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DK's m..a..d.. d..o..-i..n..g..s........

265K views 2K replies 180 participants last post by  Loachutus 
#1 · (Edited)
(BTW - These are projects under development and none are for sale at this time.)

I've had a slew of requests to post updates on my projects lately, so here goes. I'll have to do it in several posts.

First off, the big kahuna. Took me a year to engineer, and the past year has been in beta testing. I run my tanks off our well water, which happens to emerge from the ground like CO2 infused RO water with 10 ppm nitrates (farm fertilizer runoff). So all the water to feed my tanks has to be "made" to specs.

I designed this, what I call DK's water factory, to make me some water. It creates three streams of water which I can blend to make most any water for a given tank. So every tank gets custom water, twice daily, automated from this beast.

It wasn't without moaning and gnashing of the teeth, and I've had to learn incrementally what works and what doesn't and work laboriously slowly and methodically to formulate the global conditions, and then tweak each tank for optimization to their specie.

Each global test can only change parameters about 5% and takes a few weeks to take effect to observe the specie, so it's a long process. This is due to the fact that too drastic a change could crash one or more tanks.

On top of working out the global parameters for the Water Factory, I also fired up more tanks last year to accomodate more breeding projects. So it's been a busy year, just trying to get it all together and keep from accidentally killing stuff, which, alas, I didn't altogether avoid. I had some pretty good setbacks that tested my skills and nerve.
 
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#1,931 ·
Well, DK has some ACTUAL SHRIMP NEWS, finally.

Last week she got really, really bizzy a-makin' her the Man Crate, and her juice for the Sulawesi system ran out, so she lazily turned off Wet Wedding and just went on about her werk.

When she went to re-fire the system a few days later, after makin' her another magic batch of Sulawesi juice, she anally checked her TDSes on Wet Wedding. Her second filter shot up from TDS 7 to 50-something.

Now, she's been wonderin' how long the filter life would be in this system and has stubbornly been waiting for a sign. She didn't just want to replace filters until she had an idea of the lifespan. So she's been checking her TDSes quite often because the shrimps have had proper TDS a few months but at the same time ALL the tanks are a-doin' nuttin' in the breeding department this spring, so she's had a suspicion that her filters were at the end of their usefulness, but being a biggo nerd she had to follow the cycle once.

So, she can now say her filter life is about now minus, say six months. So now she has to back calculate when she put them in and now put her system on a schedule for changing them. The lifespan is pretty darned good, considering Wet Wedding runs 5 hours a day making RO at very high output (150 GPD output on the system).

---

She still hasn't changed them out, as she spent the weekend re-doing a 17 year old shower from a framed, gasketed, triple slider door FULL of nooks and crannies every which way -- which was a mold farm -- to a frameless, VERY SIMPLE extrusions door. Her reverse engineering of silicone caulk removal worked very well (she was waaay too cheap to fork over the $14 a tube for the actual silicone remover product so she did a little research and reverse engineering and made her own system).

Gone are the moldy door frames and extrusions and 17 year old caulk. Installed is the new system, sleek. Now we'll have to re-train ourselves, because the new doors slide so easily you have to hold them to keep them from slamming into the side wall when you push them open!

A couple weeks ago she also built a new tub skirt (from what else, her trusty PVC) to replace an ugly one.

-----

And Man Crate is on hold until more parts arrive, including a welded gate. She's been a-bizzy hammer drilling a lotta monga holes in concrete to make sure that man don't escape.

----

Carry on, now.



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#1,932 ·
Now DK we all like to hear projects and such, but I know I speak for at least 65% of myself when I say I wanna see some shrimps!


Also, I have a theory as to why your shrimpies and shrimpettes no make with the making for you. If you wish I could pm, or post here next time I check in.


Best of luck on all endeavors, and hopefully in the near future I'll be caught up on all your learnin's.


Minor note, took a year but my shrimp finally bred for me enough to not just remain steady but to actually grow in numbers.
 
#1,937 · (Edited)
Well, helloooooooooooo, all y'all.

DK has been far, far away from the shrimp world for a while, and this, unfortunately is going to continue for at least the next 6-12 months, but it has come to her attention that a buncha peeps have been pinging her so this is (sorry! sorry!) a generic response.

Due to a bunch of non-shrimp related - uh - issues, she is not focusing on shrimp until these other things are not so prominent. Not to worry, nothing disastrous or non-fixable is a-happenin' here, EXCEPT...

Um. Yes. The ONE disastrous thing that is not easily fixable is actually related to shrimp.

DK could really, REALLY use a shrimptern, or two, or three, ASAP. If you are housebroken, a non-smoker, and eat chocolate, you could apply.

DK's well started acting up several months ago, during the summer. Over a two month process there were lots of consults and, to make a long story short, her well pump was over that time slowly frying and in the process of problem solving there were crashes, extended outages of service and decontamination issues, and whatnot. The good news is she has an awesome kickin' new well pump. And she herself put in a kickin' new well system, including a wel-x-trol tank, all stainless fittings, etc. and her water is now good to go, having also undergone an extensive maintenance of Wet Wedding after the new system was in ('cause the fried system fouled Wet Wedding).

DK's shrimp world sustained about 90-95% losses due to water issues. Uh, yeah. DK likes to do a thing up, in spectacular fashion. Turns out she has spectacular failures, too!

Shrimp have made her tough, though, and she WILL prevail. She began a course of correction several weeks ago, and she now has berried in most of her tanks, of the stock she has left. But it's gonna be a year before there are any numbers of note.

So, to those of you pinging me about shrimp, no go. So sorry. And she won't be aiming that direction for a while, due to the overall circumstances.

And, so this is not totally debbie downer, here's a picture of something that crawled out the the weeds today. Mebbe these are already out there in the shrimp world; DK has NOT been following anything shrimp for a looooooong time so has no idea what is a-happenin'.

Golden eyed red-striped blue tiger juvie from one of her project tanks.

Fried well pump. Pretty good trick, BURNING up a well pump that is submerged, but see the burnt band.
 

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#1,939 ·
I for one am Glad Dk is alright and well, even after having suffered such heavy losses in the shrimp area.

Wish I could be of use, but not able to shrimptern sadly.

Keep us informed Dk I'm sure there are hundreds of strains and morphs out there because of your gene factory, and I'm sure some will find their way back home.

Best of luck friend.
 
#1,940 · (Edited)
Well, we were doing OK, past all the multiple surgeries in the household this year for multiple people!

And then...

One day...

One of the Germans had THREE seizures in one day. So now we are in the thick of that.

++++++++++++++++

On a more cheerful note, DK is, of course, doing projects. Right now, she's obsessing (because that is her M.O. - to obsess) on a few areas of lighting. She re-did the foyer lights, building herself new fixtures from parts from grandbrass dot com. She rather likes the Victorian flavor overlaid by the vintage deco pressed glass globes.

Now, she's gearing up to restore an awesome polychrome fixture from the 20s she just scored on that auction site.


Nuttin' to do with shrimp, I know.

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#1,942 ·
Well, as it turns out, the above polychrome fixture actually IS historically accurate, as DK found one in original finish and was SHOCKED! See pic.

Today, she amassed the nail polish and socket bells. She's twitching for a project (her normal state once the trees drop their leaves and she has all winter to do projects) and right now polychrome is her focus, until sepia seeps in, that is.

Of course, in her polychrome project, while she's faking an authentic restoration, she will ALSO be - ahem - making some alterations for alternate purposes, as she ALWAYS seems to do, in her projects. But hey, it's a-gonna increase the functionality greatly! The picture below shows an ORIGINAL FINISH polychrome fixture (with age patina). DK has the same fixture and is a-gonna fake this finish on hers, as she a-likes this particular finish. It's gonna be an OCD challenge, to do this. 'Cause you can't be too OCD and have a good result. Ya have to be sorta impressionistic, and sloppy, for it to finish out properly. It's a-makin' DK twitchier, thinkin' about this.

Yeah. This has nothing do do with shrimp. Yet.

Yet.


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#1,943 ·
Well, DK finally has some actual SHRIMP news. Nothing mind shattering. To her it's totally ho hum, but she documents it here.

She must have shrimp dismorphic disorder, because she simply cannot get a rise, even though upon inspection of her Shrimpmageddon, she now has actual babies in Wild tigers, Red Tigers, Blue Tigers, Black Tigers. Yellows, Reds, Oranges, Blue Bees, and paracaridinas. Crystals and Cardinals are flirting with babies but no actual body count across her slimy tank wall glasses seen, today - both "populations" if you can call their sparse numbers this, are hanging on by a thread.

She should be happy about all these different babies, but she just... is... not.

Stay tuned.

*******

In the meantime, she has her WICKED polychrome project going on. Much fun. Supplies arriving every few days, still, toward that project. She put on her machinist's hat a while back and tapped some screw threads into her bobesches.


Oh, and. Guess who went out after midnight in the pitch black pouring, freezing January rain the other night....


AND GOT SKUNKED.... AGAIN!!! (Picture from several skunkings ago.)

He is soooooo bad.

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#1,944 ·
DK's attitude is improving.

First, she found Cardinal babies. 'Bout 6 mm size and multiple of them. This leaves, of all her tanks, only the Papaya crystals not actively breeding. The Papaya crystals were the only crystals to survive Shrimpmageddon, unfortunately.

Second, she recently tweaked her calcium levels and calcium:magnesium ratio and her berrying rates are increasing; she expects the Papayas to respond within the next month.

So, she cleaned some front glasses off, and started to watch. She only cleans front glass when she thinks the action is a-gettin' good -- fundamentally because sheeze lazy and glass cleaning is like that word "maintenance" - unless - it's for a show. And it is. There are more babies in there than she originally thot, although she doesn't rate the tanks at "popcorn" level... yet.

But, as of today, Shrimpmageddon is bouncing back.

Pics, taken today. Of course they hide waaaaaaayyy inside cracks where it's hard to photograph them, plus, DK's a lousy photographer -- not necessarily in that order.


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#1,945 ·
Whoah DK, glad to see so much activity again.

Love seeing inside the shrimpfarm any chance I get, and I'm glad shrimpmageddon is nearing recovery status, and in nearly all the tanks at that!


Good luck with the restorations. And the fakeaged patina.


Keep us updated on recovery of shrimpies, and Der Germans.
 
#1,946 · (Edited)
Why, thank you, Maechael.

Yesterday, I had dancing in the Papaya tank. Still waiting for a berried to climb out of the weeds in there, but it appears they are on the move now.

This morning: new molt skin in the Cardinal tank, and I saw five babies at once, previously I had only seen up to three. So I know a sorta recent batch of them (starting from when I started bringing back the Shrimporium from our 2014 Summer Well Shrimpmageddon) has had several grow and survive! Pics below of the molt skin and five Cardinal babies this morning. :)

*********

IN OTHER NEWS:

As the Shrimporium slowly arises as a phoenix from the ashes, DK simply MUST report on her latest project - the Riddle Polychrome Chandelier from 1924 or thereabouts.

She loves to scour that auction site, most especially in that magical window just before Christmas when sellers are desperate to make some year end cash but buyers are done auction shopping because now it's too late to get delivery for holiday gifts. Makes for some of the best auction shopping of the year, in DK's humble opinion.

This year, she scored a rough Riddle Polychrome that had all the features she was lookin' fer, a wasted finish, and a cheap-o sorta price. Her triumvirate criteria. So, she struck, and scored.

Back in the '20s, America was reeling from WWI and wanting to escape immigrant and poverty roots, as the first generation and laters grew into American citizenship and lifestyle. They really wanted to make it to that middle-class, less-grueling lifestyle. So, of course, the product manufacturers, in American style, were right there with products to feed the up-coming middle class - products that proclaimed loudly, "you have made it." Polychrome fixtures are a great example product of this phenomenon. They were actually super cheap with awful, cheap finishes but they MIMICKED the historical finer fixtures with fancy, stylistic lines and multiple electric light bulbs showcasing the rather new electricity making its way into American middle class homes. They had a sorta charm due to this that is very enduring today as we get these pieces and put them into our 21st century homes as antiques and as stories of America's past.

But, DK can never leave well enough alone, as you know. She loves the story and styles of polychrome fixtures - many of them have GREAT design lines to them.

However, most of them had fairly ugly finishes done really cheaply and over the years the finishes wore off. Those that didn't, you can see the almost joke-like attempt at spray painting colors onto them in the crudest fashion - not even attempting any sort of adhering to the lines or fine-ness of finish. These pigment sprays were then typically over-sprayed with a gold-tinted lacquer to imitate a bronze piece. But the metal that polychrome fixtures were cast from was NOT quality bronze as the expensive finer fixtures often were, but rather the cheapest pot metal, a cast-able alloy of primarily cheap and easy to cast zinc, mixed with various other metals. So this silver-colored pot metal, also knows as "white" metal, had to be spray coated with gold tinted lacquer to imitate the more expensive bronze.

And worst of all, they gave ABYSMAL light into a space. They mostly used bare bulbs of low intensity, rendering the rooms they "lit" as dark, dank, cave-like spaces with glaring bare bulbs.

So, DK loves the look of them. The finish has its quirks and charms, even though they were trashy finishes. But the light (actually lack thereof) - DK can't live with it. So, she had to modify.

Below, some cheesey original finishes with colors on these polychrome fixtures. The ones that retained their finishes are definitely worth keeping original, for their crude charm.

Also, a restored Riddle similar to DK's. Image credit: https://rejuvenation.s3.amazonaws.c...images/pdp/4f19cc58e694aa2eda000024/R0070.jpg


++++++++++

UP NEXT: DK's plan for HER polychrome, stay tuned. She will try to give actual shrimp news, too, in her posts.


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#1,947 ·
Ahem

So, while DK wuz a-waitin' fer a knocked-up Papaya to crawl outta the weeds (which STILL hasn't happened, stubborn girl!!), she cleaned glass on a couple more tanks and took a look.

Now, right now DK's Shrimporium looks a lot like the picture, below. Just sorta... well, unkempt. (SHE NEEDS A SHRIMPTERN THIS YEAR - CONTACT HER IF YOU'S INTERESTED - must not be a craigslist serial killer, not a substance abuse or smoker type, and housebroken - her criteria aren't that selective, honestly!! We feed you, we house you, we entertain you - well if you call work entertainment, heh heh heh, but hey projects are FUN!) So she's gettin' back to action, which encourages her to clean up. But she rather stinks at CLEANING UP so she does the least amount she HAS to, each day. She cleaned 4 inch strips at the bottom of the front glass in two more tanks, so she could take a look at the action.

She found (drumroll)...

  • A buncha berried black tigers.
  • BABIE T-REXs!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • A knocked up Cardinal

Yesirree, action is beginin' to a-happen, down there in the Shrimporium.

Stay tuned...

+++++++++

IN OTHER NEWS:

Well, actually, there is no polychrome news, today. Waiting for some parts to arrive.

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#1,948 ·
DK, since my life is currently in turmoil, I'd love to get a message from you to discuss the requirements of a shrimptern, knowledge needed, abilities helpful and this room and board especially with you and the shrimp ad entertainment.


Also, yay babies, babies everywhere in the shrimporium!


Wish I had half the success and twice the time.
 
#1,949 · (Edited)
Thank goodness for frogs and bubbles

DK, since my life is currently in turmoil, I'd love to get a message from you to discuss the requirements of a shrimptern, knowledge needed, abilities helpful and this room and board especially with you and the shrimp ad entertainment.
Hmmmmmmmm. Most excellent. Most excellent.

Kewl.

(Rubs hands together vigorously with wicked grin on face, flicks eyes back and forth, and begins to formulate a Shrimptern Project List... heh heh heh...)

For the resta all y'alls who really wanna be a Shrimptern but are chicken or intimidated, here's the deal. You must not be a craigslist killer or sociopath. You must not be a substance abuser or smoker. You must be housebroken. You must get to DK's place and back home on yer own, but she's happy to pick up from an airport or such if needed. You can get here any mode you want, but try not to hitchhike with serial killers. You don't really have to know anything, honest. You will have fun. Every Shrimptern we've had has had fun and wanted to come BACK for more. DK's not scary in real life, well unless you mis-place her Bubba Mug before she's ingested half of its 34 ounces of coffee, in the morning. She will vet you a little bit, to make SURE you are not a craigslist killer or sociopath, but the process is not bad. You can vet her or talk to previous Shrimpterns, she will give you their contact info. As a Shrimptern you remain somewhat anonymous because DK's old school and doesn't believe in just publishing everything into cyberspace for privacy and security reasons. Yeah, she grew up in the days BEFORE facebook. Dinosaur, I know.

What I mean by that is your identity, as far as this thread, remains your user ID rather than your real identity, and we don't put pictures up here that are too specific, either. You can TAKE pictures, but specific ones don't make it onto cyberspace, please. Remember, dinosaur era.

Oh, yeah, you must be able to tolerate tripping over two German Shepherds and having one of then snoot you in - ahem - inconvenient places - he is SO BAD!!

If you play electric guitar, it's a plus. If you have video games or awesome recipes to bring, it's a plus. We've had a vegetarian Shrimptern, so we roll with the dietary needs, but always eat too much all week. We especially had chocolate overload during Shrimptern II's reign.

Poor Shrimptern III WANTED chocolate overload, but cruelly got an empty box BY MISTAKE!! IT WAS A MISTAKE!!

============

So today, we have a tale of two failures. OK, so DK saved the day, sorta, but, still, two failures.

First, she's on this campaign to y'know, get the Shrimporium back. But, she's lah-zhee, so she can only do so much in a day. So the other day, she FINALLY decided to clean the front glass of the yellows tank, and do a bit of filter maintenance, etc. In the course of that she removed four water feed lines from their tank and (uh... I dunno... how does this happen...) mysteriously only put THREE of them back. She's a-losin' it.

So, later in the day, when Wet Wedding kicked in, the fourth line was spewing water feed all over the Shrimporium floor during the cycle. Fortunately, she had a trusty Leak Frog stationed in the vicinity that went off shortly and alerted her. Even so, many towels later and a few choice vocabulary words, all was well. Thank you, Prince Charming in your Green Outfit!

Second, while she was actually paying some attention to that neglected tank, she noticed some curious slime upon one of the heaters. Now, again, she's lah-zhee, so she wondered, and went about her business. Next day, she sees it again, but this time it's a-bubblin'. Now, she knows this is NOT normal for slime to put out rather large bubbles. She looks closer.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not slime. The heater has ruptured and its heater entrails, electrified, and heating, are oozing through the rupture, into her tank water!

She pulls the plug and removes the heater, see pics.

She needs some new heaters. Yeah.

++++++++++

And, as she types this moment, BOTH black tiger tanks AND the Papayas are dancing. Oh, yeah, the Shrimporium is entering popcorn mode.

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#1,950 ·
I think DK needs to invest in some steel shell heaters with a serious glass case.
or a clear view style heater so you can see it's whoozits and whatknobs and make sure visibly it's working for you not against you.

Also, dancing shrimps and all aside, DK your followers have gone astray I feel it is my duty as a fanatic to keep this thread fresh in peoples minds and near the top of the new posts page for all to see.


The fun stuff alone is worth it, but there's also tragedy, and wisdom, and Sriracha stuff and doggies.

Also do you foresee the DK empire making a recovery to seller status by the summer time?
 
#1,951 ·
Sigh. These heaters replaced some TITANIUM heaters that were so disappointing and died way too early. DK definitely likes a heater with a light indicator showing it's powered up. She does need to buy some new heaters, but is not ready yet. Everything she does down there is in bulk so she has to pick good products. Her critical tanks are on double systems with double thermostatic control, so if a heater welds on or malfunctions, the temp controller will cut power if the tank temp gets too high. But all her systems make for a lot of gobbledy-**** into a tank.

She has NO IDEA who reads this thread. It's really creepy, most of the time because it's like walking in a dark, echo-ey cave, alone, when she posts. Nobody says much of anything except her, in this thread! DK just soldiers on, though, because she uses this thread to keep records. She forgets what and when she tried stuff, or how she did it, and she just digs it up here!

DK's goal has never been to be a seller. Her goal is to develop systems, and hobbyists. she just sells stuff when she needs to finance something or when the Shrimporium's overpopulated, etc. She will probably get there by summer with some species, even after Shrimpmageddon, but shrimp have taught her WELL not to speculate too far or to loudly, into the future.

This morning, the red tigers were dancing. Yellows are molting like mad in there.

DK just LOVES it when she can get crystals and yellows berrying up at the same time, because that's a technical feat on an automated sytem!
 
#1,954 · (Edited)
DK's knocked-up club. Pics taken 10 minutes ago, in the tanks that had a knocked-up lady, up near the glass, in a tank with clean glass, that lousy DK was able to get an in-focus and not moving picture. Lotsa conditions, to get a picture, there.


Papaya (my camera loses the blush color for some reason)
Blue Tiger
Wild Tiger
Black Tiger
Camouflage Tiger (paracaridina meridionalis)

Most of the neos are saddling up right now, pre-berried. They lag because DK's having more issues pushing their calcium levels where they should be, due to hardware limitations. She could work around this by changing some fundamental parameters in Wet Wedding, but she hates to change fundamentals unless absolutely necessary because to do so means lots of follow-up testing and re-calibrations. So she waits and sees if she can get there, but more slowly than the caridinas.


Yellow
Red
.
 

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#1,956 ·
Today's lesson: Know Thyself



Hey pKaz,

Good to hear from ya. Y'should come up sometime; we can finish what we started last time! Ha! I still haven't finished it! Thus the frog! I'm pretty sure that was you that was helping me with that marine stainless cable, wasn't it?

+++++++++++

IN OTHER NEWS:

So, yeah. Behind the scenes, DK is starting to prepare for Shrimptern IV (she's a wishful thinker, she is), realizing that the aftermath of Shrimpmageddon has left a BIG MESS down there in the Shrimporium that she needs to deal with somewhat before having folks down there. I mean, it's embarassing.

She's been forcing herself to do a little each day, in between gasping for air due to the flu settling deep into her lungs and sinuses.

Yesterday, she was straightening up, trying to do ANYTHING to straighten up down there. I mean, it's a war zone right now.

She looks up, high, on one of the shrimp racks, and sees something she sees every day, but now in a different light, today, and an alarm (figurative, that is) goes off. There is a stuffed 5 lb. bag of baking soda up high on that shelf, with the ziploc top wide open. She's cheapo, so she buys baking soda in huge bags from Costco.

Now, every other day this is part of the furniture, part of the scenery, it does not elicit any thought. But lack of oxygen to her lungs, and therefore her brain, must have her brain functioning BETTER, it seems.

So, she says to herself, "What the heck is that doing there? Why would I put a bag of baking soda THERE? I know I wouldn't. And I know, even if I did, that sucker would be zipped shut. Must go investigate."

She getser a step ladder and pulls down the lumpy open bag.

OH LA LA!

She has been looking for MONTHS for her MiniDos injector. It began to malfunction and she COULD NOT manage to get into the part of the machinery that was malfunctioning. She remembers, in a fit of rage and using some choice vocabulary words, tossing the disgusting thing into the trash in contempt.

But then.

She THOUGHT she remembered fishing it out of the trash, being a hoarder, and not really being able to get rid of anything THAT MIGHT BE USEFUL SOMEDAY. So for months, she's been second guessing herself if she ACTUALLY threw the thing away, or not, because shortly after she did, she ran across a youtube that showed her how to get into the part of the machinery that was malfunctioning. She CLEARLY remembers cursing to Murphy the day she saw that video, now that she THOUGHT she threw this injector away. Many MORE choice vocabulary words followed.

But in the months after, niggling doubts ate her. SHE KNOWS HERSELF. She is too cheap to throw away a piece of equipment costing hundreds of denaros, until she is SURE she cannot fix it. Heck, she kept a couple permeate pumps a year, convinced she'd eventually figure out a way to get into them, until she realized they were heat welded shut on manufacture. THEN she finally tossed them.

BTW, she DID throw away the eviscerated heater, the other day. She briefly held it, thinking about taking it apart for parts such as the cord and thermostat, but then the oxygen to her brain returned momentarily.

So there is was. The missing MiniDos injector.

It all came flooding back. She tossed it into the bag one day, thinking she was going to fill the bag with DI water and store it until she figured out how to crack the code. (Storing in DI water so the seals don't dry rot as it was largely taken apart at the time). But she got busy that day and didn't put the DI water in (due to a long debate on the process whether she should make a dilute bleach solution or not to store it in so biofilms wouldn't colonize the parts). You can see how complicated things get inside her head, when she tries to do a simple thing, yes?

OK, now. She has been fuming about the lost injector, because she realized it was the solution to a few issues she was having. Stay tuned on this prime-time-soap, for more chapters.

+++++++++

Here's another Camo Tiger that crawled out of the weeds yesterday. Check out the load she's carrying! There are a few berried in that tank right now and they are rapid cycling, too. DK's tweaks have apparently hit the sweet spot with them.


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#1,957 ·
Wow DK just wow. Your shrimp appear to be bouncing back like a superball after shrimpageddon. Lots of berried mamas, and hopefully next generation shrimpies and shrimpettes.


Nice trick hiding stuff in plain sight for yourself later on by the way.

Also, I think everyone is hopeful for your next shrimptern, because it means more photos, and more time inside the shrimporium, and a little more light in this cave of a wonderful thread.
 
#1,958 · (Edited)
I gotta say, things ARE happenin' down there, right now, in a big way.

So much so that DK dropped some denaro on a crate of new commercial strength daylight bulbs. DK lurves commercial strength things.... heh heh heh...

She needs more slime growth on her glass for all the microbabies showing up, now! And she needs to turbo charge the moss growth in the tanks, to catch up from the losses during Shrimpmageddon - wet wedding was totally down a long time due to well issues, so the plants suffered equally, not getting their CO2 or ferts for a long time. She's trying to balance everything coming back, now: water infusions, filter function, power feedings, leaf loading, plant growth. All these things have to be in balance to get to production mode in a tank.

++++++

IN OTHER NEWS:

First pictures, camo babies.


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#1,959 · (Edited)
So... the commercial daylight bulbs are tracking to arrive tomorrow. DK couldn't remember how long the existing bulbs had been in the fixtures so she went hunting through her picture files for when the various phases of expansion happened.

She ran across this picture of Water Factory 1.0. It's almost laughable, now. (circa 2009)

And today's version. (circa 2012)

+++++++++

IN RELATED NEWS:

The REASON DK's replacing the bulbs is to grow more slime on her glass for the influx of microbabies.

This morning, down there, she spied a Blue Tiger mama poppin' babies. Here she is squeezing the eggs to hatch, a new baby, and some of the current crops on the glass.

Wish ya coulda been there!
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#1,962 ·
Oh wow even more babies in the shrimporium!

So in the realm of pet keeping, I think I just setup a shrimpcube in my living room last night. Also, whoo hoo being unemployed leads to things getting done around the house.


Is the DK feeling better yet?
Hoping pharmaceutical haze has worn off, and fluish symptoms are disappating for you.


And I really hope the shrimps keep working the mojo and making the babies.
 
#1,963 · (Edited)
This calls for pictures, you know.


Quite to the contrary, DK went to the MD today and expanded her cache of phamaceuticals because overnight the flu expanded into a sinus infection on a Friday, and last time that happened it expanded to pneumonia by Monday. In the bizarro world of modern pharmacetical accounting, somehow the price on them was over $100, until a certain plastic member card was proffered, at which time the price mysteriously dropped to $4. It wasn't that another party paid all except the $4, it was that the price structure changed.

I need more of those types of plastic cards, methinks.

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IN OTHER NEWS:

FINALLY, more polychrome parts have arrived. DK managed to score an unbelievable set of five of these turn-of-the-century (?) glass globes for a stunning ten bucks on THAT auction site, but shipping was delayed because just when she bought them the poor seller dude was hospitalized. DK's been on pins and needles, wondering if she'd actually GET them, or if said dude might expire, leaving her antique globeless. Dude prolly had what she's got, only even worse, and needing HOSPITAL grade pharmaceuticals. I hope he had a plastic member card.

DK saw the SAME globe, a single one, on that same site for $50.


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