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Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
In a few weeks I am going to have some surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and torn bicep. This is the fourth time I tore this rotator cuff on my left arm and I think I had it done twice on my right arm.
(I also had maybe 5 knee surgeries) But these are Man surgeries and not Sissy surgeries so they don't bother me. I really enjoy the sleep too. (as well as the nurses)
I worked construction all my life and if you don't wear out your parts doing that, you didn't work hard enough.
I went to the surgeon today and told him to try to fix the thing this time so it stays fixed even if I pick up a heavy pint of beer. Maybe use some good toggle bolts that you don't get from Home Depot.
The recovery is three months after a month of physical therapy, which I kind of enjoy because the place I go has a couple of Supermodels working there.
Today I winterized my boat and put up the Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations around my house. My wife used to help me but she has MS so I do it myself. I put up a lot of decorations for all of the holidays. I just like my house looking good. Next week I will also winterize my sprinkler system because after this operation I won't be able to use my left arm so I want to get all of that stuff done you need two arms for.
Years ago I devised a method to winterize my boat using a shop vacuum. I disconnect the water hoses and suck out all the salt water using the vacuum. Then I installed a small bilge pump in a five gallon bucket and pump antifreeze through the engines and exhaust manifolds. I also use this to pump water through the air conditioner and water system for the sinks and showers.
I am also changing water in my reef because I only do that every 3 or 4 months anyway.

My neighbors will also snow blow for me so it all works out well.
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
Today is my 43rd wedding anniversary. I thought it was 44 but my wife corrected me. It doesn't seem like a day over 42 years. I am taking her out to one of the best restaurants in New York. We are also friends with the owner.

 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
I really need to re-design my DIY venture valve in my DIY skimmer. The skimmer used to have 3 air pumps running it because it is about 4' tall and the venturi isn't strong enough to pull air down that far so the air pumps push water into the valve. This worked well for many years but I had to keep replacing air pumps because of the high pressure so I bought a much stronger air pump. You can fill up tires and air mattress with this thing or if you like, blow your brains out through your ears from across the street. Now I think it is putting out to much air and the bubbles aren't small enough. It's OK but I want very tiny bubbles.

My old pumps produced tiny bubbles but not enough of them so I either have to re-design the valve or get a larger water pump to push water through the venture valve. The pump running that now is probably 20 years old and I really don't want to touch it because you know what happens when you touch a 20 year old pump that has never been serviced.

I am in redesigning mode.



 
Juano908

Juano908

Paul B said:
I really need to re-design my DIY venture valve in my DIY skimmer. The skimmer used to have 3 air pumps running it because it is about 4' tall and the venturi isn't strong enough to pull air down that far so the air pumps push water into the valve. This worked well for many years but I had to keep replacing air pumps because of the high pressure so I bought a much stronger air pump. You can fill up tires and air mattress with this thing or if you like, blow your brains out through your ears from across the street. Now I think it is putting out to much air and the bubbles aren't small enough. It's OK but I want very tiny bubbles.

My old pumps produced tiny bubbles but not enough of them so I either have to re-design the valve or get a larger water pump to push water through the venture valve. The pump running that now is probably 20 years old and I really don't want to touch it because you know what happens when you touch a 20 year old pump that has never been serviced.

I am in redesigning mode.



Click to expand...

Can't wait to see your new project Paul.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
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

Paul B

NJRC Member
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

Paul B

NJRC Member
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

Paul B

NJRC Member
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.



 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
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
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
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.
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
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.



 
S

slimfitz

I was looking for some anemone crabs the other day. I could not find any. I think they are some of the more interesting crabs in reef tank.
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
That smaller one has been in there for over a year (I think) I have always had them but when they shed, my bristleworms kill them. I would like to get 3 or 4 more but I need to trap the larger worms. They are also very cheap.
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
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.



 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
A friend of mine on another forum had an Idea to use a shop vac to clean the scrubber. Great Idea. I did it in 2 minutes and the thing is almost brand new. I still have to take it apart eventually to clean the slot, but it's working perfectly.
 
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