Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[Paul B]

This morning I went to a big box store (I don't want to say which one) and I bought a few things for an invention I am working on. I spent about $60.00 and I had a gift card from Christmas and I also get 10% off for being a Veteran. I went to the check out to pay and the cashier made a mistake and didn't know how to correct it.

He called over another cashier and they both had problems helping me check out so they sent me over to Customer Service with my receipt and gift card. She worked about 5 or 10 minutes to help me check out and finally succeeded.

I always speak to the older ladies and tell them how nice they look or how nice they look (she was probably my age or younger) and I had my Vietnam Veteran hat on. She said thank you for your service but your Veteran discount is only 10% so I am taking $40.00 off your bill.

I still got it.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Must be Lowe's! Similar situation. I have a Lowe's credit card that automatically gives you 5% off, but I was entitled to 10%, so he told me I couldn't use my Lowe's card. I used a non-Lowe's card and when he totaled it up I got nothing off. Sent me to Customer Service that gave me the 10% and said that the Lowe's card will automatically take the higher percentage off. Go figure.

Now that said, can't wait for your next invention.

 

[Paul B]

I actually invented this thing last year and it is so cool that my wife wants me to patent it. I already have two patents and they are not easy to get.

I am still perfecting this thing and don't know if I want to go through the patent process again but I can't post it or I can't patent it. It is basically a high cabinet I have in my kitchen. It's deep and too high to use without a ladder so now you push a button and the entire thing comes out and drops down about 3' so it's easy to access.

 

[Paul B]

My tank has been in an algae growing cycle for a couple of weeks now. The stuff is very long, like 2" in some places. This is a cycle, and it also happens in the sea, and I know that from my almost 400 dives more than half of them in New York water which is very dark.

The stuff would grow for a few months, then disappear. It doesn't bother me because I know it's natural and I won't use any chemicals. Occasionally using New York NSW will cause that.

Today it started dying which I knew it would, so I have to suck it out daily with my DIY diatom filter. One th outflow of the filter I have a long rigid tube, and I heated and squashed the end, so it is like a power washer.

I use that to blow the dying algae off the rocks because if I let it rot in there, it will just keep growing. All this algae I am removing is a good thing and will leave the water in much better shape than when it started.

Of course, when it is all dead, I will dose some iron and iodine which will be depleted.
It's all part of this fascinating hobby.

Most people would throw in the towel at this point. But I like the towel and know what to do to clean the towel.

Here you can see where I stirred it up and am sucking out the dying algae.

 

[Paul B]

My reef reached 55 years old this month...(I think) If my math is correct.

 

[diana a]

Congrats on the award!

 

[Paul B]

I'm sorry I never have any sick fish stories and no matter what I do, they just don't want to get one of these cool diseases that are all over these sites. ️

So I will just ramble a little while I am thinking about what I will cook for dinner. (I had to put pizza here because I couldn't find a linguine and clam emoji)

I think I am very healthy so far but I have a colonoscopy next week and they are always fun so if that comes out fine, I will say I am in perfect shape.

We all have aches and pains at my age but that won't kill me. (I'm pretty sure Agent Orange and Asbestos will do that to me eventually) but all the health issues I know about are stupid broken and torn things. I can live with that. My wife on the other hand is unfortunately on a downward trend due to MS.



I consider myself "very" lucky and blessed. I was actually having this conversation with my wife over breakfast this morning. Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and as a Catholic, I got ashes. I am not a very holy person and I am not sure I would get them if it were not for my wife but I was discussing with her all the times in my life that I came very close to dying. A few of those times were of course in combat in Viet Nam where I emerged almost unscathed where many others, right near or next to me died or were seriously wounded. I was also in two helicopter crashes where I walked away.

My job as an industrial construction electrician in Manhattan where we built many sky scrapers from a hole in the ground up I came very close to dying many times. Mostly from falling, heavy things falling on me or getting severely shocked.

In Vietnam during a very nasty battle, I was positive I would be killed in a few seconds. I prayed like I never prayed before and I don't know if God heard me and wanted me to have a really old fish tank or if I was just very lucky, but up to this day, if a serious situation comes up, I pray and I think I have a "relationship" with God. Or Aliens, Spirits, Ghosts, deceased people, I don't know. But I am still here with all my limbs and my sight, so I feel something happened. (Thats in my new book)

As I said, I am not a very religious person, but don't know how to describe it. I do pray but never for myself (after that Vietnam thing)
I feel that is selfish to ask for things for yourself. But I do pray for my wife, Daughter and Grand Kids. Does it work? I have no idea but I figure it can't hurt.

 

[Paul B]

As I said, my two books made $700.00 last year and I always donate it to charity. $500.00 went to MS and $200.00 went to Wounded Warriors.

I always post the receipts to prove I don't use that money for Copperband butterflies or some other stupid thing.

I would like to thank everyone who bought one of those books.

 

[Paul B]

Some of my Waspfish. Very cool.

 

[Paul B]

As I said, now my tank is going through a really severe hair algae cycle. I wish I would get some hair on my head.

I have been sucking it out with my DIY diatom filter without adding the diatom powder. Hopefully, in a few weeks it will all be out and the tank will be pristine again.

Thats all hair algae in the bottom and it is dying in droves. I could open a sod farm.

 

[Paul B]

Today I have been "prepping" for my very fun colonoscopy. I didn't eat since 5:00 yesterday and won't eat until about 12:00 noon tomorrow so I am a little hungry.

I think I am more tired than hungry because I can't sleep at all unless I take something to sleep so I take "Sleep Eze" almost every night which is just an antihistamine, but it is bright purple so I am not able to take it now. I could take my wife's medical Marijuana but being they will knock me out for this procedure I figure I may not wake up after the anesthesia and find my semi clothed pictures on Facebook.

They won't allow you to go home by yourself so my wife will have to drive me and it's on a highway. Normally I don't let her drive on the highway because with her MS she uses a "Left Foot" gas pedal and has to use her left foot to brake but almost all my friends are in Florida to escape the cold.
(Bunch of Sissies)

So in an hour I have to drink the "Lemonade" and the exciting part will start.

 

[diana a]

Hope all works out fine

 

[Paul B]

I don't think most people do that for a hobby. It's just something we do to keep our spouses happy.

My colonoscopy came our exquisite. No ich, velvet, urenema or any of those silly things so I don't have to drink Prizapro with hydrogen peroxide, tree stump remover or whatever many people do to their fish.

I got to the place a little early but they kept me in the waiting room for an hour anyway. Then I got all excited when they called me in. A girl came in and told me to take off all my clothes. The last time that happened I got married. She said, even my socks. I asked her if this was a colon doctor or a podiatrist.

She put me on a gurney with the paper gown and stuck oxygen in my nose and left me there for about 40 minutes where I fell asleep.

Then a Middle Eastern anesthesiologist woman came in and asked me a bunch of silly questions like if I use cocaine, LSD, Heroin, or crystal meth. I said, If I took those things I wouldn't need her to put me to sleep.

So she took my left hand and stuck me 5 times looking for a vein. She couldn't find one, so she had to put a tourniquet on my wrist to quell the bleeding from all the holes. Then she tried on my right hand and found one.

I said, Good Night" and fell asleep. I don't know what happened in between, but I hope I don't see pictures of my naked but on YouTube.

I hadn't eaten in 40 hours, so I was a little hungry. We ate on the way home, but I couldn't get my linguine or even oysters. We just went to a place on the way.

I don't have to go back for 10 years, so I will let the nursing home worry about that.

 

[Paul B]

I just took off the reaction tube on my DIY skimmer to clean it and I decided to look down the thing from the top. Near the top was completely clogged with a thick, black mud/slime.



My skimmer is not built to take apart but the tube comes off so I had to get a brush and bend it a little so I could stick it down the top. Of course, gobs of gunk fell into the skimmer forcing me to drain it. I did put a drain at the bottom. I drained out all the mud so it didn't get back in my tank and I looked down the skimmer from the top and saw the entire thing is filled with tiny, tube worms.

This is not necessarily a bad thing but it will slow the flow of water that is supposed to swirl up the entire five foot height.



I don't have time now but one of these days, I need to remove the thing which is not easy as it is bolted on the stand in the back.



But it is something I need to do soon. The last time I did it, It Hadn't been cleaned in many years, and I needed a broom handle to clear it of tube worms as it was completely full.

 

[Paul B]

I have been so busy lately with my wife. We go to a doctor, PT, MRI, X Ray, CAT scan or strip club almost every day. OK, maybe we don't go to strip clubs every day. The last time I went to one was when they took me to one for my bachelor party 54 years ago. That girl must be about 80 now so she probably isn't a stripper any more.

I seem to be in pretty good health and only go to doctors for shots of cortisone or hair transplants. (They don't work)

Speaking about hair. I can't believe the amount of hair algae in my tank. I suck out about a pint of dry algae every day. It's like 2" long. Most people don't stay in the hobby long enough to get these cycles or use New York NSW from next to a farm and golf course. Thank God for my DIY diatom filter.



I have been using this one with the pleated cartridge in it, but I don't use the powder just to eliminate algae. It's a 5MG filter, which is plenty small to remove algae. All the corals (that are not covered in algae) seem very healthy, and the fish are really enjoying it, especially the smaller blennies and gobies, who lay in it like a comforter.

This has happened to this tank a few times since the 70s and it will clear up on it's own without me adding stupid things and the tank will be healthier than it has ever been.

My Hippo tang doesn't seem to like hair algae and I never fed them Nori but he is about the best looking Hippo I have ever seen and his skin looks like velvet. When Hippo Tangs are very healthy they get a reddish tinge on the top of their dorsal fin but I can't get a good picture. Hippo tangs get that in the sea.



My Tomini Tang also looks perfect with bright yellow fins. I can never get a picture of her as I think she doesn't like me and swims to the back when I get near the tank.

This is a very old picture from when she was a baby.

 

[Paul B]

Yesterday I went to the clean but expensive LFS near my wife's doctor. I need to kill an hour when I take her there so I go to the LFS and look like I will buy something but I almost never do. He is too expensive and the fish in the dirty store look just as good but a third of the price.

The clean place had a copperband butterfly for $69.00 and it was full of fin fungus. I don't care about the fungus, but the other store sells them for $25.00 so it's a no brainer. Also Hippo tangs for about the same price and I also get those for about $20.00.

Of course they live over 10 years so I don't have to buy them too often.

None of the stores quarantine so I can buy whatever I want and throw the fish right in.

 

[diana a]

Wow that is insane prices! I didn't think anyone sold them for that price anymore.

 

[Paul B]

The place has been there for 50 years and I have been going there almost that long. I get Yellow and green clown gobies for like eight bucks.


Fisefish also.

 

[Paul B]

This came about because my last water change that I collected here in the sea in the Long Island Sound was full of fertilizer from all the farms and golf courses here.

I find it fascinating, and it will all disappear in a few weeks leaving the water in fantastic shape.
This is not the first time this has happened to me from using sea water at the wrong time of the year.

 

[Paul B]

I'm on a new kick now that I pursue in my little spare time. I made this Chartuterie board for cheese. I want to make a river table if I could find the time. I can't use another epoxy table because I already built two of them so this new one (If I ever build it) I will have to sell or give away.