Hockey season is almost here!

As many of you probably know I am not the biggest of sports fans. This may suprise those that have seen how I am about hockey but its more than just the hockey that I love. I regularly get involved in fantasy leagues with friends and that adds a whole other dimension to watching a game. All of a sudden I care if Nashville wins or losses games, I listen attentively to the sports highlights to see if my players have had a sensational evening, or become injured.

As another season of hockey aproaches, I am again joining the SSFHL fantasy league. Last year Scott found this leage and the two of us had decent seasons, Scott even (thanks to a little help from me) one the playoff. If you enjoy Fantasy hockey or want to check out how it works visit the site http://www.ssfhl.com/

As trash talk is part of the fun in these leagues I'll just say "I'll enjoy taking your money"

A local legend passes

Ernie Butler owner of the Comedy nest in the Pepsi forum and the host of the CJAD died this morning. As you may or may not know I often listen to CJAD and I enjoyed Mr Butlers comedy show almost every weekend for the last few years.
It seems from what I have read that he was battling stomach cancer for about a month. I know I heard him doing his comedy show not that long ago, and thought it wierd this past weekend when another host was subbing for him.

Ernie, thanks for all the laughs.

3, 2, 1 .. GO!

I decided to go another route and instead of using
the overflow to moving the water from the display tank to the sump, I instead got my tank drilled! I brought my tank out toe the Waste island to "Big Als" where they proceeded to take a drill with a diamond tip circula drill bit works its way through the side of my tank. As a added bonus when there they had just started feeding thier shark (!!) and we got to see this small (3-4 Ft long) shark go to town on a huge chunk of fish.


Here are the pics of the Bulkhead (plastic thingy) in the new hole:

The tank is still a little dirty from the drilling
process. As the water that lubricates the drill bit
becomes full of glass, the glass dust mixes with the water and goes a milky white color. What you see is the residue that I have yet to clean.


This weekend will see the special water filter come into effect which means 50 gallons of water into the tank and more than I would want to think down the drain!


More pictures to come of course and updates with (hopefully) the tank full of water and running!

Another weekend done

Well another weekend is done, and it wasnt very productive, besides some grocery shopping that is. After an exhausting Friday where I left the office at 7PM (and thats after coming in early) I met Melanie downtown and we saw Rush hour 3. IT was a good time but in my mind not as good as the first 2. The story was pretty flimsy (but thats not suprising,) but Chris Tucker was awsome as usual.

Today I picked up a couple more pieces of glass. This is to complete the Sump for the salt water aquarium. I wanted to raise 2 of the baffles a couple inches to give a little more room for error. This way I know the water is flowing the way I want it to. If I get home at a decent hour I will go and install these (and try not to die form the silicone smell!) I have also decided to remove one potential source of worry and to get the tank drilled. This means having a 1" hole drilled into the side glass of the tank. The downside is the $40 (or so) fee, and the risk that the panel shatters. The upside is that I dont have to worry about the overflow failing for any reason, and flooding the floor, and ruining my pump.

Melanies Bday - Success!

Thanks to everyone who came out for Melanies birthday weekend. On friday we went to Weinstein and Gavinos had a great dinner with a small group of friends. On Sat we spent the day cruising around then went to her Aunts for a familly get together to celebrate her birthday. On Sunday my littlest sister Ceri was in town and "the crew" all met up for some Dim sum. Oh how I love my Dim sum!
After I rolled out of Kam Fung Mel and I headed to Laval to check out "La maison de reve." It's a house in Laval that you is being raffled off. It includes 5 years of property tax, hydro, satelite tv, a hot tub, excercise room, 500 bottles of wine in a huge wine celler, a loft above the garage (its like a whole mini apt in the house!) Plus all kinds of furniture. The value I heard was over 1 Million, I bought a few tickets, after all the money is going to charity and the odds are way better than the lottery. If you would like to check it out its online as well at http://www.maisonderevebmo.com/

Vancouver?

The start of September should see me in Vancouver!
My good friend Scott who is now living in Victoria is getting married on Sept 3rd. I have managed to get some work for the first week of September lined up and everything is looking good. The best part about this trip is I will get to see my Grandfather (living in Vancouver) and I will also get to see my cousins (in Kamloops!) Nothing is set in stone yet though but things are looking good so far.

In other news I saw "The Bourne Ultimatum" last night with Mark and his posse. I dont know what all the hype is about it wasnt a bad movie but there are so threads, and it jumps around so much. I am glad that I had seen the other 2 movies as I think it is really a pre requisite.

This Saturday is Melanies Bday, on Friday were doing a dinner with some friends / familly at Weistein and Gavino's on Crescent. I only need to get her a present .. hmm....

Back from camping / Aquarium test run sucess!

Melanie and I survived our outing to Mt Tremblant for a weekend of camping. We stayed in the L'asumption sector which takes a more round about way to reach. The good part about it was that our campsite was a little out of the way, and was right on the river. Anyone who has gone camping with me knows I prefer being as far from others as possible, and although this wasnt exactly the case (people were visable) it wasnt the end of the world.
(pictures to come)

When we got back in town on Sunday I wanted to finish testing the aquarium, I cut the overflow, glued it to the main body and proceeded to fill the aquarium with water. The testing went really well, I had many simulated powerouts and the overflow was easily able to restart the siphon with no external help (VERY important.) I may still get the tank drilled for peace of mind. I would hate to explain to the guy living below me how the water was coming in via his roof ...

Pictures!

As I finally got around to breaking out the camera I took a few choice pictures of my work so far on the tank.

On the right is a picture of the return I made, a (non kink) hose I bought at Nature pet center is clamped to a 3/4 hose attachment and the run through various 3/4 " piping

The flow rate out of it is pretty good, it will be fun to see how much of a current it will make when the tank is full.







On the Left you can see how I have drilled the side of the stand. I bought this cabinet from Ikea and as it has not intended for Aquarium use it has required some "Do it yourself" modifications. I bought a 1 1/2" drill bit and borrowed a drill from Gregg and went to town. I use the upper one for the hose and the lower one as a access port for the various plugs coming from the sump.







This isn't the best picture but shows the 2x4 wood brace I added to the underside of the cabinet. Mark expressed some concern that the cabinet would not be able to hold the 400-500 Lbs of weight from the display tank. I had thought about getting those L metal brackets but opted for the wood brace option instead. The Home depot gut gave me a PERFECT fit, so perfect I didn't need to hold the wood in place when I drilled the screws into it. I was seriously impressed (exactly 96cm in case you cared)


Below you can see the picture of the sump itself in the cabinet. The water level will not be as high as you see it here (this is the water from testing the return.)

The first section is where the water will enter via the hose you see coming down and into the water. The protein skimmer is next to it which uses a process of mixing water and air to draw out organic particles (the particles are attracted to the air bubbles and are carried to the top which then gets collected in a cup.)

The second section will be the Refugium, essentially it is a place for Macro algae to grow and to allow lots of critters a safe place to grow without getting eaten by fish.

The 3 dividers are known as a bubble trap. When the water comes down from the display tank and the protein skimmer is done the water can have many micro bubbles in it. The bubble trap makes the water travel a little further and is designed to allow the bubbles a change to escape out into the air.

The third section has the pump which returns water into the display tank and the return which you saw in the first picture. The pump can handle 600 gallons per hour which sounds like a lot but after pumping water up a meter the rate actually drops to about 350 gallons which is apropriate for a 33 gallon tank.


More pics and info to come, I will have the overflow installed soon which is now glued but I need to cut a pipe so the tanks water level will be higher. Hopefully tonight I will have this done which will allow me to fill the display tank as well and to test the whole water circulation system as a whole.