Day Off!

My weekend is here again. And what a list of stuff I have to do!

1. Build a rack in my truck to carry the Kayak. The rack will be made from PVC so it will be strong, cheap, light, and easy to build. It will be removable. The truck is 16.91 feet from bumper to bumper, the kayak is 16 feet. So the kayak will have to ride on top of the truck, tied off to both bumpers and supported by the rack. I have a design in mind already.

2. Launch the boat in a lake. I want to see how well the mirage drive works, and how the sail kit works.

3. Use the gym membership I got myself into. Last time I went I got my ass a little kicked, the next day my arms and legs were sore. I suppose that means I accomplished something.

4. My truck still needs those new ball joints. Toyota recalled them, so it will not cost me anything to get the work done. It is just that the dealer wants me to bring the truck in at some UNACCEPTIBLE time in the morning - and that does not fly well with me. I mean, THEY screwed up here - why should I be punished by having to drag my ass into the dealer at 7 AM? Do you realize how bad traffic here is at that time?

5. Get beer. I am out. Not good. I have been out of beer for a few days now, and that is getting old fast.

6. I set up a new 5 gallon aquarium at home. I like my office 6 gallon aquarium so much I dug up some stuff I had laying around, cleaned it up, and got it running. It looks nice, I have A LOT more light over the home tank than the office tank so I have more plant choices. At the office I have 8 watts of normal output light over 6 gallons of water, at home I have 28 watts of power compact light over 5 gallons. The limiting factor at home is only plant size - at work I have to pay attention to plant size AND limit my selection to low light plants only. The 5 gallon tank is an experimental setup to investigate how much work and money will be involved in maintaining a 75 to 90 gallon low PH freshwater tank filled with tetras and some angelfish and heavily planted. My target PH is 6.5 - 6.8. Anywhere in that range will work, as long as the PH remains constant everything will be very happy.

7. Veg out for a bit. I will probably do this AFTER getting the beer and while testing the water in the new tank for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

Speaking of new tanks, I am experimenting with a fishless cycle. Normally, what you do to a new tank is add some VERY tough fish to start the cycle. The fish produce ammonia. Bacteria grow in the water to eat the ammonia, turning it into nitrate. More bacteria grow that eat the nitrite and produce nitrate. Nitrate is removed with regular water changes. After the process is over, you have to stock SLOWLY or else you can overload the biology in the tank and kill everything.

The fishless cycle involves me adding ammonia to the tank, and letting the bacteria do its thing. So I bought some white (non soapy) ammonia from the supermarket. I added some ammonia, tested the water, and added more to get to about 3 - 4 parts per million of ammonia - which would be toxic to any fish. Every day I test and add more ammonia as needed. Once I start to find nitrite I will keep adding a little bit of ammonia till my nitrite reads zero. Then in theory I will have an assload of good bacteria and will be able to fully stock the little tank in one step without having to worry about toxic tank syndrome. The ammonia I am adding is WAY MORE than the fish the tank can support would produce.

I WAS going to drive to Palm Beach County to check out a Yamaha Wave Venture 1100 personal water craft. But the old fart selling it is balking out of the deal now. He had it listed for $1500, but is now talking about wanting to keep it. Someone must have told the fossil it is worth more - which in theory it is. But the guy who owns it now is 80 years old and nobody has used the thing for over 2 years. He claims it runs, but I would probably rebuild the carbs in it anyway. Varnish is a bitch, and unless he started the thing every week or two there is varnish in the carbs. Ill call the old fart next week to see what is up. What does the guy need with a 10 foot water missle that will hit 60 mph anyway? I need the thing! I was going to buy it, clean it up, use it this summer, and sell it if I did not use it enough to justify keeping it. I could have got all my money back (possibly more), so in effect I would be "renting" a wave runner all summer for free. But......oh well.