Sometimes its just not the equipment

My wife called from the office this evening asking if I could come over there because the aquarium was making loud noises. Not exactly what you want to hear, but ok. I get over there and the first thing I notice was there was definitely a clunky noise coming from the filter unit. But that's not all that catches my eye (or ear). Yes there is that clunky noise, but there is something I'm NOT hearing, that being the water flowing out of the filter AND the bubbles coming out of the undergravel filter risers. (I'm a belt/suspenders kind of guy:) ) Now I'm thinking "Oh this is so not going to be my day. Two units going out at the same time?" I check the air pump. Its running, but putting out very little air. I check it's intake filter and cleaning it does not help. I figure I'd better take the filter unit downstairs and clean it. That's when the mystery deepens. I turn on the light and it's dimmer than it should be. At first I thought my wife put in a dimmer bulb. But when I go to the utility room and turn the light on there, the same thing happens. The dim bulbs make a light bulb go off in my head. I grab my voltmeter and check an outlet to confirm. 58 Volts. Oh joy. A few more tests confirm that the whole building is this way. My stuff isn't broken, it's just not getting enough juice! Local power company was notified, and after a work crew stopped at a nearby transformer, voltage was back to normal. I'm just grateful that it was a cool day and the air conditioner was not running. A low voltage situation like that would not be a good thing for the compressor unit.
I've got another blog entry in me regarding my weekend workshop exploits, but I want to get a video edited first.
Bye for now.