Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Brew12]

Cracker, my plans and what will actually happen may be far in between. I hope to get some time to build a "pillar" rock structure that will support my reef structure a few inches off the gravel. I need time for that and room. Right now I am building my track lights, which are coming out fantastic if I must say,and I do.
They are custom designed to put light in the kitchen where I want it because the lights are not movable once it's up. I can aim them, but not actually move them because they are built on a 1 1/4 X 1 1/4" square aluminum channel which I power sanded, primed and painted flat black. The thing is 14' long.
I also have my tank stand and the huge bed I built here along with dozens of boxes of dishes and junk I amassed by living here for 39 years. I haven't started on my tools yet but I already gave away my snow blower, chain saw,edger, wheelbarrow, rakes, shovels, snow shovels, sawzall, circular saw, impact drills and more.
I am having my boat trucked out there next week and I need to work on that to get it tied up and ready.
I need room to build that rock, then I need room, and time to soak it for a couple of weeks.
It all takes time and life gets in the way.
Like today. I turned on my sprinkler system for the first time this year and 3 heads were broken. Of course they didn't break at the surface, I had to dig down through the mud to find the pipe with the broken threads in it so i could tease out the broken piece to install a new one.
I also need to order the UG filter.
If it all goes well (I doubt it) I plan to put the tank on the stand in the new house and fill it with NSW. I will need to heat that and probably diatom filter it because I am taking it from the surf and it will have a lot of fine sand and floating stuff in it. After that, I plan on coming here with some heal and taking everything out of the tank to transfer, then I will dump it in. That is the plan. But remember the new people want to move in on the same day I move out so that maybe tricky.
I can't get in the new house until I pay for it and I can't pay for it until I close and after I close, i don't own the house any more.

Moving is such a pain. I don't envy you doing it, but I hope you love your new place!

Listening to what you are going through has convinced me a condo on the beach is the best option for retirement. I'll let someone else do the maintenance.

 

[Paul B]

Brew, I actually love to do the maintenance and gardening. I also love to make things that go outside. I can still do it but being my wife has MS I am thinking of her as she has trouble with stairs although she can still do them. She is very depressed as the disease makes you depressed and the medications make you depressed, then they give her anti depression medication, so her body doesn't now to be happy or sad. The medications are worse than the disease. But the new house, after I install an elevator to get over the garage level, will have no stairs or saddles in the doorways. It is an open floor plan with a huge, Island kitchen and of course everything is new.
Hopefully she doesn't get worse but MS is a progressive disease and if anything gets worse, a condo is a better option. I am very sad to leave my house as I built everything here along with much of the house and furniture

 

[Brew12]

Brew, I actually love to do the maintenance and gardening. I also love to make things that go outside. I can still do it but being my wife has MS I am thinking of her as she has trouble with stairs although she can still do them. She is very depressed as the disease makes you depressed and the medications make you depressed, then they give her anti depression medication, so her body doesn't now to be happy or sad. The medications are worse than the disease. But the new house, after I install an elevator to get over the garage level, will have no stairs or saddles in the doorways. It is an open floor plan with a huge, Island kitchen and of course everything is new.
Hopefully she doesn't get worse but MS is a progressive disease and if anything gets worse, a condo is a better option. I am very sad to leave my house as I built everything here along with much of the house and furniture

My wife has times where she needs medications to help with PTSD issues from being in the Marines. I know exactly what you mean about the med's being worse than the disease!

Hopefully the new house will work out well for you guys long term. I enjoy working on my house now, but even though I am relatively young, things aren't as easy as they used to be. 12 years ago I re-tiled our kitchen/dining area in 3 days. It would take me a week now with a bottle of Motrin to do the same work. ;Blackeye I'm thinking by the time I retire, I'll be ready to enjoy drinking coffee on the balcony while someone else changes the o-rings in my faucet to stop a drip.

 

[Paul B]

I built a Sulfur Denitritor for kicks. I won't install it until I move. I just want to experiment to see how they work.

 

[Brew12]

I built a Sulfur Denitritor for kicks. I won't install it until I move. I just want to experiment to see how they work.

Why do you hate nitrates?

 

[Paul B]

Why do you hate nitrates?

If I hated nitrates mine wouldn't be 160.

I just built it out of parts I built other things with to experiment. I like to build things and I think it looks cool. When I am finished experimenting, I may make it into a lamp.

 

[Chasmodes]

If I hated nitrates mine wouldn't be 160.

I just built it out of parts I built other things with to experiment. I like to build things and I think it looks cool. When I am finished experimenting, I may make it into a lamp.

This cracked me up! ;Woot Tankpunk lamp

 

[Brew12]

Hey Paul, I just learned something you may find interesting.

The Living Seas exhibit at Disney Epcot has a 30"+ dolomite gravel substrate bed. The best part? They use a reverse flow UG filter!

And you thought you were unique that way, apparently the Mouse studies and copies your methods!

 

[AlexStinson]

I use a reverse UGF for my refugium, they aren't all dead.

 

[mcarroll]

@Paul B wondering what is/has been the average temperature in your tank?

 

[Paul B]

Hey Paul, I just learned something you may find interesting.

The Living Seas exhibit at Disney Epcot has a 30"+ dolomite gravel substrate bed. The best part? They use a reverse flow UG filter!

And you thought you were unique that way, apparently the Mouse studies and copies your methods!

They must have subscribed to my YouTube account.

@Paul B wondering what is/has been the average temperature in your tank?

My old boiler gauge from the Plaza Hotel reads 78 right now. It varies a few degrees up or down. I don't pay too much attention to it. I feel it when I clean the glass and I can tell if it is off.
You can see it to the left of the skimmer. I am not to sure how accurate it is but I don't see the fish sweating so I think it's fine.

 

[mcarroll]

Nice! Thanks.

 

[Paul B]

So I fired my elevator contractor because he was a Jiboni and I don't think he knew an elevator from a lighted refugium.
I hired a new one yesterday and will see how that goes.
I also called a builder today because I need a licensed carpenter to build a shaft inside the original shaft which is much too big.

I really hate this because I have never hired anyone in my life except on my job. Everyone seems like Jibonies to me as this stuff is so simple I could build this shaft in a few days if they would let me. But of course you need to be licensed, insured and good looking.
It takes 6 weeks to get the prints which I could draw myself in a couple of hours. The elevator car takes over 3 months to build, another thing that probably takes 6 hours. Everything is a big deal. How do people live that have to hire people for everything? I would blow my brains out after I blew their brains out. Like OMG just do something! even if it's wrong, thats better than nothing.

 

[norfolkgarden]

So I fired my elevator contractor because he was a Jiboni and I don't think he knew an elevator from a lighted refugium.
I hired a new one yesterday and will see how that goes.
I also called a builder today because I need a licensed carpenter to build a shaft inside the original shaft which is much too big.

I really hate this because I have never hired anyone in my life except on my job. Everyone seems like Jibonies to me as this stuff is so simple I could build this shaft in a few days if they would let me. But of course you need to be licensed, insured and good looking.
It takes 6 weeks to get the prints which I could draw myself in a couple of hours. The elevator car takes over 3 months to build, another thing that probably takes 6 hours. Everything is a big deal. How do people live that have to hire people for everything? I would blow my brains out after I blew their brains out. Like OMG just do something! even if it's wrong, thats better than nothing.

Plenty of room for insulation for the inner shaft?

How did the heated oil reservoir or shaft every work out?

 

[Paul B]

No need to insulate the shaft as it is outside and I won't heat it. I will however have to heat the motor and oil reserve. I will also heat trace the piston that lifts the car. The elevator company never did a job like this so it is new for them. The doors will also be outside so I have to prevent rain and snow from going down the shaft as residential elevators are not built for that. I will have to do some work on top of the car to prevent water damage.

 

[Brew12]

Like OMG just do something! even if it's wrong, thats better than nothing.

Every lawyer in NYC is hoping these builders make a mistake putting in an elevator. Especially if someone dies from it! Nothing like the threat of a good lawsuit to slow things down!

 

[Paul B]

We are swimming in Lawyers here which is why it takes so long to get a medical procedure done, why coffee can't be hot, why they have those silly tage on stuffed animals and chairs that say: Do Not Remove Under Penalty of the Lay. (Like did anyone ever get arrested for removing one of those) Why it says on those little packets you get with Electronics: DO NOT EAT. And the reason everything moves so slow and costs so much.
I was a constuction worker most of my life and now we have to make the jobs so safe, that we don't have any time left to actually build anything because we are spending so much time making safety barriers and other things. I am all for safety, but if you are never going to finish the job, why bother.
Here in New York in the late 1800s, not sure of the actual year but we built 3 water tunnels that supplied water to NYC. The tunnels are 90' under ground through solid rock and it took a few years to complete. I don't know, maybe 10 years. They were, at the time the longest tunnels in the world.

We have been building new water tunnels now for as long as I can remember and they still are not done and I think we lost almost as many men now as they did then when they did it with shovels, spoons and mules.

I just remembered this story, but I am sure I posted it on here somewhere so if you read it go and watch Oprah give houses to homeless cats with Alzheimer disease.

I had a guy on the job who we called Speedy. This was the remodel of the New York City Playboy Club (where I would have worked for free but they insisted on paying me)

I never saw someone as incompetent as Speedy. I don't know how he got dressed in the morning.
For instance. I told him to install the little grills on the stairs in the night club so the light shines on the steps. Night clubs are purposely dark so you just want to light up the step. He installed all them up side down. He said you couldn't see the light if they shined on the steps. I told him: You don't want to see the light, just the step.

Then around the perimeter there was cove lighting at the ceiling with a little flood light every 6". There were hundreds of them. We had to install these metal plates that were 6" X 6" in between every light. Simple because there was a screw sticking out for each one and all he had to do was put a nut on each one.
We turned the lights on and I said Wow, he really did it good. Then the steel plates, which would give you a nice gash if it hit you started to fall down.

I looked and they were all taped up with electrical tape so when the lights heated the tape, they all fell down. He said he couldn't get the nut on.

I had him install a baffle over the lights on the bar. He slipped and pulled the entire fixture down and broke it.

Going to lunch as we walked down the stairs I told him to straighten the switch plate. (we didn't want him come to lunch with us)
He hit the plate with a pliers and broke the plate and switch.

I told him to gather all the tools and put them in the gang box (big tool box) on the sidewalk and wait for the truck to pick them up.

I went outside (on Fifth Ave, and 59th st Manhattan) and thousands of dollars worth of tools were scattered all over the sidewalk and the box was locked. No sign of Speedy.

So I knew we couldn't get him to do the simplest thing so I had him sit in a chair in the middle of the showroom and I took two dead wires out of the ceiling and told him to sit there and don't move. Just keep putting these wires together every second and I am going on the roof to test for them.

After a few hours i forgot about Speedy and was going home. I came to the place where he was, and he was still sitting there putting those two wires together.

My Union had us keep him working no matter what because he was some important guys son and he needed a couple of weeks working to get his card and no one else could take him because he was too stupid. Then they wanted to make him an office worker probably throwing out the garbage but I doubt he could do that as he was under qualified.

 

[Paul B]

I just cleaned my algae scrubber and I noticed in my UG filter manifold that one tube was clogged wit tube worms. I made a hook on some wire and lifted some out then I had to chop the rest of them up to restore movement. In doing that a tube that feeds the left UG plate came apart. It is right in the middle of the tank behind the reef structure so it will have to remain disconnected until I move in just over a month.
The fish will just have to get over it.

 

[Paul B]

I never hired anyone in my life for anything and can't stand the fact that I now have to hire someone to build my elevator shaft in my new home for the handicapped elevator for my wife.
I can do this with no problem for about a grand but you have to be licensed and insured for that town.
I am getting bids but it breaks my heart to do this.
I built my second floor installed my solar panels and wired and plumbed the house. I have been doing this all my life and it's easy but I am not allowed to do it there until I own the place.

Next week i am having surgery on my right hand and I won't be able to use it for a month so moving everything in my tank is going to be fun using only my left hand. I wanted to build some rock but i don't think I can do it in a few days although I may try.

 

[GBRsouth]

Sorry to hear about your troubles with your elevator Paul.

If I was close I would definitely want to help out with your tank move. Hopefully, others who are closer will step up to give you that extra hand.