Paul B's thread

[Paul B]

As I was doing this maintenance I noticed all the sponges I have. I love sponges.

Each sponge filters 20,000 gallons (I made up that number because I forgot the actual number) of seawater a day and are great at removing car wash soap from your tank.

I feed every day along with other things, clams. Clams come with clam juice that clouds the water. I like the fact that it clouds the water because clam juice is actually microscope particles of clam. Along with, I imagine, clam spit. My water clears in a very short while due to the sponges, some of which are 10" across and 10 years old. Most of them I didn't even buy and have no idea where they came from. Many of them, especially the white ones only grow in the dark. If you move one of those white sponges into the light, they grow algae and croak.

I think we should have as many sponges in our tanks as we can fit. Fantastic creatures.

All this blue stuff is a sponge. I keep cutting off pieces and giving it away so it doesn't encroach on my bed because my wife frowns on that.

 

[vinny]

Funny they look like blue mushrooms to me.

 

[Paul B]

No, not the blue mushrooms, the stuff above that! Sheesh

 

[vinny]

Joking

 

[s_kelley]

Awesome! The only sponges I see growing in my tank are those little yellow pinaple ones. Did you buy those or get them diving or did they just grow like the ones in my tank?

 

[Paul B]

I don't remember where or how I got them. My mind is normally in the fusion zone

 

[Paul B]

We have this door in our bathroom that is for a closet/medicine cabinet/laundry shoot. The thing is 7' high and rounded. I designed this bathroom many years ago and I don't like straight walls, doors or women. So the door weighs about 150lbs, give or take 100lbs. The outside of it is white laminate.







A few months ago the cabinet hinges started to croak as the door is very heavy. It also has shelves built into it which I think my wife stores bowling balls or rocks on. The hinges gradually sagged to where it was hitting the bottom of the cabinet and wouldn't close all the way.







I found four hinges in my workshop that were the same design, from the same manufacturer but these were much larger and I figured I would install them. (I could build a Space Shuttle with the stuff in my workshop, a really small cheap Space Shuttle.)







I remove one of the center hinges and try to fit in the larger hinge which fits into the hole in the door, but the holes in the back end of course don't line up because these are larger but being smart, I had a drill with me. I drill the holes in the cabinet to match the hinge and install the thing.







Now I try to close the door, but being this hinge is much larger, the door won't close because it has a larger swing so I have change all the hinges. No problem (I built many cabinets so this is simple)







I get my drill, screw drivers, pliers, screws and anything else I may need because after I start this, I can't let go of the door because if at least two of the hinges are not on, the door will crash on the floor breaking off a large piece of it. And this door probably cost $1,000.00 today. (about the same as a two gallon Nano tank) It would be real hard to duplicate being it is round.







The bathroom floor of course is tile, 12" white, very slippery tiles. So I take a kitchen chair which has wooden legs and bring it into the bathroom. A ladder wouldn't fit in there so I need the chair to stand on.







I gently remove the top hinge while I am holding the weight of the door with my right arm. Now I take the new hinge and stick it in and drill the holes with my bad arm (I had a shoulder operation and it is not 100% yet but good enough for this simple job)







I have to hold the hinge, drill the holes, put in the screw and screw it in, all with my left hand, and this has to be done with the door almost closed, so I have to reach about 3' in to the dark closet while I am on the chair holding the weight of the door. I can barely reach it. No problem.







As I push the drill to make the hole, the chair slips backward on the tiles forcing me to grab the shelf. The shelf with all the hardware on it. Most of the hardware bounces into the laundry shoot at the bottom of the cabinet. Luckily, I was still holding the weight of the door and the bowling balls, or barbells so it didn't break.







But now, I can't close the door so it is hanging on the bottom hinges, I can't get down because the chair is to far back and even though I am jumping to edge it closer, it keeps moving backward. I have no screws to temporarily secure the door and I have to pee.







Luckily for me, I also brought a tool with me that would allow me to remedy this situation, my cell phone. So I call my neighbor. His wife is my fish sitter so they know how to get into my house. Ring......Ring.....Ring....Ring...."The person you have called is not available". (Of course not)







OK, so I call his wife. Ring...Ring...Ring...She is also not available. Like Duh







So I gradually start inching down as I use my fingers to "walk" up the door and hold it's weight. This is when I realized I should have removed the bowling balls from the shelves.







I am almost down and my fingers are aching from the weight when my phone rings. It's my neighbor. I tell him real fast, "get over here".







He finds his wife who knows how to get in my house and comes over just in time to give me this horrified look and take the weight off the door.







Now with someone holding the weight, it is a snap.




The large spring near the top hinge is to "help" take the weight of the rocks and other heavy things my wife feels is necessary to store on a cabinet door.

 

[s_kelley]

The pics aren't loading for me, sounds interesting though

 

[Jb83]

The joys of marriage!

 

[Paul B]

The pics aren't loading for me, sounds interesting though

Just make believe you see the picture

 

[Paul B]

My wife loves lobster and last night she taught a CCD class at the Catholic school so I made her a nice lobster dinner. On these forums most people call these a clean up crew, but here we call them dinner. I know how people feel about killing one of these for dinner but I didn't want to wait for him to die of old age, so I carefully brought him into my living room and put him on a chair. I put a piece of string next to him. Then I turned on Rap music and left the room. When I came back, he hung himself.

 

[s_kelley]

Hahaha sitting in my office laughing at a lobster pic, my guys must think I'm crazy

 

[Jb83]

I always get a kick out of your posts Paul

 

[dilligaf29]

lmao

 

[Paul B]

We got back from Disneyworld last night and today as I was feeding the tank I noticed something moving in my old bio pellet reactor. I built and installed this silly thing a few years ago as an experiment and figured it was a stupid idea because the pellets made the tank run so much worse so I threw them out. I keep the reactor there with nothing in it only because I am to lazy to remove it as it is plumbed in series with the skimmer. It is filled with brittle stars who seem happy so I leave it alone and forget about it. I see now that it is filled with shrimp. I have not had any shrimp in the tank in many months or maybe years except a pair of pistol shrimp that I figured were mating so it must be from them. I don't know how long they have been in the reactor and I am surprised they are in there because water flows through it and into the skimmer. I can't get them out because if I shut off the skimmer, the water drains out of the thing and back to the tank. They seem happy so I will leave them there and see what happens. I doubt they will reach adult size in there but like everything else, it is an experiment.

It is the thing on the right.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I suppose it is a new type of bio reactor now...

 

[Paul B]

Yes, now it is a shrimp reactor.

 

[Paul B]

Tonight we are having dinner guests. Two of out very close friends, my wife went to high school together and I used to drive the both of them home from school.
Anyway 2 hours ago he called screaming that he has a flood, water all over his house and he can't use any water because it all comes out under his toilet bowl in his basement. Now I don't want them to cancel dinner because my wife and I were cooking all day and he is a Vegan which I don't understand because he is about 300lbs. He must eat a lot of grapes or he grazes in his yard all night. I told him it is cheap to cook for him because I did all my shopping in a sod farm.
I race over to his house and jump into the flood in his basement where he has enough food stored for WW3. I never saw so much canned food in my life.
So I assess the situation and see for one thing that his toilet bowl has no bolts holding it down. OK, water still should not come out from there unless you flush "that" bowl. So I know the Main trap is clogged and any water used in the house will come out the lowest place. (I was a plumber in another life) I need to open the trap.
The trap is under a DIY cabinet that some Jiboni built before he bought the house 20 years ago. Then another "architect" built a wall in front of this 8' long cabinet so it can't be removed without sawing it in 3 parts. Of course it if filled with every type of canned food there is. Beans, pickles, olives, onions, tuna fish. I could eat for two years just with what was on the top shelf.
So we make a line and hand out all the food so we can move the cabinet to the opposite wall about 10" away. Luckily I am only 11" wide so after we moved the cabinet, I snaked myself back there. It was hard because the water main is also back there and I had to crawl under it.
Now I am back there wedged in thinking how am I going to get out as I am not exactly 20 years old any more. As I am thinking, something lands on my head. Then I feel something else land on my arm, then something jumps in my eye. It is pitch dark because they are still looking for a drop light. Things are jumping all over me, on my head, my eyes etc. Then I feel something crawling up my leg, AAAAAAAAAAAAGggggggggghhhh
They are all over me. My friend comes with the light and yells, ARE THERE ANY CRICKETS BACK THERE?.. Oh yeah, you got crickets. I am surprised you have any food left because you have a cricket Zoo back here.
Then I see sticky cricket traps loaded with crickets. There were so many crickets on those traps that they were giving each other mouth to mouth resuscitation. I am swatting them off of me as they were annoying especially females who I think were coming on to me if you know what I mean.
So I look for the 3" plugs that cover the trap but of course they are covered in dirt and crickets that died of old age or rickets, (get it, rickets) This is a true story by the way.
I dig out the dirt and pry out the cap, water comes flooding out. This is not RO/DI water either.
I ask for a shop vac. Of course he doesn't have one. Now who doesn't own a shop vac! So he runs to his neighbors to get one while I am getting swarmed by these little devils and I can barely take a breath because I am on my knees wedged in between the dead cricket covered cement wall and this old cabinet with the water main sticking me in the ear.
He finally runs in with the shop vac. He puts it on the top of the cabinet and turns it on. I suck out all the "stuff" in the trap after we empty this 15 gallon shop vac three times and now the pipe is clear.
I crawl back out with a little help and they are on their way here.
I doused myself with Clorox and took two showers.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Nothing like a cricket and crap bath to get you in the mood for a vegan dinner...

 

[s_kelley]

Had me laughing since 300lb vegan!!! Hope they paid for dinner or drinks or even better both