THE OFFICIAL ASK ALBERT THIEL THREAD

[atoll]

I have just replied to a thread ona UK forum about quarantining fish and corals. Most suggest it is a must as you might expect. I of course bucked the trend and replied as follows.

 

"n my 35 years in this hobby I have never quarantined a fish. My my 25 years keeping corals I have never quarantined a coral although I do dip new ones. In the last 25 years I have not had a single outbreak of disease like white spot for instance. I have almost certainly introduced the likes of white spot in that time. I bought a midas blenny about 6 weeks ago, I couldn't see any spots on it but it was flicking against the sand for the first few days but it doesn't anymore. OK so I don't have tangs but I do have Royal grammas well known for picking up white spot and I also have damsels firefish all of which are partial to picking up white spot. I believe good food fed often and good water quality help greatly when it comes to a fishes ability to ward off disease naturally. I make much of my own foods add fish oils to it and feed a very varied diet. My fish live long lives and most breed."

 

Now one of a number of things will happen in my experience when I have posted similar.

 

1/ My post will be ignored.

2/ I will in not so many words be called a lair.

3/ I will be asked abut my system and feeding with what foods i make and feed etc.

 

I doubt anybody will post saying they do similar and experience the same as I have all these years.

 

I will let you know what if any replies I get, always interesting when I do get some.

 

 

[albertthiel]

I soaked the tiny pump for my worms in bleach and I noticed that the hole in the magnet is large and egg shaped. This happens all the time with those cheap pumps and it can be fixed, at least for a while by putting shrink tubing over the shaft. That takes up the space and the pump will run for may be another year. Then you just put on another piece of shrink tubing. I have a few pumps running with tubing on them now.

I am also going to slightly add something to my worm tank. I need more eggcrate to put in the trough of the thing. For some reason the worms love to congregate in the holes and it makes a convenient place to suck them out in the correct amounts for my tank. I have some in there now, but not enough.

I am also mixing up some water for a water change as it has been a while and I have been over feeding for a long time.

I was also thinking now that I only have one clown gobi I may again add some acropora. They always do well and grow fast and now that my clown gobies won't spawn all over them, they stand a chance.

Those stupid gobies spawn almost every week and kill over an inch of coral each time. They also always pick a new, live place on the coral to deposit their eggs. I was always more excited that the gobies were spawning than keeping those corals.

They are in this video which I took to show the possum wrasse.

http://s258.photobucket.com/user/urchsearch/media/2013-07-20170924_zpsa27e514d.mp4.html?sort=3&o=383

 

Looking good Paul and I guess a little work on the worm factory and all will be OK again ...

 

 

Albert

I have just replied to a thread ona UK forum about quarantining fish and corals. Most suggest it is a must as you might expect. I of course bucked the trend and replied as follows.

 

"n my 35 years in this hobby I have never quarantined a fish. My my 25 years keeping corals I have never quarantined a coral although I do dip new ones. In the last 25 years I have not had a single outbreak of disease like white spot for instance. I have almost certainly introduced the likes of white spot in that time. I bought a midas blenny about 6 weeks ago, I couldn't see any spots on it but it was flicking against the sand for the first few days but it doesn't anymore. OK so I don't have tangs but I do have Royal grammas well known for picking up white spot and I also have damsels firefish all of which are partial to picking up white spot. I believe good food fed often and good water quality help greatly when it comes to a fishes ability to ward off disease naturally. I make much of my own foods add fish oils to it and feed a very varied diet. My fish live long lives and most breed."

 

Now one of a number of things will happen in my experience when I have posted similar.

 

1/ My post will be ignored.

2/ I will in not so many words be called a lair.

3/ I will be asked abut my system and feeding with what foods i make and feed etc.

 

I doubt anybody will post saying they do similar and experience the same as I have all these years.

 

I will let you know what if any replies I get, always interesting when I do get some.

 

 

 

 

Well you know how that goes Les

 

Indeed you have the options right IMO

 

Albert

[Paul B]

I guess he doesn't know me as I have not quarantined in that time either. Some people also don't believe me, call me a liar, ignore me etc.

Who cares what people think.

[albertthiel]

I guess he doesn't know me as I have not quarantined in that time either. Some people also don't believe me, call me a liar, ignore me etc.

Who cares what people think.

???????

[CronicReefer]

I'd like to say I've never quarantined either and probably never will. My clowns have had white spot twice, recovering just fine both times. I introduced a blenny a few months ago and had a similar experience to what Les stated above with his and now that blenny is so fat I swear it will explode. I introduced a bi-color dottyback a few weeks ago and it showed zero signs of disease or parasites. I feed my fish well and their immunes systems definitely benefit as a result. Plus I don't think a fish wants to live in a PVC pipe for 8-10 weeks while we stare at it everyday, probably thinks its in fish prison or something.

[StinkyBunny]

I guess he doesn't know me as I have not quarantined in that time either. Some people also don't believe me, call me a liar, ignore me etc.

Who cares what people think.

I don't quarantine either, new arrivals get a few days in the back in a different REEF tank for recovery, it's a reef tank, not a hospital tank. They've been starved for 3 days, thrown in a box, bounced all over Hell's 1/2 acre and they need a few days to recover from that ordeal. Tangs get white spot. In my 35 years of keeping reefs I could count on one hand the number of tangs that have come through and NOT gotten white spot. The Purple in the new tank had it, every Powder blue I've ever had has had it and Lt the Royal Gramma has had it. I don't treat for it other than to raise the tank temp to 80 degrees to speed up its life cycle.

 

I feel like you and I are preaching to a deaf congregation Paul.

 

On a different note, I've been using one of your brine shrimp feeders for the better part of a month with the new pipefish. They come over to the feeder and look for goodies, if there's nothing in there they start looking at the wife or I for a refill. They'll dance up in the current until we refill the feeding station.

[Paul B]

LOL, those people don't hear us because they are all on the disease forums.

[albertthiel]

LOL, those people don't hear us because they are all on the disease forums.

LOL

 

Albert

[atoll]

So far number one, no reply to my post but then there has been no replies since I posted. I guess people are in shock or trying to figure out if they should reply and if they do what to post lol.

[Hammerstone]

I follow you guys ?

[atoll]

New acquisition today a large Favia.it's the size of your open palm hand. Got it from an FLS I had not been too since around Christmas time last year.

 

[StinkyBunny]

I need to go shoot a picture of the Powder Blue that came in Sunday, he's covered in white spots, the Purple I put in my cube had it, but it's going away. The disease nuts drive me to distraction, as bad as, if not worse than the Tang police.

[albertthiel]

New acquisition today a large Favia.it's the size of your open palm hand. Got it from an FLS I had not been too since around Christmas time last year.

 

 

NICE !!!!!!!!!!!!

[StinkyBunny]

I nuked 2 systems with sea hares, lesson learned, Indo sea hares aren't safe. I've brought them in from all over and never had an issue.

[albertthiel]

I nuked 2 systems with sea hares, lesson learned, Indo sea hares aren't safe. I've brought them in from all over and never had an issue.

Sorry to read it

 

Albert

[Paul B]

Today I am making a typhoon in my tank using a diatom filter. I do this once or twice a year to stir up the gravel as much as I can right down to the UG filter plates. The fish seem to like it but the corals always look mad, they will get over it.
In my tank this needs to be done as I run water in reverse through the gravel and if I didn't occasionally do this, the gravel would clog.

This is from an older typhoon a few years ago as I see I had my old lights then. Today I am only using one diatom filter but in my reef, two are really needed. I just don't have the time today.

[albertthiel]

Today I am making a typhoon in my tank using a diatom filter. I do this once or twice a year to stir up the gravel as much as I can right down to the UG filter plates. The fish seem to like it but the corals always look mad, they will get over it.

In my tank this needs to be done as I run water in reverse through the gravel and if I didn't occasionally do this, the gravel would clog.

This is from an older typhoon a few years ago as I see I had my old lights then. Today I am only using one diatom filter but in my reef, two are really needed. I just don't have the time today.

Massive cleaning indeed

 

Wish those Vortex Diatom filters held up better in SW though

 

Albert

[Paul B]

They are rust buckets.

[albertthiel]

They are rust buckets.

 

They sure are Paul

 

Albert

[Paul B]

I just bot back from a great day of boating. Those are my favorite kind of days. It was low tide so of course I went collecting. Amphipods are much more numerous last month but I got a nice haul. Maybe a few hundred but I didn't count them. I also collected some mud (for the bacteria) and some mud snails (by accident) My fish are smiling and all is good.

 

 

[atoll]

Vid of my pair of Royal Grammas, unfortunately when I approach the tank with my phone they tink food so don't act like they do when I am not close to the tank.

 

http://vid541.photobucket.com/albums/gg378/lesmelling/20160712_201011_zpsj0rqzcpy.mp4

[albertthiel]

Looks like the water level is really low Paul ....

 

Nice view of where you went boating and catching

 

Albert

Vid of my pair of Royal Grammas, unfortunately when I approach the tank with my phone they tink food so don't act like they do when I am not close to the tank.

 

http://vid541.photobucket.com/albums/gg378/lesmelling/20160712_201011_zpsj0rqzcpy.mp4

 

Nice Les

 

Albert

[Paul B]

Albert, that was dead low tide. At high tide the water there is about 9' deep

[albertthiel]

Albert, that was dead low tide. At high tide the water there is about 9' deep

Yes I kind of figured there was a logical explanation

 

Albert

[Paul B]

While doing some cleaning up in my workshop I came across my fish tank logs from 1974 until the 90s. I listed what I paid for fish, how much they cost, where I bought them and how long they lived. When I get time I will scan some of it and post some of it. This was way before computers so it is mostly hand written until we got an Apple 2 computer in the 90s. I can't scan it all as it is to long but I will look for the more interesting stuff.

I also noticed my tank had some diseases like HLLE and how I cured it.

 

 

 

 

On another topic, I installed this thing on my boat that tells you how much fuel each engine is using. I wanted to do this for a long time, so a week ago it came in and I went to the marina to install it. It took a couple of hours to install because the cables have to be snaked from the engines to the dashboard and these sensors have to be cut into the gas lines. When I turned it on I got nothing. I checked all my connections, tested the power a few times (the thing needs to be fed power from 3 different locations) Nothing. So I called the company that makes the thing and this technician talks me through all the steps. It is all hooked up correctly. He tells me to take home the chip and update it.

 

The next day I go there with the updated chip, turn it on and ........Nothing.

 

So I call again and go through the same thing with another technician. He decides my unit is defective and tells me they are sending me an entirely new unit. It arrived yesterday and today I go there and install the new unit. Turn it on and I get......Nothing.

 

I call back and this time I get a female. She was very nice and I knew she must be a Supermodel. But I didn't think this Supermodel would know how to fix my problem. Well, I was wrong. I love this girl. I explained the problem to her and we went through the same steps I have done four or five times. Now I am in the engine compartment checking the power connections. She asks if the red wire goes to power? I say yes. Then she asks if the striped wire goes to ground? I say, No. She says, Why not? I say, because in your instructions, it clearly states that if you are not using this to tell you how much gas you have left in your tank, "do not connect the striped wire, instead, connect the brown wire to ground".

 

She says, Oh yeah, that's a mistake in the instructions........"A WHAT, in the WHAT?" . A mistake in the instructions! And when exactly was I supposed to know about that? I spent the better part of 3 days trying to fix this thing.

 

But the Supermodel was very nice and talked me through it. She is going to tell someone to change the instructions. So a Supermodel saved my day and all is well.