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4Fish

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Your stories are more entertaining then reading the paper. I can't wait to retire and tinker with things like you do. I am partial to PJ Cardinal fish if you need a good replacement. I hope your wife is doing well
 

Paul B

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My tank is looking god although with all the other stuff I am making I hardly get to look at it. Those 3 porcelain carbs are still on the same piece of montipora but they are on different ends of it. I don't think they like each other any more. My water cooled LED lighting system is still running better than my wildest dreams. Well maybe not better than my wildest dreams as they have a Supermodel, a hub cap from a 1957 Oldsmobile a stalk of Broccoli and a bowling ball, but close to my wildest dreams. I have been adding yeast to their food every day as an experiment. I am not sure what I am looking for but I feed yeast to my worms and they keep smiling so what the heck. I think the sponges are filtering it out because it clouds the tank but clears in 20 minutes or so. I have a lot of sponges, many of which grew on their own and I have no idea where they came from but they are extremely cool. I was cutting off some sponge just for a trim as it was shading a coral and it got away from me. Now I see it is growing around a gorgonian. That stuff will grow on anything.
Al the paired fish are still spawning and I am trying to get another clingfish so they can spawn.
I replaced the stocking mesh in my mandarin feeder with the stuff that is inside my RO unit. It is a plastic with just the right size pores for the brine shrimp feeder. The great part about it is that I can bleach it because after a week or two, the baby shrimp can't get out and the mandarin makes faces at me. I still use it every day and it stays in my tank.
Next week I get to see if I have PTSD which I don't think I have. I just enjoyed being interviewed by the Supermodel from the VA.


Yesterday I had a surprise. Growing up from 3 years old I had a best friend girl who lived next door to me for about 18 years. We grew up together sleeping in the same basinet and playpen and all. When I was 10 my Dad died and her parents took me camping, hiking and to all sorts of places. Our Parents were also best friends. She later moved away but not far and got married and had 3 kids. We visited them when the kids were born and a few times later.
She (Georgia) developed Leukemia when she was 35 years old and died soon after. I visited her in the hospital just as they were going to shave off her very long black hair for the chemo.
Yesterday I got a call from her Daughter who I found on Facebook. They now live in Oregon. I was thrilled to hear from her and talk about her Mother and my best friend who I miss terribly .
Hopefully she will come to New York for a visit because she said she wanted to come here.
This is me and Georgia behind my dads 1947 Pontiac.


 

Paul B

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A couple of weeks ago I went to the VA to see if I have PTSD. I found out today, that I do. OK, no big deal, I got out of Nam fifty years ago and now they tell me this.
They interviewed me for 3 hours and it came from this battle I was in that I forgot most of thankfully.
But anyway:


Last week my Daughter says to me, Hey dad, what is that mark on your eye lid? I had no idea, probably magic marker, so my wife looked at it and said. OMG, you always had a small spot there, but now it is half the size of your eyelid. She asked me if I noticed it. I said, you can only see it when my eye is closed and I don't see much with my eyes closed, so, No, I never saw it.
So of course she tells me I have to go to the dermatologist. I agreed (the Dermatologist is almost a Supermodel and I like her)
I go to the skin Doc and am waiting in the waiting room when this girl comes in and she keeps looking at her watch. She asks me if I parked on the street, I said yes, Why? She says, do you know it's only an hour parking? I said yes, but you just got here two minutes ago. She tells me, I know but I am paranoid of getting a ticket so should I move my car? Like I care right!
So she leaves to move her car, I guess she moves it every two minutes so she doesn't get a ticket. I think she has PTSD


They call my name and I get to see the Doc and her nurse. She looks at my eyelid and says she is going to take a biopsy. I said, a What! I know what a biopsy is but of all my body parts, my eye lid is way down on the bottom of the list of places where I want someone taking a biopsy of.
I asked her what she thought it was? She said it looks like a benign "Quisymoto Flounder". At least it sounded like that. I figured that must be like a fluke and wanted to ask if she could just give my head a fresh water dip or rub some Prizapro on it.
Before I could ask, she takes this needle and says, I am going to give you this needle to numb the pain for the biopsy. I said, what are you going to give me to numb the pain of the needle in my eye?
With that, she is sticking this needle in my eyelid and telling me not to open my eye. Like, you even had to tell me that! She said, this may be a "little" uncomfortable. I imagine she pulled it off my eye a little to do this.


Then she tells the nurse to get her a sharp scissors. I said, wait a minute, I thought you took the biopsy with the needle, what's with the scissors? She has to cut a little piece out of my eye lid. Oh great, I am really looking forward to this!
The nurse tells the Doc, we don't have any sharp scissors. OK, I am out of here. She tells me to calm down, it's not a big deal. I told her, it would not be a big deal if she wanted to use a scissors on her own eye lid. I told her that yesterday it wasn't a big deal, but today I have PTSD so I have an excuse.
They find this scissors and tell me "Don't Move". At that point I thought of doing sit ups or leg presses but I figured it wouldn't be prudent at that time.


She holds my head and snips a piece off my eye lid. Like "Ouch", Now tell me that doesn't sound uncomfortable. It feels like it sounds. I asked her if instead of Novocain she put coffee in that needle to numb the pain.


So now I am home looking at my fish with one eye because the other one feels like an urchin is doing the Macarana in it
 
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Paul B

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I picked up another one of these anemone crabs last week in my favorite LFS in Westbury, but I want more (Andy)
I want maybe 5 or 6 more because they are so cool and I want them to spawn. For some reason the LFS can't get more than one tiny one at a time (Andy)
But I want more. Lots more (Andy) So if they would just get more of them (Andy) I would be very happy.


 

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Yesterday it snowed here in New York a little and I decided to buy a new pair of snow boots. I have my good snow boots that I used to work in but I just wanted to replace my pair that I wear to shovel snow or throw out the garbage. Something easy to slip on and off with no laces.
My wife ordered me new boots from LL Bean. I didn't even see them yet because she knows I go nuts if I can't buy something made in USA and I would start yelling at the computer (maybe it is my PTSD)
So last night we go to dinner at an Italian place and I wore my old snow boots. I wanted to replace them because they had some cracks on the top and were no longer water proof.
On the way out from the restaurant I felt like I was dragging a Pizza box. I looked at my foot and didn't see anything. I took a few more steps and could hardly walk so I looked at my foot again. Nothing!!
This is weird, so I lift my foot, and the bottom of the boot falls off.


At my friends house he gave me duct tape to fix the boot so I could at least get into my car without walking barefoot in the snow. I got the boots home and looked at where they were made even though I knew what to expect. China, of course.
I myself would never purposely buy something from China and this is one reason.
Have you ever seen the bottom fall off an American Boot? No, you haven't.
Of course there are no more American boots so it is hard to compare.
It drives me nuts that in such a big, beautiful country like the US we can't buy a simple boot. Or much of anything else.
I don't even care what it cost, just build me something in the US that does not fall apart. If I had time, I would make my own boots.
We only have this garbage for sale because so many people bought it to save money. That's great but we should also make something here, just charge more, I am willing to pay for quality.
Did you ever go to Home Depot and buy hardware like screws, nuts and bolts?
You can't use that stuff on something important that must stay together because the steel in that stuff is garbage. I am not sure what they mix their steel with, probably I Phone 4s or 8 Track tape players but it is trash. When I build something I want it to be strong and last so I have to go to a good hardware store, not Home Depot. If you understand hardware you will see that there is a big difference. If you just want to hang a picture on a wall, it's fine, but if you had to hang out of a plane on that bolt, I wouldn't buy it in home depot.


 

Paul B

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I just bought a garden eel because I don't remember ever having one. I vaguely remember having one many many years ago but It could have been a garter snake a piece of rope or a dream.
The thing is about a foot long and a quarter inch wide. I am not sure if I should go by that 2" of fish for every five gallons of water which means I would have to throw out all the rest of my fish or just tie it in a couple of knots and measure it that way to make it shorter.
I was bringing it up my driveway I had thoughts of just saving time and throwing it on the ground there or waiting for it to climb out of my tank where I won't be able to find it until it finds it's way to my wife's underwear drawer, which would not end up well with me.
So I acclimated it while I was having dinner and picked him up with my hand and placed him in the center of tank. He immediately found a place in the far corner under a powerhead. I am quite sure that is the last time I will see that fish.
Make believe there is a picture of it here --------------------------->
 

Paul B

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OMG I accidently came down and glanced at the tank. My garden eel came to the front of the tank and started to dig down into the gravel. He assumed the gravel was a foot deep but boy was he disappointed. He just discovered what an Under Gravel filter plate is and I don't think he is happy. His head and tail are under the gravel but about 11" of him is waving in the current. I am sorry for him that I don't have a bigger tank but he will have to get over it because fish are not allowed to die in my tank. I hope he just figures out how to deal with this situation.


Tonight we have a house guest. She is actually a Supermodel. Her Mother and my Wife's Mother were best friends from when they were babies so my wife knows her all her life. We made linguini and crabs (I caught the crabs) which she loved because, like us, she is Italian and will eat anything from the sea. (I also made Tapioca, not the instant garbage either)
She is sleeping here and I have her room decorated in Steam Punk, but she loves it and is one of the few people that knows even what it is.
 

Paul B

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For a couple of days I could only find two of my four porcelain crabs. Yesterday, right at the front of the tank, I see my big hermit crab munching on my smallest porcelain crab. He was pulling off the arms, sucking on the legs and cleaning his teeth with the antenna. I know what people will say, it is his cast off shell.
Well in that position in the jaws of a large hermit, it is very hard to tell.
So early this morning, before the lights came on, I counted them. One, Two, Three and yes, four. It is lucky for the hermit crab that he was just munching on an empty shell or I would have had to put him in time out.
The little crab now has a nice new, and larger shell so he can go and try to impress his three older cousins. I love those things.
 

Paul B

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Busy morning like many people had. After we came back from breakfast I decided to do a little maintenance. For some reason I got ambitious. I had to put air in my car tires and add some oil and wiper washer fluid. Normal things that we don't want to do in the winter, but it is fairly warm today.
Then I saw my tank and figured I was in a maintenance mood so I better do this today. One of my gorgonians touched a sponge and the sponge started to grow up one of the stems. So I now have a very long, skinny sponge connected to a purple gorg. An encrusting gorg drifted against another purple gorg and started to grow over that so I also have two types of gorgs growing together on the same stem. Two corals fell or were pushed down by the big hermit crabs and were turned over on the gravel. The hermit crabs didn't seem to care and were wiping their "feet" on it.
I have a powerhead laying behind the rocks blowing water over the top of the center of the reef. At least that is what it was supposed to do but it wasn't doing anything for a while. I really didn't want to remove it because the cord was running behind the structure and I had to move large rocks to get it out. I cleaned it and noticed that it stopped because, as always happened with these after many years, the hole in the center of the magnet gets worn and enlarges, usually in an egg shaped fashion. When that happens the magnet hits the sides of the hole and eventually wears through which isn't good if you don't like getting shocked.
You can of course buy a new rotor, but anyone can do that. I take a piece of shrink tubing and put it over the shaft which enlarges it. If the hole in the magnet is misshapen or not large enough, I drill it out. Now the thing will run another year or two when I can do it again. Most of my powerheads are "fixed" in that fashion.
I also noticed that my algae scrubber was growing lettuce so my porcelain crabs could open up a produce stand so I had to take that apart and clean it.
All normal maintenance like everyone does.


 

Paul B

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As I was doing this maintenance I noticed all the sponges I have. I love sponges.
Each sponge filters 20,000 gallons (I made up that number because I forgot the actual number) of seawater a day and are great at removing car wash soap from your tank.
I feed every day along with other things, clams. Clams come with clam juice that clouds the water. I like the fact that it clouds the water because clam juice is actually microscope particles of clam. Along with, I imagine, clam spit. My water clears in a very short while due to the sponges, some of which are 10" across and 10 years old. Most of them I didn't even buy and have no idea where they came from. Many of them, especially the white ones only grow in the dark. If you move one of those white sponges into the light, they grow algae and croak.
I think we should have as many sponges in our tanks as we can fit. Fantastic creatures.
All this blue stuff is a sponge. I keep cutting off pieces and giving it away so it doesn't encroach on my bed because my wife frowns on that.


 

Paul B

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We have this door in our bathroom that is for a closet/medicine cabinet/laundry shoot. The thing is 7' high and rounded. I designed this bathroom many years ago and I don't like straight walls, doors or women. So the door weighs about 150lbs, give or take 100lbs. The outside of it is white laminate.


A few months ago the cabinet hinges started to croak as the door is very heavy. It also has shelves built into it which I think my wife stores bowling balls or rocks on. The hinges gradually sagged to where it was hitting the bottom of the cabinet and wouldn't close all the way.


I found four hinges in my workshop that were the same design, from the same manufacturer but these were much larger and I figured I would install them. (I could build a Space Shuttle with the stuff in my workshop, a really small cheap Space Shuttle.)


I remove one of the center hinges and try to fit in the larger hinge which fits into the hole in the door, but the holes in the back end of course don't line up because these are larger but being smart, I had a drill with me. I drill the holes in the cabinet to match the hinge and install the thing.


Now I try to close the door, but being this hinge is much larger, the door won't close because it has a larger swing so I have change all the hinges. No problem (I built many cabinets so this is simple)


I get my drill, screw drivers, pliers, screws and anything else I may need because after I start this, I can't let go of the door because if at least two of the hinges are not on, the door will crash on the floor breaking off a large piece of it. And this door probably cost $1,000.00 today (or the price of a two gallon Nano tank. ) It would be real hard to duplicate being it is round.


The bathroom floor of course is tile, 12" white, very slippery tiles. So I take a kitchen chair which has wooden legs and bring it into the bathroom. A ladder wouldn't fit in there so I need the chair to stand on.


I gently remove the top hinge while I am holding the weight of the door with my right arm. Now I take the new hinge and stick it in and drill the holes with my bad arm (I had a shoulder operation and it is not 100% yet but good enough for this simple job)


I have to hold the hinge, drill the holes, put in the screw and screw it in, all with my left hand, and this has to be done with the door almost closed, so I have to reach about 3' in to the dark closet while I am on the chair holding the weight of the door. I can barely reach it. No problem.


As I push the drill to make the hole, the chair slips backward on the tiles forcing me to grab the shelf. The shelf with all the hardware on it. Most of the hardware bounces into the laundry shoot at the bottom of the cabinet. Luckily, I was still holding the weight of the door and the bowling balls, or barbells so it didn't break.


But now, I can't close the door so it is hanging on the bottom hinges, I can't get down because the chair is to far back and even though I am jumping to edge it closer, it keeps moving backward. I have no screws to temporarily secure the door and I have to pee.


Luckily for me, I also brought a tool with me that would allow me to remedy this situation, my cell phone. So I call my neighbor. His wife is my fish sitter so they know how to get into my house. Ring......Ring.....Ring....Ring...."The person you have called is not available". (Of course not)


OK, so I call his wife. Ring...Ring...Ring...She is also not available. Like Duh


So I gradually start inching down as I use my fingers to "walk" up the door and hold it's weight. This is when I realized I should have removed the bowling balls from the shelves.


I am almost down and my fingers are aching from the weight when my phone rings. It's my neighbor. I tell him real fast, "get over here".


He finds his wife who knows how to get in my house and comes over just in time to give me this horrified look and take the weight off the door.


Now with someone holding the weight, it is a snap.
The large spring near the top hinge is to "help" take the weight of the rocks and other heavy things my wife feels is necessary to store on a cabinet door.










 

Paul B

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My wife loves lobster and last night she taught a CCD class at the Catholic school so I made her a nice lobster dinner. On these forums most people call these a clean up crew, but here we call them dinner. I know how people feel about killing one of these for dinner but I didn't want to wait for him to die of old age, so I carefully brought him into my living room and put him on a chair. I put a piece of string next to him. Then I turned on Rap music and left the room. When I came back, he hung himself.


 

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