# Hello



## Paul B

I just found this site and thought I would drop by.
I started my reef in 1971. It is still running and doing well.
I am a diver and boater and use some NSW, pods and bacteria from the sea.
The tank has appeared in 3 aquarium magazines and various on line magazines.
Nice to meet you
Paul


----------



## JIM

*w2 to the forum. Look forward to seeing your tank in the Gallery.


----------



## Chickadee

Welcome and thanks for joining us.

Rose


----------



## drhank

Hi Paul. I see you just got here too. Welcome!


----------



## Paul B

Doc, I'm all over the place, nice to see you


----------



## Shotgun

WOW! your tank was featured in a magizine three times?

Impressive! lol.

can you show us pics? what size is it?

and welcome


----------



## Paul B

Here is an older picture. It is a 100 gallon long tank.
It uses a reverse UG filter and an algae trough, some natural seawater and natural bacteria from the sea.


----------



## GetITCdot

Paul B said:


> Here is an older picture. It is a 100 gallon long tank.
> It uses a reverse UG filter and an algae trough, some natural seawater and natural bacteria from the sea.




*pc

*drool* dream tank MORE!


----------



## gypsyfla

welcome to the site


----------



## Paul B

Thanks Gypsyfla
This is recent


----------



## Mermaid

Welcome to the site! That's a great picture of your tank I can't wait to see more! Very exciting.


----------



## Paul B

Thanks Mermaid


----------



## Paul B

These guys are over ten years old and are spawning









This bluestripped pipefish is part of a pair and has been spawning for a couple of years as has the pair of gobies in an above picture










There are 5 bumblebee gobies in there also. I don't tell them they are brackish


----------



## Paul B

This top picture was the tank in the seventees. The blue devil is over his nest of eggs.
The lower picture appeared in a magazine. I forget which one


----------



## MediaHound

Tell me that's a pink tipped torch?

Welcome aboard btw, awesome to have you here.


----------



## drhank

Looking good Paul. I need a set of tubes for my lens.


----------



## Paul B

MediaHound, I don't see a pink tipped torch. There is a torch but I don't know if thats the proper name. I am very bad with names. I was married for about a month before I remembered my wife's name.

Dr Hank, I take some pictures, like the one of the bumblebee and the hermit crabs through a jeweler's loupe. Those pictures are very enlarged. That bumblebee is about 3/4"


----------



## salth2o

All I can say is WOW. Really great to know you are here if I have any questions. Welcome


----------



## jrodriguez

welcom to the site*w2*w2


----------



## Paul B

I just did one of the things that I love to do which I have mentioned before. I removed a bottle that I have not emptied in years and dumped it out in a flask to check out what is living in there. It is an entire eco system. There was a nice strand of seaweed growing right in the center like a mineature garden or bonsai tree. The thing was just teeming with pods, worms and all sorts of other cool little things. This to me is what makes this hobby so interesting. I sometimes get more excited to watch this stuff than my fish.
I had to do some work on the tank because I have a small auto feeder mainly for the hippo tang that puts a few flakes and pellets in the tank in case I don't show up for a couple of days.
I heard the thing cycle and the surface of the water was covered with flakes. The top came off the feeder and about a can of flakes went into the tank. I skimmed a lot of it out but the rest sunk so I had to get out the diatom filter and do a thorough cleaning. As I was doing that I found the coral that I had been looking for that my urchin transported into a cave. It seems fine.
I also did a little aquascaping to re position all the rocks the urchin moved and to re pile anything that had fell.
I also have a problem with corals toppling onto each other so I fixed most of that problem. I also added a few very pregnant grass shrimp. The fish will enjoy that. Tomorrow I will collect some more of those which seem larger this year for some reason.
They are all around my boat along with zillions of amphipods.
That all goes intio the tank.
Have a great day, whats left to it.


----------



## Paul B

Today was an interesting day of boating and collecting. I went to my usual place at low tide, the tide pool goes under a road and on the other side there is a lake that spills over these 20' long walls ibnto this tide pool. At high tide the lake is almost the same height as the sea.
Anyway these walls are about 4 or 5' high with freshwater spilling over into the salt water. The walls look like they are made of barnacles. There are no cement patches, it is all barnacles. As I was checking them out as I always do I noticed the walls loked like they were crawling with something. At first I thought it was just the barnacles which a lot of it was (I didn't have my reading glasses on) Then I noticed it was tiny creatures, different from any amphipods I have ever seen, and I have seen more amphipods then most people, believe me.
These things look like tiny trillobites about 3/16" long. There were billions of them.
I collected a bunch along with sheets of barnacles to put in my reef. I know the barnacles will not live more than a month but I am curious about these "pods". Wierd.
I also collected a few hermit crabs for my local tank.
We tried to get some blue claw crabs for dinner but all we got were two, so we let them go. One of them was the largest blue claw I have ever seen.
I am going back tomorrow then tuesday it is the south shore for tropicals.

Barnacles









NY hermits


----------



## Paul B

New pictures of locally collected stuff. I just love this 1/2" boxfish or burrfish.









And of course these guys


----------



## MediaHound

Paul B said:


> MediaHound, I don't see a pink tipped torch. There is a torch but I don't know if thats the proper name. I am very bad with names. I was married for about a month before I remembered my wife's name.
> 
> Dr Hank, I take some pictures, like the one of the bumblebee and the hermit crabs through a jeweler's loupe. Those pictures are very enlarged. That bumblebee is about 3/4"











The coral on the right, looks somewhat like a pink torch: 

The above is an old pic of my colony. It's grown a bit since. Hard to find coral, you dont see it very often. 
Anyway great pics and keep them coming as we enjoy seeing them.


----------



## Paul B

OK if thats a pink torch, I have a pink torch.

And he has a cool worm living with him that you can see laying eggs here. I know thwe worm has a name also. Serpl -something


----------



## JIM

Does "_Serpulidae" sound familiar ??
_


----------



## AlexisPets

W0W!!! *J/D* Paul, very impressive! I can sit here and look at those pix all day, but unfortunately I have to work....lol *r2 I'm hesitant to get anything like that cause then I know I'd never get work done.  I work from home so that wouldn't make it any better. *#3 Anyway, *w2


----------



## Paul B

> Does "Serpulidae" sound familiar ??


I am amazed at my age I got half of the name right


----------



## WhiteGloveAquatics

Welcome to AF, Paul, you got a tank that most people only dream of having up and running that long, keep up the good work, and I think its great you can collect them on your own.


----------



## Paul B

Thanks White Devil. All you have to do is live long enough


----------



## WhiteGloveAquatics

I cant even talk the wife into letting me get a 700 dollar lowe 14' jon boat, Most m collecting comes attached to a hook and line.

Its ok though. One day I will move back to a coastal area and do exactly what you are doing.


----------



## Paul B

White Devil, my first boat was even smaller than that. It was a 12' sailboat that my wife and I would sail under the bridges near Manhattan. A few boats and a lot of years later and we now have this. Last night we went out and had a nice dinner on it while we watched the sun set over the Bronx, this morning I cooked a nice breakfast while at anchor (right at this place) and we watched the sunrise.
We had to come home to go to a wedding in an hour, then it's back to the boat for a big party tomorrow.

I think I am counting amphipods coming up with the anchor.


----------



## cichlidkeeper

beautiful pics paul. welcome to the forum *w2


----------



## MediaHound

Nice boat Paul


----------



## Paul B

Thanks guys

Here is one of my corals eating a Salmon egg


----------



## Joey

<TABLE id=post30923 class=tborder border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ffffff 1px solid" id=td_post_30923 class=alt1>*welcome w-smiles
<!-- / message --></TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #ffffff 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #ffffff 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: #ffffff 1px solid" class=alt2>







</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


----------



## Paul B

Now this is a very cool picture of the fish corner of my workshop.
The big blue thing hanging is the RO/DI water tank. It is high because it siphons to the tank above the ceiling about 30' away.
You can just make out the acrylic DI resins to the left of the blue bucket. There is a homemade float switch in the bucket which shuts off the electric valve to the RO.
The 15 gallon tank is filled with tropical and some local critters I collected in the Atlantic including a few butterflies and that boxfish/puffer/burfish whatever it is.
The long thin horizontal white thing is my new worm keeper which I just built 10 minutes ago. It is the Mother of all worm keepers. The small worm keeper is the acrylic one below it. On the 15 gallon tank is the black and yellow brine shrimp hatchery. 

Yes, I know, everything is very neat just like the pictures many of you guys post 








:lol:


----------



## Paul B

I did something tonight that I never do and it is against one of my cardinal fish keeping rules.
I fed my fish flakes 

That was 15 minutes ago and they are still writing bad things about my family on the inside of the glass.

It was a mistake, I didn't have time to feed them yesterday and I have no worms. I was too tired to defrost fish eggs or mysis so I deserve this.

I will have to make it up to them. Tomorrow I am going out to the east end of Long Island and I will collect some nice juicy amphipods.

I hope they forgive me


----------



## spawn

wow......some amazing pictures...


----------



## Paul B

This is my new and improved blackworm keeper.
It holds many more times the volume of water and is operated with a tiny powerhead.


----------



## Paul B

I keep my worms "happy" and healthy. If you look close, you could see almost all of them are smiling, some of them are just brats.









One corner of my workshop


----------



## Paul B

I was wondering what this slimy stuff was in my algae trough and of course, it's algae.
Slimy, long hair algae. The thing is doing it's job because there is absolutely no algae in my tank. just in the trough. Cool


----------



## Paul B

OK this is a test, I want to put these pictures together to see how much this thing has grown. 
This was about 2 years ago










This I think was about a year ago










And this is today










It definately grew. I also have two more of them that are growing well also.
I love these things.
Pretty soon I won't need anything else, it will cover the tank


----------

