Moving 47 year old reef 60 miles. OMG

[Gareth elliott]

Paul I hear if you go to staples and buy a “that was easy” button, when you push it it makes you think its all done and a beer appears.

 

[Chasmodes]

Even the cars where orange and shaggy .. What wasn’t pretty where the bell bottom pants I wore in high school ;Facepalm

And the platform shoes that I wore to homecoming dance!

 

[mcarroll]

You don't remember the psychedelic 60s do you?

Indeed not....born in nineteen sixty-ten.

At least the 60's were a better color scheme, if they were no less shaggy?

 

[Paul B]

I bought out all the electrical adapters from Home Depot so I am going to Lowes today.
My extremely cool water cooled LED lighting system croaked. The room is so damp that the entire fixture was dripping with water and shorted the entire thing out. The LEDs on there have connections so close to the copper tubing that is a mosquito blows his nose on it, it will short. It just won't work in that condition so I had to turn in my Man card and buy a light fixture, and there is nothing I hate more than buying something. I know it will be a piece of junk, cost more then my car and won't last 2 weeks. It's also probably made in China so I can't even look at it and won't be able to hang my American Flag in that room. If I ever get time, I will build a water prof light and junk the new one.

Yesterday I drove 60 miles back to my old neighborhood and visited my favorite LFS. Aquarium Village in Westbury. I saw two fish that I liked because they were unusual. One was a perchlet like my other one but smaller and he looked very healthy.


I am not sure what the other fish is but he didn't look to be in great condition and I hesitated buying him. I told my friend that I give him an hour to live.
I put them in a cooler in my car because it was 98 degrees and drove straight home.
I opened the cooler and the weird sickly fish was fine. I acclimated him for 10 minutes, threw him in and he started to eat and smile in 30 seconds.
The little healthy red perchlet croaked. He was dead in the bag and looked like he had a coronary. Maybe he heard I run an undergravel filter and got the horrors. I didn't have time to give him CPR or do an autopsy or necropsy but I know de didn't have any diseases. Maybe a social disease but that is none of my business. I left him in there for any bristleworms that may have survived the move here.

Right now I have 4 floodlights over the tank that looks a little more than candlelight until I get my new (garbage) embarrassing lights.
Today I may run some electric power to the tank so I can get the massive rats nest of extension cords off my floor. I will also order an exhaust fan for that room. Not one of those Sissy exhaust fans, I am ordering a fan that will pull the wax out of your ears from across a crowded LFS.

 

[Retro Reefer]

So what kind of newfangled Chinese light did you buy?

 

[grassy_noel]

@Paul B , it sounds like you already picked some lights, but if not yet, I have a suggestion.

NanoBox Reef is a small company that makes really high quality reef LEDs, right here in the USA. Their off the shelf models are for tanks much smaller than yours, but I've seen photos of a number of retrofits and custom jobs they've done for larger tanks. They are definitely not cheap, but I hear they are built exceptionally well. If you went this direction, you could hang your stars-and-stripes proudly...or they'd probably silkscreen a flag right onto the light fixture for you...

 

[Texas Reefer]

Hi! Found your new thread and am following.

 

[Maacc]

Paul,
This guy is a sponsor here, made in the USA and with DIY options. Save you some time and keep your man card.

Oopos forgot the link somehow

https://reefledlights.com/

 

[Paul B]

So what kind of newfangled Chinese light did you buy?

I have no idea. I saw lights and I bought them. Maybe they are American but I really doubt it. When they come, if by some miracle they actually work, I will read the box (if it is written in English) and tell you what kind of lights they are. If I knew they built USA lights I would have got them. These were the only lights I could find that didn't have too many bells and whistles. I just wanted to buy some lights that lit. I don't want to program them, connect them to my I phone, allow me to turn them on from Tunisia, make me coffee, dim, change color, sing like Lady GaGa or anything else. I just want to see light. Anything else I don't need and won't use. Like a remote. How lazy do you have to be to have to turn your lights on from across the planet? Like really! And why do you want to change colors, whats wrong with light color. Just light and do nothing else. But you can't find a light like that unless you build it yourself.
I know people are al Agog because there is an app on their phone that tells you the temperature in your house and in your refrigerator. How boring a person must be to have to look at their phone because they want to know the temperature of the pork chops they bought on sale last November.
Everyone has a refrigerator and the temperature is always the same. I can see if your phone tells you if the light really goes out when you close the door because that is important.

 

[Paul B]

Hi! Found your new thread and am following.

Why!

 

[Victoria M]

Paul, I suggest you stop drinking caffein by 2. and maybe lay off of the crack? lol xxoo

 

[Texas Reefer]

Why!

Lol, because you are funny. I respect that you know how to do stuff. And I want to know how your fish fared the move.[emoji851][emoji223]

 

[Paul B]

My fish all had to get plastic surgery to make their face bigger to fit their smiles. They are so happy they poop in rainbow colors.
The fireclowns are spawning so much they give me a headache and the water smells like eggs benedict. I have not fed my mandarin in a month and he is still in ecstasy because he hunts white worms that I throw in every other day. My copperband loves the new aquascape and thinks he is in a circus working for Barnum and Baily. All is well.

As I keep saying my fish stay healthy because of bacteria in the guts of the food I feed and they are not delicate creatures. They are withstanding huge temperature swings along with salinity cycles so far apart that I can keep Koi in there with them.
The lighting is ridiculous which is making my bristle worms cross eyed. I don't know how any corals are living but I have not lost one of them and they went from 160 nitrates to probably zero. I don't test for anything except Gatorade as I have been taking that stuff intravenously because my fish room is so damp there are cumulous clouds forming above the tank and Al Roker is predicting thunder storms in there.

The air is so full of water that my hermit crabs crawl out at night to watch the sunset on my workbench. I can test the salinity by licking the walls. I mean it is really damp in there and my next move is to install a huge exhaust fan. One that will make your nose hairs stand up from across the street.

I want it to suck so much moisture out of the room that if I forget it on, the tank would go dry.

Do I make my point?

 

[Victoria M]

or maybe it is LSD? you are a goofball. I love it. Always makes me smile, if not flat out lol.

 

[Leslie Tabor]

This is the best story EVER!!!

 

[Chasmodes]

Hopefully, your tools don't rust!

 

[foxt]

There were even still mom and pop banks back then...

Why did everything have to be sooooooo brown, orange and shaggy back then though??? Not a pretty time.

Better than the time before that when everything was just black and white.

 

[Pntbll687]

I have no idea. I saw lights and I bought them. Maybe they are American but I really doubt it. When they come, if by some miracle they actually work, I will read the box (if it is written in English) and tell you what kind of lights they are. If I knew they built USA lights I would have got them. These were the only lights I could find that didn't have too many bells and whistles. I just wanted to buy some lights that lit. I don't want to program them, connect them to my I phone, allow me to turn them on from Tunisia, make me coffee, dim, change color, sing like Lady GaGa or anything else. I just want to see light. Anything else I don't need and won't use. Like a remote. How lazy do you have to be to have to turn your lights on from across the planet? Like really! And why do you want to change colors, whats wrong with light color. Just light and do nothing else. But you can't find a light like that unless you build it yourself.
I know people are al Agog because there is an app on their phone that tells you the temperature in your house and in your refrigerator. How boring a person must be to have to look at their phone because they want to know the temperature of the pork chops they bought on sale last November.
Everyone has a refrigerator and the temperature is always the same. I can see if your phone tells you if the light really goes out when you close the door because that is important.

I knew there had to be people like me out there, that just want lights that turn on and off!!

I had some lights with all the options, and guess what, didn't use those options. I switched back to t5 with an outlet timer, and couldn't be happier. One less thing to fiddle with.

 

[Paul B]

I got new lights but I discovered after I opened the box that they are made in China so at the first opportunity, I will junk them. But they are very bright. All my fish are straining to close their eyes and they don't realize they have no eyelids. so they are scrunching up their faces .
The lights have all sorts of dials and switches but I plugged them in and they lit so I won't be needing or using all of that stuff.

Today I started to build my workbench. It is tough because the place is so full of stuff but I need the workbench so I can make my closets and shelves to put stuff away on. I also uncrated my radial arm saw and drill press so I will have some stuff to work with.
It is so damp in there that I get flashbacks from Viet Nam

Soon I will get an off the road permit so I can go to the sea easier to wash my remaining gravel that is still in my old, muddy water.

 

[Paul B]

I finally filled my tank up almost to the top, now it will be easier for the fish to jump out. I collected some water when we were watching fireworks on the beach. Everyone was looking up at the fireworks and didn't notice the Geezer in the water with a bucket.
I just had to strain out the bottle rockets and roman candles.

I have to clean the glass every day because of diatoms as the Long Island Sound water is loaded with "Stuff". I am sure it will grow red algae also but I kind of like that stuff. I have my diatom filter running on the tank all night because when I initially added water to the tank I used a defective diatom filter which dumped a bunch of diatom powder in the water. I didn't see the tank yet this morning so it will either be very clear, totally empty or the pump went on fire and looks like a lump of coal. It's so exciting to wonder about these things. Eventually I will finish hooking up my UG filter. It had all the tubes connected but one of the big rocks I added separated the tubes and they are now laying on the bottom housing bristle worms and God knows what else. It is so nice to have a clean glass in the back where I can see everything but that is short lived. Algae is starting to grow there and there is no way to clean it. I need to re-connect the tubes before it gets totally covered.

My new (garbage) China lights are still working and I didn't smell any smoke yet but they are still about 18" above the tank. I need to get some chain to lower them. The fish are all doing well which is surprising being I don't know what the temperature or salinity is. . I know many people feel those things need to be right in the middle of the line that someone said it has to be and they stay up at night measuring those things with laser beams and what not.

The tank looks much to sterile to me and I don't like it yet. I need to add more rock (which I have probably 100 lbs left in buckets) and more gravel. But most importantly it needs life. Microscopic life that I will collect as soon as I go out in my boat during low tide. I keep going out high tide and it is hard to collect anything during that tide.

My blue sponge which covered about a third of my tank shriveled up and turned white. It was thriving on nitrates and now there are none so it is croaking. Better it than me. But my other corals are really enjoying the new NSW. I need more corals, a lot more because this tank is bigger and so far has a lot less rocks in it.

I moved the door in my workshop and the electric base board heater because they were in the way of my new 10' workbench that I built yesterday.
The place is coming along. I need to finish installing the floor tiles and paint. There is still vats of rocks and gravel along with enough tools to build the stage for Lady GaGa concerts so I need places to put all that stuff away . I will be tossing out a lot of tools as I just have to much
I did too many things in my life and no longer need a special wrench to adjust the tailgate on 1969 Vista Cruiser Oldsmobile station wagon or adjust the points on Toronado's. Yesterday I threw out my timing light and dwell meter. As soon as I find it I will dump my valve grinding tools as well as my ring compressor and cylinder and brake cylinder hones. I can open a Sears with all the tools I have, a small Sears but a Sears none the less. I am expecting NASA to call looking to have some extra tools.

I hung an 8' LED light in the middle of my workshop on string temporarily because the 7 watt bulb the builder supplied just wasn't cutting it.
I need to permanently install lights and outlets. But I know an excellent electrician