In the hobby too long

[Paul B]

How do you know when you have been at this for too long?
When after you thought you threw everything out that you don't need, you have more than you started with.
Here are a few of the thiongs I just can't part with. I did not include 10 gallons of rock and three or four tanks.

 

[Scooterman]

If you ever add up all of money spent, then value any resale & you realize just how much you love this hobby.

 

[darklcd]

Wow thats all I can say but it shows dedication to the hobby you love...

By the way if those are skimmers I see there and you ever feel like parting with out let me know as my sea clone is not hte best out there lol

 

[Paul B]

Darklcd, there are no skimmers in the picture but I have a few in various stages of construction. I have tons of stuff in variuos stages of production. It's the inventer in me.

I only have one reef and a tiny experimental tank. I have stuff from fifty years ago. :lol2:

I am on a dumping spree and my two 40 gallon garbage cans are full.
Now I am working on large garbage bags. I get ambitious every few years and dump stuff. It's not all fish related, I got rid of computers, lap tops and a lot of electronics like all the stuff from sattelite TV and about a dozen cell phones.
I have enough tools to build a Space Shuttle. :eek2:
But you need to clean house occasionally to make more room for boat stuff which tends to be large. :beachbum:
Have a great day and lets try to fill up those garbage dumps
Paul

 

[darklcd]

Sorry Paul I thought they were lol well if you haev anything that might help a 55 gal let me know lol

 

[akunochi]

Paul- it's funny how things add up especially after almost half a century.....

DarkLCD- I ran a couple PM's to you on your needs.

 

[Paul B]

You need to have all of this stuff.
The white thing is my worm keeper.

 

[Paul B]

 

[tike]

Swweet thread! Man I just dumped a bunch of stuff I had for 20+ years! I DO know the feeling.

 

[akunochi]

Hey paul can you tell us about some of your setup there? It;s always interesting to here about the background stuff people run.

 

[Paul B]

Hey paul can you tell us about some of your setup there? It;s always interesting to here about the background stuff people run.

Well the horizontal white thing is my worm keeper, the first picture of it is the newer model. The water is pumped to the left side of the trough, then it passes over the worms and returns to the 5 gallon tank below, on the left.

The suspended 7 gallon blue bucket is the fresh water supply to my tank, the RO is below it and the DI is to the left of it. There is a homemade float switch in the bucket that closes the water valve to the RO when it is full.
The thin black hose coming out near the bottom of the bucket travels over the finished ceiling to the tank in the finished part of the basement and goes to a float valve on the tank.
The clear tube on the right side of the blue bucket i the sight glass so I can tell how much water is in the bucket. It also has an overflow tube which leads to a drain under the floor in the event the float switch fails. (so far in about 15 years, it has never failed)

The half black, half yellow container on the tank is my brine shrimp hatchery which I use every day.
The Acrylic parts on the first picture are skimmers in various stages of completion.

The clear, smaller horizontal container in the last picture is an earlier worm keeper. It was used for years but it is now too small as I have a lot of worms.

The large red container is my whole house vacuum and has nothing to do with the tank
That tank under it is an experimental and local tank with crabs, snails and a burr fish in it.

 

[luke33]

Paul, you can always sell it to a museum as antique's : ()

 

[Paul B]

you can always sell it to a museum as antique's : ()

I guess I can, much of it is older than many members here :lol:

 

[Herefishyfishy]

That sure is a lot of equipment for that little aquarium

 

[Paul B]

That sure is a lot of equipment for that little aquarium

You have no Idea

 

[Skimmy]

sounds like someone's ready to ditch all this old stuff and move into a new elos reef and be done with it! ....

 

[rayjay]

Well, after looking at the neat pictures YOU posted, I certainly am not going to do so with the messes I've created and I've only been in the hobby for 17 yrs.
I have a bad habit of leaving where I finish using, and stacking on top of other things if I don't need it for a while (or for years, or whatever).
My whole basement is devoted to my hobby and the wife wants a main floor laundry that isn't invaded with my hobby stuff like the present laundry room is. (well, there wasn't any room left in the main part of the basement)

 

[Paul B]

My whole basement is devoted to my hobby and the wife wants a main floor laundry that isn't invaded with my hobby stuff like the present laundry room is.

I am also limited with where I could put stuff. My house is large enough but that is "living space" and not necesarilly "fish" space. I built my workshop big enough to accomidate my hobbies and all of my "almost" built stuff is in there or in my garage workshop. My wife is a cleaning fanatic and a piece of dust would not dare land on my furnature.
Once a year she even moves all the furnature in the house to dust and oil behind it. All th drawers are emptied so the bottoms could be cleaned and conditioned, even the drawer glides as well as the closets, all of them. It all looks like it came out of the showroom yesterday.
So my workshop is deligated to me to do whatever I want and make whatever mess I want.
I finished the basement and it too looks brand new and it is almost 30 years old.
My reef is built into the wall in the basement.

 

[Skimmy]

tell me your wife wouldnt like an elos in that living room....

she could clean out the sump once a year with the other living room furniture.:idea:

 

[Paul B]

You should ask her :badgrin: