Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[Paul B]

So this morning I took my normal bike ride to the cliff to go down to the beach.
It is a little brisk today. I put my bike there and started down the long walk to the stairs.
This is part of the walk way to the stairs.


Then I got to the stairs and heard all this rustling as it is a steep cliff with all bushes.
I saw three of these guys. One was a little one and hid in the bluffs. And I am not Bluffing.


This is on top of a steep cliff over the sea which is angry today because it is so windy.
As I was descending I heard this loud noise, like a snort. It sounded just like an elephant. I am a boy from New York and we rarely find elephants here, especially up on a cliff.
I couldn't get off the walkway as it is built high and if you touched the sand underneath the stairs, I think the entire mountain of sand would collapse causing me to call the ski patrol to dig me out.

I am sure they are off for the summer so I would be in trouble and besides, they couldn't get to me because it is hard to climb stairs wearing skiis.
I never did find that elephant but I kept looking and I didn't even see his footprints in the sand.

 

[myrjon]

Sounds like a nice morning . Too bad on not finding elephants. Did you happen to locate the supermodel?

 

[Paul B]

No, but Christie Brinkley lives near here so I keep looking. East Hampton is also not that far and that is a Supermodel Mecca so just the fact that they are so close makes me happy through osmosis.

 

[Paul B]

I just got back from my favorite LFS. We had Doctors appointments in the old neighborhood and that is where the store it so I go.
(My blood Pressure is 170 over 70 so they may put me on the cover of "Perfect Blood Pressure" Magazine)
I twisted my good leg in the Dr's office stairway and now I walk like I did just after my knee surgery. Of course my wife got mad at me for that. Women do that. They get mad at you for hurting yourself. It must be in their genetics.
I went there with a pocket full of cash hoping to see something I wanted like a nice new shiny coral, but they got nothing. The couple of anemic looking bubble corals I would have taken were over a hundred bucks and they didn't look worth it. I wanted something for all my efforts and the 60 miles I drove so I got a little arrow crab and a small Rainsford gobi to keep my other one happy.
They had 4 arrow crabs, 3 of them were dead so they were cheap.
The problem with arrow crabs in my tank is that I have huge bristle worms and when the crabs shed, the worms attack them.
I am getting a lot of cyano which is interesting and I will just have to wait until the cycle of it is over. It is thick and almost black like asphalt. Flamingo's eat that stuff which is why they are pink. (I thought that was from the shrimp they ate but according to National Geographic, it is shrimp, Who knew?)
My tank isn't deep enough for a flamingo to walk around in and they tend to poop all around the rim of the tank. I also don't think they are reef safe as their toes make holes in the anemones and they may have parasites or athletes foot so they would have to be quarantined for 72 days. By then, the cyano will be gone.
The cyano is probably coming from something in the NSW I collect. Maybe asphalt.
Everything else is going great, even the local hermit crabs that I collected here. I don't usually collect them because they don't live long in a reef, but these seem to love the place and may be around forever.

 

[Paul B]

Collecting NSW in a storm.

I want the Ozone infused water in my tank.

​

 

[diana a]

LOL you are too funny. Did you get out of there before it started raining?

 

[Paul B]

Yes, we got there just before it rained. It started just before we left. But we got 40 gallons.

 

[Paul B]

So I got the boat back to the Marina this morning and they took it out of the water.




The first thing I noticed is that they didn't put any bolts in the two "Zinc's" on the power tilt pistons. This would not cause any problem like the one I am having but the zinc's are supposed to be bolted in or they don't do anything and they are expensive. To make a complicated story short, they are made of zinc (like Duh) and they are supposed to rot before parts of your boat rot. But if they are just hanging there, they are not doing anything so the Jiboni's would have had to take my boat out of the water to put the bolts in anyway.


The "mechanic" told me "sometimes they rot out".. I was born at night but not last night and I am not an accountant. I was an A rated GM Mechanic and I know stainless steel doesn't rot out in 2 months.


I said, that can't happen. Then he said, "sometimes they come loose". Yeah right, 4 stainless steel bolts coming not just loose, but completely falling off in 2 months.


I mean if you screw up and make a mistake at least make up something plausible or tell the truth that you messed up. I was a mechanic and I could have done that. Or I would at least make up something believable about Aliens or Bigfoot.





We didn't find anything obviously wrong with the shift cable but I had him change this shift arm anyway. I figured I came all this way, took the boat out of the water, removed the drives so I may as well waste some money.





I made it home without incident so I am not sure if it is fixed or not.

 

[Paul B]

I can't buy an interesting fish no matter how much money I throw at them. They got tangs and angelfish and I find them very boring. Nothing unusual. Corals, forgetaboutit. They got tiny frags and at my age, I don't do tiny anything. I probably couldn't see them or my hermit crabs would carry them away.


To add any corals I would have to cut away a lot of blue green sponge that covers most of my tank. But it cuts easy with a razor blade.


We are supposed to take some trips, but again, at my age, I already went to everyplace I want to go. Except the Galapagos. I haven't been there but my wife hates lizzards.


I also didn't go to Easter Island but my birthday is on Christmas so that is a different holiday and I don't know if I can mix holidays like that.


If I decided to go hang gliding or bungee jumping my insurance company would disown me because I already broke or tore everything that is breakable .

I still dive (very occasionally) but from spending so much time underwater, the fish find me boring as they all saw me already.


WE are having people over (again) for the weekend and I know there is a big pool party. Then we will go on my boat to waste some gas and hopefully not get stuck and have to come back on one engine. But that sometimes happens in boating. Boating is fun. Young people today IMO don't know how to have fun.


I tell that to my Daughter all the time. She is 40 and at her age we always had a big crowd and would get everyone together and either go to a river upstate to Kayak down the rapids and camp or go to a lake with our small canoe's or sailboats and sink each other. There would be maybe 20 of us.

We once went to the "Ice Caves" in the snow. They are only open in the summer and they have ice then. We brought ropes and lowered ourselves down into the caves with flashlights. Very cool.


My Daughter and her friends text each other as to what they will do and they do nothing but text each other. They text about how much fun it is to text.


Then they meet each other at someone's house, and sit there so they can text other people to ask them to join in on a group text.

Our Grand Daughter texted us yesterday to tell us she was looking at the window. And she lives in Manhattan so all she can see is the roofs of taxi cabs. I know her generation is going in the same direction as our Daughter. A generation that does nothing.


There's a whole world out there and a lot of it is free. In those days we couldn't rub two nickels together to make a dime but we always did things.

This was at a lake many years ago before they invented time.

 

[Paul B]

Talking about things to do, once our crowd got together and rented tree houses on a tiny Island in a river. We had to drive through a shallow part of the river to get there.


We slept in the tree houses about 15' up in the trees. There was a storm and we had to drive off the island through torrential floods. It was great and a lot of memories. I don't think my Grand kids ever saw a tree.

 

[Paul B]

OOOHHHH NNNOOOOO. Disaster. No Really!!.

I looked at my tank and it was all foggy. OK, maybe smoky. A combination of foggy and smoky. My friend was here and he said, "That coral looks like it is dead!!!"


I said, "Can't be" It was fine a few hours ago. Then I noticed my skimmer wasn't working as there is a crack in the plastic and not enough water is going into the skimmer.


AAAAHHHHHHHhhhh.'


I found that one coral was just about all croaked and another one is almost all croaked.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!! Oh Noooo.


I got the skimmer working and it overflowed about a gallon of water on the floor. It kept foaming out like when you put 15 times too much soap in a washing machine.


OOOHHHH NOOOO.


The effluent from the skimmer was much too much to go down the tube to the drain so we found a big PVC elbow and stuck it on the top of the tube so it at least went into a bucket. It was overflowing all over me.

NNNNNoooooo!!


Then I got my diatom filter and after spilling a couple of gallons of water on my feet and the floor I got the thing running.


The skimmer was still going nuts so I knew there was something in the water.... But What!!!!!


As I was fixing the skimmer I kept getting stung by the long spine urchin. Then I noticed.

Why is his spines sticking out of the water like 4"


Then I remembered. Years ago I had an urchin business and I would SCUBA for urchins and sell them. Once they all spawned at the same time. I think I walked in front of the tank wearing my Speedo which caused that to happen.


But when they spawn, they go to the top of the water and stick their spines out, then spawn. And sea urchins have a LOT of spawn. I mean a LOT. And this is a ten year old very large urchin.


He was still spawning and turned the water into "Half and Half". Normally that is not a problem and the skimmer removes it right away. But if the skimmer isn't working, the stuff rots and the corals frown on that and croak.


Now I have the diatom running and the overflowing is almost managable but still happening. I have to let this keep overflowing for a few hours to get those poisons out of the water so maybe my other corals won't croak.

 

[David@wegetkraken]

Good luck with the coral!

Thinking of trying long spines in my new predator tank. Given your experience with them think they would stand up to a Porky or Dogface Puffer anda few more docile Triggers (Blue Jaw, Crosshatch and/or Pink Tail)? Don't want to put them in there if they are just going to end up being Triggers food.

Grew up in very rural WV and very poor. Know a lot about having fun on not a whole lotta money so we should trade stories sometime.

 

[Paul B]

I would love to.

All seems well now as it is an hour and a half later and the skimmer stopped foaming. I removed the diatom filter and I will see tomorrow if anything else dies.

 

[Paul B]

I think my fish may have flukes. I looked at my gobi under a microscope and found these.

 

[Paul B]

Last night just before sundown my friend and I go to a boat ramp to collect water.
I back my Jeep up to the water on a boat ramp next to a beach, roll out the hose, throw the bilge pump into the sea and start pumping water into the car.

I have collected water on this beach for maybe 20 years and in all that time I have never seen anyone launch a boat or take one from the water. As a matter of fact, I never even saw a boat in the water there as that is the eastern Long Island Sound and it is a 27 mile wide stretch of open water and kind of rough.

There is space for two boats to launch at the same time.
After one of my three 8 gallon buckets gets filled, a cop shows up. I figured he will ask what we are doing and making sure we are not dumping Anthrax, Prizapro or those little tags that read, "Do Not Remove Under Penalty of The Law".

Now on my car I have a boat ramp permit and a beach access permit that allows me to drive on the sand right into the water like a submarine if I want.
I also have Vietnam Veteran license plates and Combat Veteran stickers.

The Cop says, "Is that your car?"
I almost said "No, I am stealing it, but first I want to fill it up with sea water and load it with 8 or 9 tuna infected with ich and fin rot just to see if the owner knows how to cure them". But I figured I would just say:
Yes Officer, this is my car, is there a problem?

He said: Do you have a boat? I said, Yes, but it's not here right now. (Like Duh, I think he would have seen a boat as behind my car was the Atlantic Ocean with a beautiful sunset and nothing to obscure his vision.

He says, you need a boat to use the boat ramp. I said, I have a boat ramp permit and it is almost night time, in 20 years I have never seen a boat here, there are two ramps and I would move if a boat came.
He just said, (In a tone like he just had a fight with his wife and lost) "Move your Car".

I could tell this Gentleman had nothing to do, was in a bad mood and instead of looking for criminals he felt like chasing two Veteran Geezers collecting a little seawater at night for a fish tank.

(Because I am a Veteran I got the $50.00 beach access permit for free)

So I only had one bucket of water.
We then went o another beach much closer to my house. I drove on to the sand down to the water and found a place in a hole in a big rock to throw my sump pump and I collected the rest of the water there which was much cleaner anyway.

I hope when that cop went home he has a 500 gallon salt water tank and everything including his clingfish, bristleworms and flounders are infected with flukes that are this size.




This is the beach we ended up collecting at.

 

[David@wegetkraken]

Lol

Last night just before sundown my friend and I go to a boat ramp to collect water.
I back my Jeep up to the water on a boat ramp next to a beach, roll out the hose, throw the bilge pump into the sea and start pumping water into the car.

I have collected water on this beach for maybe 20 years and in all that time I have never seen anyone launch a boat or take one from the water. As a matter of fact, I never even saw a boat in the water there as that is the eastern Long Island Sound and it is a 27 mile wide stretch of open water and kind of rough.

There is space for two boats to launch at the same time.
After one of my three 8 gallon buckets gets filled, a cop shows up. I figured he will ask what we are doing and making sure we are not dumping Anthrax, Prizapro or those little tags that read, "Do Not Remove Under Penalty of The Law".

Now on my car I have a boat ramp permit and a beach access permit that allows me to drive on the sand right into the water like a submarine if I want.
I also have Vietnam Veteran license plates and Combat Veteran stickers.

The Cop says, "Is that your car?"
I almost said "No, I am stealing it, but first I want to fill it up with sea water and load it with 8 or 9 tuna infected with ich and fin rot just to see if the owner knows how to cure them". But I figured I would just say:
Yes Officer, this is my car, is there a problem?

He said: Do you have a boat? I said, Yes, but it's not here right now. (Like Duh, I think he would have seen a boat as behind my car was the Atlantic Ocean with a beautiful sunset and nothing to obscure his vision.

He says, you need a boat to use the boat ramp. I said, I have a boat ramp permit and it is almost night time, in 20 years I have never seen a boat here, there are two ramps and I would move if a boat came.
He just said, (In a tone like he just had a fight with his wife and lost) "Move your Car".

I could tell this Gentleman had nothing to do, was in a bad mood and instead of looking for criminals he felt like chasing two Veteran Geezers collecting a little seawater at night for a fish tank.

(Because I am a Veteran I got the $50.00 beach access permit for free)

So I only had one bucket of water.
We then went o another beach much closer to my house. I drove on to the sand down to the water and found a place in a hole in a big rock to throw my sump pump and I collected the rest of the water there which was much cleaner anyway.

I hope when that cop went home he has a 500 gallon salt water tank and everything including his clingfish, bristleworms and flounders are infected with flukes that are this size.




This is the beach we ended up collecting at.

Lol...great story and even better view

 

[Paul B]

I changed my cell phone battery. First I look at some You Tube videos to see how to do it. It seems that most cell phones it is easy, but I have an I Phone SE and it is not so easy and it's a good thing I still have 20/20 vision because you need the Hubble Telescope to see the screws that are smaller than this
---------> , < ----------
The battery kit comes with the screwdriver for that and a different one only for cell phones for the two tiny screws to take the case apart.
There are about 20 screws to remove and you get a very sharp tweezer to "un plug" the connectors.
I skipped a few of the steps and found a much easier way to change the battery and so far the thing works fine but I did find when I opened the case that the bracket that holds in the battery connector was not screwed in and was just laying there. The 2 screws were just thrown in the case and I am surprised they didn't short anything out. (So much for having 4 year olds putting phones together)
I couldn't replace the screws because the holes were stripped. I folded a paper towel over the connector so it will be held in place by the back cover when I close it (I hope).
The bracket is supposed to go over the black connector just to the left of the point on that blue flat plastic "Spudger", not the screwdriver.

 

[Paul B]

We went out to a nice dinner on the water 2 days ago and I got stuck. The boat had two problems but luckily we got home without swimming which was good because the restaurant is 15 miles away.
The ignition switch shorted out causing the starter to engage when I put the boat in reverse. I have never seen that before and neither did the mechanic in my marina.
The neutral safety switch , which prevents you from starting the boat (and your car) in gear powers the start circuit so you can start the engine in neutral. But the switch shorted out causing the starter to engage while running the engine.
I fixed that at the dock before we left so that only delayed us for 15 minutes.
The boat ran fine for the trip and one engine stalled at the restaurant.
I couldn't start it so I docked on one engine.
We had a nice dinner and we started to come home on one engine. One engine doesn't get the boat up on plane (on top of the water) so the boat goes like a displacement boat (battleship, tug boat, etc) and only went 8 mph. The boat normally can go about 30 mph.
After a couple of miles I got the other engine started and we made it back to my dock.
Today I hope to go down there to do some work on it. The season is almost over and I am not sure I can salvage any more boat time this year but I am going to try.
I will install spark plugs but I am also going to remove one of the exhaust risers because when I couldn't start it, it backfired a couple of times which "may" mean that some seawater was getting into the engine. The only place that could happen is at the exhaust manifold.
(a head gasket will also do that but they don't "usually" go on a boat)
If the exhaust riser is clogged and corroded, I will replace all four of them. But if it is just a little caked with gunk, I will take it home and scrape it out and hopefully get another month of boating before I change them in the fall.
They are heavy and I am older now so it is not a job I relish, but I really don't trust people to do anything because I know that after they do it, I will have to do it myself anyway.
There is little room to stand in my bilge and my new knee doesn't work well but my other knee is worse and I can't twist it at all so this normally not very hard job will be an adventure. But I am not a snowflake and like challenges. If it were easy, any Girly Man could do it and Girly men never do this. All they do is call for reservations and call mechanics. :agree:
It's those four steel things with the four bolts in each one on either side of the engines. That is only the small top part as they go all the way down about 16" and from the front to the back of the engines.

 

[Paul B]

I got the riser off the manifold and it is not as bad as I figured it would be. It was clogged but most of it I was able to get out with a screwdriver and a powerwasher. This one was getting very hot and thats why.
I can probably get five more years out of it.

The other three risers don't get to hot so I won't mess with them today. Now I just need to get gaskets and put the thing back together.

I also installed spark plugs.
So I saved $4,000.00

It's great to be retired.

 

[diana a]

Wow that was a saving.