Are you a MFK Redneck?

[Ulu]

I’ll bet not one of you has ever covered an entire aquarium in duck tape! I did two.


Hey it was cold outside and I had to keep the fish warm somehow!

 

[Ulu]

I was so hoping that it would warm up enough to take the duck tape and Styrofoam doors off of my outside aquariums, so I can see the fish. I’m afraid that won’t happen Until the end of February.

Meanwhile here’s some more redneckery:
This is a trim cover for my hobby car, and I made it from a scrap of aluminum windowsill. It was the first production sample from my engineering drawing, for an aluminum extrusion die.

Here I have hogged it out with an electric nibbler, and I am drilling the ends of the slot.

Here, the slot is cut, and I have sanded it, but it is not polished.

 

[aussieman57]

Nice work how's the car coming.

 

[Ulu]

It’s inspected and licensed and it runs ok.
It still needs the frame rebuilt.

 

[Matteus]

As a firm proponent of the Jeff Foxworthy school of aquariological thought, I continue to be amazed at the various approaches and philosophies displayed by various fish keepers. I marvel at the obsessive attention to detail in the construction of sumps and plumbing systems; nice clean PVC pipes running in perfectly parallel banks, sometimes labelled as to water flow direction, even colour coded! Electrical controllers and monitors mounted on stands, their blinking LEDs and LCD readouts like a high-tech industrial laboratory. Completely automated water changes and/or top-ups, elaborate RO units to remove minerals from our water so that we can then add mineral supplements to put them back in, questionable nitrate-removal voodoo so we can keep the water we have painstakingly created via RO rather than having to change it for fresh, lighting systems to mimic sunrise/sunset/lightning/eclipses, CO2 injection to grow our plants without quite killing our fish...it's mind-boggling.

I admit it; I don't do any of this stuff. If my well water is not suited for a specific species of fish...I just don't keep those fish. I don't do any chemistry-lab magic to make my water last forever; I just change it to keep it healthy. I don't medicate, de-chlorinate, de-nitrify, de-salinate, reverse-osmosificate (I know that's not a word but it really should be...), or do anything else to my water. I buy only the equipment that I can't make myself.

I am...an Aquarium Redneck. Any others out there? There's gotta be; not everyone keeps fish by the simple expedient of spending endless amounts of money on frivolous crap. There have been some awe-inspiring threads by members who have built their own tanks, filters, etc...but only some of these are true Rednecks. Are you?

Here are a few telltale signs:

If more than one or two pieces of your aquarium filtration system came from Home Depot, or are labelled Rubbermaid or Sterilite...you might be an Aquarium Redneck.

If you have ever drilled a hole in the foundation of your house, for any reason related to aquariums...you might be an Aquarium Redneck.

If any of your aquariums are made of plywood, and have carefully finished epoxy-sealed interiors...but bare-wood, unfinished exteriors...you might be an Aquarium Redneck.

If you can recite from memory what the various colours of Poret foam translate to in terms of PPI...you might be an Aquarium Redneck.

If you buy aquarium-safe silicone in caulking-gun tubes...by the case-lot...you might be an Aquarium Redneck.

If you have multiple 12-cubic-foot storage bins full of assorted elbows, valves, bulkheads, T's and other plumbing fittings...just in case you need one in a hurry...you might be an Aquarium Redneck.

If most of your plumbing is made of ABS, rather than PVC...you might be an Aquarium Redneck.

If you keep rubber boots or waders in your truck, so that you can leap out of your car and wade through quicksand to retrieve some particularly cool-looking chunk of driftwood from a roadside swamp...you might be an Aquarium Redneck.

If your basement fishroom sounds like Niagara Falls, because none of your tank overflows have names like Bean or George or whatever, because you find the noise soothing...you might be an Aquarium Redneck.

If any of your fish have ever spent any time in a bait bucket or a landing net...you might be an Aquarium Redneck.

If you answered Yes to 3 or more of the above questions...congratulations! You, my friend...are an Aquarium Redneck.

Wow. I never realized these things about myself. I think only 1-2 of these things have not happened yet. And yes rubber boots need to be added to my Arsenal of “just in case” tools in my truck. I remember once saying to a coworker of mine. “Hey do you have your saws all in your car? No make sure you grab it before you come”…

this gem was in the river out behind the job site I was working on. Wasn’t sure if I was going to fall in the river or cut my leg open with the saws all. Fortunately I remained unscathed, but my co workers however both fell in trying to get their own pieces ??. The root system is still sitting in my back yard next to a big pile of random lengths of pvc that are just sitting there in case I might have a use for them some day.




my driveway is often littered with random fish tanks of all sizes and sorts because I “found a good deal” so I often only get silicone by the box, just in case I need to reseal them lol

I may have accidentally bought a couple tanks from a friend because I got a deal on them….still no idea wha I’m doing with them, but I figure I will soon enough

 

[The Masked Shadow]

I count 32 fish tanks

 

[Ulu]

Wow I only have about eight empties myself.

I tip my hat.

 

[Ulu]

If you put a really big horn on your pickup truck?

Yup….

 

[esoxlucius]

Wow. I never realized these things about myself. I think only 1-2 of these things have not happened yet. And yes rubber boots need to be added to my Arsenal of “just in case” tools in my truck. I remember once saying to a coworker of mine. “Hey do you have your saws all in your car? No make sure you grab it before you come”…

this gem was in the river out behind the job site I was working on. Wasn’t sure if I was going to fall in the river or cut my leg open with the saws all. Fortunately I remained unscathed, but my co workers however both fell in trying to get their own pieces ??. The root system is still sitting in my back yard next to a big pile of random lengths of pvc that are just sitting there in case I might have a use for them some day.


View attachment 1485645

my driveway is often littered with random fish tanks of all sizes and sorts because I “found a good deal” so I often only get silicone by the box, just in case I need to reseal them lol

I may have accidentally bought a couple tanks from a friend because I got a deal on them….still no idea wha I’m doing with them, but I figure I will soon enough View attachment 1485646

Hey jjohnwm , I think we've got a winner. I reckon Matteus rightly deserves the prestigious accolade of "redneck of the century". Lol.

 

[Matteus]

I count 32 fish tanks

There was just shy of 50 in that batch. There are a bunch of small ones hidden in the mix of it. Funny enough about that crazy deal, I have all of those tanks stored in a friends trailer, at a different friends farm. This is beginning to sound even more redneck than I originally imagined. ?

not only am I maxing out my own space with random things I didn’t know I needed till I saw it, but also pulling on others spaces as well ?