Tank birthday, 47+ years

[norfolkgarden]

"This reminds me of a story. Everything reminds me of a story."

Lol, too true.

 

[Paul B]

My tank looks lousy. I have not had time to do anything with it and yesterday I posted a picture of my algae scrubber and 3 people rang my bell to see if I could sell them any lettuce. :eek:

Much of my montipora broke and fell in the dark because my hermit crab falls on it and he eats to much and weighs like 2lbs. I think he jumps on it on purpose looking for attention. I used to glue it back but I don't have time.
We have open house almost every week to sell this home and I think my fish feel I will leave them here to become sushi. They are all fine but on anti depression medication. My small bleeny had a very severe case of pop eye where his eye was as big as my head but it cured itself. He probably felt he would be sacrificed first.

I finished building my new King Size bed for the new house that looks like a platform bed made out of railroad ties with huge steel wheels under it. (it comes apart in 4 pieces so I can get the thing in the house) Very industrial/steampunk which is what I am going for. I really hate buying things because if I can buy it, so can anyone else and I like different. :rolleyes:
I also built much of the steampunk lighting.

I received redwood and will start building the tank stand soon but we are covered in snow and ice now so i don't want to work in my garage yet. I got redwood because it is strong and the least likely to warp of all the woods.
The legs will be 4X4s. The new tank will be a 125 gallon and I hope to build the base rock out of cement to hold up my existing rocks completely off the bottom. I still need to get more dolomite to add but i am not sure where to get it yet. I am torn between having the tank with an overflow built in for a sump or not. I have lived all my life with no sump but I can't decide.

All my fish that want to come with me are welcome but that annoying hermit crab may have to walk as he is annoying me. I actually have 9 or 10 of them, some as big as golf balls. They may actually be golf balls, I have a lot of junk in there. :confused:

My bluestripe popefish, Janss pipefish, mandarins, perchlet, bleenies, cardinals, copperband, Queen anthiuses, possum wrasse and everything else is still in there smiling. The fireclowns are spawning. . They don't do much of anything else. :cool: Harlequin shrimp seems content as do the porcelain crabs.

If I get this new tank set up I want to get more small, interesting fish, maybe one tang although I find them boring but then I can despell all the rumors that I can't keep the because of all the parasites partying in there. I will probably have to keep them 10 or 15 years to prove the point though. I will ask what is the most ich prone tang to get, but I only like hippo tangs.

To determine the age of anyone who accidently reads this thread. Without googling, how many here remember a Charlett Ruse?

 

[85173]

Paul, I don't know a Charlett Ruse. But I don't know it I'm ruled out by age or geographic location.:) But to answer your question, I'm 50. So I was only 3 when you were last in Sydney!:D

Cheers,
Mick.

 

[Rybren]

I'm closer to 100 than 0 and have no idea who she/he/it is or was. Even Google is of no help, keeps bringing me to clothing stores.

 

[Paul B]

OMG, OK I guess they were only in New York City. :D

http://www.city-data.com/forum/new-york-city/1643464-searching-charlotte-russe-other-lost-foods.html

GBR south, they were building the Sydney Opera house when I was there. :cool:

 

[Paul B]

Did you guys finish my book yet? No refunds after you read it. :rolleyes:

My bleeny is cured of his Pop eye. I didn't think he would get over it as it was one of the worst cases of pop eye I have seen. ;Cyclops

My house is still for sale. Everyone likes it immensely but they all want me to give it to them for a hundred bucks and a couple of hermit crabs. :eek:

Another open house tomorrow. This may work out well. I have to get a bridge loan, but I don't want a bridge so they said I can use the money to buy the new place. That means I will own the two houses for a while which is good because maybe I can set up the tank and take my time. This may actually work. :D

 

[Paul B]

Here is my platform bed without the plywood in the center and the wheels and handle. You will only see about 5" of the wood all around the mattress. I am going for industrial. It comes apart in 4 pieces so I can install it.

 

[Brew12]

Did you guys finish my book yet? No refunds after you read it. :rolleyes:

My bleeny is cured of his Pop eye. I didn't think he would get over it as it was one of the worst cases of pop eye I have seen. ;Cyclops

My house is still for sale. Everyone likes it immensely but they all want me to give it to them for a hundred bucks and a couple of hermit crabs. :eek:

Another open house tomorrow. This may work out well. I have to get a bridge loan, but I don't want a bridge so they said I can use the money to buy the new place. That means I will own the two houses for a while which is good because maybe I can set up the tank and take my time. This may actually work. :D

Of course I finished the book! Loved it!

I will have to say how surprised I was at just how much fish disease stuff was in it. You are quite the fish medic!

 

[Paul B]

I think my Daughter wrote the best part as she is the writer in the family. She is also my editor.
Glad you liked it. :D

 

[hotashes]

Hard copy available in the uk?

Oh bridge loans warrant hefty interest rates :(((

 

[Paul B]

I don't know anything about the UK except I saw that big clock there once. You can get it on Amazon.

I know about the Bridge loan but I should only need it for a month and I would like to be able to own both homes for that time so I could set up the tank, install the lights and furniture I built. I can't do it all in one day. Even if it costs a few thousand bucks, it is worth it. :cool:

My new house costs about half of what this one does so it will just come out of the profit. :D

In the new place I will fill the tank with NSW from a few blocks away, heat it up and I will be good to go. That's the plan anyway.:rolleyes:

 

[hotashes]

Perfect ;)

 

[Paul B]

Another open house today so i decided to vacuum a little although my wife vacuums probably 5 times a day. I have a whole house vacuum that I installed decades ago. I vacuum the upstairs where no one lives and we rarely go up there. When I finish, I go to shut off the vacuum,,,,,,And it won't go off. I unplug the hose and it still doesn't go off. Usually when that happens, it's the switch on the hose, but Nope. I go downstairs to the basement and open one of the vacuum hose covers (where you would plug a hose, and the thing stops. Aha, the problem must be in that hose connection so i take it apart. Remember the people are coming here today to see the house.
I can find nothing wrong with the hose connection. I go to the vacuum unit itself and tap on it. It comes on. I tap on it again, and it goes off. So at least I know the problem is the relay inside the unit. It is near my RO/DI unit and behind my worm tank so it is a pain to remove to take apart. (there is a worm tank there now) I can't do it today so I hope no one wants to see it run. It's a job for another day.

My door bell in my kitchen rings when you shut off the light over the sink and it doesn't always ring when you ring the bell. It has been like that for years and it doesn't bother me so I never fixed it. Of course I installed the thing when I moved here in like 1979 and completely forgot where I ran the wires. I take out my meter and test the voltage. There is no voltage at the bell so it should not work at all. But it always rings when you shut off the light. Not when you put on the light which would make more sense.

I disconnect all the wires that I know where they are, test all that I can and I can't find the wire that goes to the actual bell and I don't want to take the house apart because people are coming. I tried a few things, then decided to put everything back the way it was until I have more time. I shut off the light, and the bell doesn't ring. I push the button, and it works. I don't know why it works with no power and I don't care. If it ain't broke, I ani't gonna fix it.
This is embarrassing being I am a Master Electrician :eek:

It's the big red thing thing that says Nutone. I think Nutone also made the bell.

 

[Paul B]

I "fixed" the vacuum just now, Kind of. I had to remove my ro/di and all the stuff on the shelf . I also had to empty my resevour bucket and remove it to get to the bolts holding the vacuum to the wall.

I took it apart and noticed the relay was black from the contacts arcing. I took the relay apart and saw that the contacts were burnt so bad there was no contacts left which is why the steel that was left was arcing and sticking. I looked in my storehouse for that relay but it is an isolation relay and a rare relay to find. It has a transformer and relay built into one enclosure. I looked on line but that relay is not manufactured any more, I can put in a regular relay and a transformer but I would have to install it outside the housing and it is a bit of work even though I have the parts. I just filed down what was left of the contacts and feel it will work for 6 or so months. If I get ambitious I will put something together to fix it permanently. I left the wires long enough so that I can remove the old relay without removing the thing from the wall and taking it apart. So for now, it is working perfectly.

 

[Paul B]

OK so I fixed the vacuum and put back the blue bucket that is my RO/DI resivour for the tank. WE went out for the day as the bucket filled. But,,,,There is always a But. Now I don't have my blackworm tank there as I took it out for the move so the waste water for the worms just goes into a small bucket and drains through a short tube into the sink which it is sitting next to.
When I put the resivour bucket back up on it's bracket and hook screwed into the ceiling I "forgot to put the shut off float back in". The shut off float shuts off an electric valve stopping the water from filling the bucket.
No problem because there is an over flow hose near the top of the bucket so that if the bucket fills to high, the water will go through the hose into a drain.

That is unless you kink the hose under the bucket where it partially sits on a steel bracket. In that case, the bucket overflows on your workbench filling the drawers and making Lake Erie on the floor.
The other thing it does is to float the empty bucket away from the sink where the waste water goes into so instead of the waste water going into the sink, it also goes on the bench, into the drawers and on the floor.

This is great, especially when in 5 minutes people are coming to see the house and I am bragging as to how dry my finished basement stays.

I quickly unplug the shut off valve to stop water from filling the bucket. I get towel rags and put them all over the floor. drain some water out of the bucket to stop it from dripping and remove the soaked things from the drawer and hide it in the container I use to do water changes with. I have towel after towel of soaking water in my hands as the door bell rings. I run to the washing machine to throw them in, then I have to get more towels to pick up the water I just dripped all over the floor from the soaking wet towels, I run and put them in the washing machine. I hear the people coming in and rush to put dry paper towels into the drawers being careful not to push down on them so they don't soak up water that is still seeping into the wood. I close everything up and hope for the best.

The people tour the house and I don't want to spend too much time with them in my workshop but that is where my solar panel control unit is along with the central vacuum and new boiler. The people are asking questions about all these things and now want to know about my metal sculptures I am working on on my workbench. Now they are asking about the brine shrimp hatchery, the "Blue bucket" hanging from the ceiling.
What are those white worms in the shoe box. Oh , I see you have a microscope, what do you look at? How hard is it to have a salt water tank, do you think Myley Cyrus can sing, how about that global warming thing, whats up with that, etc. etc. etc.

I finally get them out of there and tour the rest of the house.
When they left I dried up the drawers the best I could along with the floor. Most of the stuff in the drawers were in cardboard boxes which are now mulch.

Back to semi normal once again.

 

[Fin]

Never a dull moment around your house. :)

 

[Paul B]

No, not yet. :cool:

 

[User1]

Here is my platform bed without the plywood in the center and the wheels and handle. You will only see about 5" of the wood all around the mattress. I am going for industrial. It comes apart in 4 pieces so I can install it.

Is the wood natural color or did you stain? I'm guessing natural. I like it. If you finish and post another that would be great. I was looking for some older rail road ties for some planter work but they are all covered in this think dark tar stuff so I wasn't interested. Yours look more like what I was after or at least similar to reclaimed wood - although I don't recall what wood you used.

Hope all is going well.

 

[Paul B]

Saf1. The wood I used was regular 3X6 pine. It was the same color as the 2X4s you see in the center or the picture below. I aged them by shaving off the edges and beating them up with various tools. I also burnt black marks in them with a torch and using a wire brush wheel in a drill which will dig out the grain in the burnt portions. I also put long wood screws on it and beat them with a hammer.
Then I used a black Minwax stain mixed with about 70% mineral spirits because it was too dark. After 5 minutes, I wiped it off. After it dried I used regular, cheap latex white paint mixed with again 75% water. Before it dried, I wiped it off with a rag giving me the color I wanted.



Railroad ties will always be covered in Creosote which is nasty stuff which you don't want to handle to much. It is also on telephone poles as a preservative and insect deterant.

 

[User1]

Saf1. The wood I used was regular 3X6 pine. It was the same color as the 2X4s you see in the center or the picture below. I aged them by shaving off the edges and beating them up with various tools. I also burnt black marks in them with a torch and using a wire brush wheel in a drill which will dig out the grain in the burnt portions. I also put long wood screws on it and beat them with a hammer.
Then I used a black Minwax stain mixed with about 70% mineral spirits because it was too dark. After 5 minutes, I wiped it off. After it dried I used regular, cheap latex white paint mixed with again 75% water. Before it dried, I wiped it off with a rag giving me the color I wanted.



Railroad ties will always be covered in Creosote which is nasty stuff which you don't want to handle to much. It is also on telephone poles as a preservative and insect deterant.

Thanks Paul. I've been looking at reclaimed wood for sale around town and it varies in pace due to age, location of where it was found, etc. The process you described is something I was also looking at using tools, hammers, and running over it with a truck to give it that distressed look. Yours came out great. Thanks again for the explanation :D