FluxCapacitor

I've been running a 3G pico for the better part of 2 years now.  Evaporation, for some reason, has not been much of an issue for me.  I'm using an AutoAqua Micro ATO on the tank and only have to refill the 5G carboy that feeds it once ever 3 months or so.  It consumes fresh water VERY VERY slowly and it is not covered.  I also have a small heater controlled by an external temp controller keeping the temp at 78*. 

Inhabitants are a clown goby, a hermit crab, a whole army of amphipods, and some RBTAs.  YMMV, but I've seen very little evaporation problem from my 3G tank.  If I could go do it over from the beginning I would not have gotten a bowfront because it's a PITA to clean.

I have a small eshopps nano skimmer that works well and is magnet mounted in the rear sump area of my 14G cube.  I don't like having anything that holds water outside of the tank like external pumps or reactors.  That is just personal preference like many other things in the hobby.

^^ You can get them, you just have to find other means of income.  I've noticed that many jobs and occupations people have don't allow for a very good work life balance.  That means that if you're working 60h weeks and not making enough salary to play the way you want or having enough time to do what you went then what's the point?  I don't live to work, I work so I can live.  I think people either become trapped in a way where they cannot do anything except work and then come home to do chores/cook.  I desire not to live that way.  Doing small things on the side that you enjoy doing many times lead into other things that can make you extra money, but again, you have to have the time to do these  things.  For instance, if you love tweaking aquarium hardware there's a potential that other people will pay you to work on their stuff (probably because of a lack of their own time/energy because of their jobs).

I'm looking at taking a contracting position right now that will double my salary that I'm currently making.... and I'm already doing well enough to play the way I want.  The only "toys" I could want right now are having a house that I design and built on my own (don't want to rent or buy someone else's house in a neighborhood next to other houses) land or some sort of pricey super car.  I'd have a new 911 Turbo if I could afford it right now but my Mitsu "boxes" will do for now.  I'm not tooting my horn, I'm just trying to instill the fact that life doesn't have to be like what everyone else does.  I've worked hard to make sure I can maintain my happiness AND do work that is lucrative.  If I cannot do that I cannot enjoy my home life.... and that's really what's important to me, not working. 

I work hard so that I can do whatever I want when I'm not at work.  I've also adopted the idea close to 7 years ago now in this city that I refuse to work 9-5 hours.  This blows about 2h of my time a day in traffic.  If you count your hourly wage for 2h that's a lot of money to not get paid to just be stressed out at other people not paying attention during their commute and causing traffic.  My hours are 6AM-3PM and this allows me to avoid most of the annoying stuff.

An AWC architect associate is one of the most sought after certs this year. If you're interested in taking a crash course - there's actually some really good, and relatively cheap options. I'd recommend acloud.guru or Linux academy. Acloud is one of the better training courses(regardless of cert) that I've seen. Linux academy had a free week of access though last week as well.

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Thank you for the tip, that is actually the exact certification program I'm using. I worked with AWS a lot at my last job provisioning servers and monitoring them but now I'm working to have it on paper to say I know how to do those things. The base salaries for AWS cert holders starts in the low six figures range so it's no wonder they're sought after like they are. I hope the market doesn't become flooded with people doing it but I've seen that happen before and knowledge + experience usually trumps the college kiddos pretty quickly.

Linuxacadamy videos are super long and boring IMO and they cover every aspect of the AWS stuff. If you're looking for thorough that is good but if you want to pass the exam the cloud guru site is more on point with what you need to know to test out.

I've jumped ship since I last posted in this thread and I now work as a Systems Engineer for a HIPAA compliant hosting company. I guess you could say I "save lives" by "slaving over a hot keyboard". My work is easier than my last job, provided me with far more stock options than my last job, gave me my second unlimited PTO policy I've had the pleasure of enjoying, and a substantial raise over what I was making at my last job. I'm part of a smaller team of engineers here and my boss practices "servant leadership" which is a new concept for me. It basically means he's not here to tell me what to do but more to treat me like an adult and help me if I need something done.

Still working in downtown Austin so I come into work very early in the morning to avoid traffic. My goals are short-term to get Amazon Web Services certifications and in the long-term to start my own business. Another goal of mine is to start making and packing my own lunch so I don't spend $30/day downtown on the expensive food there is to eat for breakfast and lunch around here.

Does anyone here play Street Fighter 5?

Was it krylon fusion you used that chipped off? It's made to fuse to plastics and "never" come off. I can see regular spray paint having a chipping problem but I'd be surprised to hear that the fusion stuff came off of plastic.

Holy fish, what kind of fish is that?

And yes, Reburn... it's a challenge. Lol. I need to maybe re-aquascape my 34G because a lot of stuff is taking up realestate on the sand.

* Yesterday I cleaned out the 75G because the last little 1 inch of water in the bottom had all the crud that wasn't siphoned out with the vinegar water I cleaned the tank with.

* I want to move everything I have into the 75G and get it set up but I'm not prepared to spend a small fortune on the salt water needed to fill it up yet. I think it will be close to $100 in salt water if I don't get my RODI set up and buy a bucket of salt to mix myself.

* I hooked up my Cebu Sun T5/MH fixture yesterday, all the lights work great in it so it's probably time to order some replacements to have on hand. I'm sure this is going to be in the $200 range to get all of the lights (at least). The ballasts are kinda loud once they're plugged in.

* I want to mount the light hanging from the ceiling and I'd also like to measure the power draw on the entire fixture. It has 5 power chords for it total: 2 for the one-sided MH bulbs, 2 for the T5 fixtures (4 lights total), and 1 for the intake/exhaust fans. I expect this light to put of quite a bit of heat so it will be situated directly below where one of the home's a/c vents is blowing to scrub off the heat in that area.

I just don't know that I'm ready to pull the trigger on setting up the 75G. I have a feeling if I do I'll be spending money again and the last month or so I've been able to NOT spend money on the tanks because they're full. I like this because it's allowed me to do some other things I wanted to do like Pre-Order the new Destiny Rise of Iron and the new BattleField 1 games. I dunno, I don't suppose I'm in a rush.

Who's going to the Lone Star Lemans race next weekend? I'm gonna go out there on Saturday. I've freed up some of my expendable income since I've filled my tanks with stuff here at the house. Can't buy more expensive things if I don't have room for them .

Pretty awesome MDavis!

Couldn't help on that one but I used to go to Zars as a kid a lot on the '95 XR100 I had.

http://clubdbsa.org/riding.html

Also, for the person that asked about HAM radio, it is a way of communicating with other people over very long distances made up of DIY infrastructure. Basically when the cell towers are f'd for some reason the people that have HAM radios will be the ones helping everyone else coordinate and communicate. I purposefully didn't mention zombie apocalypse because it's silly and brought up a lot in the discussions about how/where HAM will be most important. If you have line of sight to another radio within 20 miles or a HAM tower you can communicate. There are people that talk to others on the other side of the world for "free" (only the cost of your radio equipment). You have to get licensed to transmit because there are rules but there's nothing keeping you from buying a 2 pair set of $30 baofeng radios and listening to what old nerds are talking about. I'm probably going to be one of those old nerds one day, my uncle has a HAM tower that he built in his back yard and a ton of crazy equipment.

Ham radio, that's cool.... I have a couple baofeng's. They're cheap radios and I just listen to them as I'm not allowed to transmit.

If you need something to feed the bacteria I have plenty of ammonia that you could borrow to do it with. It's for this exact task so it's safe to use. PM me if you're interested.

I've read many different sides on the subject and I have everything I need to QT. Part of me wants to see something swimming in the display already but I also don't want to introduce any unwanted disease to a new system.

I guess I just need that extra push since I'm already leaning towards doing the QT.

I wouldn't make a fish suffer to cycle your tank. There are humane ways of doing it. QT the fish anyway, don't use it as a sacrifice to get your bacteria proper. Just my two cents. When i learned that people throw "cheap" fish in their tank to cycle the ammonia I couldn't believe it.... fortunately there are products like Turbo Start to get the job done.

Some shops qt their fish before you even buy them so they're "safe". That may be my inexperience speaking but I wouldn't gamble if you're unsure once you have some more expensive live stock in there.

Also, I know you already cycled your tank but I got mine cycled in less than a week using TurboStart I bought from JustReef. It's a bacteria supplement that basically spikes the bacteria so high that it doesn't have to "build up". I've never cycled another way so I cannot speak on that, but I can say that this did work well to get the bad stuff out of the water quickly.

I had a lot of fun helping out. I think between Ty and I we explained the a-z of what coral were to this inquisitive lady that didn't know anything about them, I think she left the conversation an "expert". Lol.

Bry and I went to our LFS (Just Reef) and got a mated pair of black ice extreme clowns yesterday and got to see the lightning marroon clowns while we were there. Definitely some super cool fish that you don't see very often in stores, congrats Mike on winning that auction.

We definitely need to invite the lady that made those really good cupcakes again, my lime coconut cupcake was pretty dang ol' good.

I got one of those pink setosa frags from Ty too.... it looks great.

Sissy36 - I met you outside and you told me about your son loving the movie Back 2 the Future. Glad to meet you.

Well I learned something about dolomite today. Not the dolomite I was thinking of.

I didn't realize that using miracle mud could up the filtration quality so much and I read some places saying to avoid using it. There is so much controversy over what "is right" in this hobby and I think I've found that what someone said above is true.... you have to find what works for you and your setup.

Good luck Rick & Kenda, this forum is incredibly helpful and full of people willing to give sound advice. I usually will take a person in my community's advice over the random forum postings found online. I've also noticed that this hobby has changed a lot over the years. Things like LED lights were unheard of in the reef hobby 15 years ago and it was believed that you needed MH lights to have a good tank. Some people will still vehemently swear by them and say it's the only way but that may be because they've had good success with them. I wouldn't want to use anything that sucks down the power bill like that and heats the house/tank up.

Lol, it looks like you're dosing boons farm. Good luck with the sale.

Ahhhh I get it now, you're talking about getting them to attach to something without using superglue.... and the problem is that they'll frequently "let go" and decide to go somewhere else. If they're in a "net" then they can't do it. Sometimes I'm a little slow to connect the dots.

I'd be interested in purchasing some of the babies when they're ready if they'll be for sale. Good luck!

^^ What do you mean? How do you use it in that manner?

The problem w/ adding pics like that is that 75% of them get posted sideways. Honestly one of the only complaints I have about this site/software. Hotlinking eliminates that.

As I look through the earlier posts in this thread, I notice something I've come across, which is being able to follow a thread w/o posting in it. On another forum I frequent, I can elect to automatically subscribe to any thread I post in, as well as subscribe to other threads w/o posting. That allows me to primarily follow my subscribed threads (I set that as my bookmark), and then look at new content. Here, that's 3 groupings instead of 2. Honestly not enough traffic here for it to be a big deal, but if that function exists here, can someone point me to it please?

Interesting, I've never had the issue with pics posting sideways, but I have all of mine rotated before trying to upload them.

There is a pending significant upgrade to the site software that ARC uses. I've delayed upgrading because of bugs, missing features, etc., but will most likely be pushed into using it by the end of the year. There are quite a variety of changes that will come when that happens.

I have to rotate every image I post 4 times back to it's original position and save it to prevent them from posting sideways.