47 year old tank

[paul b]

Thanks, some people have told me they love my posts, some day I am going to read one. Right now I am sipping a nice glass of grand marnier wondering why that beautiful girl married a Lug nut like me, Especially someone with all my hobbies, lack of hair and propensity to talk a lot usually about things like fish tanks, bacteria, steam punk, Supermodels or Brillo.

My wife is beautiful and was especially beautiful when that picture was taken, probably the same week she blew up our stove.
After 43 or so years of being married we are still best friends and rarely fight except for the normal stuff that all married couples fight about. She has gone to the gym 4 times a week since I know her and still has a perfect figure. I on the other hand could afford to lose a couple or three pounds. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis 19 years ago and now walks with a cane.
We are hopeful that this Stem Cell procedure will help with this condition but it is experimental and no guarantees.
I am very lucky that I married a good one as I know many people don't get along after 10 or 15 minutes.
I would be lost without her.
I think she still likes me.

[paul b]

Today after breakfast at a diner my wife and I went to the gym. Our regular gym is closed this week because they are doing a water change in the pool. I think they got algae, cyano or flatworms, I really don't know but the town lets us go to another gym if ours is closed.

 

This other gym is beautiful. It is also gigantic with maybe fifty new machines. A huge room for basketball where you can probably have 4 games going on at once and a very big aerobics studio. Outside they have electric plugs in the parking lot if you have an electric car (which no one has) and all the shrubbery uses almost no water like cactus so the water drains down through the rocks to be collected to use in the bathrooms. Besides myself and my wife, there were two other people there. We have gone there a few times and never saw more than two or three people there. Anyway, after exercising I went into the bathroom.

 

A sign over the urinals and toilet bowls reads "Gray recycled water Do Not Drink."

 

I am so glad they posted those signs because I was thirsty and just about to stick my head in there for a drink. I mean, is it me! Do they really need those signs? It's like that little bag they put in with electronics that read "Do Not Eat". Like how hungry are you anyway!

[paul b]

Queen anthius eating clams, worms and Mysis. Lousy video and colors are washed out so I will also add a better video just eating baby brine shrimp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sen5241b]

Queen anthius eating clams, worms and Mysis. Lousy video and colors are washed out so I will also add a better video just eating baby brine shrimp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you turn off flow during feeding?

[paul b]

Yes I do but not for the new born brine shrimp feeding as in the second video.

[paul b]

 

 

 

For a few days I couldn't find any of my anemone crabs, and I have 5 of them. I searched behind rocks with a flashlight, crawled under and to the back of the tank with a mirror, called out their name etc. Not one.

 

But this morning before the lights came on I see four of them on the same montipora like they were checking out each other's cell phones. I can't find the fifth one but he may be shedding someplace or just enjoying his quiet time.

 

 

 

 

[paul b]

I just took this video which came out pretty good. The mandarins won't let me take closeups so they are not in it.

 

 

 

[paul b]

I took a new video just now. I'm on a roll

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&feature=vm&video_id=-itf9527mmg

[paul b]

If that don't work.

[paul b]

Today my wife went to the drug store and as she went down the porch stairs I saw that a few of the bricks on the top step were loose. Great, now I need to fix that so my wife of the mail "Lady" don't break their neck.

 

I put those bricks on there about 20 years ago and I didn't do a real great job. Of course there is a reason. I probably put this on here 80 pages ago but I will put it on again.

 

At that time I wanted my fieldstone and brick porch fixed and I was working around the clock in Manhattan so my wife said to hire someone. I never hire anyone because I always end up doing it myself anyway. WE have an argument and she won. So I get this guy who did my friends porch and did a good job. He comes to my house with a shovel that has a hole in it, a stick with a piece of string tied to it for a ruler and a sledge hammer that he has duct taped in the middle of the handle.

 

I also want him to make a new sidewalk in front of my house where a large oak tree broke up the walk.

 

He demolishes the sidewalk and stone porch. I built him a large wooden box that I wanted him to put in the porch and pour 6" of cement around and on top of it because I wanted the porch hollow unlike 100% of all porches that are filled with dirt. In the freezing winter, those porches expand and the stones bulge out and break. My way, the thing will last 1,000 years like the pyramids.

 

I come home from work and he has the box in there but he filled it with dirt. I tried to explain my pyramid method to him but it was lost in the translation. I told him I don't care how they do it in South America, here, you do it my way. So "we" removed the dirt from the box and turned it over.

 

The next day the cement truck is there when I come home and he poured cement over the box as I described. The cement truck driver said to this genius that he has cement left over and what should he do with it? The contractor told him to dump it in the "storm drain in the street". The driver who was not an Idiot just smirked and drove away. Like I need a half a truck of cement in my storm drain.

 

 

 

 

The next day he is installing the sidewalk and I told him to put a stress groove in front of the tree because that is where it is going to crack and the stress groves are there so you can direct the crack where you want it and not in the middle of the slab.

 

Of course he put a groove everyplace I told him not to so to this day I have cracks all over my sidewalk.

 

 

 

 

Again I come home to fine his guy building my stairs in my stone porch with cinder blocks. The holes facing up. The stone porch was built out of fieldstone with brick edging and the steps were supposed to be brick. The guy told me, "This is how we do it in Guatemala". I said, "look around, does this look like Guatemala?."

 

 

 

 

I come home the next day and he is installing bricks for the stairs. There are three steps. The top one is about 4", the second one is about 10" and the bottom one is about 14". I said is this also how they do it in Guatemala?

 

TAKE THEM OUT AND PUT THEM IN ALL THE SAME SIZE. or is that asking too much.

 

 

 

 

I come home the next day and he is finished. I try to go in my house, but I can't open the door because he built the porch higher than my door. It is also sloping into my house so if it rained, all the water would flow into my living room.

 

He tells me to cut the door. I tell him, I am going to cut his throat. Then he tells me he will "grind" down the concrete so I can open the door.

 

 

 

 

I said, "You have a shovel with a hole in it, a stick with string on it, and a hammer with fifteen dollars worth of tape holding it together and you are going to grind down the concrete two inches all the while I am standing out in the street because I can't get into my house. Is that what you are going to do?

 

He says, "I don't think you want to pay me" I said PAY YOU, I am going to kill you if you don't get off my property.

 

 

 

 

Now I have to find a neighborhood kid to help me smash up the new porch so I can get in my house, then I had to re-build it as fast as I could because I had to go to work.

 

That is one reason I never hire anyone for anything.

 

Just now I cemented in those loose bricks and if I get the time I will remove all the edging bricks and re-install them like they do it here in the US.

[paul b]

Here is the porch as it is today. I have a planter over the broken steps until the cement dries. I also built that big rock in the foreground, it is hollow.

When that Japanese red maple has leaves on it you can only see a portion of it.

 

[Bruleyii]

Nice. You cant even tell that the rock is mesh.

[paul b]

We just got back from Southern California a few minutes ago. I took my wife there for experimental stem cell treatment for her MS.

 

We won't know if the treatment works for maybe 9 months but she feels great. We are very hopeful for the outcome of this as we heard some great stories from other patients there.

 

 

 

 

When I got home I immediately heard the pumps on my tank. The water level dropped about 4" and the powerheads were splashing all over the place. I have a tank sitter who is also a Supermodel and a very good friend but she knows nothing about fish tanks. She is always kind enough to feed my fish so I would never say anything to her. Once before when we were in Germany the water level went down about 7" and killed most of my corals. This time it is not so bad but I do smell the corals as they were stressed and when that happens they shed. The lights are still off and I see the fish swimming so I think it will be OK. My skimmer is going nuts after I added five gallons of fresh, cold water but I am sure they will get over it. I will see what it looks like tomorrow after the lights come on.

 

 

 

 

This happens because my gravity fed ATO sometimes gets a bubble in it and stops. Of course it only happens while I am away.

[Bruleyii]

Tanks only have issues while we are gone. It's the curse of the hobby.

[paul b]

My tank doesn't seem to have suffered any damage to losing 5 gallons of water and me adding 5 gallons of cold, fresh water. The fish didn't even look up from their texting. I cleaned the glass so I could see them and they know I am home even though I know they like the Supermodel who feeds them while I am away better.

 

I really need to clean the algae scrubber as it is sloughing algae back into the tank but I don't have the time. The Veterans Administration called me in for an appointment today about the PTSD they seem to feel I have.

 

I will see how that goes

[paul b]

I added a couple of queen anthius a couple of days ago to keep my only one company. I can't say yet if they get along because I think they are different types of anthius. My old one has a yellow stripe under his dorsal and the new ones are all purple.

 

I may airbrush them to see if they hang out together.

 

Ialso got a new anemone crab. Now I think I have 6 of them but usually only find two. I don't know where the others hang out.

 

Everything else looks good, no problems. I wish I could get another clingfish to keep mine company and spawn. They don't order them because no one but me wants a fish that is dark brown and hides virtually all the time.

 

A video from last year.

 

[Bruleyii]

Do your anemone crabs attack your clown fish? I heard they can. I was thinking about getting one for my anemone but then read that. 

[paul b]

I don't think an anemone crab could attack an amphipod, they are the wimps of the crab kingdom. If anything, the clownfish would eat the anemone crab

[rtelles]

Are the ruby red dragonettes still around? Haven't seen too many updates on them from people on Wamas and/YouTube who have had them in the past. Seems like their mortality rate in aquariums is pretty high. I had a pair for about 6 months (one got caught in the screen top mesh and the other simply disappeared). Had plenty of pods, fed baby brine shrimp, and they also had no problems eating frozen brine and mysis.

[rtelles]

Double post edit

Edited April 3, 2017 by rtelles

[paul b]

I don't have the ruby reds anymore. They spawned for a few months and I don't remember what happened to them, but they are not in my tank now. I don't think so anyway, I should crawl around the back and see if I find them.

[paul b]

My new Anthius. If I have time I will go back and get the remaining 3 at the store.

 

 

 

Here is a lousy video I just took

 

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2017 by paul b

[paul b]

I went back to the store last night and bought the two remaining Queen Anthius. They were eating new born brine in their acclimating container and as soon as I put them in, 15 minutes later, they were all hanging out together and telling stories about their time in the store.

[paul b]

I took another video that shows the four new Anthius.

 

[Bruleyii]

Anthias seem to fit right in right away.