How this Geezer did it in the beginning

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Ya know, I just read all 28 pages of this thread (It was that or listen to my wife make plans on how to spend my money...heh heh) and I gotta say next time I'm
gonna go to the last page and see how the story ends...That's a lot of reading...but it was interesting...my dad, who died in 2010, could fix anything...he taught me that why buy new or pay someone to fix it if you can do it yourself...I'm 47 and I'm not as good as my dad was but I can fix most anything...so he taught me well...(I'm rambling) I'm new to reef tanks and did alot of research but reading your threads taught me more...They also made me laugh...Maybe I just need to learn what the tank needs and find a way to do that as opposed to buying all sorts of expensive crap that will be outdated in a few months/years anyway...Anyway, I'll end this because I'm just babbling (I'm only 47, not even a geezer, OMG what will I be in 20 years?)Thanks for the inspiration and I wish you many more years
 
Kids in the next 10 years are going to be so lacking in social skills since they use computers and texting for all communication.
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Not only lacking social skills but also lacking in any type of muscle structure. Soon all our kids will be shaped like sea hares as they will be fat, out of shape, beings with powerful thumbs. We always took our Daughter outside to play and we still do it with our Grand Daughter. They need some air, polluted or not, get them out to climb a tree, go fishing, eat a bug, do something.
I went fishing on a commercial boat yesterday which is something I rarely do because I have my own boat, but it was a charity thing. Anyway, there were about 4 young boys on the boat and one of them was so annoying that if no one was looking I think I would have lowered him over the side on a rope just to get him away from me. There was only 40 people on the boat but it held 109 so it wasn't crowded, but this kid had to fish 2' from me so our lines were constantly tangled. He incessantly complained about not catching fish and I have no idea where his parents were but I assume they were happy because he was bothering me instead of them. Luckily for the first couple of hours we were out in the ocean and there were huge rolling waves and it was in the upper 90s so this kid, his 2 brothers and his Mother and friend were sea sick and puking their brains out. A puking kid is not bothering me because he is inside laying down or puking someplace away from me. :rolleye1:
I don't blame him for being sea sick, but I do blame his Mother for being sick. I mean we live on Long Island which is surrounded by water and I am sure you know that you get seasick. I know if I was the type of person that gets seasick, the last place I am going to go is on a boat out in the ocean. It was great fishing out there as we were catching large fish, but because these people were sick, we had to go back and fish in the harbors with the Sissies. :mad2: You should be able to throw people like that off the boat, but the Coast Guard frowns on that sort of thing. :fun2: I mean, we could have picked them up on our way back in. So, if you know you get sea sick, (and you know who you are) don't go in the sea unless you go by yourself so you don't ruin the days of 40 people.
I will say his brother was a really nice kid who was asking questions and listening to the answers and I love to see a well behaved kid who has some manners and wants to learn. :p He was all excited to catching sea robin. We had to throw it back but it was a large fish and maybe the first fish he ever caught.
I am not sure what type of kid I was but no one threw me overboard so maybe I wasn't to annoying. :lol:
But they did leave me alone on mudy beaches where I played with snails, crabs, worms etc. Go figure. :lol:

Ya know, I just read all 28 pages of this thread
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Really? I don't think I read all 28 pages of it, but when I get time, I will. I do appreciate you reading it as I see you are new to the Forum and I would like to welcome you. Most threads on here are written by people who really have something to say rather than me, who has no idea what these threads are about or where they will head.
You can rant and babble all you want as that is what I do. If you say something the Mods don't like, they will delete it and write you a note telling you what you can't do. It is mostly a pleasant forum but there are always arguments on ich, hair algae, quarantining or ground probe threads so I tend to stay away from them. :idea:
After I got back from fishing on that boat yesterday I had to rush home because I had a boatfull of people that came out for dinner on my boat. We got back after 11:00 and my marina has a really nice Tiki bar with a band so we stayed there for a while and now it is boating time again.
Have a great day.
Paul
 
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I know what you mean about sea sick people staying home. I served with some people that would be sick below decks as soon as we pulled up the anchor to go to sea and we were on a good sized ship that handled rough seas well. Why would they join the Navy? I have always loved boating on lakes and especially being at sea, the rougher the better.

My favorite time was deep sea fishing in Pensacola, Florida when I was stationed there for six months of advanced training. It was a small boat, probably about 30 people and we ran into a storm on the way back with very rough seas. Most everyone was below decks being sick, which only makes it worse since it's hot with no air flow and you can't focus your eyes on the movement of the ship to get oriented. I asked the Captain if I could watch from the main deck and he said "hold on, I won't be going back if you fall overboard". Best ride of my life! The skipper had amazing skills. We would come up to a wall of water much higher than the boat and he would roll the boat right over it and move on to the next one.
 
Steamer, I also like water like that and no amount of turbulence will get me sick, but I realize many people do get sea sick, but they should stay on land.
I just came home from my boat, it is 94 degrees here today and we spent most of the time laying in the 69 degree water. We invited a friend to come today and he was also stationed on an aircraft Carrier off of Viet Nam. He wouldn't come today because there is supposed to be severe thunder storms. I asked him if they beached that aircraft carrier when it rained? Today we were at most 100 yards from shore, how bad could the thunderstorm be? I mean they didn't predict hurricane Sandy today, they said thunderstorms. How much of a Sissy could you be? If it rains that hard we go in the cabin and wait for it to pass or we just sit and enjoy it as we already were wet from laying in the water. It is a boat and supposed to get wet.
I am surrounded by a bunch of Sissies. :sad1:

My "ship" waiting for a thunderstorm

 
Carriers are huge, even back in our day, and they go to sea when bad weather is on it's way rather than get beat up on the beach. They used to carry about 10,000 sailors, probably more now. My ship "only" had a crew of 1400, including a 300 man Marine Detachment. She is pictured in my avatar and here she is firing a Talos missile.



I really like your boat and am glad you are able to enjoy it. The boat I use at Dale Hollow lake is smaller, rated for 8 people and we get a lot of pleasure out of being on the water.
 
My ship "only" had a crew of 1400, including a 300 man Marine Detachment. She is pictured in my avatar and here she is firing a Talos missile.
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My "ship" caries a crew of about 4 or 6 and sometimes includes some babes. Of course most of them are older (more experienced) now. She doesn't carry missles but usually
has a full compliment of Champagne, beer, Vodka (for dosing and medicinal purposes)
Here we are waiting to be attacked by the Swiss. They never came so we just waited and Bar be cued




We do maneuvers and practice things like "Man overboard with glass of Merlot".

Last year I re married my closest friends and performed the ceremony on 3 boats rafted together. We decorated the boats in wedding stuff and I had a Capt Steubing outfit on including hat from the Love boat. We also played the theme from the Love Boat. The wedding party wore T shirts with tuxedoe's on them and the bride wore a white bathing suit with a vale and trane.
We also had some newscasters there but I won't mention their names.
Those two people on the left are my closets friends all my life and they were the happy couple married 40 years as I will be this October.


 
I read all 28 pages and it was some of the best reading I've done. I'm looking forward to feeding my fish better, and I am DEFINITELY going to plan a beach trip soon so I can get some goodies to bring back to my tank :)

I notice you have at least four yellow clown gobies in your full tank shot. Lovely tank by the way. I love yellow clown gobies. What have you seen them eat? Of the foods you feed them, what is their favorite?

I have lots more questions, I wrote them all down on my smart phone, but now I have to remember which program or app I put them on, that could take a while.....besides, I want to drag it out as long as possible because I like this thread.
 
Thank you for reading all 28 pages, thats a lot of reading or my ramblings, most of which is not even about fish. Clown gobies eat worms like all of my fish. They also eat small pieces of clam but it is the live blackworms and live whiteworms that keeps them in good condition and spawning. They are not crazy about any commercial food and I think that isa why so many people have trouble keeping them for any length of time.
Here is a video of them eating live blackworms.

(Steamer, what are they firing that missile at?)

 
I couldn't get your link to work but thank you for your response. On my little notepad here, I have a question again. Well I have lots. I'll try to go for the short and quick ones first.

What brand of powerheads are you using that are 20 years old? I have some ten year old marineland maxijets that still work.

how much/often do you dose your Lugols?

Is there a thread where you go into detail on your denitrator build and cycle and maintenance?

(I have more but I'll ask in a bit.)

I also want to say thank you for sharing your story. All of it was fascinating and thank you for your service as well. I am kicking myself for not exploring more marine life when I had the chance to. I spent all my time topside on the boat when sailing with my parents and not enough time on the beach and tidepools, apparently that was the place to be!
 
Appellativo, correct, the tidepools are the place to be. It is raining here today so I am not in a tidepool now.
I found the thread with the denitrifier but it is old and the pictures are gone.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2183314

I am not sure where those pictures are. I removed the denitrifier when hurricane Sandy hit because I had no power for 4 days and you can't shut off those things, I will re install it when I have time but I am doing other experiments now.

I don't know what type of powerheads I have as they are underwater and I don't think there is any more writing on them that I could see. They are covered in growth but I do know that the newer Korilia's are not built very well and I doubt they will last very long, but they do pump more water.

I dose 8 drops of Luguls about once a week when I remember which is not that often. I am not sure if it does anything, I have a jar of the stuff and I want to use it up.
 
Thank you!

Last questions:

Is there a place where the recipie and dosing method is for Randy's 2 part calcium?

and is there a place where how to dose epsom salts for magnesium is detailed? I got from the thread here that you dose a gallon of the ca (don't know the details of that but assume they are forthcoming...) and then the epsom salt for magnesium 3 times per year but I need details please ;)

I cut and pasted all your words on keeping blackworms so perhaps I can get a system going. I wonder how the suppliers do it?

My grocery sells live lobsters, I wonder how I could go about feeding their guts. Perhaps gut one, freeze the glob and shave it off like you do clams. I wonder how nuts that would make my skimmer ha ha!
 
Hello again Paul. Age does not matter when it comes to "Babes" like you are blessed with in your life. My wife's mother is 93 and still looks great to me. I kid my wife that if anything happens to her I'll be dating her mother. We recently celebrated our 36th anniversary, congrats to your friends on their 40th and yours in October. I don't understand today's disposable society where if there is a problem with your spouse, just get another one. There are legitimate reasons for divorce but so many just throw it all away over the first little conflict and never learn how much stronger the relationship gets when you work out troubles together. They never find out how great your life can be loving the same person for decades like we have. Very sad.

I forgot you were a USCG licensed boat captain and can perform marriages on board. So cool you were able to do that for your friends, sounds like a great time and I approve of the way you stock your boat with personnel and supplies. No need for missiles!

The missile firing was a practice shot in 1961, before my time. We fired a few practices while I was on board but never in anger. I spent 18 months on this ship and another one just like her from 1972-74 which was during the war but we were in the Mediterranean away from any action. The closest we were ever to conflict was during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 "Standing by" off the coast of Lebanon to extract Americans if necessary. Our real mission was to make sure the Russians didn't get into the war and they were present to make sure we didn't. The sea was full of Russian ships passing by closely and pointing their guns at us until my Russian Linguist friend translated a message from our Admiral to theirs to quit playing games or someone would make a mistake and cause WWIII. They backed off but much later when intelligence reports were de-classified I learned that their "War Plan" was a "Salvo attack" if necessary. They outnumbered our ships 3 to 1 and if they fired, all their ships would target ours and fire at the same time to destroy our fleet before we had a chance to retaliate. Not a pretty picture since the president ordered the entire fleet to anchor in the same place to avoid sailing around and possible running into one of their ships. Presidents should listen to their Commanders when if comes to military matters rather than choosing the politically correct option.
 
Steamer, thank you for your service. The "Babes" I have on my boat are all getting up in age now but we still have our same friends from high school and some from Grammar school. I met my wife when she was 12, I dated her older cousin as I am 6 years older than my wife. I started dating my wife when I was home for a 30 day leave before Nam. We wrote to each other every couple of days and she spent a fortune sending me care packages.
When I got home I asked her to marry me but I found out she was 16 and looked 18 or 20. I was 21. I found out because I used to drive her home from high school and I thought she was a senior, but then I drove her home the next year, and the next year and I am thinking How stupid is she that she has been in high school for 8 years. Everyone knew her age but me. Her Father and mine were dead. Her father (who I met) would have killed me for dating her then.:smokin:
We have a great marriage and are still best friends and hang out together.
I would not have married her if I thought it would not work out. She was also a knockout.

Appellativo, don't use the lobsters, to slimy and you will have guts all over the place, use clams.
For dosing, I use 1 1/4 cups of Dow Flake ice melter in a gallon of water.
And for the alk I use 1 1/8th cups of Baking soda in a gallon of water.
I put about 2 ounces of each solution in my tank every other day. You can test the calcium and add more if needed.

The Epsom Salts I use about a cup maybe 3 times a year. I just slowly add it.
Never had a problem.

My wife when she was 18



And today.



 
OK, right now she would just eat them like everything else. This morning after breakfast I was swimming laps in the town pool as I do 3 times a week (but I could really stand to go every day) and I was thinking, when I was a kid your parents made you wait an entire hour after you ate before you went swimming. That wasn't just my parents, everyone thought that if you didn't wait an hour, you would get cramps and drown. It didn't matter that I was just playing with hermit crabs in ankle deep water. My Mother would stay there looking at her watch and would not let me go in the water one minute before the hour was up. So kids never ate at the beach because we didn't want to wait that hour. Speaking about watches, they were not water proof or sand proof in those days and they were very expensive so people used to bring chairs to the beach so their watch would not get sand on it. How times have changed, now watches are so cheap that they are everywhere.
Soon they will get so small that they will be edible and will be on all red M&Ms.
Electronics of all kinds are so tiny. As a kid, if you wanted to hear music, you had to carry around a 10lb record player and plug it in. The same with radio's. Of course telephones were connected to a wall by a wire (as mine still are) I read that soon cell phones will be so small they will be able to be implanted in one of your teeth. How silly people will look with their hands in their mouth to text, I don't even want to know where you will view pictures.:facepalm:

This is how I looked in those days. That was my first girlfriend Georgia and we are standing in front of my dad's 1947 Pontiac. I met Georgia when she was 2 years old. She moved in next to me and we became best friends for many years. Georgia died in her 30s of Lukemia leaving 3 little kids.

She was more like a Sister to me as we grew up together and I do miss her.
Enjoy your life as much as you can, you never know how much time you have left and we only get one pass through.

 
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Paul B said:
Steamer, thank you for your service. The "Babes" I have on my boat are all getting up in age now but we still have our same friends from high school and some from Grammar school. I met my wife when she was 12, I dated her older cousin as I am 6 years older than my wife. I started dating my wife when I was home for a 30 day leave before Nam. We wrote to each other every couple of days and she spent a fortune sending me care packages.
When I got home I asked her to marry me but I found out she was 16 and looked 18 or 20. I was 21. I found out because I used to drive her home from high school and I thought she was a senior, but then I drove her home the next year, and the next year and I am thinking How stupid is she that she has been in high school for 8 years. Everyone knew her age but me. Her Father and mine were dead. Her father (who I met) would have killed me for dating her then.:smokin:
We have a great marriage and are still best friends and hang out together.
I would not have married her if I thought it would not work out. She was also a knockout.

Appellativo, don't use the lobsters, to slimy and you will have guts all over the place, use clams.
For dosing, I use 1 1/4 cups of Dow Flake ice melter in a gallon of water.
And for the alk I use 1 1/8th cups of Baking soda in a gallon of water.
I put about 2 ounces of each solution in my tank every other day. You can test the calcium and add more if needed.

The Epsom Salts I use about a cup maybe 3 times a year. I just slowly add it.
Never had a problem.

My wife when she was 18



And today.





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Paul your wife hasn't aged....

Seems that way with longterm marriages, people age slower...
 
Thank you, she still looks great to me. Especially after being married to me for 40 years. :love2:

Of course she is also my dive partner, this is Tahiti. Those "rocks" in the water are tridacna clams

 
What a great looking couple. Thanks for the daily reminder that there still exists some humanity, love and kindness in the world. Can't thank you enought for keeping this thread alive.
 
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