Tank birthday, 47+ years

[mcarroll]

Might be time for another DIY project Paul a net to stop those naughty fish surfing

Those lights are awesome – so minimalist!!!!

 

[Paul B]

Those lights are awesome – so minimalist!!!!

They seem a little dark

 

[mjk250]

They seem a little dark

Minimalist lights providing the minimalist light ;Smuggrin

 

[atoll]

Those lights are awesome – so minimalist!!!!

You would be surprised at the amount of PAR and PUR they give out for the money ;Woot

 

[Paul B]

These little striped cardinals are spawning. I have 3 of them and it seems 2 of them are female and are pregnant to the joy of the one male.

But cardinals are very easy to spawn and they will spawn even if you lay them down on the asphalt of interstate 80 on a hot summer day and a Mack truck runs them over twice. Not a really big Mack truck like a tractor trailer but a smaller dump truck that is only maybe half full of ball bearings or old VCR tape players.

 

[atoll]

These little striped cardinals are spawning. I have 3 of them and it seems 2 of them are female and are pregnant to the joy of the one male.



But cardinals are very easy to spawn and they will spawn even if you lay them down on the asphalt of interstate 80 on a hot summer day and a Mack truck runs them over twice. Not a really big Mack truck like a tractor trailer but a smaller dump truck that is only maybe half full of ball bearings or old VCR tape players.

Now, Paul, you know quite well you are only pulling the plonkers of the good folk on here as most fish we keep are easy to spawn as its what they do naturally. You know perfectly well if you do the simple things right you can't stop them spawning, bit like supermodels as it seems they also enjoy spawning just not with the common man unless you know differently. I have 4 Royal grammas ...yes I know the "experts" say you can't keep more than one or they will kill one another but it seems the ones I buy defy the laws of the marine gods and not only coexist but enjoy the fruits of their loins. Mind you I do everything wrong it seems with my tank and it must be a desert or disease ridden. I just can't figure what it is I am doing so wrong. Now if you don't mind I will go back to my beer.

 

[Paul B]

Atoll, you and I are always doing everything wrong so I am sure the "experts" are spinning around in their labs testing things and making drawings of that ich reproductive chart. Our reefs just keep going by magic and luck. And yes, I did exaggerate about my cardinals spawning after they were run over by a Mack truck twice. It was only a Ford mini van.

 

[atoll]

Atoll, you and I are always doing everything wrong so I am sure the "experts" are spinning around in their labs testing things and making drawings of that ich reproductive chart. Our reefs just keep going by magic and luck. And yes, I did exaggerate about my cardinals spawning after they were run over by a Mack truck twice. It was only a Ford mini van.

WellI don't add mud as I live in a town and we only have cold fresh water reservoirs here and I can't add locally caught pods either but I can do lots of other things wrong similar to you like no ever quarantining a fish, feeding too much too often, courting disaster for 36 years by buying fresh foods from the fish market and feeding my fish and corals it etc etc. My fish and coral must hate me for living long lives and not seeing to get sick and regularly spawning. I don't add potions and must use water additives A this B that and C the other essential, I may add, elements. I am waiting for the BIG crash and disease to attack. BTW if you have a few supermodels or film star to spare we are a little short of them here right now, even a retired granny one will do.
She will do and I will pay her airfare.

 

[Paul B]

That's a nice Supermodel. But I am not picky when it comes to Supermodels. I don't know which one that is (Looks like Nicole) but I remember once I was taking my wife and Daughter on a helicopter tour around Manhattan and the small helicopter landed. My wife, Daughter and I ran out to get on the thing and we were stopped just before getting in because Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman needed a ride to the airport. I mean, Like Really!!!! He isn't even a Veteran, he did nothing for his country and he is an actor. Anyone can be an actor. A Pod can be an actor. So we had to wait for the thing to come back to get us.

This was about 25 years ago. I asked the guy how much it was for a helicopter ride and he told me something ridiculous like $450.00 for 10 minutes. 25 years ago that was a fortune. I told the guy, "I think you mis understood me" I don't want to buy the helicopter, I just want to ride on it for a little while.
Then I told him, "I don't care what you charge tourists, but I live here and I am a Veteran" . He said, "You take care of me and I will take care of you".

I gave him twenty bucks and he gave us the $450.00 ride all the way around Manhattan for the price of about $100.00 which was the 7 minute ride.
I flew all the time in Nam and I wanted to show my wife and Daughter how it was.

Getting back to fish. I also don't use GAC, ROB, PTSD, Doh Ray Me, ADHT or any other abbreviations or substitutes for real words. I also don't use or know what Rowaphas or Prizapro is or why you would need to use stump remover unless you have an oak tree growing in your tank. I don't dose Clorox but I used to bleach my "dead" corals in it in the 70s. I never bought a pod or took one out to dinner. I never dipped a coral in anything and if I did it certainly would not be insecticide, I may as well dip it in Napalm. I don't change water every 15 minutes or test more than once a decade. I try to do everything wrong but I have that Ich life cycle chart hanging over my bed.

 

[atoll]

That's a nice Supermodel. But I am not picky when it comes to Supermodels. I don't know which one that is (Looks like Nicole) .

Nope, but close its Kim Bassinger and I don't think she uses tree stump remover either however she may have used it to remove a few old boyfriends in the past.

 

[Paul B]

Yes Kim Bassinger. All the Supermodels who played in Bat Man movies sort of blend together. I don't know if they both played in Bat Man movies but I know Kim did. They look alike with that Supermodel sort of look.

 

[atoll]

Paul. they should name a Zoa after you something like a Paul Super Model Zoa

 

[Paul B]

That would be nice.

 

[Brew12]

Paul. they should name a Zoa after you something like a Paul Super Model Zoa

Would be perfect if they found one that looked like a Majano nem!

 

[Paul B]

So a few days ago I took 2 other couples and my wife out to dinner on my boat.

On the way to the boat I noticed that the air conditioner started blowing warm air so I looked at the temperature gauge and the car was overheating. Great, just what I want with a car full of people and other people meeting us at the marina in five minutes.

Luckily I was right near a gas station so I quickly went in there and shut the car off.

I open the hood and antifreeze is flying all over the place.

Now I have to wait five minutes for it to cool down and dissipate the smoke. I get a rag and open the radiator cap. Of course by now I need antifreeze so I buy a gallon from the station. I put it in and wait a few minutes for it to cool down further. I start it up and it seems fine so then I drive the ten minutes to my boat to meet the rest of the group.

I figure I will fix it tomorrow and I have the rest of the antifreeze with me in case I get stuck again.

We get on my boat and go to dinner at City Island in the Bronx and it was excellent.

We made it home in my car with no problem and I checked the oil which was a quart and a half low. I figure between that and the antifreeze probably being low, It will be fine now.

"Yeah Right"

The next day we drove about half an hour to my friends boat for a dinner cruise and on the way home, the thing overheats. Great. I cool it down, put in antifreeze and get it home.

Today I checked it out and what do you know, the fan isn't working.

These silly cars with the engine in sideways are always a pain to work on and to change the fan, you have to be Houdini and take half the car apart. This car is a PT Cruiser and is about 4" off the ground. It's like working on a toy. Of course I disconnected the fan wires first and connected them to the battery to make sure the thing was broken and I checked the 3 relays that control it.

I take out the fan and only cut myself 4 or 5 times because I think as they assemble these cars, they purposely sharpen all the ends of any exposed metal to see how much blood they can make you lose as you work on the car.

I go to the auto supply and buy a new fan. (These things come with the entire shroud and fan motor in one assembly because God Forbid you can only change the defective motor and keep the fan and shroud)

I get the thing home and compare it to my fan. Of course the wiring connecter is wrong so I have to go back the auto supply (who is a friend of mine) and after 45 minutes of looking it up, I get the correct part.

I stick the thing in and this time only cut myself 3 or 4 times and I don't need a tourniquet.

The fan is behind the radiator and air conditioner condenser.

I put back the grill, hoses, wires, brackets etc and start the thing up. Success.

(I was a GM Mechanic Many Many years ago when cars had cranks to start them)





I know what your thinking. It's a PT Cruiser, a Nerd car and not exactly a "Chick Magnet". You would be correct if a Snowflake was driving it, But I drive it and I am a real Man and not a snowflake. I love this car but I also have one of these.

 

[Chasmodes]

Good thing it wasn't some sort of sensor deep inside the engine compartment that is impossible to get to. When they started installing computers into my vehicles, I gave up on my own repairs. Kudos to you for sticking to the DIY and save money for your tank.

24 years ago, I tore apart and rebuilt the front end of my Bronco because I had to have a friend weld the engine support/cross member. I had to hoist the motor and pretty much disconnect everything. It took a while. My friend was the kind of friend that was always there for you and he helped me big time, taught me a few things too. While it was on blocks in my driveway and I was at work, someone stole my drive shaft. Maybe they thought it was an expensive custom drive shaft or something, but it wasn't, just stock. I had 4" of suspension lift on that truck (because, I'm a real man, at least I was back then...maybe I'm not now because I pay to have my car fixed), and because of the lift, it put a lot of strain on the U joints, so I was going through U joints about once a month. Also, with 4" of lift, I had plenty of room to crawl under the truck for repairs. Back then, without all of the emissions crap that they put in there and computers and stuff, it was much more roomy to get to things to fix. I still had my share of knuckle bashing with stuck bolts and all, and plenty of bolts that I sheared off that were too rusty to free up (huge pain in the caboose to fix those) that made easy jobs all day ones. And I had my share of return trips to the auto parts store for getting the wrong part too. Jeesh.

Maybe the thief did me a favor, except for putting me further in debt, because I had a custom drive shaft built for my truck. I didn't replace a single U joint after that, worked great.

I loved that truck. I used to keep the bolts undone on the roof compartment and lift it off myself to convert my SUV Bronco to an open air pick up Bronco truck. I met my wife on a blind date, and that's how I picked her up for the date. I had her climb in via the tailgate and walk into her front seat That was a key point in our future, because if she thought it was too redneck, there wouldn't have been a 2nd date. I guess she liked it

I heard that they were bringing the Bronco back, so maybe I'll trade in my FJ. But, I love my FJ. I am still terrified of all those computer parts and sensors though.

Anyway, glad you got your wheels fixed. Too bad when stuff happens like that it isn't always an easy hose to fix.

 

[Paul B]

I have the tool to check the error codes which I used before I tore out the fan. It showed no error codes. I also disconnected the fan wires under the car (I have ramps) and connected it directly to the battery using a jumper. It didn't spin.
I am pushing 70 and so far no one has ever touched my car, boat, house, appliances, landscaping, concrete or anything else except my teeth and If I could see in there and stand my screaming, I would fix those.

I bought this Willy's Jeep in about 1972 for $700.00 . My wife was mad at me. She was mad until the first time it snowed and I made almost $2,000.00 in one day plowing snow because in those days almost no one had a 4 wheel drive unless you had a Jeep or International truck. $2,000.00 was more than I made in a couple of months and every time it snowed I made a bundle. I plowed McDonalds, Burger King, reception houses, funeral homes Police Departments etc. I even pulled cars out of snow banks sideways. You couldn't stop a Military Willys Jeep. I could put that thing in Low, Low range and it would do about 3mph full speed. But you could drive it up to a cement wall, get out and walk away and the four wheels would still be turning at idle.
When I got it it was in bad shape. I pulled apart the "F" head engine which had 4 valves in the head and 4 in the block. I replaced the pistons and valves. Honed the cylinder walls, replaced the clutch and the thing was a tank.
The ignition system was military specs and it could be driven under about 6' of water although I don't know how you would see.
The ignition wiring was in plumbing pipes and the distributor cap looked like a fire hydrant. I replaced all that with conventional wiring because I couldn't get the parts and I didn't need to drive it underwater.
Check out my hair.

 

[mcarroll]

That's definitely a classic!! I used to drive by the plant in Toledo about every other week for a while.

We used to get snow like that every winter when I was a kid....2-3 feet. It just kinda stopped around 1980 or so...since then we get slop for winter.

Only very occasionally we'll get a snowmageddon like that nowadays – it's so rare they had to come up with a fancy name for it!

Oh, and I also literally had my pickup truck (Tacoma 2WD) pulled sideways out of a snowbank by a Jeep during the last snowmageddon. Right in front of my house.

It was almost funny how it happened....the Tacoma is so light that when I was coming home and the front wheels hit the icy curb on my driveway, the front of the truck just started sliding down the street against the curb, like it was trying to park itself on the side of the road. Unfortunately there was already another car snowed into that spot! I got stopped with less than 1/4" between the vehicles. Then I called the buddy with the Jeep.

 

[Paul B]

Just a video of my reef to keep this on fish. I know 87% of the people who were following this thread (for some silly reason) left to find threads with =something about fish on them.

 

[rich nyc]

Hey paul where did you get your purple queen anthias and arent they supposed to be nearly impossible to feed. They are a beauty I would say maybe even better the Kim Bassinger lol but she is on the old side for me lol