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Discussion starter · #5,422 ·
This is getting to be a lot of work. I have to get a 10 gallon tank for some of my corals that are encrusted with sponge because I can't get the corals off without killing them. I can remove as much visible sponge as I can and put it with the corals in a small tank with ASW in the hope that the ASW kills the sponge for lack of nutrients especially silicates.

If that doesn't kill the sponges in a week or two, I will have to cut those corals off and hope for the best.
 
Discussion starter · #5,427 ·
I now have about half of the rock out of my tank so I have vats all over the place. My fish are all looking for new homes and they are giving me dirty looks. The rock I cleaned pretty good will be going outside in sea water. It is very cold and dark in the hopes the sponge will die but not any of the other livestock in the rock.

Rocks with no sponge will just stay in my tank and I am not sure yet how I will deal with those.
The biggest piece of rock

This one as I was building it 5 years ago is covered in corals which I will have to "rip" off will be a problem because I can't lift it by myself so I am going to have to look for some help. That one will also go in the dark outside in seawater.



A weird thing about this is that this tank used to be loaded with bristle worms, especially under the sponge. With all this cleaning/scraping I have not found even one bristle worm. They are gone as are the snails and hermit crabs.

That sponge toxin is very selective in that it killed those things along with the SPS but the brittle stars, anemones, leather corals and fish are thriving like they like the stuff. Maybe it's like hot pepper to them and they like it.

One of my bottles. I think I have 9 of them in my tank.
Natural material Plant Art Wood Sculpture
 
Discussion starter · #5,430 ·
So far I have about 80 gallons of ASW mixed and I found and bought more large vats to hold water, fish, corals and rocks.

When I mix up about 50 more gallons of water and heat it up, I will remove about 20 gallons of water from my tank to put the fish in and remove another 20 gallons of water to rinse off my gravel. When there is about 8" of water left in the tank, I will stir it up vigorously turning the tank into essentially mud and siphon it out. Then I will use that 20 gallons I removed and dump it in there 5 gallons at a time and siphon that out.

I don't want to clean it to good because I have a pair of mandarins, 3 ruby red dragonettes, 2 bluestripe pipefish and 2 dragon faced pipes that all depend on pods..

I also won't clean all the algae off the back glass because thats where they hunt and I am not going to lift the UG filter plates. I am sure they will be hungry but I hope there is enough pods left for them. I am not cleaning the rocks with no sponge so they should be fine.

Then I will put most of the rock back in and the fish. Talk about stress. :oops:
 
Hats off to Ya Pal......THAT'S a huge undertaking you've rolled your sleeves up for. Hopes and good vibes it goes smooth! Sounds as though you could write an article with what you're describing, and would be a GOTO reference source .......Ooooooops......Actually you are! :unsure: ;) THANK YOU!
Hack
 
Discussion starter · #5,437 ·
So far I collected from my RO/DI almost 100 gallons of ASW. I got to say, collecting real water is so much easier.
To do that I get in my Jeep and back up to an ocean, In my case, the Atlantic.

I sit in my car and enjoy the sounds of the seagulls as I watch the fish jump.

I stroll to the back of my car and open the hatch, remove a bilge pump on the end of a 50' hose and throw it into the water.
I take the plug and insert it into my car's power outlet and gaze at the water going into one of the 10 gallon buckets I have.

After about 2 minutes, the water stops and I pull back the pump to clear the bowling ball size of ulva seaweed that is clogging the thing.

Throw it back into a different spot and look up and down the beach as I wait.

Off in the distance I see three beautiful Ladies walking in my direction. I live near the end of Long Island where a few Supermodels live so I figure one, or all of them are some of those wanting to come up to me to learn about reef tank husbandry, how I go about changing water, asking about quarantining, medicating or what is my favorite dance move. :oops:

As they get closer I notice they are elderly (but classy looking) Ladies who just want to know what kind of toxic waste I am dumping into the sea.

I explain my water change method and how natural sea water, IMO is better than ASW. How I go about cleaning it, heating it, and transferring it to my tank all the while as one of the Ladies, the least classy looking one is calling 911 to report a "Deviant" dumping used oil into the Atlantic. :confused:
 
Yup......Them that are blessed to live by an ocean will agree whole heartedly with you/us! (y) :cool:
Hack
 
Discussion starter · #5,439 ·
No one is crazy about paying taxes and I will also have to pay this year. I have no mortgage, no kids in school and no guardian angel that works for the IRS.

What I did in my last house to lessen my taxes was how I built my home. They charge you real estate taxes for anything "permanent" you add or put on your house. I installed a huge driveway using paver bricks but I put them on "tamped down" sand. If they are not cemented, they don't charge you because theoretically, if I move, I can take them with me as they are not a permanent part of the property. 😄

I finished my basement and added another kitchen for parties and things. They charge you for extra kitchens and you also also not allowed to have a kitchen in the basement. Not in New York anyway so to get around that, I installed all the cabinets with sheets of velcro.
I also put on the countertop with that so none of it was permanent.

I had to get an inspection because I converted my furnace from oil to gas and the inspector noticed my kitchen. He said that is illegal.

I grabbed the counter top and pulled it off, then pulled a cabinet away from the wall.

He was amazed and said it was a great idea so I had no problem. Of course I disconnected the stove. But as long as it was disconnected while he was there, it was legal. :)

I also build a shed in my back yard adjacent to the house. If it is connected to the house or on a concrete slab they tax it. I built it on pavers and had it an inch from my brick house so it was not connected to the house. I never got taxed for it. :p
 
Taxes are are a joke especially property tax. When our house flooded in 2016. But flood insurance and homeowners insurance is what’s killing us in south Louisiana. It took months to be able to start rebuilding because they claimed we were substantially damaged. They said our home would cost more than 50% of his value to rebuild. We had to have a structural engineer come out, fill up all his paperwork and submit it and then we had to have an appraiser come out and come up with the value of the house before the flood. The parish inside our house is worth $125,000 which was good for tax purposes. But not good when it came to the amount of damage.
Our house is 2800 ft.² in an acre of land and custom built. The appraisal came out to $400,000 so we could find a good for 196,000 flood insurance money.
It seems like everywhere you turn someone’s got there a hand out for all your money.
 
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