Tank birthday, 47+ years

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Paul B

Paul B

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The bottom part is a vintage light from Broadway, the center part was some sort of timer that you crank the spring to load it. I have no idea what it was for. The top part is dated from 1961 and it is from the Long Island Rail Road. The entire thing weighs about 15lbs. The bicycle chain spins for as long as I set the control for and I slowed the spring timer on the large pulley in the center by adding a fan to the axle of the thing. There is a firelight inside the Broadway light but the thing has absolutely no purpose what so ever so it is a conversation piece.

It took a few weeks to build and I have about $400.00 in parts into it.
 

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I've spent the last two weeks reading every post - yes, on purpose - and I have to say that this is awesome. Your tank is amazing. I'm very similar in many ways. I've only been reef keeping for about three years now but I started without QT, and very Diy. I prefer to build everything I possibly can. My first tank was a 2.5 gallon Pico and I slowly got into bigger tanks. I just upgraded to a 20 gallon last week and used all of my original rock and substrate. Everything survived considering everything lived in buckets for a few days. I copied on of your bottles and it has become the home of my maroon clown which I was hoping it would. I very much hope this post continues for a long time as I enjoy reading it. I have posted my tanks and methods on another forum but rarely get a comment or feedback because I am apparently not in the 'cool kids' club. Perhaps I should start a build thread here and see if there is more interest. Thanks for sharing your methods.
20190821_174144.jpg
20190821_174213.jpg
 
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Wow, on purpose, that is something. :)
Apparently, I am not in the cool kids club either because although this thread has 4,641 posts, I am sure I posted 4,600 of them as I also get very little feedback except for the ones that tell me to stick an urchin spine in my eye. ;Blackeye

I am very glad you posted because I sit all day in front of my computer just waiting for someone, anyone to say something, but most people are either ignoring my posts or in a coma. I suspect the former. :rolleyes:

This afternoon I may go to collect water here in the sea. I go to the boat ramp and just back up my Jeep and pump it in. On Friday it will be a very low tide here so I will go to the beach at 5:30 am with a bucket to collect amphipods.
It's slim pickins on this beach but I should get at least a couple of hundred.



This is higher tide, so nothing of interest.

 

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If I wanted to collect water today I could get it from here...
20190827_102452.jpg


Which is anclote river, or here...
20190827_104613.jpg


Which is ground water, also anclote river, but it's brackish, maybe it would be good for my ato reservoir. I collected some mud here a while back but no amphipods. For anyone wondering this is going to be a swimming pool when it's finished ;)
 
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Paul, ever try feeding some of that green algae in the pic above to your tank?

Yes, many times, but not that particular algae. There is a "stringy" looking algae that I can collect out east here at low tide. It lives a few months in the tank but the fish do eat it. It's very green and nice looking.

I also collect this Codium seaweed here on the Atlantic. It is very common and lives for about 6 months in my tank. The fish don't eat that.



Savas, looks like there would be a lot of land run off in that water, I don't think I would take it from there.
But I started my tank with water from the East River in Manhattan so what do I know. ;Wideyed

 

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Very true, the water is murky and I don't think even your diatom filter would help it much, would probably have to water it down with the hose first, plus there's a oil power plant in the middle... To bad it isn't nuclear, the amphipods would have super powers. ;Spiderman
 

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Wow, on purpose, that is something. :)
Apparently, I am not in the cool kids club either because although this thread has 4,641 posts, I am sure I posted 4,600 of them as I also get very little feedback except for the ones that tell me to stick an urchin spine in my eye. ;Blackeye

I am very glad you posted because I sit all day in front of my computer just waiting for someone, anyone to say something, but most people are either ignoring my posts or in a coma. I suspect the former. :rolleyes:

This afternoon I may go to collect water here in the sea. I go to the boat ramp and just back up my Jeep and pump it in. On Friday it will be a very low tide here so I will go to the beach at 5:30 am with a bucket to collect amphipods.
It's slim pickins on this beach but I should get at least a couple of hundred.



This is higher tide, so nothing of interest.

Well Paul, since I’ve been a member of this forum, I’ve quite enjoyed reading your post and views. And I’ve read a ton of them!!! It’s certainly fascinating to me that you’ve had systems set up as long as you have. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Must be the super models. I’m convinced;)!
 
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Yesterday I changed the battery on my very old I Phone SE. The thing may be 10 years old, I am not sure as the years fly by but I refuse to get a new phone. The thing works and I don't need it to make me breakfast in the morning. The job wasn't to hard but I had to remove a bunch of screws about as big as this----------> , <----------. Maybe smaller.

The battery came with a screwdriver and a few other tools for such small screws. The old battery I threw in a bucket of salt water to make sure it is dead before I recycle it as it shorted out as I removed it and smoked. But I am an electrician so I am used to sparks. :p

Now the phone works like a new one, only better.




This is the lagoon we anchor in here as we haven't found too many places here in Peconic bay.
But we are getting used to it and are finding quite a few places to eat at by boat.


 

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Yesterday I changed the battery on my very old I Phone SE. The thing may be 10 years old, I am not sure as the years fly by but I refuse to get a new phone. The thing works and I don't need it to make me breakfast in the morning. The job wasn't to hard but I had to remove a bunch of screws about as big as this----------> , <----------. Maybe smaller.

The battery came with a screwdriver and a few other tools for such small screws. The old battery I threw in a bucket of salt water to make sure it is dead before I recycle it as it shorted out as I removed it and smoked. But I am an electrician so I am used to sparks. :p

Now the phone works like a new one, only better.




This is the lagoon we anchor in here as we haven't found too many places here in Peconic bay.
But we are getting used to it and are finding quite a few places to eat at by boat.


Not only are your post interesting to read. And entertaining I might add. You crack me up!!!
 
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Last night just before sundown my friend and I go to a boat ramp to collect water.
I back my Jeep up to the water on a boat ramp next to a beach, roll out the hose, throw the bilge pump into the sea and start pumping water into the car.

I have collected water on this beach for maybe 20 years and in all that time I have never seen anyone launch a boat or take one from the water. As a matter of fact, I never even saw a boat in the water there as that is the eastern Long Island Sound and it is a 27 mile wide stretch of open water and kind of rough.

There is space for two boats to launch at the same time.
After one of my three 8 gallon buckets gets filled, a cop shows up. I figured he will ask what we are doing and making sure we are not dumping Anthrax, Prizapro or those little tags that read, "Do Not Remove Under Penalty of The Law".

Now on my car I have a boat ramp permit and a beach access permit that allows me to drive on the sand right into the water like a submarine if I want.
I also have Vietnam Veteran license plates and Combat Veteran stickers.

The Cop says, "Is that your car?"
I almost said "No, I am stealing it, but first I want to fill it up with sea water and load it with 8 or 9 tuna infected with ich and fin rot just to see if the owner knows how to cure them". But I figured I would just say:
Yes Officer, this is my car, is there a problem?

He said: Do you have a boat? I said, Yes, but it's not here right now. (Like Duh, I think he would have seen a boat as behind my car was the Atlantic Ocean with a beautiful sunset and nothing to obscure his vision.

He says, you need a boat to use the boat ramp. I said, I have a boat ramp permit and it is almost night time, in 20 years I have never seen a boat here, there are two ramps and I would move if a boat came.
He just said, (In a tone like he just had a fight with his wife and lost) "Move your Car".

I could tell this Gentleman had nothing to do, was in a bad mood and instead of looking for criminals he felt like chasing two Veteran Geezers collecting a little seawater at night for a fish tank.

(Because I am a Veteran I got the $50.00 beach access permit for free)

So I only had one bucket of water.
We then went o another beach much closer to my house. I drove on to the sand down to the water and found a place in a hole in a big rock to throw my sump pump and I collected the rest of the water there which was much cleaner anyway.

I hope when that cop went home he has a 500 gallon salt water tank and everything including his clingfish, bristleworms and flounders are infected with flukes that are this size.



This is the beach we ended up collecting at.


 
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This morning I heated it a little, added a little ASW and dumped it in. The Alk of the seawater was about 6 and the temp was about 74 so it wasn't that bad. The salinity was about .019.
The corals are all smiling and the fish are doing the Mashed Potatoes. (Google it)
I spilled a few gallons because I forgot this tank has braces across the top and the top of the tank is just above my field of vision. I poured five gallons of water right on the 3" wide brace and soaked myself. ;Wideyed

I had to diatom filter this water because i am taking it in 6" of water right on the beach and it is filled with small pieces of seaweed. The bilge pump I am using chops it up into tiny pieces that look like a chopped salad at Arby's even though I have never been there. :p
 
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Pancho, I like cops and have a bunch of cop friends. But this guy must have been bored because he didn't find any terrorists, arsonists, rapists, Jay Walkers or people who walk around with very long nose hair. :rolleyes:

I almost thought he was going to call the sea water collection police who are worse than the tang police. ;Wideyed
 
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We have the kids and Grand Kids over this weekend so at sunrise I went to my workshop to hide. I mean to do important stuff.

The tank was still dark but I looked over at it and I noticed that my very large long spine urchin found my Codium seaweed and was having a breakfast salad as I figured he would.

But something else caught my eye. Crawling in the front glass was a creature I have never seen before and I was sure it wasn't Godzilla Larvae. I watched it for a while trying to figure what it was. It had a skinny body and long spindle legs but it wasn't colorful, kind of a brownish color.

I was all excited because I figured something I collected fro the sea actually grew. I had visions of being interviewed by Barbara Walters (after she comes out of retirement) and having pictures of me standing next to the tank on National Geographic.

I envisioned all sorts of things as I was certain this was a new species and they probably name it after me.

Maybe "Splended Legged Paulie"

Then I got close and chased the spider off my tank and went for breakfast. :(
 

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