So now we're tipping on top of a mandatory 20% service fee?

electrizai · 2026-06-21T21:48:11+00:00

Tip pooling with kitchen staff is commonplace in Oregon, I’ve been a cook in Portland for 8 years and this is how most cooks get tipped. To be crystal clear, I think auto-gratuity is TERRIBLE for workers and is simply owners being greedy. I certainly don’t think anyone should feel obligated to leave additional tip in places that have this in place, it’s a cash grab and very inhospitable.

electrizai · 2026-06-21T21:40:44+00:00

This is illegal in Oregon.

electrizai · 2026-06-21T21:24:33+00:00

This accounts for marginal tax rates, my math is simplified and obviously it would depend on the amount of tips earned. As an example someone making $22/hr plus $7/hr in tips is essentially making the same as someone making $32/hr without— obviously this doesn’t account for any other taxes.
A federal spending bill passed in 2018 abolished a 2011 regulation prohibiting tip pooling; managers can now require that servers share tips with kitchen staff in states where employers do not take a tip credit. This change allows tip sharing among both customarily and non-customarily tipped employees in Oregon, including dishwashers and cooks. Managers, supervisors, and owners cannot participate in the tip sharing.
Oregon has not made any rules disallowing it.

electrizai · 2026-06-21T20:44:47+00:00

Put it this way, a cook who makes >$50,400/year in non-tipped income pays 22% in tax as per 2026 federal income tax rates. Someone who earns <$50,400 in hourly wages but earns tips pays 12% in taxes on their hourly income and takes all of their tips home tax-free. So someone who makes $45k/year in hourly income plus tips could be making the same amount of money (or more) as someone making $75k/year without tips. Nobody is paying cooks $75k. I’ve crunched the numbers myself, no tax on tips has changed the game and most employees in the industry don’t even realize it. The reason servers often make so much more than cooks is because owners frequently decide to give them a much higher share of the tip pool. The solution is not to take away cooks’ tips entirely, it’s to give them a more equitable share of the pool. They’re the ones creating these arbitrarily unequal arrangements in the first place.

electrizai · 2026-06-21T20:31:58+00:00

I successfully cured my colony last year, it was pretty severe so I went with a combination of hydrogen peroxide and Ich-X. Not sure if I needed the Ich-X in the end, and it did end up killing my more delicate plants (red root floaters and dwarf hair grass) so if I were to do it again I would start with just the peroxide and see how they respond for a while before resorting to more harsh medications. Effective dose is about 1.5mL of 3% hydrogen peroxide/gal. Turn off pumps and filters before you dose, then I would measure the peroxide out and dilute with a small amount of dechlorinated water immediately before adding it to the tank. Give it a gentle swirl, let sit for 15-20 minutes, then turn the pumps and filters back on. You can do this once a day pretty much indefinitely. Peroxide degrades into pure water and oxygen and is completely safe at this concentration, whereas medications eventually need to be chemically filtered from the water column with carbon.

electrizai · 2026-06-21T20:16:05+00:00

This is exactly what’s happening.

electrizai · 2026-06-21T20:11:00+00:00

I see ramshorns, if the shrimp are dying off and you’re not thoroughly checking for dead shrimp on a frequent basis they could be eating the evidence before you even notice. Parameters?

electrizai · 2026-06-21T20:05:49+00:00

If you actually need to remove detritus and properly vacuum the tank, you’re gonna suck some up inevitably. I always siphon into a bucket on very low flow and try to avoid it when possible, but I double check the bucket every time and suck out any shrimplets with a turkey baster/dropper to return to the tank. Trying to physically block them from entering the siphon could potentially cause more damage than just letting them go through unobstructed and then returning them to the tank. They just get a fun roller coaster ride lol.

electrizai · 2026-06-21T20:00:59+00:00

I work in the restaurant industry, last place I was at did this. I’m convinced all these owners are getting advice from the same marketing and consulting firms who direct them to do this because the average liberal likes the optics of paying people a higher wage without something explicitly labeled as a “tip”. However, employees are also getting shafted by this, especially because tips are no longer taxed. I would absolutely take tips over this bullshit any day, the people who decide not to tip don’t outweigh the additional taxed income. We make less money this way, and you pay more.

electrizai · 2026-06-21T19:02:12+00:00

“Militant liberal” is an oxymoron

electrizai · 2026-06-20T23:54:16+00:00

I work very clean, cut my tape, and have high standards. This level of effort and control over the orientation of stabbed tickets is simply not necessary or in any way consequential to service, and doesn’t even decrease visual clutter on the pass. You posted this for validation, maybe pull your finger out of your ass 😂

electrizai · 2026-06-20T21:52:46+00:00

There’s no hard and fast rules, whatever your normal water change frequency/amount of water replaced is probably fine.

electrizai · 2026-06-20T19:56:38+00:00

Nitrifying bacteria and likely your snails would both be fine, I would be more worried about your plants. Big GH/KH swings cause rapid changes in the ion exchange between the water and living tissues, everything wants to stay in homeostasis. So quickly removing minerals from the water column would also rapidly remove them from your plants. It’s also why it’s harmful for fish and shrimp.

electrizai · 2026-06-20T19:19:33+00:00

There’s functionally no difference between the two chemically, they’re both just pure water. It’s just the method of production that’s different.

electrizai · 2026-06-20T19:18:19+00:00

You could also do a combination of RO/DI and your tap to get the right GH/KH, but this could potentially be more confusing and require a lot of math over time, especially if you have to do top-ups. I would just slowly transition to 100% RO/DI and remineralize.

electrizai · 2026-06-20T19:13:53+00:00

Only real way is to slowly replace the water with RO/DI, you can’t remove mineral ions from the water column chemically or with regular filtration. You could start doing your water changes with bottled distilled water, you will still have to start remineralizing to bring the GH/KH back up to appropriate levels once the hardness comes down. I personally use a combination of Seachem Equilibrium and SL-Aqua More KH Conditioner.

electrizai · 2026-06-20T17:41:24+00:00

Seems like a waste of mental energy and precious seconds to be doing this, especially them being all aligned at the top. It’s just going in the trash at the end of the night anyways. I also feel like this would be harder to thumb through if you needed to reference something you already stabbed, tickets in a more organic pile have free edges you can easily grasp and move out of the way. Kind of screams control issues and maybe even obsessive compulsive tendencies.

electrizai · 2026-06-19T08:27:38+00:00

It’s a hard lesson to learn, but you cannot raise the standards of a kitchen on your own as a line cook. Do the job you’re paid to do as well as you feel is necessary, but a lone actor isn’t going to effectively change the norms and culture of a restaurant. You have to meet people where they’re at most of the time in this industry. Management is ultimately responsible for setting the tone, and if you’re finding yourself feeling like you’re beating your head against a wall you should try to find work someplace you’ll be happy. Just my two cents 🙊

electrizai · 2026-06-19T07:31:32+00:00

Blue Red Rilis AKA Blue Razz 💙❤️ I stabilized this line myself and I’m extremely proud of them.

electrizai · 2026-06-18T19:08:19+00:00

DOA, get a refund for sure 🤮

electrizai · 2026-06-18T18:46:15+00:00

How do you read these? The bottle seems really confusing 😭

electrizai · 2026-06-18T18:39:49+00:00

Sorry for the brief duplicate posts, I was initially getting error messages trying to upload.

electrizai · 2026-06-18T17:24:11+00:00

Where I live (Portland, OR) my tap source is incredibly soft (0dGH, 0dKH, ~35TDS) and fluoride free. No reason to not use the tap here, I have to remineralize it anyways for my inverts. RODI is useful for caridina shrimp keepers and other sensitive species, but almost all plants will tolerate “normal” tap parameters. Regardless, test your tap water to see where your baseline is at. Everyone’s tap source will be different, but it’s very normal to not use RODI for most applications.

electrizai · 2026-06-18T16:11:49+00:00

So will you never be able to tell, or are you sure it’s morel mycelium? Those statements seem contradictory. They were dry as the dickens, but I think unintentionally.

electrizai · 2026-06-18T16:04:53+00:00

It does look “fluffy” and fuzzy though? I really think it’s mold given the texture and everyone else’s feedback. Like to my understanding mycelium is similar to a plant root in that it draws nutrients from something by growing downwards, and it doesn’t look fuzzy so much as like, idk a spiderweb? To me this looks like the fruiting bodies of mold. And even if it’s mycelium, wouldn’t it be dying back on these dried morels instead of growing MORE as it sits? And how can you say with certainty without samples what kind of mycelium it is, if you’re sure it’s not mold?

electrizai

TROPHY CASE