocean in the summer, now I buy it.
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Interesting
 
Yes Awvince, I can almost confirm that statement, in my neverending battle with hair algae, I was doing religious weekly waterchanges, I was then told by a very experienced reefer to STOP doing waterchanges altogether.

Well, I must say that not only has the the hair algae stopped growing, but definitely seems to be receding with no intervention on my part.
 
He just said for a while and to monitor the tank, I haven't done a waterchange for a few weeks now and can definitely see a difference, I will update my thread with some pics in a couple of weeks time when I am finished with this "experiment"
 
Couldn't be better really, fish are all healthy and not irritated, corals are all open and doing well and hair algae is receding, I'm rather happy ;) All I have done is keep my calcium and alkalinity in check.
 
The tank is still going strong, The only problem is the moorish Idol. He eats so much that he is really messing up the water. I have been feeding him a new mixture of bananas, garlic, avacados, clam, sponge and Plaster of Paris. He can't get enough of the stuff but the water quality suffers and I have to change more than I have time for. Now that it's summer and my boat is in the water I can collect some real water.
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Thats what I think. I may start eating the stuff myself. The funny thing is that he eats bananas but goes nuts for them when mixed with plaster. They are not very bright fish. The plaster probably keeps up my calcium levels. I am afraid to mention this to Randy Holms Farley. He already thinks I am nuts.
Paul
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Plaster of Paris is what is used in those vacation food blocks that people used to use to feed fish for a week. It does not hurt them and probably gives them calcium. Also for some reason they love it. Of course it has no nutritional benefit. It keeps the banana together and keeps the vitamins in. But when they bite it, it makes a white cloud. Even the copper band butterfly loves it and he will not eat bananas without it. Not that bananas is the ultimate food but it is just one more thing I feed. I will try anything. This is a hobby and the escence of a hobby is that it's not that important, just fun.
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Plaster of paris!!!!!!!!!!
 
Thats all that is used vince, plaster of paris is the primary ingredient. A mixture containing the food is added to the POP while it is wet, and then allowed to dry in the moulds.
 
Let me know how it goes.. I'm a scardy cat.. Sat 3:00pm.. water change or bust !
 
no water changes! And all along I thought my tank had reached some sort of equilibrium or the skimmers:p ! LOL! Last year I done one whole +-50l water change and only after my heater had wiped out half the tank!

Anyway I got the idea from Richard Durso, his tank was featured on either RK or AA mag, or rather I got the idea that he was condoning my laziness...

Hey Imran, I just saw the first page and posted I see you found a lot of cookie stuff this guy does, I have fed my tank a homemade mixture that I used to feed malawi's that included tons of seafood, spirulina and umm veggies and well, fruit salad (appropriate if you are a fruit cake!)

Can't really say that it was either beneficial or harmful but it is a pain to make! Not really worth it since tetrabits/ tetramin do such a fatastic job, also seems to be everybodies 'secret superfood' lol!
 
Speaking of no water changes I haven done water cahages for 3 months now water seems ok
 
Nice buddy qquite weirfd to see the moorish in there where did you get him and how old is he now?
 
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