Paul B's thread

My shoulder is doing so good I am thinking of taking up pole vaulting. I am supposed to wear this sling for 5 more weeks but I rarely wear it at all. Of course when I hear my wife coming I quickly put it on because she listens to "everything" a doctor says and thinks my arm will fall off if I don't wear it.

I mean you should take that stuff under advisement and mull it over in your mind a little. Then disregard it and go about your business. :p
 
My shoulder is doing so good I am thinking of taking up pole vaulting. I am supposed to wear this sling for 5 more weeks but I rarely wear it at all. Of course when I hear my wife coming I quickly put it on because she listens to "everything" a doctor says and thinks my arm will fall off if I don't wear it.

I mean you should take that stuff under advisement and mull it over in your mind a little. Then disregard it and go about your business. :p
Glad to hear you're on the mend Paul.
 
I am slowly making a big change to my tank. I have so much blue encrusting sponge that I think it is either sucking nutrients out of my water or it is adding some sort of toxin. It is beautiful and looks like light blue montipora but you can't eliminate it. You can see a milky substance come out of it when it is cut. (angelfish won't touch it)

The last time I trimmed a lot of it, I lost almost all my SPS corals and many of the Zoa's. The Zoa's are all tiny now and they were huge. My green star polyps disappeared and that stuff will grow on your piano if it's close enough to your tank.

But the good news is that gorgs and leather corals grow like crazy so maybe they like what the sponge is putting into the water or taking out.
I am slowly changing the tank over to leather corals, mushrooms, gorgonians and of course sponges. :)

It's this stuff.

 
I spent Fathers Day in Manhattan, the place I hate the most in the world and if it wasn't for my Grand Kids I would rather have spent it in a rice paddy in Viet Nam.

We also went to a wedding on a roof top in Manhattan. It was in the fifties, windy and everyone was freezing but the most dangerous thing was trying not to trip over the penguins. :oops:

When we got to the City of course my wife has to go to the bathroom so we go into Starbucks. I had to order a coffee so she could use the bathroom. Five bucks for a small regular coffee. I told the girl, "I only want one". :rolleyes:

I heard they are going out of business and I really won't care at all.
I worked in Manhattan for almost 50 years and the day I retired was the best day of my life except of course my wedding day and when my Grand Kids were born. :D

I can't believe anyone lives there on purpose.....Like Really!!!!!

Then to get back to the Jitney bus to go the 100 miles back to our house, we got into the wrong UBER. (my fault)

The UBER was supposed to be a black Buick with the license ending in 23C. A black Toyota stopped in front of us and opened the trunk. His licence ended in 3C so I just "assumed" it was for us.

The guy starts going the wrong way in Manhattan so we found out we got into the wrong car. Now we have 15 minutes to get to the bus and we got there just as the bus did.
 
  • Jul 6, 2015 (Yes this was an old post. What can I say? I ran out of things to say)
I don't have the nicest tank on here.
I don't have the nicest of a lot of things, but I don't care because they are nice enough for me.
I don't have the most difficult corals on here, but it is not my purpose to have that.
I don't have the most interesting fish on here, but they are interesting enough for me.
I have no ideas what my parameters are. I assume my corals know and they seem fine.
I don't have any controllers or dosers. Don't want any.
I don't have any test kits. If I want something tested, I take It to a LFS. They like doing that.
I don't have the largest tank on here. It's a perfect size for me.
My lights are way underpowered. I don't care and so far, neither do the corals.
I don't have a sump. I would, but they were not invented in the 70s
I don't use any reactors, GFO, GAC, ABC, Doh Ray Me, or bio pellets.
I don't use Rowafas.
Don't have a DSB, SSB, or BB.
I don't use Purple Up, Marine Snow or almost anything else and I don't want to.
I have to many fish, they don't seem to mind the crowd.
I have to many Pod eaters, they send out for Pizza.
I am jealous of some tanks on here, but I will get over it.
I don't have the most hair and I am far from the best looking on here. My wife likes me.
I don't change much water, but I assume I change enough.
I have plenty of iron and stainless steel in my tank. Is that scary to anyone?
I sometimes feed my fish Plaster of Paris with some minerals mixed in. Am I bad?
I used copper for years in my tank and never changed the rocks or gravel.
I have never dated a Supermodel but I did date some beautiful girls. Also some plainer ones with nice personalities.
I use dolomite for the substrate, ever heard of that?
My wiring is probably some of the sloppiest on here. And I am an electrician.
I am impressed by some of the skill on here with spawning hard fish.
I am impressed by creativity, but not by degrees unless they are on a thermometer.
Right now I am embarrassed to say I have a fever, which is a Sissy disease and I may have to revoke my Man card. Fevers are so yesterday and Sissy Mary like. Maybe I am hallucinating which is why I wrote this useless thread.
I am finished, and I am old, There is no purpose to this post that I know of. :cool:

Its a hobby, enjoy it for yourself, no one else
 
Yesterday we took our friend and my wife's pilates instructor out on the boat. We went to this small cove where we normally go and anchored.
We ate a little, swam a little and listened to my fabulous collection of 70s music .

Then I noticed we were almost in the weeds and the anchor dragged about a hundred feet.

OOOhhhNNNooo. But I managed to push the boat out to slightly deeper water and start the engines.

I wanted to move the boat a little deeper so of course I had to raise the anchor. (It's electric so I don't actually have to get on the front of the boat and flex my muscles like I used to do in my youth. :rolleyes:
This is a new anchor because I lost my old one in this exact spot last week.

I raised the anchor and it was straining to come up. The water was very shallow and I know there are no rocks, cables or 1967 Oldsmobile, Vista Cruisers sunk there so it was odd the anchor was having so much trouble coming up.

Then the anchor just broke the surface and I saw the problem. There must have been 50 gallons of seaweed wrapped around the thing so you couldn't see the flukes. :confused:

(Not the flukes many of you people feel are on your tangs when you buy them)

The anchor looked like a giant ball of greenery and the blackest, slimiest, smelliest mud I have ever seen.

I imagine the girls could have put that all over their face like they do in those fancy spa's. This is probably where they get the stuff.

The bottom here must have 2' of seaweed growing on a substrate of very fine mud so the anchor couldn't dig in.

Anyway, not much of a story but then I took the Ladies out to a sea side restaurant in my marina for oysters and tuna.

Then back to our condo pool. Great day all around. :p

 
Last week we didn't see our neighbor and after a day we heard her dog barking so we broke the window and found that she had died about a day and a half before. Anyway I posted about that elsewhere but Sunday, her Brother N Law was cleaning out her house and got stuck in the elevator.

I had a small hydraulic elevator installed outside my condo unit here when I moved in because my wife has MS and can't do stairs. After I did mine, 3 neighbors followed and had them installed.

They are small and really are handicapped, residential elevators and only make 3 stops.

The elderly Lady next to that house heard the guy banging on the door and ran to get me. (They run to get me if they find a snapping turtle on the road, tree down, homeless person, missing person, broken shower, broken sprinkler, broken air conditioner, dead deer, clogged toilet near the pool, space craft, Boeing 747, Nancy Pelosi etc.) :oops:

So I go there and talk to the guy through the door and Sunday was a record heat day at about 97 degrees and these elevators are outside the building.
(His cell phone didn't work inside the car and we get lousy service here being on the sea on a hilltop)

I opened the elevator door above him and got on top of the car. Then I removed the light fixture so I could hand him a screwdriver and explained to him how to take apart the electronic door lock inside the door.

After about 40 minutes he was free.

The problem was with the locking mechanism. The stainless steel pin inside the lock that you push up in an emergency unscrewed itself and fell into the mechanism making it impossible to open the door. I am sure the fire department could open it but that would have cost $5,000.00 to repair.

So today I am installing outside my elevator a big gong with a rotating strobe light connected to the Panic button inside the car. I will also try to make the phone inside the cars work and I re designed that lock so it can't happen again. (In my elevator anyway and I will see if I have time to do the other two.)
 
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" :(

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

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

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. :culpability:
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?" :whistle:

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. :dance:
 
I just came back from today's morning walk/run. I actually don't run, it's more of a Geezer jog but at my age no one goes very fast unless they are running from Nancy Pelosi. :sick:

This is the farthest I have jogged since basic training over 50 years ago. Near the end of my 2 mile "run", I felt something exhilarating......I figured it was that runners "high" athletes speak about when they run for many miles. As I thought about it I realized it must have been that Harvey Wallbanger I drank before bed last night and think I may have just had a little gas. :rolleyes:

I also almost ran into this Godzilla web

Spider web.JPG
 
I just came back from today's morning walk/run. I actually don't run, it's more of a Geezer jog but at my age no one goes very fast unless they are running from Nancy Pelosi. :sick:

This is the farthest I have jogged since basic training over 50 years ago. Near the end of my 2 mile "run", I felt something exhilarating......I figured it was that runners "high" athletes speak about when they run for many miles. As I thought about it I realized it must have been that Harvey Wallbanger I drank before bed last night and think I may have just had a little gas. :rolleyes:

I also almost ran into this Godzilla web

View attachment 181704
Is that Charlotte's?
 
That 50 gallons of water I collected yesterday is now crystal clear and I am removing the silicates with "Phosguard". I had to order more of the stuff because I ran out and it isn't very expensive. I only use it on new NSW so it lasts me over a year.

I collected the water on a windy, rainy day so it was filthy and filled with mud, seaweed and I assume small patches of Columbus underwear. :rolleyes:

If all the silicates are out by tomorrow I will heat it up and change about 40 gallons. I keep 10 gallons aside for emergencies like floods etc. of if I catch some weird creature in the sea that I want to study for a while.

A small amount of the water and sand I didn't filter because I like to throw that in my tank right from the sea for the bacteria and microfauna as I feel that a lack of new bacteria is the cause of many tank crashes. I also add garden soil for the same purpose and always have.
 
My tank is doing very well, all fish are really healthy, some spawning including mandarins, fireclowns and ruby red dragonettes. The only thing I don't like about my tank is due to the mistake I did a few years ago by adding a photosynthetic sponge that is taking over the tank.

It is really healthy which is to bad as it tries to cover the corals and it exudes a toxin that kills SPS corals especially if I try to cut pieces of the sponge out so now my tank is all LPS, gorgonians and leathers. I kind of like them but wish I had more space to put them but the sponge covers all the real estate.



At my age I am not going to worry about it and certainly not going to start a new tank. I have been slowing down the sponge growth by eliminating silicate from my NSW and top up water. Eventually I think I will eliminate it but it may take years.

The stuff doesn't look bad, kind of like blue montipora.



I think I have between 25 and 30 fish but I keep a lot of fish that hide and I will almost never see many of them. It's OK as long as I know they are in there and healthy.

Looking at my tank the rocks go to the top of the tank and the rock consists of a maze of interconnecting caves and tunnels where the fish can hide. Also any exposed rock that is not covered in corals or sponge is covered with growth that houses multitudes of copepods, amphipods, worms and starfish. All of that contributes to the health of the tank.
Copepod



Notice this Long Nose Hawkfish and what he is laying on. This is in my tank and part of what covers the back and darker parts of my tank.



Some see this as dirt, but the fish see this as health. (doesn't he look comfy?)

I feel the reason so many people have problems with this is the lack of "normal and natural" hiding places. A cave made out of 3 pieces of rock won't do it. The correct food, which does not mean dry foods like pellets and flakes. A food with living bacteria in it and not just the bacteria from our hands.

Medication, whatever it is and long quarantine.

If your tank is white and clean, you probably will have problems......Sorry.
 
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