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gas4544
12/12/2003, 03:08 PM
This morning on the way to work, I stopped at school to drop off my research paper for my Senior Design project. This Monday is the last day of the trimester at Henry Cogswell College, and I will finally be finished with earning my Mechanical Engineering Degree. Woohooo! It's been a long seven years. Now I need to start working on the paperwork to transfer to the engineering paycode at Boeing.

It is also time to start setting up my next reef tank. Unfortunately, the big cube tank will continue to remain in dry dock in the garage until I move into my own place. I hope to get into a house sometime during 2004. Perhaps I will get lucky and marry a woman with a house with plenty of room for a 170 gallon tank. I'm working on that. :) I would be at this Saturday's PSAS meeting, but I have a date with Julia that night. If things continue to go well, I'll bring her along to the next meeting.

Now that I am finished with school, I have the time, money and energy to set up the next tank. I designed and built a Self-Contained Marine Aquarium System for my Senior Design Project. It turned out pretty good. IAP did a great job custom building the tank for me. Thanks, guys. The tank is a 32-gallon acrylic pentagon with a built in sump and refugium. I need to take some pictures and post them for you all to see.

So during my Christmas break from work, I will be sifting through my equipment that is currently in storage. I imagine that my Salifert test kits are now expired. I also need to figure out where I will put the new tank. I may use the stand that I had built for my cube tank. I suppose that I could also plumb in the 50-gallon sump and fire up the HSA1000 skimmer just for kicks. Another option is to use my dining room table an an aquarium stand. Its not like I eat on it very often, anyway.

After taking a year off from reefing and hanging out regularly at RC, it will be good to return to two things I love - reefkeeping and actively participating with the online community. Its time to come home, and I am glad to be back. I am looking forward to catching up with my old friends and making some new ones.

Gary

bjohnson
12/12/2003, 03:12 PM
I know how you feel. I have been in school since '95 and I only took one year off during that period in which I did an internship. I am finally graduating this May.

Agu
12/12/2003, 03:16 PM
Gary,

Congrats on completing your degree, and welcome back

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>


Figured you deserved that :D .

Agu

gas4544
12/12/2003, 03:22 PM
Thanks Agu. After taking a year off, I think that I have some catching up to do. The membership here at RC has exploded! I remember back when I joined and there were only 500 of us at RC.

TippyToeX
12/12/2003, 03:43 PM
You don't know it gas4544, but you are the reason I have fallen for the cube tank. I remember when you first started posting about your 170. How you wanted to aquascaping it and such. :)

Thanks so much for introducing me to them! I wish you the most success for the tank you are setting up in the interim of the 170.

:thumbsup:

gas4544
12/12/2003, 03:51 PM
TippyToex,

Thank you for the kind words. Do you have a cube tank up and running now?

TippyToeX
12/12/2003, 03:58 PM
:D Placing an order at the first of the year for one (that is if work eases up). 4x4x2. I would have had it ordered and setup sooner, but I just moved to NV and it has been put on the back burner.

For now I must stay content with the little tanks I have.

gas4544
12/12/2003, 04:02 PM
Wow, a 4X4x2. I imagine by now that you have figured out all your plumbing, lighting and such. Do you have some posts here at RC that describe your new set-up?

TippyToeX
12/12/2003, 04:14 PM
I have it all sketched out and still need to have a few friends go over it, as well as the folks here on RC. I don't want to post a thread about it to soon incase there is a delay in ordering. :) After all is said and done it is in the baby stage as of right now.

If work settles down I hope to get into it with gusto sometime in January.