47 year old tank

[khh27]

ahhh. Ok.

Idk that's my guess

 

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[Bruleyii]

Idk that's my guess

 

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It makes sense. 

[paul b]

If I had a taller ceiling in that closet I would have made it taller. Taller is better that's why Supermodels are all like 7' tall

[paul b]

I couldn't help myself. I had to take this pump off to clean it and of course one of the threaded studs that hold the impeller housing cracked.

 

I fixed it but while I had the thing off I found in my workshop a much larger pump that I got a few years ago when a LFS here went out of business and they gave it to me. Brand new.

 

Now I got it working and I have plenty of bubbles but I still want smaller bubbles so I think I am going to make two venture valves and parallel them into the skimmer.

 

Soon, if I keep designing this thing, I can turn this thing into a space shuttle.

 

Here is the old pump

 

 

 

 

[paul b]

It's a good thing I just looked at the pump to check for leaks. It is making to mush foam that it almost filled up my five gallon bucket that it goes into. Now that it is broken in I have to adjust it way down.

 

To make these modifications I turned off my ozone generator, of course that doesn't go back on either. You just can't touch these old things. Now I have to take that apart and see if I have any parts from old units to fix it with.

[paul b]

If I could catch this wrasse I would give him away as he has gotten a little big for my tank. He is about 6".

 

I am talking about the striped one, not the spotted leopard.

 

 

 

 

[paul b]

I just made some delicious stuffed calamari for dinner that we will have over linguini and clams tonight. I had too many tentacles left over and didn't want to throw them away so I chopped some of it up for my fish. I generally don't feed squid to my fish as I feel clams are much better but my copperband thinks he died and went to heaven because he will eat all you give him and I want to fill him up a little so I can get some food into the rest of the fish as he hogs most of it.

 

 

 

[Bruleyii]

I dont understand the concept of "too many tentacles" That's the best part.

[paul b]

There were to many tentacles because last week my wife used most of the bodies for a dish and I was only left with 6 bodies, that I stuffed and enough tentacles to fill a large pot. I was not frying them and I didn't need that many for the stuffing in my stuffed calamari so I had extra tentacles. I could have just saute'd them and made something but I have a house full of crabs, clams, oysters, shrimp and fish so I just had to many right now and my freezer is full.

I buy them all the time so I didn't want to store them.

But you are correct, they are the best part.

 

Edited October 25, 2016 by paul b

[paul b]

i had shoulder operation #5 today. I hope he used some quality toggle bolts and not from home depot. nerve blockers are great so no pain yet, but I know what it feels when it wears off.

 

 

 

 

but it is a real man pain and not a girly man pain......besides I got plenty of pain pills.

 

 

 

 

sorry about the typing. its hard to make capitals with one hand

[DAP]

Hope you have speedy recovery

[Origami]

Get well soon, Paul. We'll forgive the one-handed typing and the short posts.

[paul b]

thnkx   

[paul b]

My Skimmer Is working so good since I changed that 20 year old pump that was running the venturi. Now I get about half gallon a week effluent out of it.

 

 

 

 

I'm like all tingly inside..

 

Now of course with an arm I can't move I have a loose ATO hose, a broken coral that needs gluing and a skimmer top that needs cleaning. At least I can clean the glass with one hand

[Origami]

 

 

I'm like all tingly inside..

 

Probably the painkillers!

 

 

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[paul b]

Today I went to my favorite LFS because they were getting me some Caribbean gorgonians I wanted and a couple of porcelain crabs. I want a mate for mine. I got the 2 crabs, but they didn't look like porcelain crabs and were in a tank a little high for me to see. So now that I got them in my tank my porcelain crabs are really green crabs so I will never see them again.

 

They didn't get in my gorgonians either so I just took 3 small frags. I had to stick them on my sand because I can't glue them with one working arm. Normally I break off those silly frag plugs and glue the frag to a rock or bottle. I hate the way those frag plugs look as they kill the natural look of a tank.

 

I was supposed to get a couple of these to mate with mine.

 

 

 

 

 

As I was looking at the tank I saw one of these pop out of a frogspawn and I couldn't figure out where I got him. Then I remembered I bought him last week. It's great getting old.

 

 

 

 

[paul b]

Today I picked up a couple of corals. One is about 6" and the other two are small. I had to cut about 6" of my blue sponge so it has some light. I will give that away, hopefully someone wants it.

 

It isn't easy to glue frags because I am still in a sling and can't raise my arm. I got them in there, a little sloppy, but that's the way it is.

 

I can't find those two green crabs I accidently got and don't believe I will ever see them.

 

I ordered a new small LED light for my algae scrubber because the red water cooled one I built is just a little to Thick even though it is less than one inch thick water drips on it. I will use the one I bought while I design a thinner LED light.

 

 

 

 

Everything else is good except due to the drought in California, I am having a hard time getting blackworms. I still have some but I am rationing them.

[cpu933k]

The blackworm shortage is real! The 3 LFSes in this area that normally have them in stock were all short this week. I managed to get 1 portion. I'll have to ration it for my QT for a fish coming tomorrow. No more broadcast feeding in the DT

[paul b]

 

 

Today I went to my favorite LFS again. While there I say this beautiful lipstick tang and the way she was looking at me with those pouty lips, I almost went home with her. But then I thought, this thing will probably live for 20 years. At that time I will be in my 80s, probably senile, blind and have a weak bladder. How am I supposed to catch her then because I will want to give her away before I croak.

 

So I didn't buy her. Instead, I got another crab. He waltzed over to my existing crab, carefully put his arms around her, pulled her closer, and tried to rip her face off.

 

But now that they have been formally introduced, they settled down to share filter feeding next to each other.

 

 

 

[Bruleyii]

Everything else is good except due to the drought in California, I am having a hard time getting blackworms. I still have some but I am rationing them.

 

 

I thought you bread your own. Do they not reproduce fast enough?

[sethsolomon]

A match made in Paul's tank (Heaven?)  :P

[paul b]

They do not breed anywhere near fast enough.

I thought you bread your own. Do they not reproduce fast enough?

[paul b]

One of the pitfalls of having shoulder surgery is that it is difficult to do any tank maintenance that requires two hands. I can feed the tank, clean the glass and the skimmer cup but that's about it.

 

My algae scrubber is so full that the algae is sloughing off the thing and falling into the tank. In my set up, there is a pump in the tank that supplies water to the scrubber, then the water flows into a pipe that feeds my reverse undergravel filter.

 

The amount of algae is preventing the water from traveling into the UG filter as it is overflowing that pipe and going straight into the tank.

 

I can't raise my right are right now to clean it but I managed to clear some of the algae with a screwdriver.

 

I won't be able to reach up to it for a few weeks when my shoulder gets better so I will have to live with this for a while. It is not the end of the world, just a little annoyance.

 

This is an older picture of the scrubber.

 

 

 

[sethsolomon]

Is there anyone that can help you out for a day in Long Island?

[paul b]

My closest friend has some kind of surgery on his neck today.  Thyroid I think.  Besides that he is in the Keys. My next closest friend broke his foot, the other guy had open heart surgery. We are all getting old and falling apart. I could get my Son N Law but I would have to show him which end of the screw driver to hammer with. My neighbors would help me as one of them has a wife that takes care of my tank while I am away and I don't want to bother them. I could ask the mailman.