George Monnat Jr

Thomas, I knew your brother as a wonderful person. I barely knew him, but I feel the loss and will miss him.

Ty, I sent you a donation to your PayPal. Let me know if you don't see it.

Thanks Ty, I'll do that.

I'm in. Should I do the Ty Pay Pal thing?

Last night I was too bummed out to respond. I didn't know Tim very well, but we were on a first name basis since I bought some frags from him and occasionally saw him at RCA. He was a great guy, and his passing is a big loss for the Austin reefing community and our community in general.

I was conflicted about 'liking' the OP, but I did as thanks to Jake for posting it.

This is making me I have been certified for a long time but have not been is about 17 years. my daughter was saying yesterday that we should go, So I checked the a place in Austin for her to get certified and maybe a refresher course for me. Any suggestions about the better stores in the area for instruction and such?

I did my refresher at Dive World, my wife got certified at Scubaland and we've done a ton of classes at Scubaland. We really like Scubaland. They do their winter diving in Reveille Peak Ranch.

If you're by Stillhouse Hollow Lake, you can use Scuba Divers Paradise. They're SSI but good people.

I was just updating my dive site list, and when I saved it it blew up. Sucked the motivation out of continuing to edit. I was using MSIE v 10.0.9 on a Win 7 machine.

yeah...theres a lot of success stories out there for those who can "take" the work...the owner of my franchise started out as a driver and now is one of the biggest franchises in texas owning something like 60 stores...he bought one and it just kept snowballing

there's the stigma of the pizza guy that really bothered me at first until i realized how much i was making...laugh if you want at the guy knocking on your door...but keep in mind he's probably making the same if not a lot more than you...and he's working his tail off for it too to make sure things are right for you

Delivering pizza was my favorite job, so I always tip well. Every time it looked like I might lose my job or when I actually got laid off, I seriously considered delivering pizza. Tons of guys on base/post in the military do it for extra cash. No stigma in my mind. Congrats and good luck.

Have you noticed a difference in coral growth, color, etc.?

I've got my first interview tomorrow since I graduated (again). Took me a month of resubmitting resumes over and over and calling and calling before I could get an interview set up. Fairly nervous. It's not the ideal starting job, but ANYTHING to get my foot in the door and out of the restaurant business is a good thing. Wish me luck y'all

I looked back in the thread and didn't see what field for your degree.

Here is where I work. Lead stripper.

I deleted my comment as internet humor may be misinterpreted and go horribly awry....

My step-dad has had a long career as a welder and weld inspector for the DOE at Bryan Mound (really Texas and Louisiana). He's blind in one eye from working on a car (metal flake), so wear your PPE!

...

Also, sometimes when I edit one of my posts and submit, it'll show up with html code embedded.

That, too.

Straight copy-and-paste from my post above:

A few weeks ago I noticed that when I copy-and-paste into a post it adds
extra line breaks. It makes it really ugly and annoying and time
consuming trying to fix it. Even when I copy from one post to another
(I started a new post then realized it should be added to an existing
thread, instead). I'm using Firefox 21.0 on a Win7 laptop.

Copy-and-paste from my post above then into Notepad:

A few weeks ago I noticed that when I copy-and-paste into a post it adds extra line breaks. It makes it really ugly and annoying and time consuming trying to fix it. Even when I copy from one post to another (I started a new post then realized it should be added to an existing thread, instead). I'm using Firefox 21.0 on a Win7 laptop.

Copy-and-paste from my post above then into MS Word:

A few weeks ago I noticed that when I copy-and-paste into a
post it adds extra line breaks. It makes
it really ugly and annoying and time consuming trying to fix it. Even when I copy from one post to another (I
started a new post then realized it should be added to an existing thread,
instead). I'm using Firefox 21.0 on a
Win7 laptop.

A few weeks ago I noticed that when I copy-and-paste into a post it adds extra line breaks. It makes it really ugly and annoying and time consuming trying to fix it. Even when I copy from one post to another (I started a new post then realized it should be added to an existing thread, instead). I'm using Firefox 21.0 on a Win7 laptop.

Thanks,

George

This is a great thread!

Lets see here...

...I am starting to greatly dislike my job. I do no real engineering work. I mostly spend my time in some windows office program making charts, reports, etc...

That's real engineering work, especially in semiconductor

I had a snowstorm that dropped my alk from 8 to 5 due to keeping my pH above 8.4 fighting dino. It's a bad idea to add kalkwasser and baked baking soda within 20 minutes of each other, Another lesson learned. But I've recovered and built it back up to 8.5 dKH with all parameters back to good.

I have a reverse lit refugium with chaeto and thriving amphipod and brittle star communities.

The last two examples as HC, Red Sea dKH

5.208, 5.1

7.560, 7.7

That's pretty good given that the Red Sea color change can be subtle and hard to see.

For the HC conversion from ppm to dKH, I used: dKH = ppm / 50 * 2.8

The HC for alkalinity works like a charm. I've been double-checking with my remaining Red Sea, and they've tracked beautifully. And I need to pull out my gloves for the PO4 HC. I need to refresh my med go-kit anyway.

A question for both of these. I'm assuming that the 10ml is measured at the bottom of the meniscus on the line, is that right?

any scratches on cuvets or micro bubbles in the vials ever? I'd eliminate the one obvious out of whack test and average the rest.

Not that I can see, I used a soft cloth to clean the bottles each time.

For the past week or so I've been using the Hanna Checker HI 713 to track my phosphates. I've been running a constant 1 cup of BRS Bulk Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO) – High Capacity (recommended amount) being gently tumbled in a BRS GFO & Carbon Reactor – Dual (w/ GAC, too) for weeks. victoly got 0.15 ppm PO4 on the 16th. Here are the subsequent readings:

March 19th: 0.21 ppm, 0.12 ppm and 0.21 ppm PO4 (3x packets used); RCA tested from the same water and read 0 ppm detectable PO4

March 20th: 0.50 ppm, 0.04 ppm and 0.06 ppm PO4 (3x packets used)

March 23rd at 1150 AM: 0,03 ppm PO4 - great! Then at 2310 (11:10 PM) that night, I read it again for 0.11 ppm. What?

I decided to do four tests using the same pair of cuvettes/bottles. I wiped each bottle before inserting it each time. Here are the four more readings I got on the same samples (only 1 packet used for all readings):

0.11 ppm

0.02 ppm

0.46 ppm

0.06 ppm

0.07 ppm

What should I do with that? Throw out the high and low outliers and average the remaining? I don't know what to think. RCA always reads 0 ppm, my HC reads sporadically and I still have GHA and small patches of occasional dino.

Most of my issues are due to relying on conductivity probes instead of using a refractometer. I did have a problem with my Apex stopping data logging after daylight savings and possibly causing a snow storm, but without the logs my Apex is basically pleading the 5th.

I can see my pH levels (go up as the ATO adds limewater, or pickling lime and RODI mix) and if the ATO pump is turned on or off. If the pump is left on for more than about 30 seconds, then I know it's sucking air or mechanically failed.

I plan on adding a 'water-on-floor' sensor to my Apex, too. I'll use that to shut off the skimmer, GFO/GAC RX, UV sterilizer and ATO. In other words, the things that could be pumping water onto my floor.

I didn't get one until I had to travel and needed to set up an ATO. I use my Apex for three main things: ATO, temperature control and remote monitoring. The ATO uses float switches and pH for input (pH because I add lime to my top-off RODI), and for temperature the thermometers are inputs to turn on/off the fans and heaters. I could've used a separate ATO system and a chiller, but I like to be able to check up on my system via the internet. When I'm traveling I must have the ability to check on it or receive warning emails. That's saved my tank a couple of times while traveling or at work, so I consider my Apex as already paying for itself.

Did the pseudocorynactis / Ball Anemone ever get out of control? Has anyone ever found a way to eradicate them? I don't have any, I was just reading about people complaining on RC.