Make offer on all my tanks and equipment

[Utar]

I have been out of aquariums for a few years now and all my tanks and equipment are just setting in my garage collecting dust and taking up room.
I would like to reach out to people that might want all my tanks etc, that live somewhere around the Houston area as I live about an hour and a half from Houston. Whoever wants my tanks etc will have to come and pick them up because I have no way of delivering them.
List of tanks:
75 gallon tank (unused)

The rest are all used.
two 55 gallon tanks with custom homemade stand and hood.
two 29 gallon tanks
one 20 gallon long tank
one ten gallon tank
one five gallon tank
Equipment:

SunSun HW-3000
Polar Aurora 4-stage canister filter
SunSun Modular Canister filter
Biohome Ultimate Filter Media (5 LB)
Plus lights, air pumps and other stuff

Here is a picture of one of my 55 gallon projects. This picture was taken as I was setting the tank up several years ago.

 

[Colin_T]

You're not interested in getting back into fish?

Sorry you are giving up the hobby. It's never good when people get rid of tanks.

 

[Utar]

You're not interested in getting back into fish?

Sorry you are giving up the hobby. It's never good when people get rid of tanks.

I learned a lot over the years about fish keeping and enjoyed doing it. However, my life has completely been turned upside down. My brother had a stroke leaving him paralyzed on his left side. So, I let him move in with me so I could take care of him. Then I was working cutting up a tree that had fallen across the roof of my big trailer. Almost finished when the tree did an unexpected move as it fell of its broken stump knocking me off the trailer and injuring my back, cracking three vertebra. The Doctors fixed my back, but even after a year I still have trouble staying on my feet for to long before my back starts to hurt forcing me to set down. I just don't have the strength or the room for aquariums any longer. Trust me if I could I would still be fish keeping.

 

[Colin_T]

Sorry to hear about life taking a turn for the worse. I would like to say your back will get better, but after being hit by a car in 1989 and breaking my back (didn't sever the spine) it doesn't get better. Doing stretching exercises each day, having a comfortable bed to sleep on, and trying to keep your back straight helps, but if you're like me, life is going to suck. A doctor, physiotherapist or chiropractor can usually offer advice on stretching exercises. Yoga can help too but it's hard to do some positions.

Avoid surgery on your back. A lot of people get back surgery but it doesn't help and usually makes the problem worse.

The main thing is to reduce inflammation and keep the muscles strong but not tensed up. Fish oil can help with inflammation and regular exercise can help keep the muscles strong. Regular stretching helps prevent the muscles tightening up around the vertebrate.

 

[Archerfish]

Try contacting your local school district and offer that treasure trove to their science/biology curriculum. I am sure they will be thrilled to have the donation.

 

[Utar]

Sorry to hear about life taking a turn for the worse. I would like to say your back will get better, but after being hit by a car in 1989 and breaking my back (didn't sever the spine) it doesn't get better. Doing stretching exercises each day, having a comfortable bed to sleep on, and trying to keep your back straight helps, but if you're like me, life is going to suck. A doctor, physiotherapist or chiropractor can usually offer advice on stretching exercises. Yoga can help too but it's hard to do some positions.

Avoid surgery on your back. A lot of people get back surgery but it doesn't help and usually makes the problem worse.

The main thing is to reduce inflammation and keep the muscles strong but not tensed up. Fish oil can help with inflammation and regular exercise can help keep the muscles strong. Regular stretching helps prevent the muscles tightening up around the vertebrate.

Thank you for the advice, I believe one of the problems with me is that I am 71 years old and was always active working around my home, until I got hurt. I was in great shape for my age, however due to being in bed for thirty days and then for three months I was told by the doctors don't pick anything up over the weight of a gallon milk jug, I grew weak. It is surprising how fast a person's muscles will deteriorate when not being used. Maybe it is due to my age, I don't really know. I don't have a the space for aquariums now that my brother lives with me. My retirement home is small, big enough for one person to live in comfortably but my brother is in an electric wheel chair and he is constantly hitting things in the house, especially when he is backing up. There are scares all over my house and appliances like my frig and freezer with dents in them. When my house was being built I lived in a large and very comfortable travel trailer. After a while I found I could not live in that small house with my brother, there was just not enough room, so I moved back into my trailer. I would love to keep the tanks and use them again due to all the money I invested in to keeping fish and enjoyed doing it, but the tanks and equipment have been setting in my garage for almost two years now and I am not sure if I will ever be able to do anything with them again. So since I can't enjoy them I thought maybe someone else would.

 

[Utar]

Sorry to hear about life taking a turn for the worse. I would like to say your back will get better, but after being hit by a car in 1989 and breaking my back (didn't sever the spine) it doesn't get better. Doing stretching exercises each day, having a comfortable bed to sleep on, and trying to keep your back straight helps, but if you're like me, life is going to suck. A doctor, physiotherapist or chiropractor can usually offer advice on stretching exercises. Yoga can help too but it's hard to do some positions.

Avoid surgery on your back. A lot of people get back surgery but it doesn't help and usually makes the problem worse.

The main thing is to reduce inflammation and keep the muscles strong but not tensed up. Fish oil can help with inflammation and regular exercise can help keep the muscles strong. Regular stretching helps prevent the muscles tightening up around the vertebrate.

Yeah I totally agree with you, I have heard horror stories of people who kept having back surgery and it only made their lives worse not better. I went through back surgery once and I am not doing it again, I can live with the pain. During the worst part of this while I was in the hospital they had me on some powerful pain medication, after awhile I was subscribed hydrocodone. My brother is addicted to hydrocodone and so are other people I know and I didn't want to have a hydrocodone dependency so I stopped taking it. Besides hydrocodone didn't really help me that much anyway. I don't even like to take over the counter pain medication. So I learned to live with the pain, it is does get better. I can work around the house for about an hour but when my back starts to hurt, I push myself to work for another hour, then I have to set down to releive the pain. The pain goes away in about fifteen minutes so I get back up and go back to work, this is the process of my life now and it is just the way it. I can live with that. Thank you for your reply.

 

[Utar]

Try contacting your local school district and offer that treasure trove to their science/biology curriculum. I am sure they will be thrilled to have the donation.

Thank you for the advice, I never thought about that. The lady that lives across the street from me is a school teacher so I will ask her about the tanks.

 

[Colin_T]

If your back has healed fully (it should have after a couple of months), then take up weight training. You can do it at home with a plastic water bottle or buy actual weights. You could join a gym or ask the retirement home if they can set up a gym, which would be beneficial to everyone living there. If you haven't done weights before then going to a gym for a few months would be preferable so you can get instructions on how to do the best exercises for you.

We all start to lose muscle mass around the age of 40. If you don't do weight bearing exercises at least 3 times a week, you lose a lot of muscle mass and the older you get, the faster you lose it. Start off with light weights and just lift them until your muscles feel sore then stop for the day. Over a few weeks it will be easier to lift those weights and then you can increase the amount you lift.

Most old people die from lack of muscle mass, which stops the body working properly. I have seen frail old people who could barely lift a bottle of milk and I have seen 4 foot tall 80 year old ladies lift a guy that was 6 foot tall and weighed 80kg. Everyone over the age of 40 should be doing weight training if they physically can.

If all the above doesn't help with the pain, some states now have medicinal cannabis and you add a few drops under your tongue to take the edge off the pain. You would have to talk to your doctor about it but it's not addictive like most pain relievers and doesn't get you high because it only contains CBD (no THC).

 

[Utar]

On a side note; One of the reasons my brother is living in my house is because his house burned completely to the ground leaving him homeless. Afther being in the hosiptal for three months due to his stroke and other complications, he moved back into his house. I had bought him a really nice electric wheel chair, he doesn't have the use of his left side but he can still use his right side so it worked out great for him. If I had not bought that electic wheel chair for my brother he would have died in the house fire. I love my brother, but he takes up a lot of room with his electric wheel chair. I had to do several modcations in my home to help my brother, like build strong hand rails for him to use the bathroom to help him get on and off the toilet. He has to have a hosptital bed to sleep in and he was given that by the VA. Having said all that he is very hard to live with and if he wasn't my brother I wouldn't be doing it. It was after he started living with me that I hurt my back and so here we are today doing the best we can.

 

[Utar]

If your back has healed fully (it should have after a couple of months), then take up weight training. You can do it at home with a plastic water bottle or buy actual weights. You could join a gym or ask the retirement home if they can set up a gym, which would be beneficial to everyone living there. If you haven't done weights before then going to a gym for a few months would be preferable so you can get instructions on how to do the best exercises for you.

We all start to lose muscle mass around the age of 40. If you don't do weight bearing exercises at least 3 times a week, you lose a lot of muscle mass and the older you get, the faster you lose it. Start off with light weights and just lift them until your muscles feel sore then stop for the day. Over a few weeks it will be easier to lift those weights and then you can increase the amount you lift.

Most old people die from lack of muscle mass, which stops the body working properly. I have seen frail old people who could barely lift a bottle of milk and I have seen 4 foot tall 80 year old ladies lift a guy that was 6 foot tall and weighed 80kg. Everyone over the age of 40 should be doing weight training if they physically can.

If all the above doesn't help with the pain, some states now have medicinal cannabis and you add a few drops under your tongue to take the edge off the pain. You would have to talk to your doctor about it but it's not addictive like most pain relievers and doesn't get you high because it only contains CBD (no THC).

Funny that you mention medicinal cannabis because I discovered eatables which are legal in Texas, and they do help with the pain, I think much better than hydrocodone and it is not addictive. When I run out of eatables sometimes it takes a few days to get more, and I don't have any side effects from going without it.

 

[Colin_T]

Being a carer is a thankless job that basically ruins people. It's stressful, hard work and according to statistics, it actually shortens your life, which quite frankly sucks. If your a parent caring for your kid who got injured it's not an issue because you know they are going to get better (hopefully) and they are your kids. But when it comes to looking after older parents or siblings, it's not much fun and if you are older, that makes it worse. You need to take care of your own health but you also try to take care of the other person too and it can become too much.

Even living with a family member that is healthy when you are both adults, it can be difficult and they might be family but they can still irritate the hell out of you. This is amplified in a small living space and if one person is never going to make a full recovery.

Have you spoken to a doctor about getting some counselling?
It might be helpful to both of you (or just you) if you can talk to a professional counsellor once in a while to help deal with caring for your brother. Most people think they can deal with it alone but it can help to chat to someone and just get everything off your chest so to speak. Counsellors and doctors might be able to help get some home help for your brother so you can take a day off every now and then, and they might be able to find another place for him to live. Sorry if that sounds horrible but adults generally need their own space and 2 adult siblings in a small place is not good for anyone's long term mental health.