Tank Thread Tank reached 38 years old...in 2009!

[Paul B]

My screen is growing algae just not matured enough yet to get an even growth. But in time it will be fine. I still didn't build a light for it yet. I am still using a silly dim LED that I had

 

[Paul B]

Two days ago I had some knee and hand surgery, just some tune ups because if you worked construction all your life and didn't ruin your joints, you didn't do it right. Yesterday I got a call from the GYM where my wife goes and a piece of machinery fell on her and clonked her in the back of her head. She also has MS so she doesn't need any more brain problems. When I got there five minutes later they were putting her in the ambulance to take her to the hospital. She also had this huge bandage around her head because it was also a nice gash. She looked like Mahat Maghandi. WE decided to take her to her neurologist instead of the hospital because as we all know. If they take you to a large hospital (and we are surrounded by them here) with a cut, you will be there on the gurney for 4 or 5 hours before anyone even knows that you are there. They will be bringing you coffee, doughnuts, magazines, crossword puzzles and flowers but no doctors because they will all be drinking coffee and taking care of the hospital fish tank in the other wing, a mile away. So unless you get taken to the hospital in an ambulance and you have 2- three foot arrows sticking through your head and one in your foot, they are not going to see you for days. Besides, her neurologist is a friend of ours.
So we call the neurologist on his cell phone and of course he is in Chicago visiting his Grand Children. We live on long Island and the ambulance driver wouldn't drive her the 500 or so miles to Chicago. OK, no problem, there are a bunch of neurologists in his office so we go there. I am not supposed to drive because of the pain meds they have me on and my knee is bandaged up from my toes to my neck and my hand is also out of commission so if I wanted to feed my fish, I would have to do it one flake at a time. That is if I used flakes, and I don't. So I drive her anyway and they give her an MRI. Everything is good but neurologists don't do stitches so we had to go to another doctor. We went to one of those "Docs in a Box" places because as I said, you don't want to go to a hospital. They installed 8 staples in her head. I would have used toggle bolts but what do I know? She seems fine now and I had to increase my pain meds because my surgeon said the stuff he put in my knee and hand would wear off today, and he didn't lie. I am not really typing this because my hand doesn't work so there is an out of work Supermodel sitting on my lap typing as I point to the places on the screen where I want her to put the words. Also these pain pills are rather nice and I could be typing this on my cat and not even notice it. Even though I don't have a cat. At least I don't think so.
My two surgeries went well, (even though I realize this is all about my wife) I had a great staff and many of them were Supermodels which is important.
My operation was delayed for 2 hours because the Jiboni before me overslept and came in 2 hours late so he pushed everyone back for that time. They should have let me operate on him just for fun. So it has been an exciting 2 days and today I need to get back to doing some stuff on my tank. I need to figure out how to do a water change without actually lifting anything or standing. I also want to complete building my water cooled LED fixture but I need my wife to tape the soldering iron to one hand and a drill to the other. But I can do it because I am not a Girly Man.

 

[Paul B]

My urchin ate the top off of my mandarin and pipefish feeder. Great. Luckil I have more pieces of nylon stockings (no, not mine) that I can replace it with. Now to do this without getting my hand wet.

 

[rookie07]

Paul,

Ive been trying to reach you. Give me a call please.

 

[Paul B]

Long Island Andy, I know you are on here. I fixed your light. It has been running for over 20 hours. I had to re-design the thing because the guy in China who designed it was probably also designing a shoe shining stand so he got confused. It was running very hot and I cooked my eggs on it this morning. Now it is so cool that I caught a pair of penguins playing Parcheesi on it a little while ago.

 

[Paul B]

Now that my water cooled light works I think I will build another one for my algae scrubber. I think this one will be an air cooled copper one because it will be to small for a water pump. I just need to buy a copper plate about 8" square and I am going to solder fins all over the back and add a small fan. I have a bunch of extra LEDs I can use.
Another fun project.

 

[Paul B]

Some of my fish at their feeder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsGrL9nxJPs

 

[Paul B]

My closest friend and dive partner, Richie Natoli just moved to Key Largo and here is a couple of pictures he sent me, He also supplied many of the pictures for my book because although we have dove together for decades, he is a much better underwater photographer than I am.
Below water

And above

 

[oseymour]

Now that my water cooled light works I think I will build another one for my algae scrubber. I think this one will be an air cooled copper one because it will be to small for a water pump. I just need to buy a copper plate about 8" square and I am going to solder fins all over the back and add a small fan. I have a bunch of extra LEDs I can use.
Another fun project.

Hey Paul,

I'm moving to a Red Sea Reefer tank, it's a nice sleek tank that comes with the tank, stand and sump in a package. I would have preferred to purchase separately but my wife suggested the larger tank so I'm not complaining too much. The tank is in our living room and she thinks the pine stand looks ugly.

I won't have space for a refugium, should I get an algae scrubber for nutrient export? I see sites such as www.santa-monica.cc/ selling them? total water volume will be 91 or 112 gallons depending on the model tank we choose.

 

[Paul B]

I have an algae scrubber and I think they are a really nice, natural addition. Algae does add things to the water we don't test for and it is believed (by some) that those things are beneficial. So do I.

 

[Paul B]

I finally found a use for the waste water from RO/DI. It was looking me in the face for years and all of a sudden as I was looking at my worm tank I said. "Like Duh". I am wasting all this water and my blackworm tank is right under my RO unit. So now the waste water goes into the worm keeper, then to a drain. My tank evaporates about a gallon a day so that makes about 4 gallons of waste water. My worm tank only holds about 2 gallons so it is a win win situation.

 

[Paul B]

Two more days, Christmas Day is my Birthday and I am very happy because everyone celebrates it with me.

 

[Marek-S]

Happy birthday and Marry Christmas Santa Paul

 

[Paul B]

Thank you, I appreciate it. Merry Christmas to you too

 

[Paul B]

So today I am making stuffed Calamari with linguini for one of the seafood dishes we will have tonight for Christmas Eve dinner. We are Italian so we have to have at least 7 types of seafood today. Last year we had 21 because we all bring something.
Anyway I am stuffing the squid and I had to go downstairs for more olive oil. I immediately sense something is wrong. I look at my tank and it is totally dark. Oh No. These things only happen on Easter, Mother's Day or Christmas Eve. I put down the oil and go in the back of the tank. Now I have this new water cooled LED fixture that I built a week ago and it has been running great with no problems. I see water on the floor and the sight glass on my fixture is empty. Oh No. The first thing I do is look at the corals with a flashlight because this fixture is made of copper pipe and if the water from the fixture went in the tank, the corals would be looking like snot from the copper. The corals look good and I can't see anything leaking. So I slowly add water to the system and OH NO. Water is shooting out from a union. I tighten the union and add more water. OH NO, it shoots right out. So I remove the union and remember I have a bunch of calamari in the middle of being stuffed. The Calamari will have to wait. It's dead anyway so it won't notice.
I put the union on my workbench and check it out but it looks fine. I screw it back on to the fitting using new Teflon tape, fill it with water, turn on the system and ......Oh No. Water is spitting all over the place. AAAAHHHHHH.
I really need to get these calamari finished. I remove the union again and take it to my workbench. This is not easy because I am covered in Olive oil and garlic. This time I look closer and the thing has a big crack in it. The crack only shows up when it is screwed to a pipe. I have a spare union and I install it and slowly fill the system with water. The light goes on, then it goes off, it goes on, then off. It takes about an hour to get all the air out of the system for it to stay running. After all the air is out, there is no more maintenance or adding water because it is a closed system like a car radiator. Luckily I built this thing with a fail safe built in. It worked as it was designed, if it runs out of water or the pump stops, the LEDs turn off so they don't burn out. The fail safe is how we design things on a construction job and it means if the thing dies, or leaks, it will leak outside the tank and the LEDs will turn off. All the plastic parts are outside the tank and I know my soldered pipe joints won't leak as I pressure tested them and now the system has no pressure in it. So now all is well. The fish and corals are happy, I even gave them some squid which they don't like nearly as much as clams because it is much more chewy.
Merry Christmas Everyone.

 

[TUSI]

Merry christmas and happy birthday paul

 

[Bulldog5]

Merry Christmas and happy birthday!!!!

 

[cono]

buon Natale

 

[Paul B]

Thanks guys. Merry Christmas to all

 

[LongIslandAndy]

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Paul