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Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

Paul B

NJRC Member
Our Sunset party on the beach last night was a big success and there was a really nice sunset.

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Early this morning I decided to go to the beach behind our house (down 170 steps) to watch the sunrise and ponder my existence.
This Lady met me just before I went down.
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She had a little baby with her and was protecting her from mean old me.
I went down the stairs but had to avoid the sprinklers that got me all wet.



It was about 6:00 am and there was no one as far as you could see in both directions which is normal for that beach.
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There is a bench at the bottom where I sat for about 15 minutes. Just me, some seagulls and the occasional sound of a fish jumping, probably out of joy.
It was calm so the tiny waves hitting the shore were barely perceptible.

No planes, no cars, no dogs barking, no nothing, just the way I like it as there are very few civilized places left where you can experience this quiet, especially in New York.

I try to go there almost every morning.

Now at my age I usually think about all the things I did, the things I never did, the things I wanted to do and the things I shouldn't have done.

All in all I had a pretty good life and have gone to almost all the places I wanted to go and did almost all the things I wanted to do.
As a little kid my big dream was to go to The Great Barrier Reef in Australia and SCUBA dive there with sharks. It turns out that was my first dive in 1970.

I wanted to fly in a helicopter, of course I ended up flying dozens or maybe a hundred times. Although I never wanted to crash, I did that twice but even that was a great experience, now that it's over and I didn't get killed. :rolleyes: That probably would have been bad.



"Living" through life and death experiences totally changes your character and your outlook on life.



I don't recommend fighting in a war, but that, more than any other life experience, really changes you and I think, makes you a much better person
(providing you live of course) It will also remove any Snowflake tendencies you may have had and the rest of your life will seem easy.



If nothing dangerous ever happens to you, just normal daily living could be scary because every day is the scariest thing that ever happened. :rolleyes:

It is almost the same with reefing. We start out as Noobs, babies. We don't know what we are doing and worry about seemingly silly things like putting our hands in the tank if we washed with soap, or adding a little dirt along with food.
Every little thing, which to seasoned people don't even think about.

Every time a Noob sees a tiny tentacle or pod they worry if it is a a harbinger of doom. Every new creature they buy is a learning experience and they are not sure what to expect. Eventually of course this stuff becomes second nature and I know I miss the challenge of learning this new stuff.
In the fifty years I have been reefing there isn't to many animals I have not kept and probably killed.
The thrill is still there but after 20 tangs, copperbands, angels etc. I know what to expect.

I do miss that challenge.

There is no point to this post, I just needed something to do before I go to my boat to ponder something else.

 
Last edited:
Our Sunset party on the beach last night was a big success and there was a really nice sunset.
View attachment 6160View attachment 6159

Early this morning I decided to go to the beach behind our house (down 170 steps) to watch the sunrise and ponder my existence.
This Lady met me just before I went down.

View attachment 6161

She had a little baby with her and was protecting her from mean old me.
I went down the stairs but had to avoid the sprinklers that got me all wet.



It was about 6:00 am and there was no one as far as you could see in both directions which is normal for that beach.

View attachment 6162

There is a bench at the bottom where I sat for about 15 minutes. Just me, some seagulls and the occasional sound of a fish jumping, probably out of joy.
It was calm so the tiny waves hitting the shore were barely perceptible.

No planes, no cars, no dogs barking, no nothing, just the way I like it as there are very few civilized places left where you can experience this quiet, especially in New York.

I try to go there almost every morning.

Now at my age I usually think about all the things I did, the things I never did, the things I wanted to do and the things I shouldn't have done.

All in all I had a pretty good life and have gone to almost all the places I wanted to go and did almost all the things I wanted to do.
As a little kid my big dream was to go to The Great Barrier Reef in Australia and SCUBA dive there with sharks. It turns out that was my first dive in 1970.

I wanted to fly in a helicopter, of course I ended up flying dozens or maybe a hundred times. Although I never wanted to crash, I did that twice but even that was a great experience, now that it's over and I didn't get killed. :rolleyes: That probably would have been bad.



"Living" through life and death experiences totally changes your character and your outlook on life.



I don't recommend fighting in a war, but that, more than any other life experience, really changes you and I think, makes you a much better person
(providing you live of course) It will also remove any Snowflake tendencies you may have had and the rest of your life will seem easy.



If nothing dangerous ever happens to you, just normal daily living could be scary because every day is the scariest thing that ever happened. :rolleyes:

It is almost the same with reefing. We start out as Noobs, babies. We don't know what we are doing and worry about seemingly silly things like putting our hands in the tank if we washed with soap, or adding a little dirt along with food.
Every little thing, which to seasoned people don't even think about.

Every time a Noob sees a tiny tentacle or pod they worry if it is a a harbinger of doom. Every new creature they buy is a learning experience and they are not sure what to expect. Eventually of course this stuff becomes second nature and I know I miss the challenge of learning this new stuff.
In the fifty years I have been reefing there isn't to many animals I have not kept and probably killed.
The thrill is still there but after 20 tangs, copperbands, angels etc. I know what to expect.

I do miss that challenge.

There is no point to this post, I just needed something to do before I go to my boat to ponder something else.

Love reading your stuff Paul It always has a Messages of sorts you just have to look for it Every time I read your little stories not only do I get a chuckle because there’s usually a speedo joke in there somewhere I always get a little something out of it just never too old to learn that’s all and I’d like to try to keep an open mind it’s a cloudy mind full of oregano but it’s open
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
Many years ago my dive partner and I were diving for lobsters at night in the Long Island Sound in New York not to far from the City.
We used to do that every week and we usually got our quota of lobsters which were 6 each.
Actually to catch 6 legal lobsters you really had to catch about 20 first because very few of them are legal size and you have to measure them underwater using a clamp before you bring them up to the boat. It's a $500.00 fine for each short lobster and they do check you.
The visibility in the western Sound is measured in inches and is normally about 18"- 2'

Anyway, this has nothing to do with lobsters and I don't even eat those things. As a kid my Dad had a seafood store and you are not allowed to sell dead lobsters, so whenever they used to die in the store, we had to eat them.

Like in the movie "Forest Gump", boiled lobster, fried lobster, grilled lobster, peanut butter and jelly lobster etc.
I used to bring them to school in my lunch box and my teachers would trade me their bologna sandwiches for the lobster.

One night while we were diving we came across a tire on the bottom. Usually tires have a lobster in them because they need to hide and maybe they like the exercise they get from running around inside them. I don't know.

But in this tire we noticed something different. There were maybe 10 hermit crabs around the rim and two hermit crabs in the center. The two in the center were fighting. Just as if they were from different political parties.

They were grabbing, hitting, flipping each other, and I think I saw one of them getting the other one into a Rickie Nelson.
(google him is you are under 65)

After a few minutes those two staggered to the rim of the tire and two more took their place and started punching, smacking, biting etc.

This went on for many minutes until we started to run out of air and had to surface.
My avitar, is actually one of those crabs. He was about 1/2" but I don't remember if he was a loser or winner.

This is my dive partner and best friend for 50+ years. We are picking out new modern diving equipment here.
I am the better looking one. :p

 
Many years ago my dive partner and I were diving for lobsters at night in the Long Island Sound in New York not to far from the City.
We used to do that every week and we usually got our quota of lobsters which were 6 each.
Actually to catch 6 legal lobsters you really had to catch about 20 first because very few of them are legal size and you have to measure them underwater using a clamp before you bring them up to the boat. It's a $500.00 fine for each short lobster and they do check you.
The visibility in the western Sound is measured in inches and is normally about 18"- 2'

Anyway, this has nothing to do with lobsters and I don't even eat those things. As a kid my Dad had a seafood store and you are not allowed to sell dead lobsters, so whenever they used to die in the store, we had to eat them.

Like in the movie "Forest Gump", boiled lobster, fried lobster, grilled lobster, peanut butter and jelly lobster etc.
I used to bring them to school in my lunch box and my teachers would trade me their bologna sandwiches for the lobster.

One night while we were diving we came across a tire on the bottom. Usually tires have a lobster in them because they need to hide and maybe they like the exercise they get from running around inside them. I don't know.

But in this tire we noticed something different. There were maybe 10 hermit crabs around the rim and two hermit crabs in the center. The two in the center were fighting. Just as if they were from different political parties.

They were grabbing, hitting, flipping each other, and I think I saw one of them getting the other one into a Rickie Nelson.
(google him is you are under 65)

After a few minutes those two staggered to the rim of the tire and two more took their place and started punching, smacking, biting etc.

This went on for many minutes until we started to run out of air and had to surface.
My avitar, is actually one of those crabs. He was about 1/2" but I don't remember if he was a loser or winner.

This is my dive partner and best friend for 50+ years. We are picking out new modern diving equipment here.
I am the better looking one. :p

First job in ocean was on a lobster boat at age 8 ,, it was my uncles boat and he’d wake me at 3am carry me to truck and go to 7-11 and make me drink coffee (with 5 lbs of sugar) then to the dock we went,, I still remember all the smells of a commercial dock and sea air till I die,, one of reasons I do what I do
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
Great Success.
We hear all about “Great Success” all the time in life and especially on these forums. What is Great Success?
I think it was Great Success when Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon. I am not sure if some ancient Alien, millions of years prior stepped there first and maybe opened a casino or possibly an Lfs where he sold quarantined fish.
Would that diminish what Mr. Armstrong did? I don’t know.

It does concern me when a hobbyist keeps a certain fish and boasts that he or she has great success. He may say something like “I kept a Moorish Idol and had great success”. He immediately ate franks and beans and I had him since I moved out of my parents basement last week and got a real job running the French frying machine at McDonalds. His Pop Eye receded and He doesn’t have “too many spots” and rarely swims in a corkscrew fashion.

To me Great Success is keeping any creature until it dies of old age. I feel my own Mother had great success raising me because I am pretty old and if I croak tomorrow I can say I died from old age.

Real Great Success is great if it really is an accomplishment to a point where we can all learn something from it. Having great success and keeping it to yourself may be great for you, but it doesn’t help anyone.

Imagine if my mentor and friend Leonardo DiVinci never revealed his masterpieces. What if he just scribbled on the tile walls of his bathroom using a permanent marker from Walmart without ever showing anyone his genius.

What if he called his friend Michaelangelo to ask him if he could use methylene blue for a dye to paint the eyes on his girlfriend, Mona, Mona Lisa. And Michaelangelo just sent back an emoji.

I understand Michaelangelo didn’t like giving out advice much and he would get mad and start to yell if he was disturbed too often. Laying on your back for five years to paint a ceiling while not even having one Gatoraid or one Chiropractic appointment will do that to you. He even used to yell at the Pope who had no sense of humor and would constantly threaten to Excommunicate him. I read that his Pope hat was too small and gave him migraines.

One person Michaelangelo never yelled at was Van Gough.

He wouldn’t hear him anyway because he stupidly cut off his left ear after his main squeeze dissed him for texting her while she was having her nails done.

Another person who almost had great success was Galallio. He discovered the world was round by turning around his refractometer and looking at the stars. The Pope, who used a swing arm hydrometer really hated him
for that and Excommunicated him so all this time he was living in hell where everyone is in quarantine. Of course they exonerated him like 500 years later which was nice of them.

Getting back to fish, very few of us have Great Success because we don’t stay in the hobby long enough. If we leave the hobby in only 8 years we will fail at having great success as most fish related things we keep live longer than that.

That is with the exception of seahorses and pipefish which at one time were not even thought of as fish, but insects. (No really)
Bangai Cardinals have one of the shortest lifespans at about 4 or 5 years so if you want great success and you know you will leave the hobby next year, get one of those.

SPS corals are actually immortal. Mine are not, so I don’t have Great Success with those. Each polyp has a lifespan (I don’t know what it is) but when a new one is “born” it grows on top of it’s parent. (not all SPS do that) Talk about snowflakes. I know a lot of Young adults like that.

One 41 year old I know who lives right near me still lives with his parents. They support him, feed him, clothe him and lend him their car. That should have been my parents. They wanted to throw me out when I was 12.

I have a very old reef tank, is it a great success? I don’t think so. I have no corals that are as old as the tank and my corals are not growing up the walls. Rarely does a Supermodel come over to help me with water changes and I was never asked to speak at one of the world summits in front of nation leaders or CPAs.

I can say I had great success keeping some fish past what is assumed to be their lifespan.
Even though I was here when the hobby started, I failed to convey most of the knowledge I acquired which I believe to be correct. Of course thousands or maybe millions of people disagree with me on every aspect of the hobby from thinking fish even need seawater or can live in damp sawdust. That is fine because I have been wrong so many times.

Just this morning my wife was yelling at me for something but I forgot what it was. Something about yogurt I think.
I do remember I used to think fish could never become immune to parasites. I even wrote in (I think) FAMMA magazine that being immune to parasites was like being immune to bullets.

I wish I could retract that but It was in the 70s and very few people are still alive from then anyway.

I now know that fish can be immune to everything except maybe being Ex communicated.
Unless of course they are Angelfish. :oops:
 
Great Success.
We hear all about “Great Success” all the time in life and especially on these forums. What is Great Success?
I think it was Great Success when Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon. I am not sure if some ancient Alien, millions of years prior stepped there first and maybe opened a casino or possibly an Lfs where he sold quarantined fish.
Would that diminish what Mr. Armstrong did? I don’t know.

It does concern me when a hobbyist keeps a certain fish and boasts that he or she has great success. He may say something like “I kept a Moorish Idol and had great success”. He immediately ate franks and beans and I had him since I moved out of my parents basement last week and got a real job running the French frying machine at McDonalds. His Pop Eye receded and He doesn’t have “too many spots” and rarely swims in a corkscrew fashion.

To me Great Success is keeping any creature until it dies of old age. I feel my own Mother had great success raising me because I am pretty old and if I croak tomorrow I can say I died from old age.

Real Great Success is great if it really is an accomplishment to a point where we can all learn something from it. Having great success and keeping it to yourself may be great for you, but it doesn’t help anyone.

Imagine if my mentor and friend Leonardo DiVinci never revealed his masterpieces. What if he just scribbled on the tile walls of his bathroom using a permanent marker from Walmart without ever showing anyone his genius.

What if he called his friend Michaelangelo to ask him if he could use methylene blue for a dye to paint the eyes on his girlfriend, Mona, Mona Lisa. And Michaelangelo just sent back an emoji.

I understand Michaelangelo didn’t like giving out advice much and he would get mad and start to yell if he was disturbed too often. Laying on your back for five years to paint a ceiling while not even having one Gatoraid or one Chiropractic appointment will do that to you. He even used to yell at the Pope who had no sense of humor and would constantly threaten to Excommunicate him. I read that his Pope hat was too small and gave him migraines.

One person Michaelangelo never yelled at was Van Gough.

He wouldn’t hear him anyway because he stupidly cut off his left ear after his main squeeze dissed him for texting her while she was having her nails done.

Another person who almost had great success was Galallio. He discovered the world was round by turning around his refractometer and looking at the stars. The Pope, who used a swing arm hydrometer really hated him
for that and Excommunicated him so all this time he was living in hell where everyone is in quarantine. Of course they exonerated him like 500 years later which was nice of them.

Getting back to fish, very few of us have Great Success because we don’t stay in the hobby long enough. If we leave the hobby in only 8 years we will fail at having great success as most fish related things we keep live longer than that.

That is with the exception of seahorses and pipefish which at one time were not even thought of as fish, but insects. (No really)
Bangai Cardinals have one of the shortest lifespans at about 4 or 5 years so if you want great success and you know you will leave the hobby next year, get one of those.

SPS corals are actually immortal. Mine are not, so I don’t have Great Success with those. Each polyp has a lifespan (I don’t know what it is) but when a new one is “born” it grows on top of it’s parent. (not all SPS do that) Talk about snowflakes. I know a lot of Young adults like that.

One 41 year old I know who lives right near me still lives with his parents. They support him, feed him, clothe him and lend him their car. That should have been my parents. They wanted to throw me out when I was 12.

I have a very old reef tank, is it a great success? I don’t think so. I have no corals that are as old as the tank and my corals are not growing up the walls. Rarely does a Supermodel come over to help me with water changes and I was never asked to speak at one of the world summits in front of nation leaders or CPAs.

I can say I had great success keeping some fish past what is assumed to be their lifespan.
Even though I was here when the hobby started, I failed to convey most of the knowledge I acquired which I believe to be correct. Of course thousands or maybe millions of people disagree with me on every aspect of the hobby from thinking fish even need seawater or can live in damp sawdust. That is fine because I have been wrong so many times.

Just this morning my wife was yelling at me for something but I forgot what it was. Something about yogurt I think.
I do remember I used to think fish could never become immune to parasites. I even wrote in (I think) FAMMA magazine that being immune to parasites was like being immune to bullets.

I wish I could retract that but It was in the 70s and very few people are still alive from then anyway.

I now know that fish can be immune to everything except maybe being Ex communicated.
Unless of course they are Angelfish. :oops:
Boy Paul if you wrote history oils for schools I think I would have paid more attention in class, as always your humor makes my day and puts smile on my face. Also your a Great Success in many ways,, god bless
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
This morning I took a walk the other way, away from the sea. There is a golf course in front of my house so I walked that way.
I don't play golf but I would rather look at that than a truck depot for refrigerated Tropicana Orange Juice trucks.

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Then just past the golf course we have a horse rescue ranch. These horses are old, retired or were injured, sort of like me so they live out their life laying in the mud doing basically nothing. Also sort of like me.


rescue horses.jpeg


fence.jpeg



On my walk I saw a large possum that just got hit by a car. Sort of disgusting. I also saw a fox that seemed to be dead for a few days as it was just a mound of maggots.

For living creatures I saw a bunch of deer, one had antlers and I rarely see those because usually hunters see them first.
I also saw Muskrat Sally. Really a wood chuck and they are very common. I used to think they were beavers and was going to make a hat out of one of them. I decided against it as I don't know how to make a hat and the thing would probably eat me if I got near it.
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
Today we are having old friends over and I decided to wash and wax the floors in my workshop/Man cave and garage.

So I vacuum the floor, then wash it, then mop it. Then mop it two more times to get up any dirt.
Then I do the same to my garage which is epoxy coated.

I get the wax and start waxing. This is one of those one step waxes that you just put on and it dries like glass.

I do the entire thing and I am waiting outside for it to dry to see the glossy shine.

As it is drying, it is getting duller and duller. OK, I figure it needs another coat. I walk into my workshop and put another coat on the entire thing.
Workshop and garage.

I am again waiting for the beautiful shine. After 20 minutes it dries looking like old galvanized sheet metal that was left outside Humblefishes house for 2 years and he spilled salt water and copper on it every day.

Then I figure something is wrong so I should call the manufacturer and give them a piece of my mind about this terrible product.

As I am looking for the manufacturer on the label I read "Floor Stripper". Do not let dry on the floor or you need a bulldozer to remove it, or something to that effect.

Great. :confused:



 
Today we are having old friends over and I decided to wash and wax the floors in my workshop/Man cave and garage.

So I vacuum the floor, then wash it, then mop it. Then mop it two more times to get up any dirt.
Then I do the same to my garage which is epoxy coated.

I get the wax and start waxing. This is one of those one step waxes that you just put on and it dries like glass.

I do the entire thing and I am waiting outside for it to dry to see the glossy shine.

As it is drying, it is getting duller and duller. OK, I figure it needs another coat. I walk into my workshop and put another coat on the entire thing.
Workshop and garage.

I am again waiting for the beautiful shine. After 20 minutes it dries looking like old galvanized sheet metal that was left outside Humblefishes house for 2 years and he spilled salt water and copper on it every day.

Then I figure something is wrong so I should call the manufacturer and give them a piece of my mind about this terrible product.

As I am looking for the manufacturer on the label I read "Floor Stripper". Do not let dry on the floor or you need a bulldozer to remove it, or something to that effect.

Great. :confused:



Always read the directions first Mr. know it all ha ha
 

Paul B

NJRC Member
It's raining so I figured I would "play" with my tank a little. A gorgonian in the front grew much to large and I already cut a lot off of it but it is growing into the front glass and starting to cover an acropora that I have been babying for a year and it is growing well.

To move this gorg I had to re locate a few things and move a couple of bottles that have been in there for years. Of course they were filled with among other things, detritus, a lot of it because thats what bottles do. There were also a bunch of snails and tiny hermit crabs in there and forget about brittle stars, it's like a galaxy.

So I am not finished for a while but still not happy as that gorg is still hitting all sorts of corals so in the near future I think I am going to have to cut a lot of it and plant it in different places as I ran out of room.

To clear all this up I had to run my diatom filter which I am doing now. I really don't know how people are in this hobby for a long time without a diatom filter. :rolleyes:

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diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
I no longer have a diatom filter but still have two filter cartridges left over. They were great filters
 
I
It's raining so I figured I would "play" with my tank a little. A gorgonian in the front grew much to large and I already cut a lot off of it but it is growing into the front glass and starting to cover an acropora that I have been babying for a year and it is growing well.

To move this gorg I had to re locate a few things and move a couple of bottles that have been in there for years. Of course they were filled with among other things, detritus, a lot of it because thats what bottles do. There were also a bunch of snails and tiny hermit crabs in there and forget about brittle stars, it's like a galaxy.

So I am not finished for a while but still not happy as that gorg is still hitting all sorts of corals so in the near future I think I am going to have to cut a lot of it and plant it in different places as I ran out of room.

To clear all this up I had to run my diatom filter which I am doing now. I really don't know how people are in this hobby for a long time without a diatom filter. :rolleyes:

View attachment 31171
I wish I had problems like that, every gorgonian I’ve tried has died and turned into winter sticks,, I’m guessing that it’s because I run low temperature 73degrees. As always Paul your tank looks awesome. Much love brother
 
Man, what a great day.

I wanted to get a more Jersey flavor to my daily reefers so I just migrated over here from R2R. My main regret was to not read Paul B’s musings and insights. And I just find out that (of course) Paul is right here with us in Jersey. I, of course, should’ve known better!

Paul, I could read your posts forever. Much respect.

It’s a great day.
 
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