Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Subsea]

So today I walked into my workshop/fishroom/workshop/ManCave and I looked at my tank. OMG!! The tank was totally cloudy and the fishes eyes were all smoky. Every one of them.
Then my wife, who followed me in said "Whats on Fire?" .. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGggggg. The tank wasn't cloudy and the fishes eyes weren't smoky. The place was filled up with smoke. Ahhhhhhgggggggggggg. There was also a big puddle under the tank which I jumped right into to start unplugging things. I looked around and couldn't feel anything hot or leaking. But then, my electricians keen eye saw this. (see picture below) Now I went to High School and everything so I knew this wasn't good. There was water coming out of the brand new electrical outlet and the pumps and other things plugged into it were not running. I checked the breaker and it had tripped.

But I still couldn't figure out where the water was coming from. I replaced the receptacles and melted plugs and turned the power on.

AAAAAAAHHHHhhhhhhhggggggggAAAaaaaaaaa Flood. Water was shooting out of a pipe coupling near the top of the skimmer and hitting the ceiling. Then it was traveling down the side of the tank right into the outlet. The PVC coupling that was used for many years completely split in half and most of the water that was supposed to go into the skimmer, went into my outlets.

I then turned on my really huge, Manly exhaust fan full force until my ears were clean of wax and cleared out the smoke.

Now I fixed the coupling and electric and all is again well.

Paul,
We are in a parallel universe. Instead of a pvc coupling split, one month ago, a 55G macro growout tank seperate at the seam and put 20G of water on my wood floor. I had to get behind the sheetrock and pull out some melted wire.

 

[Fin]

Holy smoke! Glad that didn't go any further.

 

[Subsea]

Holy smoke! Glad that didn't go any further.

Me too.

Laissez les bonne temps roulee,
Patrick

 

[Paul B]

Today I am doing a few projects in my new place. I started doing some plumbing to connect my DIY ATO to the water supply through the RO/DI and resins and to my tank, at the same time I am taping the bathroom so I can paint it I just built the thing and and am wiring it. also built shelves for it. But in between that I am staining some ratty looking "New" wood to look like barn wood and I must say, and I must, that it is coming out better than my wildest dreams. OK, my second wildest dreams.
When I am waiting for different coats to dry on this wood and the bathroom I do other things as I hate wasted time. I ate 6:00am this morning and have not stopped yet so I will eat lunch and dinner at the same time. If I add oatmeal to my linguini and clams I can also call it tomorrow's breakfast.

This wood I rescued from 2 large skids outside a furniture store.



This is my finished "Barn wood". I can buy barnwood but the farmers found out how valuable it is so they charge a fortune for it. I will cover my Master bedroom wall with this and there will be a barn door in the middle as the headboard. My place is very industrial/Steampunk looking

 

[Victoria M]

cool wood stuff Paul. Holycraparula about the fire stuff. glad your supermodel is doing well.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks Victoria. Actually my Supermodel isn't well at all today and she is in so much pain that I am having trouble making her stop crying. I am leaving her alone for a while and hope some pain pills take effect. She is in so much pain today I don't know what to do. MS destroys your nerves and pain medication doesn't work.
She is just screaming in pain and there is nothing I can do for her. I feel so bad for her but I had to leave her alone for a while and hope she feels a little better soon

 

[Victoria M]

oh, Paul that is so sad. Chronic pain is debilitating. Has she tried fentanyl patches?

 

[fishybizzness]

Bless you Paul, we know you are doing all you can. I pray that your wife will overcome this terrible time she is having to endure...

 

[Paul B]

No but she has medical marijuana which is an oil and it really just helps you sleep. It does nothing for pain and you can't even get high on it. It is raining and when it rains, it is much worse. She is a little better now but we take each day as it comes. Sometimes she has pretty good days, but today wasn't one of them.

 

[Victoria M]

seriously, please have her talk to her doctor about a fentanyl patch. There is better pain control available than marijuana.

 

[Paul B]

Ok I will ask her Neurologist. We are friends with him and his wife and go out all the time. I can call him. Thanks

 

[Paul B]

I really need time to make an algae scrubber on my tank as I got hair algae. It is a good thing just looks bad. I can't see me getting time for that until the winter though. My wife is still sleeping and I won't wake her, I just hope she feels better today. It is hard to concentrate on things when she gets like that. It's not raining so I am hoping she will feel better today.

I have to do some Silly Girly things this morning like go to Home Goods with her to return some silly crab knick knack with a broken foot.
Then hopefully I can work on my barn doors. The tank will have to wait.

 

[siggy]

Then hopefully I can work on my barn doors. The tank will have to wait.

Paul how did you finish that to get that look? Has a bit of metallic look to it.

I feel for your wife, Raw nerve pain is the worst. I battled that for 20 years, hope you two have a good day.

 

[Fin]

Hoping for a better day for Mrs. B and you too.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, she is feeling a little better today. Every day is a surprise waking up and I don't know what to expect, but the nights are much worse.

Paul how did you finish that to get that look? Has a bit of metallic look to it.

I started with scurvy, cheap pallet wood and first painted it lightly and sporadically with white paint. Then I put a very little red barn color paint in places with the tips of an old brush. Let that dry then add Varathane Aged Wood accelerator. That turns it gray almost instantly. After that dries i gently and not all over use a belt sander to remove some of the surface revealing the white paint. I think it comes out pretty good. Different types of wood age a different color. Some of it is gray and some is almost black.

 

[Paul B]

I finished building the barn doors today and am waiting for the hardware which should be here in a day or two. Then I can start putting it all up on the wall. It should look pretty good, if not at least different. The doors will be the headboard and they will be functional, but there is nothing behind them but the wall.
While I am destroying the wall behind them with all the screws I will also install 3 or 4 ceiling boxes to hang industrial lights. They will just be Edison bulbs on the end of a wire suspended over the head of the bed. I may suspend them from an old beam if I can find the exact piece of wood I am looking for .

Victoria, I spoke to my wife's neurologist and she can't take a fentanyl patch. She is already on heavy duty nerve calming medications for trigeminal neuralgia which is called the suicide pain. The medication keeps that away for most of the time, but it makes her walking less stable which is not stable anyway.

 

[Paul B]

I am still "Battling" algae. But when I get my diatom filter parts this will pass. I used one of my old diatom filters just now and I would have gotten less water on the floor if I just turned over the tank.
I don't know how people maintain a reef tank without a diatom filter. I mean one that works.

Last week I made a concoction for my wife for her pain as I am always reading. (usually my book but sometimes other things ) I am blending whatever anti inflamitory things I can find and in the last three days her pain hasn't been to bad. Even today when we are having huge thunderstorms she hardly has pain and it's usually unbearable at these times. I am making another batch tonight because I want her to drink an entire pitcher of it daily. It is composed of 2 large fresh beets from a farm stand. Fresh blueberries, apples peaches and tart cherry juice. It is also pretty good tasting.
I am hoping this keeps her pain down and maybe I will get a Nobel peace prize for it. OK, I doubt it but if it helps her, that is all the prizes I need.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Nice work! (Helping your Supermodel. [emoji4])

It's amazing what eating healthy stuff (instead of the stuff I like) can do.

Glad to hear she is feeling a little better!

Ex wife used to get terrible migraines (I wasn't always the cause. [emoji20])
It was horrible to watch her go through that. Not much I could do except turn out the lights and bring her cold towels and try to be quiet.

 

[Paul B]

I am never quiet, that is the problem.

 

[Fin]

I am still "Battling" algae. But when I get my diatom filter parts this will pass. I used one of my old diatom filters just now and I would have gotten less water on the floor if I just turned over the tank.
I don't know how people maintain a reef tank without a diatom filter. I mean one that works.

I have had a number of those over the years. I think they all leaked. I think you should design something that actually works.

Last week I made a concoction for my wife for her pain as I am always reading. (usually my book but sometimes other things ) I am blending whatever anti inflamitory things I can find and in the last three days her pain hasn't been to bad. Even today when we are having huge thunderstorms she hardly has pain and it's usually unbearable at these times. I am making another batch tonight because I want her to drink an entire pitcher of it daily. It is composed of 2 large fresh beets from a farm stand. Fresh blueberries, apples peaches and tart cherry juice. It is also pretty good tasting.
I am hoping this keeps her pain down and maybe I will get a Nobel peace prize for it. OK, I doubt it but if it helps her, that is all the prizes I need.

Good to see Mrs. B smiling and out and about! Great job with the concoction you came up with. I hope it continues to give her some relief. That's pretty awesome to come up with something like that to help her, when her doctors weren't able to. That's pretty special.