Tank birthday, 55+ years

[Paul B]

Did you get trained at Ft. Sill? I was there in 85'

No, I did basic in Ft. Jackson South Carolina, AIT in Ft. Knox Kentucky and then Ft. Carson Colorado. This was in 1969.

My jungle training was in Ft. Carson in the winter in 4' of snow. I didn't learn much.

I spent a year in the States before I went to Nam so after a year in Nam I ETSed (got out of the army) My last day was in the mountains on the Cambodian border. I was still muddy when I came home because I came straight home from there with no stopping for coppichino or anything. From the mud to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.

My book is on Amazon. I just go there and put in my name. (Paul Baldassano) But I'm not sure I'm allowed to link it here. If I get tarred and feathered you have to wear some of the tar.

(100% of anything I get from this book will go to Wounded Warrior Project to help those brave guys who were badly hurt in combat. )

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=paul+bal...prefix=,aps,95&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_2_0_recent

I for one am interested in all your stories fish related or not!

Lowell, Most of my stories are not about fish. But I can make some up if you like.

Once upon a time there was these fish. OK never mind.

But my fish seem very happy even if the Alk reads 4. I don't know why and don't have time to figure it out right now so they will just have to deal. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

But what if we want signed copies of first editions? Where do we go for that...
For investment purposes only... because you are going to be famous (more) when you become Mariner of the year...

 

[Paul B]

But what if we want signed copies of first editions? Where do we go for that...

The same place I would have to go. I don't even get those books and have to buy them like anyone else. The book is about $19.00 and if I sign it, it will be worth about $1.75 but you would have to mail it to me to sign it as I have none. :rolleyes:

For some reason quite a few people sent me their fish book for me to sign and some even sent me the Bible because they thought I was in it. :oops:

 

[Paul B]

Beautiful walk this morning but I had to come back early.

I got this severe pain in my hip and had to limp home. I have a new left knee and new left shoulder and I think my hip is getting jealous.

I don't have time for this because my wife can't do the simplest things and she falls all the time so I can't be less than 100% now. OK, I will settle for 67%.

 

[Paul B]

because you are going to be famous (more) when you become Mariner of the year...

No Tangerine, I think that title will go to you. I am not even sure I will still have my tank then as I have more pressing and important things to do but I hope to have it "forever". We will see. :cool:

 

[Subsea]

Beautiful walk this morning but I had to come back early.

I got this severe pain in my hip and had to limp home. I have a new left knee and new left shoulder and I think my hip is getting jealous.

I don't have time for this because my wife can't do the simplest things and she falls all the time so I can't be less than 100% now. OK, I will settle for 67%.

Old sailors lyric:

Red Sky at Night; Sailor Delight!
Red Sky in Morning; Sailor Take Warning!

 

[Paul B]

Barteyusa sabir tarehim.

Is this in English? Thats the only language I know. I know a little Italian, words like Frank Sinatra and also a few Spanish words like Ricardo Montalban.

 

[Freenow54]

Thank You very Much. It was a wild thing to be totally aware of what was going on. I was in the best hospital around me. It is a teaching hospital and teaches all of North America. listened to the surgeons and did not hear oops. Paul would like that humor. Was yapping to the anesthesiologist the whole time. Same for the pacemaker. Yup NO ZIPPER

Sorry Forgot to ask how your husband is doing. Did he have to get a Pacemaker as Well?

 

[FenrirAysen]

Thanks for the words of encouragement in the other thread Paul! I'm a Navy vet myself. I guess I should have posted on the intro thread before getting stuck in with the forums, but your threads have given me a lot of comfort. Getting ready to start my tank i'm bombarded with tons of formulas, numbers, expectations, and a ton of judgement if you do things the "wrong way". So coming into your thread and reading how old school still managed has made me feel a lot better. Not everything needs to be perfect.

I have a healthy dose of fear though reading everyone's experiences and methods. I've wanted a saltwater tank since I was a small kid, but growing up in rural Appalachia there wasn't much of a "reefer" scene. That and the lack of finances kept it as just a dream for a long time. Recently, i've had a huge break in my cybersecurity career and i'm finally able to start! :)

 

[Paul B]

Yesterday I woke up in sunny Hutchinson Island in Florida.

We went to beautiful seaside restaurants.

And a few hours later we landed in JFK New York and the first thing I see is the snow all over the planes in the airport and it is snowing pretty hard. A guy picked us up from the airport and drove us half an hour to our car. Then we had a 2 hour ride back to our house in eastern Long Island.

This morning at 6:00 am I get a call from the same guy telling me he is here to pick us up from the airport. You just can't win.

We were gone for a week. This morning I went downstairs to see my fish. As soon as I opened the door to my Man cave I get that horrible smell of dead, rotted fish. OOOOoohhhh NNooo. What could be dead? Could it be everything!. OMG, I rush over to the tank thinking everything would be dead and the corals would be balls of slime.

I opened my eyes to see................................Everything looks great. They are all smiling at me and wagging their tails. Well, they always do that. So I looked around the floor to see if I could find something dead. But no. The floor is clean.

AhHa. I had an automatic frozen fish feeder on the tank and didn't freeze to good so it automatically turned the weeks worth of food in it to snot.

OMG....I got out the bleach and soaked the thing in it.
Luckily, I had the foresight to put pre packaged frozen food in the freezer for my neighbor to use.

Now I am using my diatom filter because although everything looks great, there is seaweed growing on everything and I was thinking of opening a produce stand. While my diatom is trying to suck out algae and detritus, I needed to move my car which is outside in the snow.

It is totally dead. No lights, nothing. This is a new battery so now I need to see what killed the battery. Unfortunately, I think I cracked my hip or something near it so I can't walk to good. I also need a car inspection and the "Check Engine" light is on so I have to replace the thermostat to get the light off so I can get the thing inspected.

With my screwed up hip I need help to remove the battery to get the thermostat out. Of course my wife needs a lot of help so I am having trouble keeping up with my tank. :(

 

[FenrirAysen]

Hang in there my man. Sorry about the trouble but keep your head up!

 

[Paul B]

Thanks FenrirAysen, but my head is fine, It's everything else. :confused:

I am running the diatom filter and it is full of algae and detritus from behind the rocks and gravel. The algae scrubber had an inch of algae growing on both sides, so much that it clogged my slop sink.

I fed the fish a bunch of live worms because they missed quite a few meals and thought I put them on a Jenny Craig diet.

It's snowing and raining pretty hard so I don't feature going out right now to see what is wrong with my car and fix what is killing the battery. :confounded-face:

 

[Minifoot77]

Wish I was closer paul I'd take care of the car for ya

 

[Paul B]

Wish I was closer paul I'd take care of the car for ya

Thanks Minifoot. Just head south and bear left at the Statue Of Liberty. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

I put the car in my garage to work on seeing whats killing the battery. I can see there is a large drain because I get a nice spark when I remove the battery cables. To see the cause I need my electric multi meter.

I take it out and try it and the battery in the meter is also dead. It's a 9 volt and I have one so I removed the 9 volt battery and the terminal in the meter comes off. So now I have to solder in the battery terminal in the meter to get it to work. I did trhat.

I hook it up to the car after I remove the car battery cable and the meter still doesn't work. The fuse in the stupid thing is probably blown. I used a test light on my car to test but that doesn't really tell you how much current is draining from my battery. OK, I give up for now, it's just too many broken things for one day.

I removed the diatom filter from my tank and it was full of algae. Better in the filter than my tank. But my tank looks like a forest. Usually I rinse my frozen food so all the "juices" don't go in my tank because that stuff grows algae profusely but when I was away for a week my auto feeder wasn't working so I had my neighbor dump in food that wasn't rinsed.

I will get all this straightened out but right now my wife needs me so I got to go. :anguished-face:

 

[Paul B]

I think that may have been our last trip on a plane. It's just too hard now. They put my wife in a wheelchair in the airport but that leaves me carrying her walker and 4 suitcases.

I am not sure how long I can keep my tank now anyway as life is getting tough as we get older and my wife needs more help. Last night 5 minutes after I got in bed, I heard her scream. She fell. She didn't get hurt. She falls a lot due to her MS and her right leg doesn't move at all. Try to walk around with one leg that doesn't even move a quarter of an inch. :confused:

It is very hard to get her up as I have to try to lift her and position her foot under her. Now with my screwed up or cracked hip I am not much help. I go to a hip doctor Tuesday or Wednesday so hopefully he will tell me I just need a toggle bolt or some duct tape to fix me. :rolleyes:

After 36 operations, I don't need another one and I think thats what my wife is most afraid of.

Oh well. We will see. Supposed to get a foot of snow Thursday. But when they say that, they are always wrong, We will most likely get either two feet or two inches. I know they put a new device in the place where they predict the weather. It's called a window.

Now I will carry around in my car a battery jumper just in case the thing goes dead but I think it will be fine as long as I drive it every 3 or 4 days until I fix it or get someone to fix it. Of course if I need another surgery I will have to get it fixed but that breaks my heart and I may have to turn in my Man card. :anguished-face:

I tried testing it last night but the fuse panel on my Jeep is under the dash board behind the plug where you plug in the test meter that tells you why the engine light is on. With the hip problem I can't squeeze myself under the dashboard so I will have to figure this out.

 

[Minifoot77]

Life is short enough and a reef isn't a necessity. I know you will do whats necessary and family is always first

 

[Paul B]

Correct. I eat fish almost every day and I did live without a fish tank for a few years so I know how to do that. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

Surely you have a network of local hobbyists that could help you with tank maintenance?

 

[Paul B]

Surely you have a network of local hobbyists that could help you with tank maintenance?

I actually don't know even one person with a salt water tank in New York. You would think so, but No.

And don't call me Shirley. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[FenrirAysen]

So you've just been solo hobbying up there this whole time? That's wild. You're like a national treasure it's kind of crazy that you weren't part of a club. I wonder how many legends are just lurking in each state that don't even reach out? :thinking-face: