Paul B's thread

Hello Joe, I will tell you but don't tell anyone because if everyone's tank lasted forever with no problems Disease forums and LFSs would go out of business.

Of course I didn't invent UG filters but I may have invented reverse UG filters. When the hobby started we all had fresh water tanks and when salt came in 1971 we used the same UG filter. Our tanks crashed in a few months and the gravel was full of sludge.

I decided to reverse the flow through a DIY manifold and fed each tube with no more than 150 GPH which is very slow. If you push more water down the tubes, it will clog the gravel and that seems to be the correct flow.

The gravel (no sand) is oxygenated all the way through causing multitudes of creatures to live all the way to the glass. Thousands of tube worms which are filter feeders clean the water and the thousands of brittle stars remove any particles while the millions of pods are the beginning of the food chain allowing you to keep smaller fish like pipefish mandarins etc with no additional feedings.
The water stays in excellent shape.

About once a year I stir it up where i can reach with a tube on a canister or diatom filter and it is like brand new.

It seems to work flawlessly for 50 years but I\Like I said, don't tell anyone. :cool:
 
Hey Paul,

I came across this article that I think you wrote

Probiotics and immunity: a fish perspective​

S K Nayak. Fish Shellfish Immunol. 2010 Jul.
 
I didn't write that but maybe they stole it from me. ;)
Probiotics are great for sure but besides that, fish need pathogens to stay immune to them
 
This morning like every morning I took a walk. I walk about two miles so it's not like I will be entering the Olympics or anything. It was 23 degrees and it was just before the sun came up.

All of a sudden I got this uncontrollable urge to do the Macarana and I twisted my knee. One of my knees was replaced a while ago with aluminum or "Mastic". (some kind of fish food copperbands are supposed to like but I am guessing)

I almost fell down as it was a little painful and I contemplated calling the paramedics just because I wanted to see if they had a helicopter. Then I realized it wasn't that bad so I limped home and put some of that "heat rub" stuff on the knee.

Now everyone knows none of that stuff ever does anything for pain but it smells so good. I have a few different kinds, some smell like pine trees, some like cedar and some like camphor so I use all of them at the same time.

I am still in pain but I smell like a forest filed with mosquito repellent which is kind of refreshing.
 
The gravel (no sand) is oxygenated all the way through causing multitudes of creatures to live all the way to the glass.
Makes sense. Yet another habitat for all the organisms that make up a biodiverse ecosystem.

Like I said, don't tell anyone.
Mum's the word

All of a sudden I got this uncontrollable urge to do the Macarana and I twisted my knee.
Ouch. Not icing it?
 
No, that is for Sissy, Girly men.
That picture was in the summer on Montauk. I didn't have a picture of today on that computer so make believe it is snowing and I am being chased by a walrus while drinking a hot chocolate with a little rum in it. :rolleyes:
 
I had an echo cardiogram test of my carotid arteries a couple of days ago and I think they are going to put me on the cover of "Carotid Arteries Monthly" magazine because they are so good. :celebrate:

Next week I am going for a stress test just for kicks. We moved here 3 years ago and I used to go every few years just to look at his nurses,,,,,I mean just to get checked out.
I normally do very good on those. The last time I was friends with the cardiologist and he was very overweight so I used to make fun of him for being in that business and being in that shape.

I was talking to him during my test where you run on this treadmill while they test your heart. At the end of the test he said you did fabulous. I said How do you know? He said I only had to run for 6 minutes and I ran for 17 minutes.
I asked him why he made me run for so long.

He said, because I keep making fun of him. :(





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Yesterday I made a test loaf of Irish Soda bread because we are having company for St Patty's day and they are Irish. It is good so tomorrow I will make a large loaf. :cool:
 
Long Island is a little ways from you guys. :cool:

I am sure my fish are confused today because we have to change the clocks. I wonder what fish in the sea do when they don't really know what time it is?

Normally at this time (whatever time it really is) I would be out for a walk. My knee won't let me do that today and I can't just leave it home. I really need to get this thing replaced but my other one didn't come out to well so I have been pushing it off.

You can only push these things off so long , then one day while you are on your back on a snowy street with cars and school buses full of Sumo wrestlers that keep driving by splashing you with slush mixed with the sand and salt they throw on the streets here in the north to melt the ice.

At that point, in those few times that you can just about open your eyes, in between the school buses and garbage trucks, for a split second you realize, you really need to have both knees working to stand up.

My main concern is my wife. She needs my help constantly, even to put her shoes on and wax my car so I can't just be off my feet for a few months. It is my right leg so I won't be able to drive or play polo. Bungee jumping I would imagine is also off the table.

I know from my last knee replacement that is will also be hard for her to sleep with all my screaming. But if you get to my age, and you don't need new knees, you didn't work hard enough or didn't have enough fun.

My neighbors all offered to help (I have great neighbors) but I told them I am not sure if they actually want to live in my house for the better part of a year while I hobble around in my Speedo.

Part of their duties will be to feed the fish but I told them not to worry because they won't have to quarantine anything or measure out medication to them. To "me", quite a lot, but not to the fish who can tend to themselves. :oops:

Quote Reply
 
I made another video. It's not exactly Steven Speilberg. The butterflies are best friends and that 6 line is spawning.



Copper Long Nose.JPG


Hoppo.JPG

6 Line.JPG
 
Paul, I am in the process of aquascaping my 180, with rock I have been waiting to use for a while. I tried a high vertical structure like you have there. I used this rock solid fiberglass angle and tubing to create a structure that can be taken apart in pieces if some critter grows too much or becomes offensive (or I need access). I will post pics soon, after I let things settle because I have a few fish living through this and I don’t want to freak them out too much. One is a blue tang... so I have to be careful. She already found a new bed I made for her to lay in, on the smooth fiberglass channel!!!
 
Here is the stuff and partial build of the structure. Used big cable ties for rocks.
 

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This morning I finished this cool Steam Punk lamp. It is "really" Steam Punk because it was made from an oiler from a 19th century steam Locomotive. It is solid brass and weighs about 10lbs. It has "firelights" and those glass tubes have fluorescent liquid in them that I made from the stuff in highlighters. They have ultra violet LEDs under them.
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Hi Paul, anyway you can make a steam punk pendant reef light? That would be cool to have over a nano tank or any tank frankly!
 
I guess, but wouldn't give much light. :cool:

My last lights I built Steam Punk. They were made of copper and were water cooled using a copper radiator.







This was the water cooled algae scrubber light.




 
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