I can’t help myself… everything I have is custom….

[Magnum Man]

Maybe it’s just me ( my wife thinks so ) but nearly everything I own, I’ve customized in some way… to me, nearly everything can be improved on, it’s how my mind works… my zero turn mower, wears ATV tires, by design, it’s one wheel drive, and traditional lawn mower tires, don’t provide enough traction, even on our relatively flat farm lawn… I seek out craftsmen, to help with my ideas, on improving most any piece of equipment, if the modifications are beyond my skills.. but then I’ve always been a designer, or inventor… to tie in aquaria, I’m sitting here drinking my caffeine, and looking at my fish, and suddenly thought, I hate those Aquaclear hang on tank filters ( I have several of the Aquaclear 70’s )… I doubt I’ll buy another… I bought them 1st, when restarting my tanks a couple years ago, on recommendations… equipment changed dramatically in the 25 years , that I was out of the hobby… Honestly, the Aquaclear’s are not “bad” filters, but after trying the newer design of the Tidal filters, I won’t go back… the Aquaclear’s have things I don’t like the design of, and don’t lend themselves well to customization… I have a thread on my customization process on the Tidal’s… ( so while a huge improvement, not perfect either ), but lend themselves better to customization… I really like trying to raise Tilapia, it’s kind of like aquariums on steroids, using 3 - 275 gallon tanks, and designing a functional filter system, and then being able to eat them, is good as well… I guess I better get busy overthinking something else

 

[Back in the fold]

Nothing is so good that it can’t be improved on or made to better fit your own specific needs .

 

[Magnum Man]

You sound like someone of a similar mindset…

 

[Colin_T]

Maybe it’s just me ( my wife thinks so ) but nearly everything I own, I’ve customized in some way… to me, nearly everything can be improved on, it’s how my mind works…

That's a fairly accurate assessment of most things sold by shops. They are made to break and most things are inefficient while you wait for them to break.

Look at the internal combustion engine. It hasn't changed much over 100 years and cars today use nearly as much fuel as they did 50 years ago, sometimes more. But aircraft and ships are much more efficient now and use 1/2 to 1/3 the fuel they used 50 years ago.

Why are we still relying on fossil fuel for power generation when there are so many other forms of cleaner energy?

Why are we still using toxic chemicals to kill weeds and insects when those chemicals are proven to cause cancer, and there are safer alternatives?

The electric vehicle has to be charged from a power socket but the automotive companies could stick a solar panel on the roof of each vehicle and they could charge up while sitting in the carpark while people are at work.

The Australian government is helping people put solar panels on the roofs of their houses but only if you use more than x amount of power (basically rich people and people that use lots of power get solar panel handouts. However, those properties aren't getting storage batteries so any power produced goes back into the grid to subsidise the power companies. The gov is also rebuilding the power network across the country and it's going to cost billions of dollars. People have informed the government that it would be cheaper and less damaging to the environment if everyone simply went off the grid and had stand alone solar panels and storage batteries. It's a lot cheaper and nobody would have power failures. It's not going to happen because of gutless people in power who aren't willing to make laws that help. This applies to everything including crappy items from China that fall apart after a year because they are badly designed or built.

Most things can be improved upon, unfortunately most people simply don't care about things being better.

 

[Back in the fold]

You sound like someone of a similar mindset…

Let’s just say that I’m a frustrated engineer . LOL !

 

[Magnum Man]

The power grid, is way too inefficient, to go to plug in electric cars… yep, something has to be done, but let’s plug our cars, into a grid that relies on coal powered power plants… ( 6 of one / half dozen of the other )... nuclear is clean, but no body wants a nuclear power plant in their backyard… In The US that has been the big push, with lawmakers passing laws, without understanding the problems…

This is not often talked about, because of how stupid it was, but in the 80’s the US passed emissions laws for cars… but allowed car manufacturers, to put on air pumps to pump more atmospheric air into the tailpipe of the cars… so the car's engines didn’t pass emissions, on their own, so they diluted the exhaust, by pumping more air into the exhaust… so more exhaust volume came out of the pipe, same amount of pollution from the engine, just diluted by pumping extra air into the pipe… that went on for more than a decade, and may still go on, with bigger polluting vehicles today???

 

[Back in the fold]

with lawmakers passing laws, without understanding the problems…

To err is human . To really screw up you need to be a Congressman .

 

[GaryE]

Half the fun in this hobby is adjusting things. I never get through a week without some sort of improvement (or miss) in the fishroom. Adjust this, modify that, re-adjust this, add that... there is no 2x4 that can't be turned into something else, no tank that can't be redesigned. Yesterday, I switched around some window plant shelves to improve the sunlight hitting the terrestrial plants that went into new tanks on Sunday. Then I added shelves to the racks at the base of the tanks so I could reduce clutter. I promptly cluttered them up, so today, I need to think about how to increase storage out there.

I put away the cheap and noisy linear piston pump I'd pulled out to increase my air flow. I was tempted to work on that. I have good pumps that are close to silent. But maybe if I.........