[Delphinus]

Well, seeing lastlight and Parker update their threads I thought I'd give this thread a little resurrection to make it a gang of 3. Christy's not gonna believe what she missed on whilst sipping Juan's margarita's.

Last night I installed an electrical outlet box on one of my walls! Well, it's just the box part, no wires yet. But it's *totally* bolted onto the aluminum C-channel the outside basement walls are framed up with. And I didn't quite put the vapour barrier back.

I know, it sounds like, not a lot. But the prep work that had to go into it was insane. For one, the spot where I'm starting is adjacent to where I had my old 75g standing and the aluminum studs were seriously rusty (aluminum rusts? who knew!) So I had to rebuild part of that wall. I came out of that experience with a newly found profound hatred of metal studs for walls.

And Ok, I lied. I have done more than this since June. But it's hardly measurable stuff. Like, I put 4 circuits into the tank room. This was a logistical nightmare that went beyond the usual amount of work for such a task because the wall where the outlets are, is framed crooked but it's a load bearing wall AND it's finished on the other side AND it's a stairwell so knocking it down and starting over wasn't an option, but trying to fix it as I go along is laborious. AND I only work on things on this project after 11pm at night, so it tends to go slow. Oh and AND I might kind of had to do it over a few times because I wasn't happy with the results. It also included decommissioning the old 2 circuits that ran the 75g and 110g tanks (which are still running) because they were never inspected and only meant as temporary anyhow. I think I spent 40 hours in total getting the circuits done up in 2-3 hour chunks at a time.

I also had an opportunity to pick up a golden dwarf eel, who now resides in my 110g cube. At first I wasn't concerned about him getting out. Then I decided that too often have I tempted fate in the past and gotten burned that it was just too risky to leave the tank open-top indefinitely, and even though the tank's days are numbered, it's still long enough that a curious eel who wants to get out, has enough time to try. So I built a canopy for that tank using pine 1x8's and a piano hinge and about 20 screws. My DIY skillz are the shizzle marblez! Eat your heart out Mr. Professional Cabinet Builder Fishytime, you're gonna cry with a jealous rage when you see this work of art. You may also decide that my creative use of tuck tape to hold the canopy down onto the tank is something you wish to incorporate into your own designs. It's ok, I didn't apply for a patent so no need to pay me royalties as yet.

Pictures to follow. Sometime soon. When I find my home computer and a camera to use and stuff like that.