Tank birthday, 47+ years

[atoll]

I had a reverse flow under gravel filter about 30 years ago. I used a Hagen external filter filter a 302 or other not sure but it hadv inlets and 2 outlets so ideal for powering water down 2 uplifts I mean downlifts. I used baby bottle teats to secure the 12mm powerfilter pipe to the uplifts I mean downlifts or should that be downpush tubes?

Anyway that's what I did. I used Hagen interlocking filter plates with calcium plus gravel innthe bottom with coral sand on top. The 2 layers were seperate by a plastic screen called a gravel tidy. This worked for many years until I built my 130gallon system.
I recall reading an article on a study down in one of the magazines that stated dyed water only pushed through the gravel and screen within the first few inches around the tube as it entered the downpush tubes. The reasoning seem reasonable in that water will flow through the least area of resistance.

How if mine worked like that I will never know but I suspect it worked similar. Just what the other 75% of the gravel and sand accomplish is anybody's guess, perhaps denitrification.

I also doubt we will see a similar experiment carried out but it would be interesting to see done.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

I had a reverse flow under gravel filter about 30 years ago. I used a Hagen external filter filter a 302 or other not sure but it hadv inlets and 2 outlets so ideal for powering water down 2 uplifts I mean downlifts. I used baby bottle teats to secure the 22mm powerfilter pipe to the uplifts I mean downlifts or should that be downpushe tubes?

Anyway that's what I did. I used Hagen interlocking filter plates with calcium plus gravel innthe bottom with coral sand on top. The 2 layers were seperate by a plastic screen called a gravel tidy. This worked for many years until I built my 130gallon system.
I recall reading an article on a study down in one of the magazines that stated dyed water only pushed through the gravel and screen within the first few inches around the tube as it entered the downpush tubes. The reasoning seem reasonable in that water will flow through the least area of resistance.

How if mine worked like that I will never know but I suspect it worked similar. Just what the other 75% of the gravel and sand accomplish is anybody's guess, perhaps denitrification.

I also doubt we will see a similar experiment carried out but it would be interesting to see done.

can you use window screen to build a plenum?

 

[Paul B]

So the tank is 57years old now?

No, Don't be ridiculous. It is only 50 years old.

 

[Paul B]

So yesterday some Jiboni from my marina was putting diesel fuel in his boat, but he accidentally put 12 gallons of it into the "rod holder hole" instead of the fuel tank. Oops!

So it all went into his bilge and swirled around his engine. Instead of staying there and having someone pump it out, he took off.

This is the mouth of a river and in a few hundred yards becomes a salt water bay (Peconic Bay) then out to the Atlantic.

Either he turned on his bilge pump or it came on automatically and all that oil spread across my marina and the entire width of the river and out to sea.

My marina had a sheen on it and a strong smell of diesel oil which is very pungent. The ducks there frown on that.

Next thing I know there are maybe 15 police cars, Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Fire Marshals, Coast Guard and even Taylor Swift.

They all had their summons books out but I think Taylor Swift was writing a song about bubble gum.

When that guy comes back, he will have to take out a huge loan to cover these fines, more even that if he wanted to start a 125 gallon SPS reef.

 

[atoll]

So yesterday some Jiboni from my marina was putting diesel fuel in his boat, but he accidentally put 12 gallons of it into the "rod holder hole" instead of the fuel tank. Oops!

So it all went into his bilge and swirled around his engine. Instead of staying there and having someone pump it out, he took off.

This is the mouth of a river and in a few hundred yards becomes a salt water bay (Peconic Bay) then out to the Atlantic.

Either he turned on his bilge pump or it came on automatically and all that oil spread across my marina and the entire width of the river and out to sea.

My marina had a sheen on it and a strong smell of diesel oil which is very pungent. The ducks there frown on that.

Next thing I know there are maybe 15 police cars, Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Fire Marshals, Coast Guard and even Taylor Swift.

They all had their summons books out but I think Taylor Swift was writing a song about bubble gum.

When that guy comes back, he will have to take out a huge loan to cover these fines, more even that if he wanted to start a 125 gallon SPS reef.

That some Ooops

 

[jfoahs04]

So yesterday some Jiboni from my marina was putting diesel fuel in his boat, but he accidentally put 12 gallons of it into the "rod holder hole" instead of the fuel tank. Oops!

So it all went into his bilge and swirled around his engine. Instead of staying there and having someone pump it out, he took off.

This is the mouth of a river and in a few hundred yards becomes a salt water bay (Peconic Bay) then out to the Atlantic.

Either he turned on his bilge pump or it came on automatically and all that oil spread across my marina and the entire width of the river and out to sea.

My marina had a sheen on it and a strong smell of diesel oil which is very pungent. The ducks there frown on that.

Next thing I know there are maybe 15 police cars, Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Fire Marshals, Coast Guard and even Taylor Swift.

They all had their summons books out but I think Taylor Swift was writing a song about bubble gum.

When that guy comes back, he will have to take out a huge loan to cover these fines, more even that if he wanted to start a 125 gallon SPS reef.

Yikes. Those fines are going to sting. My friend's boat was in a slip at a local marina a few years ago. The bilge failed and he got a call from someone at the marina at about 10pm that the boat was "sitting low." He shrugged it off (because "the bilge will take care of it") and decided to go check on it in the morning. When he arrived at 6am, about 5 feet of the bow was all that was sitting above water. It was surrounded by an fuel slick. The cleanup fees were pretty staggering, and they would have been higher if they needed to call in a salvage team to get the boat out (they were able to tow it to the ramp and get it out of the water without hiring anyone).

 

[atoll]

can you use window screen to build a plenum?

Window screen is a lot finer I think so am not sure on that one but I guess it depends. Small enough to stop sand falling through but big enough not to get completely blocked. However, I could well be wrong about that.

 

[fishybizzness]

Be safe Paul! Looks like Henri is heading your way.

 

[Paul B]

I am as ready as I can be for Henri. I gassed up my generator and got an extra 5 gallons of gas. Gassed up my cars and this morning before the storm I hope to take out my boat for a spin to see if it is fixed. The last problem was that for some reason my engine has to be timed 10 degrees different than it reads on the engine. Weird so I have to try it.

After my 6:00am walk on the beach of course that I am ready to take as soon as it gets light enough out so I can see my feet.

I am old and have lived through many hurricanes. They are making a really big deal about this one and generally the more of a big deal they make and the worse they make it sound, those are usually the ones that fizzle out.

I hope I am right on this one. You really have to worry about the ones they don't predict.

I was at our last pool party last night with about 50 other people and all our phones rang that alarm siren at the same time and did it every few minutes for about 7 times. I thought we were going to get attacked by Bayonne New Jersey.

 

[Paul B]

Good Morning. Nothing exciting this morning. A little tired from our last pool party last night. It seems I am the only Man dancer, but I have a lot of Ladies to dance with. Yes, we are all old and if you are lucky, you may get there.

This morning at 6:00 I went to the beach and it was foggy before the hurricane tonight.

Just as I started on the boardwalk that leads to the beach stairs I was met by a friend.

I think she just wanted to dance.

I know my sunrises all look the same, I can't help that because it is usually the same sun every morning.

But I did discover one weird thing.

See that white net? This must be a new game that I have not heard about. "Hill tennis". Maybe.

I am not sure but I would imagine one player stands on that hill, which is very loose sand, and the other one runs up and down the stairs to try to hit the conch shell, dead seagull or Nike sneaker because I can't figure out what other purpose a net on the side of a hill like that would be used for.

 

[snorklr]

its to keep the sand skiers from crashing into the stairs...

 

[Paul B]

I don't think my rod holder hole has a sign on it that reads "No Fuel In Here". But I have seen that happen once before with gas.
The guy in front of me at a gas dock had a large boat, maybe 45'. He had a few people sitting in the large back area as he was filling the boat with gas.
All of a sudden I heard the people scream as they found out he was putting gas in the rod holder and it filled up the back of the boat with gas. It didn't go in the bilge but on the deck under the people's chairs.

Another time about 15 years ago we were heading to the gas dock and was about 100 yards away. A large wooden boat was filling with gas and all of a sudden there was a huge explosion.
That entire boat flew in the air about 10' along with the people.

The dock was ablaze in fire as was the remains of the boat.
The people were air lifted to a hospital and I doubt they survived. The boat was lifted into the parking lot and it was just a large wooden keel about 44' long and it had two engines attached to it. Nothing else was attached to the boat. The superstructure just disintegrated.

In another minute I would have been docked behind him with my wife and young Daughter.

 

[Darren in Tacoma]

I have never seen anyone fill their rod holder up with fuel, but watching people at the local boat launch is great entertainment, especially during salmon season.

 

[snorklr]

been a mechanic as long as you've had your tank and i've seen every automotive fluid poured into the wrong spot under the hood...my favorite was a kid that removed the plug on top of the bellhousing (there to view the timing mark on the flywheel) stuck in a funnel and dumped 2 quarts of automatic transmission fluid on his clutch....

 

[Uncle99]

Up north, you must obtain an operators license for any boat and pass a test to show you have at least, basic boating skills.
Too many boats on the waterways these days for stupid or unsafe behavior.

 

[Paul B]

It's 5:35 and still pitch dark. If it is not raining to hard I want to go on my morning walk. Of course if I have to take a Kayak, I may not go. I can hear the wind, but not to bad yet. If I go, I hope to get some good pictures. Maybe me riding a wave while trying to rescue a horseshoe crab.

 

[Paul B]

Up north, you must obtain an operators license for any boat and pass a test to show you have at least, basic boating skills.

I have a Captains License and that was the hardest course I ever took.
It's not just navigation, that is a small part and no electronics are allowed. It's all with a compass, paper and pencil. (and of course whatever you can write on your arm before the test)

They give you questions like:

"You are leaving buoy #6 in Chesapeake Bay at 0400 hours on a Tuesday. There is an 8 1/2 knot easterly current and the wind is out of the north at 15 knots.

A Russian trawler is 7 points off your port bow traveling at 6 knots and you can hear "In a Godda Da Vita" blasting from the Captains quarters while a 9 year old child wearing a fedora, drinking Vodka seems to be steering..

You are heading through the Bermuda Triangle while 7 US Air Force plains from the 40s circle overhead obviously running out of fuel.

You see something in the water ahead of you and think it's a blue whale, but it is the Nautilis nuclear submarine that sunk decades ago and it still has remnants of giant squid tentacles stuck to it's hull.

The Captain of that Iconic boat is screaming at you for help but all you can do is offer him some cold chicken wings from last nights Superbowl game. His ship sinks back into the darkness.

Now you are heading toward your goal on the southern coast of France and it is eerily quiet. Too quiet. So quiet that you can't even hear the humming bird circling around your head.

The plastic garbage in the water is gently swirling in a counter clockwise direction.

Nothing to see. You can't even see the water between the empty bottles of Perrier water and your ship seems to be floating on a mist so fine as to not even be there. Your depth gauge tells you the water is 800 feet deep and as you look over the side you can see the linoleum on the bottom as if it is right under you....... All of a sudden something blue comes into view.

It gets clearer and clearer and to your horror, it is an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. A 1968 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser with bumper guards and a child's seat in the back.

What could this mean? ;Facepalm

Just then,,,,,,,,The instructor tells the class it's time to take a break.

 

[Paul B]

This is the broken valve spring that gave me so much trouble in my boat.

 

[Paul B]

Some waves today behind my house.

 

[atoll]

Some waves today behind my house.

Got this wave behind my house Paul.