47 year old tank

[madweazl]

 

Of course these guys are the easiest and never get ich.

 

That is because of the "copper"... 

[paul b]

Exactly.

[paul b]

Tomorrow I am going for acupuncture. I have a very Manly degenerative disk and if you live long enough and do more than carry protest signs and text, you may also get these old people things. Anyway almost all of your nerves go right next to your disks which were actually a mistake when they designed us because those disks are not really built too well. They are alright for the first 50 years but not so much after that.

 

I think pressure treated wood would have been better.

 

 

 

 

Our nerves should have been designed to go through aluminum tubes outside our body away from those disks. But I wasn't there when Al Gore invented nervous systems.

 

Anyway, when disks start to bulge or corrode they give you all sorts of problems depending on which nerves they press on. If it's your ear lobe nerve, you can get your ears pierced without any pain, but I don't do earrings.

 

It's not the end of the world and I can still do backflips. But only once.

 

 

 

 

I really don't believe in acupuncture, chiropractors, faith healers, witch doctors, herbalists, etc. I also don't have a lot of trust in real doctors unless you have an arrow sticking out of your head. If that is the case, they will know immediately what code to put on the form to send to your insurance company.

 

But my wife goes to this acupuncturist and she is kind of a Supermodel so I will try it. If nothing else at least I will be a little more porous, and poor as insurance companies frown on acupuncture.

[madweazl]

I have some issues with a few disks in my neck and one of the treatments was to stick this gold studs in my ear. They were supposed to relieve pain and in a round about way, they did; my ear hurt so darn bad I though nothing of my neck for a couple days until I ripped them all out. If they ever recommend this, kick 'em in the shin and run out with their supermodels. 

 

[paul b]

She actually gave me a bunch of those to stick in my wife's ears. That ain't gonna happen. I think it's a silly idea and you are correct, that makes your ear hurt so much you forget your neck pain.
I had four knee operations and 4 shoulder operations, The shoulder operations made me forget my knee pain so the trick is to keep hurting different parts of your body and you will forget exactly what hurts. 

[madweazl]

Yea, I'm pretty sure they did it just to torture me (not sure what I ever did to them)! 

[paul b]

Happy Birthday America.

[Nart]

Paul, it's 'MURRRRRRICA!

Hope you had a great 4th of July.

[paul b]

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July.

 

We celebrated America's birthday from our boat as we usually do with good friends that we have had since high school.

 

Anchored in Port Washington we could see the fireworks from New York Harbor, The Bronx and Connecticut as well as over our heads in the harbor. Great weather and great night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[paul b]

I collected a bunch more amphipods and mud yesterday as I was exploring the muddy tide pool. There are thousands of baby horseshoe crabs but the mud there is shoe sucking mud and you sink up to your knees and lose your shoes. I am surprised the crabs like it.

It's places like that which keeps horseshoe crabs abundant in the Long Island Sound but unfortunately, the horseshoe crabs are less every year. I used to see dozens of adults hanging around or mating. This year so far I have seen one adult.

Their muddy habitats are slowly disappearing to condo's and parking lots. The place I go is a wildlife preserve but it is only about 200 yards long which isn't real big and the part the crabs spawn in is not much larger than a medium size home.

Even the fiddler crabs are disappearing. I still find maybe a hundred or two there, but I used to see thousands.

I also have not seen a hermit crab there in a few years and they used to be very common.

I still collect mud there for the bacteria and I am sure that will always be available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Origami]

I collected a bunch more amphipods and mud yesterday as I was exploring the muddy tide pool. There are thousands of baby horseshoe crabs but the mud there is shoe sucking mud and you sink up to your knees and lose your shoes. I am surprised the crabs like it.

 

 

Apparently the crabs don't have shoes to lose; or they gain by finding shoes that people lose. 

[paul b]

Paul, it's 'MURRRRRRICA!

Hope you had a great 4th of July.

You too Nart. 

[paul b]

This morning I came downstairs and looked at my tank and all of a sudden, the tank lights went out. I walked around the back of the tank in the closet, and the lights came back on. I stated looking at the fish and the lights went out. 15 seconds later, they came back on and I walked around the back, and they went off. Every 10 or 15 seconds the lights would go out.

It is easy to fix a problem if it stays a problem but much harder to fix something that keeps fixing itself.

But in this case, I figured it out easily. I touched the copper tubing that the LEDs are mounted on and it was hot. Then I touched the "radiator" I built that is supposed to cool the water running through the tube that ther LEDs are mounted on and it was cold. That means the water is not circulating and the LEDs were getting too hot.

I didn't even think the pump was needed but now I know it is.

The tiny pump was very hot so I knew it was getting power but it was not pumping. Luckily, I have a spare.

I drained the water out of the water cooled lighting system and installed the new pump. The old one does not come apart so I will just buy another spare. This one lasted a couple of years and they are not that expensive.

 

 

 

[madweazl]

Always nice to find an easy fix but what the heck did you do to your wrist? 

[paul b]

That picture was last year when I had some kind of operation. I think it was on my thumb. I had 16 operations because being a real "Man", I keep breaking or tearing things. If you sit at a desk all your life and push papers and once a week water the cactus on the window sill, then you won't have to worry about anything except maybe carpal tunnel syndrome or becoming overweight. 

I am very active and raising Supermodels over your head is hard weight, even if it is only in your dreams.

Edited July 9, 2017 by paul b

[paul b]

I know I keep saying my bangai cardinal is dying of old age but he is still with me. As a matter of fact, his cataracts cleared up and he is livelier than ever and he eats much more than he ever did. I think he is having a mid life, or end of life crisis as he looks like a teenager. I can't make heads or tails out of it as he didn't hardly eat anything for a couple of months and he is making up for it now. Very weird.

 

On another note one of my flasher wrasses jumped out. I wish it was my much to big blue wrasse. Soon I will catch that guy and give him away because he is about 7" and much to big for my tank. He also jumped out once and it was so quick that he jumped into my hands and I threw him back. I should have thrown him in a bucket but I didn't think fast enough. At my age thinking is much slower than it used to be. I am still waiting for the results of the last Presidential election.

[paul b]

 

 

 

Some thoughts about the hobby. Now it is boating season so I have little time for my tank. Sometimes I get home after the tank lights go out so the fish go to sleep without dinner. They get over it. Sometimes I can't change water for 3, 4 or 5 months, I never got a bad text from my fish as they understand. My algae screen is so full it put up a sign that reads "Produce Stand". My fish know me and forgive me.

 

I think we think too much into this, especially with those stupid test kits where many people believe the numbers have to be exactly in the blue area of that little paper that comes with that $5.00 chart.

 

If the fish are smiling and the corals are living and opening up, forget those kits and go out for a nice Merlot, watch the sunset, have a chocolate covered strawberry. The fish are fine.

 

But too many times we go nuts and get all stressed. If you want to get stressed, tell your wife she looks fat in those shorts or after she spends $175.00 on a hair cut, tell her she looks like she combed her hair with an egg beater.

 

If you get stressed about anything in this hobby, sell everything and get out, maybe sell canoe's.

 

It's a hobby and everything about it is supposed to be either fun, interesting or at least make girls like you. (If you are a man of course)

 

My wife is a little mad at me right now because a few days ago our Daughter invited us to a dinner at a very expensive restaurant in Manhattan for a party.

 

I hate Manhattan and tell people all the time that if not for my Grand Kids you would have to give me at least $5,000.00 to go there for anything. If you offer me $4,999.00, I won't go. I worked there for 40 years and that's how I feel. If course if you offer me $5,000.05. Then I may go.

 

Anyway. My wife has always been GaGa over Tom Sellic.

 

We didn't go.

 

Guess who was sitting in the next seat that my wife was supposed to sit in? Yep. Tom Sellic.

[paul b]

So I go to my boat today because for some reason, there is always water in the bilge and it drives me nuts. For 10 years I have been cramming myself in the bilge with a rag and a bottle of Lestoil so I can get the grease off of everything especially those white bilge pump hoses in between the engines. You can barely make out the red bilge pump all the way in the back. There is always grease in there because even a drop of oil in a bilge will coat everything if there is water in there.

 

Years ago I installed that bilge pump on a 24" piece of 1/4" plexiglass and secured the plexiglass in a place in the bilge where I can easily remove a screw and take out the bilge pump that is in a place that you can't get to.

 

 

 

Today I brought my camera there which has a 6' flexible hose in it so I can get the camera all the way under the engines to look for the leak.

 

 

 

So I removed all the water in the bilge and cleaned it nice and white. I also cleaned those corrugated hoses. I then did something else for 10 minutes and when I came back, there was water in the bilge.

 

I again sucked out the water with a vacuum and dried it nice and clean. I went and did something else and when I came back, there was water in the bilge.

 

OMG, I am going crazy, there should not be water going in there but it is a very tight spot and I can't see where the water is coming from.

 

It didn't help that it is 90 degrees and the sweat coming off of me is also filling the bilge.

 

 

 

I stick my feet up in the air and get my head all the way down there wondering how I am going to get out and I see it.

 

A little waterspout of water is coming into the boat from a tiny hole in the middle of the bilge, under where I have that plexiglass bracket that I made to hold the pump.

 

 

 

Then I figured it out. When they built the boat, the Jiboni that installed the bilge pump must have drilled the hole for the screw all the way through the hull into the sea. That must have been tough because the hull is probably 2" thick there.

 

He probably put in a screw he got in Home Depot because it was not stainless steel and it rotted out leaving this nice little hole where water comes in.

 

I got a real stainless steel screw and screwed it into the hole.

 

Problem solved and it only took me 10 years to find it.

 

I would never have found it if I didn't take the pump. bracket and hoses out to clean.

 

The water was probably filling the bilge about 2" deep and the bilge pump would come on pumping out most of the water until it filled again.

 

 

 

[DAP]

Wow that is one clean engine bay.

Glad you found the leak!

[paul b]

Thanks, I pride myself on a clean engine bay and I also clean behind my ears. 

 

 

 

Yesterday I went to a party on a rooftop of one of the oldest hotels in Manhattan,

(Not my Idea) But they had a raw bar and if they have a raw bar, I am there. This was a birthday party for my Son N Laws Mother.

There was maybe 60 people there and I got to meet some artists and show off some pictures of my Steam Punk stuff. My Grand Kids were also there. I don't know what this thing costs but they charge you $57.00 "extra" per person to have raw oysters there.

An oyster costs about two bucks so I am not sure how they figure that ridiculous price and I don't think most people even eat raw oysters which is fine for me because that is one of my favorite foods.

My Daughter of course was there and she is actually shorter than me.

Here she is wearing 8" shoes. No, I am not kidding, it looked like she had cinder blocks taped to her feet. The soles were about 2" and the heels were 8".

Like Duh, how do you walk in such things?

 

 

[Origami]

You're both looking good, Paul. And having a good time at that!

 

Ten years or not, you have finally prevailed on that leaker. Good job.

[Bruleyii]

I'm assuming that no matter what time of night a picture was taken of you, you had the same things in your hand. One drink and one oyster. lol. Can't blame you.

[paul b]

That is totally not true.
Sometimes I have a shrimp.



Or a Crab



A Supermodel.



A Supermodel to be.



Or even a duck or lizard. 

[Bruleyii]

hahaha

[paul b]

I just came back from my boat and am thrilled because not only is the bilge bone dry, but it is spider web bone dry, and not just any bone dry, because bones can get wet, but bones from a Tyrannosaurus Rex that died of thirst in the middle of the Sahara desert on a Tuesday.