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Alaska_Phil

Where have I been?

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Alaska_Phil
, 09-30-2010 at 09:23 PM (1493 Views)
Hi all, I know I haven't been around much for a few months. Life got kind of crazy on me.

First, after 8 months of marital hell my wife left me and Alaska to go home to Utah. We're working on the divorce now.

This August, I got some really bad news on my airplane at it's annual inspection. Short answer is that it requires about $12k in repairs to be airworthy again. So I sold it "as-is" to a student aircraft mechanic. It'll provide a nice training project for him and some good flying after.

So, in an effort to get airborn again as quickly and cheaply as possible, I purchased the Challenger kit plane I've been building for a friend. It's nearly ready to test fly, and I've been working on it for a couple hours nearly evern night. As you can see below, it's very close now.


Though it all my tank has been chugging away happy as can be. I did loose my old clown fish do some kind of disease, but my new Rainfords goby is fat and happy, and my new pistol shrimp has paired up nicely with my candy cane antenna goby. The Algae turf scrubber is doing great, and nusance algae is nearly non-existant in my display for the first time in 5 years. Despite the fact that I haven't done anything but feed the fish and refill the top off tank and occationally clean half the scrubber in the past 2-1/2 months. But my faithful asian companion is starting to bug me about ordering some more corals, so I'm going to try my hand at SPS one more time soon. Any suggestions would be helpful, I've got 4x54W T5's over my 50L so I should have plenty of light for just about anything. But my flow is only moderate at this time.

Phil

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Updated 10-01-2010 at 04:23 AM by melev

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Comments

  1. Hat39406's Avatar
    Hey Phil, sorry to hear about you and ya wife! ;-( Your new plane is very nice. Hopefully you will enjoy it even more than your old one. Glad to have you back! ;-)
  2. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Thanks Hat, good to be back. I'll try to take some updated photos of the tank this weekend to post. It's really looking good despite my recent neglect.
  3. Hat39406's Avatar
    Sounds like a plan. Can't wait to see the updated pics! :-)
  4. melev's Avatar
    Welcome back, Phil. I like the plane - looks like you'd get a heck of a view. 8 month-marriage? Is that a typo?
  5. michika's Avatar
    Hey Phil,

    Happy you're back!
  6. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Nope, that's correct Marc. Technically we're still married as we're still going through the paperwork, but We got married on October 24 2009 and she left June 28 2010.

    I broght my camera in today, so I'll be able to snap some pictures at lunch time.

    Now I just have to get updated on everyone elses tanks.
  7. reefocd's Avatar
    I KNOW zero about planes and flying, but I'm just say'in ... I've seen Box kites with more structural support You are a Brave Soul and must be a very TRUSTING person..... You could have been John Glenn's co-pilot during the Apollo program... He couldn't find any friends during those first few test orbits.... My idea of living dangerous is each time I work under my reef tank/stand of which I engineered and built, EGADS!!
  8. Hat39406's Avatar
    Where is that FTS my friend? ;-)
  9. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Hat, here you go:


    that little plane has some pretty beefy structure hidden under the fabric. In some areas it's heavier duty than many certified aircraft I've worked on.
  10. Hat39406's Avatar
    Very nice Phil! I haven't seen ya tank in a while now and I was wondering how it was doing. Glad to see it's doing great! How many Chromis' do you have? (I believe that's Chromis' in ya tank). I want to get some and was wondering what's a good number? I would like a small school of them.
  11. Jaxom's Avatar
    Hey Phil welcome back, sorry to hear about the personal life, but you are into 2 of the best hobbies to carry you on.
  12. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Hat; I've currently got 5 chromis. Most schooling fish seem to due best in odd numbers of at least 5. So that seems to be working as they're not picking on any other fish, or any one chromis, and are always out and active. Additionally I've got the yellow tang, 1 clown, 1 Rainford's goby and my antenna goby/pistol shrimp pair. Clean up crew consistes of 2 emerald crabs, about 10 blue leg hermits, 20+ Astrea snails and a handfull of other snails. I'm going to be adding some SPS corals right after I find time to set up an auto dosing system for Calc and Alk.

    Jaxom: Thanks, these really are both very challenging and rewarding hobbies.

    Phil