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47 year old tank


sen5241b

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Yesterday we had a house guest overnight. One of my wife's friends that she knows all her life. We also invited 2other people and I made a fantastic meal of stuffed calamari, Cippilini (Italian onions pronounced Choopalines)
Grilled eggplant (sliced as thin as potato chips with a garlic balsamic reduction) risotto and a big pot of Manhattan Clam Chowder. (my specialty) with fresh clams and some fresh Italian bread with great wines.
To make this about my tank, my fish got some extra clam and squid pieces, but not much. They were still hungry so I let them eat cake.

Stufed%20Calamari_zpsnr3fbivk.jpg

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I have so many whiteworms I don't know what to do with all of them.  They really seem to like grain bread much better than regular whole wheat or rye.  I got 1,675,327 worms and thats just the adults.  I have twice that many youngsters and I have no idea how many babies.  My mandarin thinks he died and went to fish heaven.  And I accidentally dropped some in my container with about 200 asternia stars and they are still alive 4 days later.
I am not sure how long they live in seawater but maybe they live forever.
We had our last open house today and got three great offers so it looks like tomorrow we will pick the highest one and sell the house. :D

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I hope that you two will love the new place, Paul. How are you doing setting up the new tank?

 

So far I have not done a single thing about the tank.  I am busy building a bed for the new place.  I will have to build a stand and buy a tank but I can't step foot in the new place until we close.  I also need to build a concrete standoff for the corals and rocks to sit on but there just isn't enough time.  :wacko: 

 

I will hopefully bring the existing water cooled lights I have now at least temporally and I will supplement them later.  It is going to take me at least a year to build the rest of the house stuff like lights, central vac, wall units etc and my workshop will probably not be finished in 2 years.  Remember my boat is going there also and I need to get that ready for summer.  :blink: 

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So one more person was coming to the house today with a real estate broker to see if they want to buy the place. 

So as I am waiting for them my wife and I are doing last minute straightening out although my house is so clean you could do an appendectomy on my floor. Anyway they were arriving any minute.
We have a very nice finished basement here where my tank is, my workshop, the boiler room, wash room etc and I like to show it off. 
(I built part of the ceiling with aluminum slats from the World Trade Center because I worked on the construction of it in the 70s.

Anyway, I see the people park outside and they start walking up my walkway. I figured I would go downstairs to put the lights on because the real estate agent always tells me to put all the lights on.
The people ring the bell as I try to go downstairs,  I reach for the door knob and it turns, BUT THE DOOR WONT OPEN.  OMG!!!!. I yell for my wife to TAKE THEN UPSTAIRS. As they go up the stairs I get a knife and try to open the door.

It won't open. Usually you can push in the striker on a door and it will open. But Nope, It won't budge.....OMG again. I yell up to tell my wife to tell the people about the central vacuum system.
My tools are in my workshop downstairs, and I CANT get downstairs. The knife isn't working. I yell up to tell my wife to EXPLAIN THE BACK DECK TO THEM....
I run outside to my garage to get a big screwdriver, as I come in, I yell for my wife to SHOW THEM THE STORAGE SPACES......AAAAAAHhhhhhhh!!!!!

I hear their footsteps coming down the stairs,  My wife ran out of things to show them,  my hands are shaking,,,,,I am sweating,,,,,,,OMG,,OMG,, they get to the bottom of the stairs,,,,, and just as they were about to turn their heads in my direction, the door pops open.

I quickly hide the screwdriver behind my back while being careful not to close the door. They go downstairs and OOh and AAH about the fish tank, new boiler, solar panels, and every thing else.

We have lived here almost 40 years, that door never had a problem and I practically live down there. What are the chances a real estate agent would show up at the exact moment the door breaks. I didn't have half a second to spare.

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This happened to me while I was walking my dogs the other day. One of the screws came loose on the latch and jammed into the door frame. Luckily, I was able to get a hacksaw in there, after I climbed through my window. Good thing the dogs were on the other side, they would have probably tried to attack me!

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LOL.  If I was not home and they went downstairs, they would have been stuck there because from that side, there is no way to open the door without smashing it, and people buying a house frown on that sort of thing.  :wacko:

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OMG something happened that I have not seen in decades.  A dead fish inside the tank.  I normally find them on the floor.  It was the female stripped cardinal. 
It was hanging, stuck on a thread from a spaghetti worm.  How appropriate as I love spaghetti. 

Yesterday she was eating and spawning, or trying to spawn anyway.  She constantly spawns and the male never leaves her alone.
I removed her to do an autopsy because she looked very healthy and not hardly old enough to die of old age.  The only thing about her was that she was filled with eggs.  A little to much I thought.
The autopsy revealed perfectly clear gills, no internal problems, no cuts, bruises or infections but she was egg bound.  That is what killed her and for some reason that has happened a few times in my tank.  I lost 2 female mandarins that were egg bound.

I don't know if it has to do with the fact that fish in a confined tank are just constantly harassed by males and they can't get away or they spawn to much because of the constant  harassment.
I never read anything on why some fish become egg bound in a tank but if the fish can't lay the eggs, they start to rot and expand causing the internal organs to become compressed.

I think thats a flaw in the design of all fish due to the enormous amount of eggs they carry and I assume sometimes they either form more eggs than can fit or one or more eggs die and start to decompose infecting the rest of them.
At least it is interesting and gives me something to research.  I will not replace her now because I am moving and will probably lost a lot or everything soon.

003_zpsallepqo6.jpg

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I am going to take down my worm tank because of the move.  I have so many white worms now that I can use them for a while.  I will set up the black worms in the new place if I have a reliable source for them.  I wil also make another white worm tank as they grow very fast and are easier to take care of at least until I re build my workshop which will probably take a year or two.
I ordered red wood for my new stand.  Redwood warps the least out of the lumber except for cedar which is very weak.  The legs will be pressure treated 4X4s.

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My wife is great. I see a lot of posts where men have trouble buying things because their wife has other plans, but so far, in 45 or so years, my wife has never said anything about what I spend on the tank or even my collection of Speedo's.

She even bought me many of the fish, pumps, ozonizers and other things and her Mother (rest in peace) bought me the tank. Of course we are moving soon and need to rent a tractor trailer to move her shoes.
Maybe she has a boy friend   :unsure:

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Every..time,,I..come,,on..here,,is,,an,,adventure.....Now,not,,only,,does,,the,,space,,bar,,not,,work,,but,,neither,,does,,the.search,,function,,and,,sometimes,,I,,can,,even,,type...HELP

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Every..time,,I..come,,on..here,,is,,an,,adventure.....Now,not,,only,,does,,the,,space,,bar,,not,,work,,but,,neither,,does,,the.search,,function,,and,,sometimes,,I,,can,,even,,type...HELP

Very odd. Something at your end or a browser incompatibility maybe? I'll send a ticket in to see if others have seen the same problem in their forum installations.

 

Sent from my tablet using Tapatalk

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It,s only on this forum, but now it's working.  Your driving me crazy.  :blink:

 

The beginnings of my Industrial/Steam Punk King size bed for my new home. It still needs stain, more wheels, a middle, other side, etc. The wall behind the bed will be barn wood from a barn and I am building a barn door in the center. This will be finished like that. I already beat up the wood. I think it will look very cool.
With the mattress on all you will see is 4" of those 4X6 lumber on the sides and ends.
It will look like a giant, industrial dolly with steel wheels.

Industrial%20Bed_zpsy2bqsxic.jpg

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So I had to have a drug test to renew my Coast Guard Captains License.  Two weeks ago I made an appointment and went to my Union's medical dept to get it as they have a drug test facility there.
I get the test and make an appointment and hand deliver it to the Coast Guard in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan which is a pain to get to from my house, but I figured if I mailed it, they would say they didn't get it and I would have to do it all over again.

The bubbly 15 year old looking cute girl working there at the Coast Guard  tells me the drug test is illegible and they can't read it.  OK, I call my union to fax over a better copy.  I am on the phone with my union as they faxed it about 8 times but it never came in the the Coast Guard where I am standing.

I ask Goldilox if this is the correct fax number.  She assures me that she is positive thats the number.  They fax it another 6 times, and nothing comes through so Goldi tells me "you have to leave because they are very busy today".  I look around and me and the guy sweeping the floor are the only people there.  She gives me a form telling me I have 60 days to fax over the test results.

I look at the fax number on the form and it is one number different from the fax number she was positive was correct.
I call he over and show her, she insists it is the same number.  I tell her, well "most" of the numbers are the same but this "4" is a "7" on this form.

"Ooh, I must have made a mistake."      No, the Coast Guard made a mistake when they hired you.  So I call back my union and they re fax it and to my surprise, it gets there.

Now they look at it and say, it isn't readable.    It's blurry.

OK, I go all the way into Queens to my Union and pick up a good copy and fax it to the Coast Guard.

Two days later I get a letter from them saying the drug test  is no good for all these reasons, and they give me two sheets of paper almost all highlighted with things wrong.  The test results are fine but it's the wrong format, they don't know the doctor, it doesn't have the proper chain of command, they are not a federally designated drug test facility, Ameila Aerheart didn't sign it, Who is Dr Zhivago, etc. etc.

So I make an appointment with a Federally designated drug testing facility and go there this morning.  I had an 8:00 am appointment and the place is not in the best neighborhood.  There are courts all around and I think they use this place to test the jail inmates before that go to trial as most of them looked like ax murderers, car hijackers, Jay Walkers and those people that remove those tags on new furniture that says "Do not remove under penalty of the Law".

I got there 45 minutes early because I didn't know exactly where it was and I purposely didn't go to the bathroom before I went because this is a urine test and I wanted to make sure I could go there.
Now I am in my car busting a gut because i really have to go.   They let me in and I tell the girl to hurry up and give me the cup.

"Oh No we can't do that, you have to be processed in, finger printed,  fill out these forms, try speed dating etc.  So I say, I really got to go so where's the bathroom.  She says "Really" look around.  The place is nothing but tiny bathrooms, smaller than my refugium.   I run in and try to just go a "little bit".  That is hard to do if you ever tried it.

I go to sit down and now I have to go EVEN MORE.  I mean I am climbing the walls.  The nurse, book keeper, secretary or whatever comes over to me and starts speaking to me in Spanish.
I am Italian but was born in Brooklyn like my parents so the only word I know in Spanish is Ricardo Montalban.
I tell her I only speak English, but she continues in Spanish anyway. 

Now I really can't hold it any longer, she hands me the cup and I run and  burst into the tiny bathroom anticipating relief.  I open the cup and......AND,,,,And...I CAN'T GO.      Like REALLY!!
It's not like I can lay down, have a beer and watch TV for an hour, there are people on line.  If I could stand on my head, I would.  I am trying to think about Niagara Falls, my power heads, my old leaky fish tank, but nothing.

Eventually I manage to fill the cup.  Before I come out of this closet my phone rings.  I didn't want to answer it because I didn't recognize the number but my house is for sale and I figured it might be someone with a wheelbarrow full of cash outside my house so I answer it.

It's Goldilox from the Coast Guard and she is her bubbly self.  She tells me that my drug test that I sent in last week that they said was no good is fine and they are processing my application.
I say "WHAT!!"  I just spent fifty bucks on a new drug test and nearly burst a kidney and besides you sent me two pages of things wrong with that test.  She says, Oh that.  That letter was a mistake.  Have a nice day.

I mean, you can't make this stuff up.  Is it me?  Dealing with the government is like watching Seinfeld and the Twilight Zone at the same time while you are on LSD and Rogain.  :eek:

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Hilarious. Followed along knowingly. I know exactly what you mean about trying to leave a little inside for the tiny cup when you feel like you could fill a two-liter. It's nearly impossible. 

 

Good news is you're good for another five years of Captain, right?

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Thanks Tom.. Can you update the title of this thread?

Done!

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

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