The February meeting of the NJAGC was hosted by Oscar M. in Teaneck, NJ on Saturday, February 9, 2019. There were twelve members in attendance. The purpose of this meeting was to set up a 75 gallon tank in Oscar’s second floor office at his business. He did not choose the pink paint color. That’s just how it came.
We had four first time club members attending this meeting. They were: Kevin F., Carl W., Kunhan L., and Kevin W. We got to welcome back an old time member becoming active again: Glenn M. It was good to see Glenn again. Those that have been long time attendee’s: Hock N, Jerry S, Steve M, Darek K, Geoffrey C., Jamie B. And we can’t forget our host, Oscar M.
Oscar’s To do list:
1- move 75 gallon tank and stand to my office.
2- clean tank and eco complete substrate (mixed in with Assassin snails, they are very much alive)
3- my old plumbing looks in good shape, just re-attach to bulkhead fitting.
4- overflow T pipe (exhaust to sump) might need to be redone, or just the top and drill the correct size hole for the drainage.
5- set up earthworm casting/clay substrate tank.
6- scape tank
7- fill with water
8- adjust/tune CO2
Here is the 75 gallon tank. Glenn is using his elbow grease to get the encrustations off of the glass. Pretty sure he is using Bon Ami cleanser to clean it. Good stuff. It uses Feldspar as the abrasive which is softer than glass and can’t scratch it.
Lot’s of cleaning needed on this tank. But it was worth it.
Glenn and Jerry starting to mix up the clay, worm castings, and fertilizers for the substrate.
Looking into Oscar’s office through the window.
I really wonder if the printing on the worm casting bag is backwards. I don’t think the photo was taken in a mirror or reflection. That’s weird.
Hock trying arrangements of Ghostwood to see what he wants.
Final choice for Hock, but not for Oscar’s tank.
Darek placing Ghostwood.
Adding in the hardscape. Ghostwood from a bulk buy the club made a few years ago.
Jerry and Kunhan, the Pizza man.
Origin of that name: Before Kunhan arrived at this his first meeting, Oscar ordered pizza and Jerry overheard him ordering it. Jerry happened to be standing by the top of the staircase leading up to Oscar’s office when Kunhan arrived carrying two boxes of pizza. Kunhan had a really bad photo of himself on our forum and it did not look anything like him, so Jerry mistook Kunhan for the Pizza delivery guy and called Oscar over to pay for the pies. We were all confused about what was happening, especially Kunhan. Finally Jerry realized his blunder and said something like, Oh-you’re here for the plant meeting. We had a good laugh. At this writing, our next meeting has just taken place and Kunhan was there too. Only this time he has changed his forum photo to look just like himself. No more mistaking him for the Pizza man!
Jamie lending a hand planting with Glenn using some forceps to plant plants.
Looking over the plant swap materials. Looks like some dueling cell phones in the back, or checking out a plant ID.
Checking for leaks in the filtration.
The finished tank. Pavers were being used to hold down the Ghostwood since it had not been presoaked. But, that turned out to be a disaster. Not that they fell and broke the tank. But they leached out something that killed a large part of the plants. Oscar removed them a few days later because of the massive die off. He documented it in his Tank Journal on our Forum.
Thanks again Oscar for hosting our meeting. It was fun helping you get back into the hobby after a break of a few years.