May 21st, 2016 (@ Ross)

The May meeting of the NJAGC was held on Saturday, May 21, 2016 at the house of Ross and Sandi in Whippany, NJ. President, Jerry called the meeting to order at 1:27 pm.

Thirteen members were in attendance and two guests: Khanh T., Hank S., Chris W., Jim L., Jerry and Judy S., Andrew H., Paula B., Hock N., Steve M., Frank Z., Sandi and Ross A., Frank W., and Darek K.

The meeting began with the introduction of 2 new members, Andrew and Steve and a welcome back for long-time member, Chris.

Core team positions are up for election in July, if any member is interested they should reach out to Jerry once the descriptions are posted on the forum. Reef-a-Palooza will be held on June 25, 2016 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center. Dustin of Dustin’s fish tanks will be exhibiting and there will be an aquascaping contest of which Darek is entering. It was mentioned that the donation jar will be out all day; it helps to offset the costs associated with hosting. Additional topics covered: that there will be a plant swap following the meeting, NJAGC has a library with books and DVDs available to borrow for a refundable deposit, membership discount cards are available and able to be used at multiple local fish stores, and there are business cards available should anyone wish to obtain some for distribution. Also, the deadline for the caption contest is Wednesday, please vote.

Immediately following announcements, Ross began to explain his tank and answered all questions regarding it. Ross has a 75 gallon fully planted freshwater tank. In order to maintain it, Ross prunes daily, performs 25% water changes weekly and doses potassium, iron, phosphate, and trace elements biweekly. Fish are fed twice daily and in place of CO2, approximately 20ml of Seachem Excel are added each day to increase plant growth.

The overlapping screenshots below show Ross’s tank from a meeting held in 2015 and our last meeting held in May 2016.

Ross’s tank is home to approximately 40 fish and over 30 varieties of plants.

After the tank tour, refreshments were served and various smaller discussions took place.

A plant swap occurred with roughly 20 different plant varieties, many participated. The last few members departed around 6pm. Thank you Ross and Sandi for hosting this event.