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December 2006 Meeting:
The meeting was hosted by Ingo Schobert and his family at their home in Upper Montclair. In attendance were: Ingo Schobert The meeting started off with general discussion in Ingo’s dining room. Ingo provided an assortment of pastries and beverages. The meeting then moved downstairs to Ingo’s planted tank room.
There were 4 beautiful tanks; a 20 gallon long “quarantine” tank, a 29 gallon, a 40 gallon breeder high-tech tank, and the tank that catches one’s eye immediately, a striking 125 gallon high tech. All tanks are planted – as stated by Ingo “There was never a consideration to have any other type of tank.”
Everyone studied the tanks and discussed them among each other anticipating the host’s description/breakdown.
He started with the 125. It had an interesting ground cover of Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis). This is there to consume nutrients. It also contained Blyxa japonica, Hemianthus micranthemoides and Ludwigia glandulosa. There was an “island” of plants containing Alternanthera reineckii, Narrow Leaf Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus), Stargrass (Heteranthera zosterifolia), Cryptocoryne wendtii (red and green var.), Anubias barteri var. nana, and an impressive Anubias barteri “mother plant.” Everything looked very healthy. The host covered his equipment, an Eheim Pro II 2026, Eheim Pro 2028, pressurized CO2 via a “spiro” glass diffuser placed under a venturi powerhead which chopped up the CO2 bubbles further and blew them all over the tank. The tank was lit by 4x96w CF (2x6700K and 2x5000K). Photoperiod is 10 hours for the 6700K and 4 hours for the 5000K.
Ingo covered all of the rest of his tanks in much the same manner, and had a great story as to how he wound up with them (and how he’s still about to get rid of one of them). He covered his maintenance routine in detail, and also some specifics of the many “Ingo-style makeovers” the tanks had undergone! After he covered his tanks, discussions resumed while the host put together coffee, tea etc. We also discovered that we all have at least one plant in our tanks that at some point came from Mike Firrincili!
The meeting ended with – yep you guessed it, a plant swap.
Jay provided several Aqua Journal magazines again for the first-time attendees. Everyone that could provide plants did, and Ingo was left with quite a plant mass! Will we see another “Ingo-style makeover” in the near future!?
Thanks to Ingo and his family for their hospitality! Until next time, Constitution/By-Laws |
Our Second Meeting was held on Saturday December 9, 2006.
