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THE OFFICIAL ASK ALBERT THIEL THREAD


ZephNYC

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Paul,

Interesting and humorous read. One never gets bored when you are in the room.

Laissez la bonne temps roulee,

Patrick

 

My first marine tank substrate consisted of crushed up oyster shells from the chicken feed store. In 1971, the budget was tight on $175/month GI Bill. It was a Galveston Bay biotheme with shrimps and little fishes from the marsh lagoons. An inspired neighbor brought me two fishes that were captured in their shrimp trawl. Sea Robin was interesting with wings for pectoral fins and three slim legs on each side. I jokingly called them lunar landing gears. I did not know the name of the other fish so I called it what it looked like to me: Devil Eyes. Drinking coffee that first morning, I did not like the way it looked at me. Once I realized all my little fishes and shrimp were gone, Devil Eyes was thrown into the fiery abyss.

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I also received that $175.00 a month on the GI bill. I was going to apprentice school to be an electrician and it helped out my take home salary which was about $52.00 a week.

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albertthiel

Paul,

Interesting and humorous read. One never gets bored when you are in the room.

Laissez la bonne temps roulee,

Patrick

 

My first marine tank substrate consisted of crushed up oyster shells from the chicken feed store. In 1971, the budget was tight on $175/month GI Bill. It was a Galveston Bay biotheme with shrimps and little fishes from the marsh lagoons. An inspired neighbor brought me two fishes that were captured in their shrimp trawl. Sea Robin was interesting with wings for pectoral fins and three slim legs on each side. I jokingly called them lunar landing gears. I did not know the name of the other fish so I called it what it looked like to me: Devil Eyes. Drinking coffee that first morning, I did not like the way it looked at me. Once I realized all my little fishes and shrimp were gone, Devil Eyes was thrown into the fiery abyss.

 

Ouch a nasty predator ....

 

Albert

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I also received that $175.00 a month on the GI bill. I was going to apprentice school to be an electrician and it helped out my take home salary which was about $52.00 a week.

 

I attended Texas Maritime Academy. Out of state tuition was $40 a semester hour, in state tuition was $4. My new wife had a BA in psychology and got a job with UTMB in Galveston. Under her university employee status as her spouse, I qualified for $5 a semester hour tuition.

Patrick

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albertthiel

I attended Texas Maritime Academy. Out of state tuition was $40 a semester hour, in state tuition was $4. My new wife had a BA in psychology and got a job with UTMB in Galveston. Under her university employee status as her spouse, I qualified for $5 a semester hour tuition. Patrick

 

Wow ... compare that to over $400 per credit hour nowadays at many Colleges/Universities ... and that is for In State Tuition I think (here in GA)

 

No wonder those go get degrees end up with scandalously high debt once they finish their studies and have to pay off their debit over years and years ...

 

Albert

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albertthiel

Issue 12 of Volume 2 of the nano Reef Aquariums newsletters is now available for download from our web site www.nanoreefs.info by those who own a printed copy of the book or those who have a yearly subscription.

 

Happy Easter

 

Best wishes for Pessah

 

Happy Holidays

 

ALBERT

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Been away over Easter visiting 2 of my daughters their spousers and my grandchildren. Hope everyone had a good Easter. Bank holiday here tomorrow but I have to work Groannnnnnn.

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albertthiel

Been away over Easter visiting 2 of my daughters their spousers and my grandchildren. Hope everyone had a good Easter. Bank holiday here tomorrow but I have to work Groannnnnnn.

 

Thanks a lot Les .... and have a nice rest of the day ... I know it is getting late over in the UK .... :)

 

Nice to read you were able to go see your 2 daughters ...

 

And as to working tomorrow ... well maybe you can get some new corals and/or fish with the special pay for working on a holiday (that is if you get any :)

 

Albert

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I'm not, it's time to go to the gym. This week I used one of my diatom filters to do some maintenance on my tank, my UG filter needs that every year or so. I have 5 diatom filters and out of all of them one runs well enough to use. The rest I use for parts as they are built very badly and rust. I have pulled ancient sailing ship anchors out of the Atlantic that looked in better shape than some of my diatom filters. Very bad design but they do a great job as long as you can keep them running. This last one I had to sew the diatom bag all around as it fell apart, I drilled holes completely through the bearings so I can put oil on the shaft as it is running and I drilled large holes through the motor end plates to help keep it cool. Now it runs great. The water is so clear that it disappeared and the fish are afraid to swim.

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albertthiel

Shhhh there are people sleeping in here. :wacko:

 

Yes it sure look like it Les ... but apparently Paul is not one of them ... :) Paul never sleeps ! His fish do but he does not :)

 

Albert

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albertthiel

I'm not, it's time to go to the gym. This week I used one of my diatom filters to do some maintenance on my tank, my UG filter needs that every year or so. I have 5 diatom filters and out of all of them one runs well enough to use. The rest I use for parts as they are built very badly and rust. I have pulled ancient sailing ship anchors out of the Atlantic that looked in better shape than some of my diatom filters. Very bad design but they do a great job as long as you can keep them running. This last one I had to sew the diatom bag all around as it fell apart, I drilled holes completely through the bearings so I can put oil on the shaft as it is running and I drilled large holes through the motor end plates to help keep it cool. Now it runs great. The water is so clear that it disappeared and the fish are afraid to swim.

 

Very true Paul ,,, I no longer have any but when I did I went through the same problems with them .. if not well maintained they would "lock" up and stop working and the motor was basically toast so to speak.

 

And rusting ... that was a definite fact

 

I think they were really made for FW tanks and never adapted to perform well and not fall apart in SW tanks ,, but regardless of all of that they do a great job in cleaning up the water, that is a fact !!!

 

Albert

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Quote:

Paul never sleeps! His fish do but he never does.

 

Easter my Grand Daughter, Gretta was here and she wanted to feed the fish worms. I told her the fish are still sleeping, so she looked in the tank and said, No, they are awake, their eyes are open. I couldn't argue with that logic, so I had to feed them.

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albertthiel

Quote:

Paul never sleeps! His fish do but he never does.

 

Easter my Grand Daughter, Gretta was here and she wanted to feed the fish worms. I told her the fish are still sleeping, so she looked in the tank and said, No, they are awake, their eyes are open. I couldn't argue with that logic, so I had to feed them.

 

Hard to argue with indeed Paul ... and anyway Greta is an accomplished reef keeper since you have her under your teaching umbrella ..

 

BTW I like those articles you write for that other Blog ....

 

Maybe you can give some thought to writing one for me for the Nano Reef Newsletter ... That would be nice !

 

Albert

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albertthiel

Albert what topic would you like me to write on?

 

Thanks for asking Paul ....

 

The Care of Pipefish, including habitat, feeding, expected longevity, etc ... would be a good one ... In fact I think it would be a really good one ...

 

and rather than posting it here you can send it to me via PM or to my email .... And if you have a few pictures of the ones in your tank that would be great ...

 

Thanks ... I appreciate it ..

 

Albert

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Ok I will see what I can do. Pipefish are a rather limited subject but I have some experience with various types.

As you know I am not as astute as you and also don't possess your expanded vocabulary or grace. I am just a lug with a fish tank but I will try. Right now I have to get all these Supermodels out of my house. They make such a mess when they split M&Ms in half for lunch.

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albertthiel

 

Ok I will see what I can do. Pipefish are a rather limited subject but I have some experience with various types.

As you know I am not as astute as you and also don't possess your expanded vocabulary or grace. I am just a lug with a fish tank but I will try. Right now I have to get all these Supermodels out of my house. They make such a mess when they split M&Ms in half for lunch.

 

Not to worry Paul ... Your style is your style and is part of the interest of the articles you write ... so whatever you put together will IMO be helpful to others and have that humorous touch to it as well

 

I know you have a few of them so your experience with them should make good material for an article ...

 

Thanks

 

Albert

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So I am sitting in my basement watching my fish as they were watching me and all of a sudden the lights go out. I was an electrician for 40 years and I can count on one hand how many times my circuit breaker tripped in my house while I was not doing anything like leaf blowing, arc welding or running some heavy equipment. So I look around and I was mixing up some saltwater and in that 30 gallon tub I have a powerhead and 3 heaters.

So before I turn back the breaker I figured it must be one of the heaters. It's always a heater. So I lift one and it is fine, I lift the second one and it is fine. Then I remove the third one and it is all black and scurvy inside and it is full of water. As I am looking for a crack on the glass, it dawned on me. The crack wasn't in the glass, it was in my head. That heater was "not" a submersible heater. It used to have a bracket on the side to hang it on the side of the tank. Like Duh. I have like 8 heaters and I just pick out a few, plug them in and throw them in a tub of water. I should have realized it wasn't submersible when it floated. I even got a big 1/2' nut and rubber banded it to the thing to keep it underwater.

It's just great getting old.

So now I have a spare, large test tube that I can make a really small Nano tank out of

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