Good morning!!!!

[mostly_gas]

Good afternoon all. 48F and breezy this morning, gusty winds till about 1PM and high of 64F forecast for today. Have to start measuring for the replacement seat for the boat, $700 shipping bill :confused2: precludes buying it from the seat maker. Also leaf pick-up, and acorn pick up for more TMA. I have passed the 3K mile mark this year on the bike, with Saturdays ride will pass 100 miles for the week.

 

[300UGUY]

Morning folks. Never did find the phone, so I went to the AT&T store. Got a new iPhone 6. Also got a iPad mini 2 !! What can I say, I'm easy!

Maybe I can take some pics now, my phone was broken so that the camera didn't work. Need to learn a bit about the iPad, never did much with one.

 

[KevT]

57.6 and partly cloudy @ 12:45 ... still nice out.

I spent most of yesterday working on picking up leaves with the Trac Vac, three loads picked up. With the winds gusting to 35+, it was largely an exercise in frustration ... but I did get the lower front yard cut with the deck set down to 2.5" ... grass should be short enough to allow any leaves that come down/over to get blown elsewhere. Also got around the house.

Once it got dark I ran over to the LFS to pick up the top frame for the 55 gallon tank. The good news is that it came in a day early. The bad news is that it doesn't appear that it will really fit correctly. The size is ok for the outside dimensions of my aquarium, the problem is the top of the frame is made with a "c-channel" whose open side points downward, and which is designed to capture the glass on three sides. The part of the frame which goes inside the opening of the glass is too long/wide to fit. I could probably still use it ... just by laying it on top of the glass and siliconing it on ... but that would be way less than ideal, from a strength standpoint.

Did manage to pick up the correct intake strainers for the Magnum filters though, so at least something went right.

Got some of the PVC glued up for the reverse flow UGF after I got back. Here in a bit I have to go pick up a couple more pieces of PVC that P.R. turned down on the lathe last night, so I can finish that up.

Spent some time before I went to bed reading Glenn Minor's write-up on building natural-looking rock backgrounds out of styrofoam and QuickCrete mortar, over on his website Dramatic Aquascapes. Pretty impressive work I think:

View attachment 447654
​

I think I am going to do it ... I have a lot of scrap chunks of 1 1/2" or 2" styrofoam insulation laying around over in the polebarn (knew I saved them for something ... )

Biggest issue I see is the buoyancy - I really don't want to silicone it in place, to the aquarium glass itself ... so I need some way to weigh it/keep it down. I will have to build it in two sections (in order to be able to remove it), due to the cross brace on the top plastic trim piece ... so I might be able to silicone each piece to the UGF plates, and with the gravel sitting on top of the plates that would keep it down. Hafta see.

For now though I'm probably going to have to do something outside to take advantage of the nice weather ...

What I'd rather be doing though is working on the aquarium ...

When I worked at HSN (Home Shopping) in the set dept. we would use a spray bottle with Lacquer Thinner on the styrofoam to give it texture then spray paint it to make it look like rocks. That was fun. Even at 60 yo, it bites to be an adult and do what needs to be done instead of what you want to do.

 

[Buppies]

Raining this morning when I got up cleared off later high of 74 today only 52 tomorrow and in 40s by Sunday with lows in 20s by Monday. Turkey week decidedly cooler but no rain as of now. Tree looks nice Drew

 

[newbury]

<snip>
Spent some time before I went to bed reading Glenn Minor's write-up on building natural-looking rock backgrounds out of styrofoam and QuickCrete mortar, over on his website Dramatic Aquascapes. Pretty impressive work I think:
<snip>
I think I am going to do it ... I have a lot of scrap chunks of 1 1/2" or 2" styrofoam insulation laying around over in the polebarn (knew I saved them for something ... )

Biggest issue I see is the buoyancy - I really don't want to silicone it in place, to the aquarium glass itself ... so I need some way to weigh it/keep it down. I will have to build it in two sections (in order to be able to remove it), due to the cross brace on the top plastic trim piece ... so I might be able to silicone each piece to the UGF plates, and with the gravel sitting on top of the plates that would keep it down. Hafta see.

For now though I'm probably going to have to do something outside to take advantage of the nice weather ...

What I'd rather be doing though is working on the aquarium ...

Why not just work in some real slate to solve the buoyancy problem?

 

[rswyan]

When I worked at HSN (Home Shopping) in the set dept. we would use a spray bottle with Lacquer Thinner on the styrofoam to give it texture then spray paint it to make it look like rocks. That was fun.

I'll bet

One of my oldest son's friends went to The Art Institute of Pittsburgh after high school ... ended getting involved with creature makeup, model building, and eventually animatronics. Paid off very well for him. Sounded like it would be a gas.

The technique Glenn suggests is to use a Stanley Surform Shaver, which has a curved blade to round and shape the pieces after initially cutting them out, and then use a heat gun to melt the surface to smooth it out. I have a nasty little wood rasp/file I'll probably use as well, to put in some striations. The mortar, of course, adds some (rock-like) texture and serves to encapsulate all the separate pieces of styro as a single unit.

Even at 60 yo, it bites to be an adult and do what needs to be done instead of what you want to do.

I hear ya brother - today's menu:

Go thru a butt load of mail, paperwork, and receipts (10+ to 1 ratio of junk/crap to anything valuable or really important)

Call gas and electric companies and tell them to take us off the mailing list for their (at least once once per month) solicitations for "homeowner protection plans" (gas line from the meter to the house, electric lines from the weatherhead to the meter, water lines. etc.) Just tired of sorting thru and handling their crap (circular file) on a regular basis.

Call Salvation Army and told them to take Mom off their donation solicitation mailing list, beings as she died 17 years ago (... save a tree)

(Start to) clean up kitchen ... didn't get to mopping the floor yet, but made good progress anyways ...

Pull Woman's car out of the garage and see if I can spot where the exhaust system is broken (mid-section of the car, looks like it might easy enough to cut out the bad/rotted part and sleeve it ... won't know for sure until I get it up on the ramps) Note that window that I fixed several months ago is inoperable again ... hopefully just a clip came loose and nothing is actually broken.

Replace run cap on the Coleman compressor and put it all back together. Yippee: something actually fixed ...

Start cleaning up the garage and putting stuff away. Got that about 50% done ... last part is the worst though (putting small odds and ends away)

Unclog whole house vacuum cleaner (happened when I inadvertently sucked up a paper towel while vacuuming the garage)

Look at back of washing machine to see how involved it's going to be to get to the switch for the lid (plenty) Likely temporary fix: bypass the switch.

Didn't make it over to Mike's to pick up my fittings for the reverse flow UGF ... I did however manage to gather up all the scrap styro (EPS) over in the polebarn for the backdrop and bring them over to the garage ... looks like I have plenty, mostly 2" but also a little 1 1/2" ... think I have some 1" in the basement that I can use as well.

I brought over some 1" polyisocyanate as well ... but after thinking about it a little bit, I'm not really sure that would be the best thing to stick in the tank.

Also found my coping saw (sans handle, which I think broke at some point and was tossed) ... can probably use one of the knobs for the levers on my rear remote valve for a handle.

Life is good.

 

[rswyan]

Why not just work in some real slate to solve the buoyancy problem?

I actually thought about working some rock into it, to do just that.

The trouble with rock is:

1. ya kinda have to be careful about what you use. The wrong minerals leaching into the water would not be good. The backdrop itself, with it's mortar surface requires a 30 day submersion period (tank filled only with water, no fish), with weekly water changes, to leach out certain minerals (primarily calcium and magnesium from what I understand) so the water pH can be stabilized and held in an acceptable range.

2. Getting good, long-term adhesion with silicone can be problematic with certain rocks, sandstone in particular. Not so sure about slate ... it sure seems like it would be more suited to it than sandstone.

Having said that, our front entryway (inside) and, originally, the walkway leading to the front door (outside) was done in slate. The slate outside was removed a long time ago because ... adhesion ... but the slate inside is still there ... mostly ...

There are a couple of pieces missing and a few more which have come loose ... it's a dated look (70's) and The Woman and I have discussed removing and replacing it with something else ... so now might be the time to pull it and repurpose it ... :thumbsup:

The buoyancy issue, while problematic for what I'm trying to do, isn't without it's upsides: The amount of water displaced will significantly reduce the overall weight of the setup (likely well over 600 lbs without the backdrop) - assuming I can keep the backdrop down with something that would be in the tank anyways (ie. gravel)

 

[RoyJackson]

2015-11-20, 0334

50(!!!!) right now...and that's the high for the day. Pretty wet outside right now...

 

[Thomas]

50F here also showers heavy at times,couple more degrees will be high for today sun popping out noonish.

Been long work week sure glad its Friday.

Enjoy the day all.

 

[Buppies]

45 and breezy this morning high of 54 today really quite chilly Sunday high of 43 ouch