tomterreefic
tomterreefic
I haven't been on in awhile. In fact my tank has been fairly empty for most of this past year. I neglected the tank for awhile trying to work 2 jobs and work on school work. But you know at some point you have to re-weigh your priorities. I was sitting home one night and noticed that I didn't see any light coming under the door from the office/junk room where my tank is set up. At first I thought maybe the timers were off due to random power outages around the neighborhood while new houses were added to the power grid. So I decided to go ahead and reset the timers. What I found was one MH bulb shattered apparently by water splash (but the bulb was still intact). The only thing I can think is that a couple times the top off water ran out and evaporation ran the sump low enough that the return pulled in air, causing the return to blow bubbles that created the splash.
The other bulb was fine but one of the wires connecting the socket to the ballast was hanging loose from the wire nut. When I looked, I found that the connection had been hanging upside down, the wire nut forming a cup of sorts. Saltwater had intruded into here and corroded the connection enough for the wire to break loose. I don't know how long the tank was without light. I had only a couple green button palythoa that were almost stark white now and a red favia that had begun receeding. So I replaced both MH bulbs and reterminated all of my wires using weather proof wirenuts, electrical tape and zip ties to hold the wires in correct orientation to prevent this problem from happening again.
So, slowly, I've been trying to get the tank back in order. I had to fight thru new algae blooms and now I'm fighting hair algae. I had to quit the second job as there was no structure there. I would have to call in on Monday to find out my schedule for the week, etc, etc. So to hell with that. I refused to let my tank die because I'm killing myself working.
Now add in one final event that has totally absorbed all of my tank money and time. I got married this past Saturday Dec. 29! Amy was just a friend I met when I first moved back to SC. She's a nurse in Columbia and offered to take care of me after my back surgery. So she took care of me for 3 weeks and I basically never went back home to Prosperity. I figured that anyone who is able and willing to put up with me day in/day out, must be worth keeping. So I proposed and she accepted.
We were married in her home church in Kings Mountain, NC the day before her parents' 35th wedding anniversary. Her parents were married in the same church. We had 2 pastors perform the ceremony. One was the pastor that married her parents and the other is the current pastor of the church. We had our reception in Charlotte at the Holiday Inn-Center City. We can't afford a big honeymoon right now (the wedding has drained our finances), but we're going to Asheville tomorrow to spend a couple nights at a Bed and Breakfast. We're going to take in Biltmore House and Winery while we're there. Then we'll look into going on a honeymoon this Spring (great, there goes my tank money for another 6 months, LOL).
Anyway, that's about it for me. We'll be heading in June to spend a week in Cherry Grove with her Mom/Dad and Sister/Brother-In-Law. I'm sure I can get on everyones' nerves enough in a couple days, that I can sneak down to Myrtle to check out the store(s). Hope everyone is doing well!
:celeb1: HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :celeb3:
The other bulb was fine but one of the wires connecting the socket to the ballast was hanging loose from the wire nut. When I looked, I found that the connection had been hanging upside down, the wire nut forming a cup of sorts. Saltwater had intruded into here and corroded the connection enough for the wire to break loose. I don't know how long the tank was without light. I had only a couple green button palythoa that were almost stark white now and a red favia that had begun receeding. So I replaced both MH bulbs and reterminated all of my wires using weather proof wirenuts, electrical tape and zip ties to hold the wires in correct orientation to prevent this problem from happening again.
So, slowly, I've been trying to get the tank back in order. I had to fight thru new algae blooms and now I'm fighting hair algae. I had to quit the second job as there was no structure there. I would have to call in on Monday to find out my schedule for the week, etc, etc. So to hell with that. I refused to let my tank die because I'm killing myself working.
Now add in one final event that has totally absorbed all of my tank money and time. I got married this past Saturday Dec. 29! Amy was just a friend I met when I first moved back to SC. She's a nurse in Columbia and offered to take care of me after my back surgery. So she took care of me for 3 weeks and I basically never went back home to Prosperity. I figured that anyone who is able and willing to put up with me day in/day out, must be worth keeping. So I proposed and she accepted.
We were married in her home church in Kings Mountain, NC the day before her parents' 35th wedding anniversary. Her parents were married in the same church. We had 2 pastors perform the ceremony. One was the pastor that married her parents and the other is the current pastor of the church. We had our reception in Charlotte at the Holiday Inn-Center City. We can't afford a big honeymoon right now (the wedding has drained our finances), but we're going to Asheville tomorrow to spend a couple nights at a Bed and Breakfast. We're going to take in Biltmore House and Winery while we're there. Then we'll look into going on a honeymoon this Spring (great, there goes my tank money for another 6 months, LOL).
Anyway, that's about it for me. We'll be heading in June to spend a week in Cherry Grove with her Mom/Dad and Sister/Brother-In-Law. I'm sure I can get on everyones' nerves enough in a couple days, that I can sneak down to Myrtle to check out the store(s). Hope everyone is doing well!
:celeb1: HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :celeb3:
