Tank birthday, 47+ years

[atoll]

It has been working in the sea for quite a few years and I don't see wild fish croaking from ich. :p

That's because you are extremely lucky Paul lol

 

[Paul B]

Hello fellow Vet and welcome home. :D

Where did you serve and what year?

 

[Paul B]

Next week my daughter is having her surgery to fix her broken hand and wrist. They are inserting a 3" titanium plate. She is taking after me with all this hardware. :(

 

[Nano_Man]

Next week my daughter is having her surgery to fix her broken hand and wrist. They are inserting a 3" titanium plate. She is taking after me with all this hardware. :(

Who’s this fine young couple

 

[MDAquatics]

Hello fellow Vet and welcome home. :D

Where did you serve and what year?

I served in the army from 2000 until 2014. I was lots of places stateside but my overseas times was spent in Afghanistan. Got hurt there and retired early! Im all good though, just bad enough that my running/jumping days are over but not bad enough to stop anything else.

 

[Paul B]

Glad your OK. Thats the main thing. I had a few similar episodes in Nam but I came back better than when I went. My wife will disagree. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[atoll]

Paul if you and your daughter went though the metal detector at airport security it would set off alarms for miles around. Hope your daughter's op is a great success and she will be as good as new without much pain at all.

 

[Paul B]

I have been setting them off for a while and now so will she. Her surgery is Tuesday

 

[7of9]

I have been setting them off for a while and now so will she. Her surgery is Tuesday

I hope her surgery goes smoothly. I have a spine full of titanium myself. I like to tell people it’s the beginning of my superhero origin story!

 

[Nano_Man]

All the best for your daughter on Tuesday

 

[Paul B]

I have a spine full of titanium myself.

My wife also has that. :confused:

 

[7of9]

My wife also has that. :confused:

I’m very lucky. About 18 months ago, I had a serious issue in my thoracic spine. By the time I had emergency surgery, I was paralyzed from the waist down. Multiple surgeries and a lot of metal later along with months of physical therapy and I’m walking again!

Hopefully your daughter’s surgery is without any drama and her healing process goes smoothly!

 

[Paul B]

My Daughter is out of surgery and the Doc said she did well. They inserted a 3" titanium plate in her wrist and set the bones in her arm and hand.
The nerve block is probably worn off by now so I don't know how she is but from my vast surgery experiences, she is in quite a bit if pain.

 

[Nano_Man]

My Daughter is out of surgery and the Doc said she did well. They inserted a 3" titanium plate in her wrist and set the bones in her arm and hand.
The nerve block is probably worn off by now so I don't know how she is but from my vast surgery experiences, she is in quite a bit if pain.

Best of luck for your daughters recovery

 

[7of9]

My Daughter is out of surgery and the Doc said she did well. They inserted a 3" titanium plate in her wrist and set the bones in her arm and hand.
The nerve block is probably worn off by now so I don't know how she is but from my vast surgery experiences, she is in quite a bit if pain.

Those first couple of days are the worst and then things get better and better from there, as you know. I hope her recovery is smooth and uneventful!

 

[Paul B]

I am in a conundrum. This leather coral grew to a foot high and it is hitting the front glass and wants to stick to it.

I need to move it but it grew on a DIY rock that takes up about a quarter of my tank so I will have to remove many pounds of rock to re locate it. :(

It needs to be done but I have to work my way up to it.

 

[Paul B]

This morning walk

And for contrast, my sea hare. Arguably, not as pretty. :confused:

 

[Paul B]

This was a true story and I think I posted it a year or two ago

I remember being quite cold many times but once in particular sticks in my mind. It was 1970 and I was a Sargent in the Army in Colorado before I went to Nam. I did my jungle training in Colorado in the winter and in Colorado if it doesn't snow at least 5' deep, they don't even notice it or take out a snow shovel.

We were doing war games which is totally stupid. I had to ride in a small "roofless" Jeep across these plains which stretch almost to Vermont with this skinny second Lieutenant who was not to bright.

We had to lay out this COMMO wire for a few miles by ourselves. We started out and the wire was going out the back. It was snowing. And snowing, and snowing. Eventually it was a foot deep and we didn't know where we were or why we were there.

Remember this is decades before cell phones or even credit cards. We didn't even have a working radio or a pen to write a post card.

Now we were covered in about 18" of snow and it was cold. The Army "Cold Weather Gear" at the time was about as good as Lycra that Nadia Cominich wore on her Olympic trials.

I was shivering, scared and disgusted. The snow was getting deeper.
The LT. tells me he is going to climb on top of a hill and see if he can tell where we are.

I said, "Good Idea because we are going to die" o_O

So he gets out and leaves me there. Now it is getting dark and the snow is picking up as is the wind.

After a few minutes I hear: "HHHHhhhhhhhhooooWWWWWWWlllllllllll". :oops:

I am a New York City boy and the only thing we have in New York that howls are rats and roaches.

I must have been thinking "Big Foot", wolf, or the very strong Russian Cossack girl I was dating.

The Lt. is no where to be seen. I yelled for him but it was drowned out by:

"HHHHhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooWWWWWWWWlllll. HHHHHHhhhhhhooooooWWWWWllllll."

And, It, or THEM was getting closer. HHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhoooooWWWWWllll.
Then CLOSER.

I remembered, I have a weapon. An M-16. Yeah. But wait, I idon't have any bullets. I was praying for at least one bullet so I could blow my brains out before whatever it was that was going to kill and eat me any second and wouldn't have the satisfaction of hearing me scream. Or cry, maybe wimper. OK beg for my life.

I got out of the Jeep and climbed on the hood. Now I am at least two feet off the ground and we all know that Big Foot and wolves can't climb that high.

I held my rifle by the barrel and was ready to smash the first thing that came close.
My visibility was very limited by the snow so I waited until I could smell freshly killed accountant on his breath and I would strike. The cold was completely through the Lycra thin clothing I was wearing.

Suddenly and without warning, I HEAR:.....................................................
"Sargent Baldassino What are you doing?"

So we were lost and I had to walk in front of the Jeep a couple of miles while picking up the wire until we found our way back.

 

[Paul B]

Now that my tank almost instantly recovered from my massive sponge elimination and the Ugly stage it created that lasted about 5 months, the tank looks just like the Great Barrier Reef. Almost all the corals, even the ones that I thought were dead came to life and look fantastic.

The water surface which had been covered in dino slime causing me to net it out every day is completely clear of anything.
The tank is again crystal clear and the fish look like jewels like they are supposed to.

It took quite a while and I "almost" added some chemical to speed the process along but thankfully I resisted and the tank is still natural with only mud from the sea. I did replace about 90 gallons of ASW with NSW which I feel made the final difference as ASW is completely devoid of nutrients but I needed that to help eliminate the invasive sponge and I hope it stays eliminated.

You can see some of the nasty "slime" here as it covered everything and killed some of my old gorgonians. I couldn't clean them fast enough.
This was probably a month ago.
(That fish is one of my older ones. I don't remember when I got him but it was in my last house before I moved here about 5 years ago so he may be 10, 12 or much older. I have no idea)




Yesterday I had to go to my shoulder surgeon for the pre surgery nonsense and he is near my favorite LFS. (thats actually the reason I picked this surgeon)

Now I have no idea how many fish I have because lately I have been going there quite a few times and I always pick up something. Those smaller fish like bleenies and clown gobies you can put in almost as many as you like as they are so small.

You can plainly see some of that slime here that I thankfully eliminated.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Now that my tank almost instantly recovered from my massive sponge elimination and the Ugly stage it created that lasted about 5 months, the tank looks just like the Great Barrier Reef. Almost all the corals, even the ones that I thought were dead came to life and look fantastic.

The water surface which had been covered in dino slime causing me to net it out every day is completely clear of anything.
The tank is again crystal clear and the fish look like jewels like they are supposed to.

It took quite a while and I "almost" added some chemical to speed the process along but thankfully I resisted and the tank is still natural with only mud from the sea. I did replace about 90 gallons of ASW with NSW which I feel made the final difference as ASW is completely devoid of nutrients but I needed that to help eliminate the invasive sponge and I hope it stays eliminated.

You can see some of the nasty "slime" here as it covered everything and killed some of my old gorgonians. I couldn't clean them fast enough.
This was probably a month ago.
(That fish is one of my older ones. I don't remember when I got him but it was in my last house before I moved here about 5 years ago so he may be 10, 12 or much older. I have no idea)




Yesterday I had to go to my shoulder surgeon for the pre surgery nonsense and he is near my favorite LFS. (thats actually the reason I picked this surgeon)

Now I have no idea how many fish I have because lately I have been going there quite a few times and I always pick up something. Those smaller fish like bleenies and clown gobies you can put in almost as many as you like as they are so small.

You can plainly see some of that slime here that I thankfully eliminated.

As always, I love seeing your updates @Paul B. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and your beautiful reef with us!