Todays' Menu

[CCoburn]

Aquarium Day


Today I have to do a water change on the forty-gallon (among other things) before I can hit the road. The aquarium phase for me started when my friend got a Beta fish, and I started buying aquariums, and they just kept getting bigger and bigger – I even thought about getting a 70-gallon.

My friend once pointed out a spot and said an aquarium would look really cool there, and eventually a quite large one did end up in there.

These days, nobody seems to pay much attention to the fish (poor things), but on somewhat rare occasions all but one fish of a particular kind will die, and I sort of feel bad for the only one that's left, so I pick up a couple buddies of its own kind from Petsmart; have to be careful with that though because transference of ick will kill all the fish.

I suppose I'm also guilty of not paying a whole lot of attention to the fish, but I still care about them, feed them, and do the water changes about every three weeks.

[FlyingClayDisk]

I had a neighbor once who had this giant aquarium.  Not sure how big it was (upwards of 200 gallons or more - He had to reinforce the floor of his house to hold it); it was huge.  He had all these big and exotic fish in it, and other stuff like living coral, live anemones, plants and all sorts of stuff.  I was stunned at how much work that aquarium was!  Changing the water alone was a several day operation (and he never really 'changed' all of it).  Adding a single fish, or getting rid of a problem (a specific algae, or some such) was a major operation.  Just to add a single fish involved several other aquariums and often weeks of time.  I remember I'd be out cutting the lawn and he'd come over and excitedly tell me..."Welp, today is the day that the (x) fish gets to go into the big aquarium!!!"...and he'd be all excited. 

One year he bought an even bigger aquarium.  He had sh!t scattered out all over his front lawn, back lawn, garage and basement.  Some stuff had to sit in the sun for (x) number of days, other stuff had to be conditioned some special way, water had to be added in 2-3 gallon increments and then checked hundreds of times for salinity and 10,000 other things.  He'd be getting FedEx Custom Critical deliveries every day from places in the South Pacific.  Special lights, special filters, special heaters, timers and backup power supplies.  It was endless.  His entire house was built around this aquarium.  His aquarium had more alarms on it than most people have on a bank vault.  If the temperature of that aquarium changed by even a quarter of a single degree, the Pope, President of the United States, and the UN were all notified!  No idea how much all that stuff cost, but I'm sure it was up in the middle 6-figure range.

It was a staggeringly beautiful aquarium, no doubt about it, but my GAWD, it was a colossal amount of work!  A labor of love I guess.  I used to joke with him that he wasn't really married to his wife; he was married to his aquarium!

Edit - Just thinking back on this aquarium now...  There would be times when I would come home from work and there would be like five (5) different aquariums sitting out in his front yard, all of them 75% full of water.  There would be like (200) empty water jugs in his garage.  I asked him what he was doing one day.  He said after he got the water to the correct salinity, then he had to let the water sit in the sun for a specific number of days in order to "condition" it so it could be added to the big aquarium.  Had something to do with sterilization and normalization.  Then, he'd have to move each one of the aquariums inside his house, put them under special lights, and inoculate them with specific bacteria and other organisms so they would flourish.  All this before he could start drawing down the big aquarium, gallon by gallon, and adding the treated water to the aquarium in it's place.  He only had to do this about once every couple years, but it was a huge operation.  All the rest of the time he had these massive filters and pumps which would monitor the water quality down to the micron through various methods (lights, filter substrates, charcoals, etc.).  His basement looked like a chemistry lab with all this exotic water testing equipment.

Like I say, it was incredible how much work it was.  One day I thought I wanted a nice aquarium; they're so peaceful.  But I quickly changed my mind after seeing the behind the scenes of my neighbor's setup!  I could go over to his house and look at it, and I'd get sleepy just thinking about how much work it was!  LOL!  It was definitely a spectacular aquarium though.

edit 2 - Heh, even the lights in this thing were crazy.  The lights were on a timer of course, but they just didn't switch on and off like normal lights.  Nope!  They came on gradually, just exactly like the sunrise at whatever latitude his aquarium was set up for (which if I'm not mistaken was 3 degrees north of the Equator).  They shut off exactly the same way.  What's even crazier, as the sun rises and sets, the wavelengths of the sunlight change based on the angle of the Sun.  Well, you guessed it, this aquarium also did that too!  It changed the frequency of the light as the (artificial) sun rose and set.  Crazy stuff!  (I'd forgotten about all this until now).  As I recall, the glass in this aquarium was special too; I don't think any outside light could make it inside the aquarium, so it was its own world.  You could see inside of it clear as day, but the fish and plants had no perception of the outside world.  Day and night inside the aquarium was completely independent of day an night outside the aquarium; the two had no relationship to each other.

[CCoburn]

As far as aquariums go, and aside from their excessive weight and boxy awkwardness requiring a two-person job, I recall a new experience in running some Romex wire to the breaker box and swapping out a 15-amp breaker for a 20 and in combination with all the other aquarium 'stuff'; that's about as far down the aquarium rabbit-hole that I've ventured thus far.

I don't see it ever ending though if I'm going to be continually re-stocking fish as soon as their numbers get down (or for whatever other reason), and I'm not too thrilled about just letting it die out either.

It's basically just there, and I take care of it.

[l0st]

I had a neighbor once who had this giant aquarium.  Not sure how big it was (upwards of 200 gallons or more - He had to reinforce the floor of his house to hold it); it was huge.  He had all these big and exotic fish in it, and other stuff like living coral, live anemones, plants and all sorts of stuff.  I was stunned at how much work that aquarium was!  Changing the water alone was a several day operation (and he never really 'changed' all of it).  Adding a single fish, or getting rid of a problem (a specific algae, or some such) was a major operation.  Just to add a single fish involved several other aquariums and often weeks of time.  I remember I'd be out cutting the lawn and he'd come over and excitedly tell me..."Welp, today is the day that the (x) fish gets to go into the big aquarium!!!"...and he'd be all excited. 

One year he bought an even bigger aquarium.  He had sh!t scattered out all over his front lawn, back lawn, garage and basement.  Some stuff had to sit in the sun for (x) number of days, other stuff had to be conditioned some special way, water had to be added in 2-3 gallon increments and then checked hundreds of times for salinity and 10,000 other things.  He'd be getting FedEx Custom Critical deliveries every day from places in the South Pacific.  Special lights, special filters, special heaters, timers and backup power supplies.  It was endless.  His entire house was built around this aquarium.  His aquarium had more alarms on it than most people have on a bank vault.  If the temperature of that aquarium changed by even a quarter of a single degree, the Pope, President of the United States, and the UN were all notified!  No idea how much all that stuff cost, but I'm sure it was up in the middle 6-figure range.

It was a staggeringly beautiful aquarium, no doubt about it, but my GAWD, it was a colossal amount of work!  A labor of love I guess.  I used to joke with him that he wasn't really married to his wife; he was married to his aquarium!

Edit - Just thinking back on this aquarium now...  There would be times when I would come home from work and there would be like five (5) different aquariums sitting out in his front yard, all of them 75% full of water.  There would be like (200) empty water jugs in his garage.  I asked him what he was doing one day.  He said after he got the water to the correct salinity, then he had to let the water sit in the sun for a specific number of days in order to "condition" it so it could be added to the big aquarium.  Had something to do with sterilization and normalization.  Then, he'd have to move each one of the aquariums inside his house, put them under special lights, and inoculate them with specific bacteria and other organisms so they would flourish.  All this before he could start drawing down the big aquarium, gallon by gallon, and adding the treated water to the aquarium in it's place.  He only had to do this about once every couple years, but it was a huge operation.  All the rest of the time he had these massive filters and pumps which would monitor the water quality down to the micron through various methods (lights, filter substrates, charcoals, etc.).  His basement looked like a chemistry lab with all this exotic water testing equipment.

Like I say, it was incredible how much work it was.  One day I thought I wanted a nice aquarium; they're so peaceful.  But I quickly changed my mind after seeing the behind the scenes of my neighbor's setup!  I could go over to his house and look at it, and I'd get sleepy just thinking about how much work it was!  LOL!  It was definitely a spectacular aquarium though.

edit 2 - Heh, even the lights in this thing were crazy.  The lights were on a timer of course, but they just didn't switch on and off like normal lights.  Nope!  They came on gradually, just exactly like the sunrise at whatever latitude his aquarium was set up for (which if I'm not mistaken was 3 degrees north of the Equator).  They shut off exactly the same way.  What's even crazier, as the sun rises and sets, the wavelengths of the sunlight change based on the angle of the Sun.  Well, you guessed it, this aquarium also did that too!  It changed the frequency of the light as the (artificial) sun rose and set.  Crazy stuff!  (I'd forgotten about all this until now).  As I recall, the glass in this aquarium was special too; I don't think any outside light could make it inside the aquarium, so it was its own world.  You could see inside of it clear as day, but the fish and plants had no perception of the outside world.  Day and night inside the aquarium was completely independent of day an night outside the aquarium; the two had no relationship to each other.

Unfortunately, this whole thing reminds me of a situation with an ex-high school mate who had a husband who kinda flipped his lid (I knew both of them in hs) who started beating her and his kids.

I got them all out of there and a divorce.

But her husband had an awesome aquarium. He abandoned it on divorce, so everything died. FUCK. She tried to give it to me but I just wasn't in the position to take it on at that point in my life, I was very young.

[UltraBudgie]

aw thats sad but happens a lot i guess like how we give kids sad beta fish in tiny stagnent bowl hmm perhaps to teach antiempathy 'fish dont count, flush it!' i guess its a learning experience hey like that movie (worth seeing) 'spring summer fall winter and spring' have you seen it where the little kid ties a rock to a frog and it becomes (unsaid) metaphore for afflictions of suffereing his entire life and redemption the cycle repeats great movie!  pretty scenary too

anyway i came to this thread to mention i made a nice casserole today with cabbage and potatoes and onions and soure cream and cottage cheese it was very good although i think next time i'll put a little less cider vineager in it. it is called solyanka and here is the recipe https://www.recipebinder.co.uk/recipes/solyanka/

also i am going to make bostom baked beans! i soaked the navy beans today and then decided i didnt want to cook that tonight so i put them in the frige for tomorrow. it has molassas and looks like a really easy recipe, havent tried it before but looks good heres hoping! canned food is for losers haha!

[UltraBudgie]

Okay today is making humus! Which is sort of like mashed potatoes except with chick peas. I bought a six pack of pitas on monday and I need to have something to put in them! And its sort of late in the day to start making humus but I am anyway because I had a coffee when I went out to do errands a while ago and now I am soaking the chick peas and will type up the recipe for practice and so you can enjoy lucky you haha!

Humus

1 1/2 cup dried chick peas
3 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 tsp salt
dash of tamari or soy sauce
2 medium lemons
3/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup minced parsley
black pepper
dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 cup mined green onions

Okay well you probably see where this is going its not hard to make you just put the stuff together but here is a step by step!

1. Sift though the chick peas they're also called garbanzo beans and pick out any that don't want to be humus. Then rinse them off and put them in a pot with water to cover them by an inch or two and put it on the stove and boil the water then, see, you turn off the heat and cover the pot and let it soak. That's about an hour and a half and what I am waiting on now while I type this

2. Drain them and rinse off the beans and put them back into the pot and add water again and boil it. Except this time you simmer instead of turning off the heat. Cover it and simmer it for another hour and a half or perhaps longer, you want the beans or peas or whatever they are to be soft and squishy. Oh and I like to use distilled water because tap water yuk but yours may be okay

3. Well now drain the chick peas and put them in a bowl and use a potato masher or a fork and you want to make a smooth paste. This can be a lot of work I am going to try and use an immersion blender this time to see if that makes it easier but don't quote me it might not work you just have to be patient

4. You'll want to turn the garlic into paste not chunky a good trick I use is to chop it small, then sprinkly the salt on it and use the edge side of a knife to grind it up against a cutting board. The salt will make grind into a paste and no it doesn't need to be a silver knife harry potter fans haha

5. So mix in the garlic and salt and a dash of tamari (which is like soy sauce except made from wheat) and the juice from two smallish lemons not the seeds! I guess one gigantic lemon would work too. Really its all to taste because you also add a tiny pinch of cayenne and lots of black pepper more than you would think really.

6. The tahini is ground up sesame seeds paste stored under oil that you can get at the grocery store for far more that it should cost. Put in 3/4 of a cup and perhaps some of the oil it is stored under as well, and mix in the green onions (which are scallions except not?) and parsley.

7. Mix it all up really well and adjust the taste so you like it more salt, some olive oil, etc etc remember you can add things but you can't take them out! So you may want to not add all the lemon juice until this step if thats a thing for you.

8. It goes in the fridge and gets chilly! Eat it with pita like I'm going to or vegetable sticks or whatever really.

Okay tell me if you like it or if you like humus or if you know for sure if its spelled humus or hummus the spell checker thinks both are okay!


Edit to add that this worked out great and I now have more hummus that a man probably should haha, the immersion blender is not a bad idea and works well to make it less chunky though its probably too thick to get a really smooth puree and I'm glad I waited to add the lemon til the end because I only needed one and a half!

[Oldcarpy2]

Full English. Bacon, sausages, black pudding, tinned plum tomatoes, fried egg, fried bread and hash browns.

With brown sauce and....marmalade.

---

Speaking of hot stuff, I got a jar of Daddy Cool's Naga Chilli pickle. Tried a dip on the end of a tea spoon. It doesn't take any prisoners. It's still in the fridge, giving me evils when I open the door.

Once I had some dried super hot chilli's which I soaked in boiling water before I chopped them up. Then I went for a wee...big mistake.

Had to sit in a cold water bath.

[AngryOldBrewer]

Today I'm processing a fermented hot sauce I made with orange habs, red scorpion, garlic, onion and carrot. Gonna add rehydrated guajillo peppers and some cherry wood smoked habs into the blender. Just have to wait for the family to leave before I pasteurize the sauce. Even outdoors, simmering this stuff is the equivalent of setting of a pepper sprayer. Made the mistake of doing it indoors once....once lol

[Lynyrd Skynyrd]

If the SHTF, you might also throw jars of that hot sauce at intruders.

[FlyingClayDisk]

Today I'm processing a fermented hot sauce I made with orange habs, red scorpion, garlic, onion and carrot. Gonna add rehydrated guajillo peppers and some cherry wood smoked habs into the blender. Just have to wait for the family to leave before I pasteurize the sauce. Even outdoors, simmering this stuff is the equivalent of setting of a pepper sprayer. Made the mistake of doing it indoors once....once lol

HA!!  Yeah, me too!  I had a buddy once tell me a sure fire way to stop some mischievous raccoons from getting into the trash.  It involved an insane mixture of habs and vinegar and some other stuff.  Had to blend it all together and heat it up.  Dumb me; made the mistake of doing that in the kitchen.  Well, several CS gas bombs directly to the face would have been more pleasant!!  Worse, I'd made the mistake of leaving it on the stove while I went out to the garage to do something.  Came in the house and the evil mixture was so bad I couldn't even get near the stove to turn it off.  I'd effectively turned the entire house into a chemical warfare zone.

Had every window and door open in the house, and when my wife came home several hours later she couldn't even stay inside the house for longer than a couple minutes.

Those raccoons never fucked with my trash ever again!!  One day some flowers and a box of chocolates showed up without a name; I'm pretty sure it was from the raccoon refuse posse begging for a truce!

edit - BTW your hot sauce sounds really good!  Mind sharing your recipe/process?  I'd like to try this.  I'm into all kinds of food preservation, and fermentation is something I'm just getting into.  Done lots of beers and wines in my time, but never much with food.