How this Geezer did it in the beginning

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Reeftanknewbe, thanks, my family is fine.
All tanks up to just after WW2 were slate bottomed. Maybe the 60s, I forget when all glass came out but it was a big relief when they did as those slate bottomed tanks were sealed with alphaltium varnish which is a type of tar I think and they leaked. I had 14 of them set up at one time. Slate bottoms were invented because years ago before homes were heated, oil lamps were placed under tanks to warm them.
 
I got my first tank back in the very early 60s. It was a 10G, had a slate bottom and a chromed metal frame. It was sealed with a really sticky black tar-like material. I had it set up in my basement next to a dartboard...

I got my second tank back in the very early 60s. It was much like my first one, except that it wasn't next to a dartboard.
 
Always a pleasure to write them. I write on a few forums and forget what I write and where I write it so if I write something again, just go and watch Surviverman, Oprah, or Who wants to marry my Father.
Those shows are for Sissies so I don't watch them but I see commercials for them while I am watching a Man show like National Geographic about sardines or kelp.
Anyway I just remembered 2 stories but I probably posted them here so look for one of those shows.
I don't know what people now do in the Army while they are in the States but I was stationed in Colorado. In the Army they find things for you to do so you don't watch things like Oprah and Who wants to Marry my Father so they gave me this APC (Armored personnel carrier) which is like a tank but it is for moving troops around. My close friend had an M 60 tank which is for what tanks do. But in Colorado a tank has no purpose except to chase buffalo in blizzards through 6' of snow.
We met these two girls in town at the Tombstone Discoteck. Yes it was a dump. So we told the girls where to meet us because the Govt, has thousands of acres out there with nothing on it but buffalo and snow. The girls had a VW beetle. We had them park by the 6' fence that surrounds the Army land and they parked outside the fence. We swung the gun on the tank over the fence and one at a time the girls hung on and we carried them over the fence.
One got in my friends tank and one came with me in the APC.
It was a cool way to bring a girl on a date and they enjoyed the snow ride and wildlife, but the buffalo were not impressed. Of course we didn't hit any as they don't move to fast in shoulder high snow, but it was fun.
Eventually we brought the girls back to the fence and lifted them back to their VW.
 
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Paul B said:
Always a pleasure to write them. I write on a few forums and forget what I write and where I write it so if I write something again, just go and watch Surviverman, Oprah, or Who wants to marry my Father.
Those shows are for Sissies so I don't watch them but I see commercials for them while I am watching a Man show like National Geographic about sardines or kelp.
Anyway I just remembered 2 stories but I probably posted them here so look for one of those shows.
I don't know what people now do in the Army while they are in the States but I was stationed in Colorado. In the Army they find things for you to do so you don't watch things like Oprah and Who wants to Marry my Father so they gave me this APC (Armored personnel carrier) which is like a tank but it is for moving troops around. My close friend had an M 60 tank which is for what tanks do. But in Colorado a tank has no purpose except to chase buffalo in blizzards through 6' of snow.
We met these two girls in town at the Tombstone Discoteck. Yes it was a dump. So we told the girls where to meet us because the Govt, has thousands of acres out there with nothing on it but buffalo and snow. The girls had a VW beetle. We had them park by the 6' fence that surrounds the Army land and they parked outside the fence. We swung the gun on the tank over the fence and one at a time the girls hung on and we carried them over the fence.
One got in my friends tank and one came with me in the APC.
It was a cool way to bring a girl on a date and they enjoyed the snow ride and wildlife, but the buffalo were not impressed. Of course we didn't hit any as they don't move to fast in shoulder high snow, but it was fun.
Eventually we brought the girls back to the fence and lifted them back to their VW.
Click to expand...

:lmao: Yes, there are some pretty bad shows on TV these days. Personally I don't have cable/sattelite or what ever medium people use to get 500 useless channels. I work in IT, so I would just rather pay for the bandwidth to watch what I feel like watching, when I feel like watching it. An added bonus is not having to watch so many horrible commercials. I also find it more pourposeful to watch content that IS going to teach me things. Weather it's welding, server configuration, or how to get the hood on my car open when the stupid platic latch breaks!
 
I don't have a fish tank story just now as the fish all seem to be doing what fish do, giving me dirty looks because I didn't feed them yet but I didn't eat yet either so they will just have to get over it. I spent most of the day re building my work shop and it is coming out nice. I bought a small stainless steel sink to put in there as I have been thinking of doing that for 30 years or so.
I just looked through some of this thread to see what it was about because I had no idea and I didn't want to write something about supermodels, manta rays or Oldsmobiles without checking what it was about. I see I had a few Jeep stories, well I just remembered another one that I am sure I giot on here someplace so again, like everything I write, you may want to go watch Oprah.
This was in Colorado while I was in the Army. We were playing stupid war games which is a rediculous waste of time being I was going to Viet Nam and it was like 20 below zero in Colorado. But anyway, this Luitenant takes me in this Jeep and we were going to run this commo wire out acrosss the plains for a few miles and meet up with some other Shmuck to finish the run.
Army Jeeps don't have roofs and the Army had lousy cold weather gear.
So we got this coil of maybe 5 miles of commo wire hung on the back of the Jeep and as we drive across the plains, the wire is paying out the back.
It is night time and it starts to snow. In Colorado it can snow a foot an hour.
Did I mention this thing has no roof? So we get a few miles out and I can't feel my feet. We are totally lost and the snow is up to the bumper.
But for survival we have M 16s, with no bullets because we are just playing games. I think I also had a pliers which was good because if we would have came across a tree I could have cut some wire and hung myself.
The Luitenant says he is going to climb up a hill to see if he sees any lights. I said "good Idea", and look for a tree.
He is gone and I am alone in the jeep with snow up around my chin and I hear this howling. I am a New York boy and nothing howls in New York
The howls are getting closer so I take my M 16 (with no bullets) and I climb up on the Jeep hood, after I push off the foot of snow.
I figure it was a Sasquatch and I could smack him on the knee with the but of the gun.
But whatever was howling did not come any closer even though I was hoping it would eat the Luitenant.
So the big deal army comes back and tells me we are lost. Like Duh, you think.
So guess which one of us has to walk in front of the jeep picking up the wire all the way so we knew which way to go? :headwallblue:
 
Dennis, what bottle?


My dive partner took this probably in the Caymans. I love this picture and I see some tanks that are sparse and remind me of this scene

 
I remember on one of my first freshwater tanks the lighting reflector was metal. Everything was metal in those days, but anyway, the light had a push button switch but whenever I touched it I got a shock, so I used to push it with a stick. That was fine but I had to move the light to feed the fish and I was afraid to touch the thing so I built an auto feeder, Kind of. I took a container of flake food and mounted it inside the light hood.
I left the container of food partially open and I also inserted an air hose into the container with the other end coming out of the tank. When it was time to feed the fish I would blow into the tube and it would send flake food flying into the tank. Problem solved.
 
I found some old pictures of my tank that were on film. I don't know what year this was but the one with the big leather coral was in FAMMA magazine.

 
Paul B said:
Dennis, what bottle?


My dive partner took this probably in the Caymans. I love this picture and I see some tanks that are sparse and remind me of this scene

Click to expand...

I was snorkeling in Antigua 2,weeks ago....reef was dead....a lot of fish but no corals. Was hoping to find a bottle like that but nothing
 
So I went to a very large LFS today. (I helped start their tanks in the early 70s) and they have some lousy stuff. I saw a few fish with one eye and quite a few fish with eye fungus tail rot and some with a social disease. I didn't really see anything that "didn't" have ich.
I go there all the time for 2 reasons, one, my Mother N Law is in a nursing home next door so I am there anyway and two, they import their own fish so they always have unusual stock that no one else ever has and I usually see something new. Fish with one eye is not new but I didn't want one of those. Ich doesn't bother me either but they didn't have much of a selection today so I just bought worms.
I actually had to go there today because my closest friend is a snow bird and stays in the Florida Keys for the winter. (yes, he is smarted than I am) and he has a guy who does his snow blowing for him. (we are getting a lot of snow tonight) The guy uses his snow blower and the guy said the thing was broken so my friend asked me to go see if I could fix it. I get there and the machine runs fine, the control that turns the shoot broke so he has to turn it by hand. I mean "Really", the guy called me to drive a half an hour because he has to turn the shoot by hand. My friend didn't know that but the Jiboni who uses the machine thought that was a big problem.
But it "forced" me to go to the LFS as my friend lives near there. :rolleyes:
At least I got a fresh supply of worms, I am not sure if any of the worms are missing an eye as I didn't look that close, but they were alive. :dance:
 
Paul B said:
I remember on one of my first freshwater tanks the lighting reflector was metal. Everything was metal in those days, but anyway, the light had a push button switch but whenever I touched it I got a shock, so I used to push it with a stick. That was fine but I had to move the light to feed the fish and I was afraid to touch the thing so I built an auto feeder, Kind of. I took a container of flake food and mounted it inside the light hood.
I left the container of food partially open and I also inserted an air hose into the container with the other end coming out of the tank. When it was time to feed the fish I would blow into the tube and it would send flake food flying into the tank. Problem solved.
Click to expand...

:lmao:
 
Hi Paul,
I'm new to Reef Central and even newer to your thread, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the read so far. I look forward to more posts!
O and I almost forgot, thanks for your service. OIF disabled vet here. Airborne All The Way!!!
 
Was introducing a rather large carpet anemone to a tank today when it slid out of the bag and latched on to my arm. Did not sting me...I have yet had an an anemone sting me. Maybe I've developed tolerance like a clown fish. Lol
 
Capn, the anemone was probably more scared than you and was afraid you would sting him.
ReefandClimb, I am honored that you joined my thread and thank you for your service.
What service were you in and where did you serve?
 
Good morning Paul,
I was active duty Army for 5 years. I served two combat tours in Iraq, and luckily didn't get called over to Afghanistan. In garrison, I was stationed at Ft. Bragg,NC where I was a senior jump master and section SGT for the 327th Sig Bn ABN. I received an honorable medical discharge in 2008 due to injuries sustained during my last deployment in late 04. Lemme stop before I go on a narrative lol this is your thread not mine!! Long story short, I got divorced shortly after my disharge (the ex was way more into the paycheck and her nose candy than she was our marriage) , lived in my parents basement for a coiple years, finally moved back out and had a lot of time on my hands, and got into aquaculture/fish keeping, and here I am reading (and carrying on in) your thread!
 
ReefandClimb, you can carry on as long as you like as my threads normally wander all over the place from Paris Hilton, boats, elephants, Jeeps, Supermodels and of course Army stuff.
I am on a break now as it is snowing about 6" an hour. I just shoveled out my snow blower and broke my shed door trying to open it as there is 3' of snow in front of it.
I got the thing out and did my property, I especially wanted to try to make a path to the place where I put my generator if the power goes out. But in a half an hour, I turned around and it looked like I didn't do anything, so I gave up for a while but will get back to it soon. At one time these bones would jump out there and shovel, snow blow and plow for two days straight. Now the old bones can still do it, but not for very long.
I miss the days when I had this and could go through 6' drifts while making $500.00 an hour.

 
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