The fifth meeting of the NJAGC was held on Saturday,
March 24, 2007.
It was hosted by Jens Rohloff and (growing) family at their home in Morristown, NJ.
In attendance were 12 people, 3 of which were first time attendees!
Joseph Hoetzl
Jay L.
Frank Zillitto
Sergio Canabal
Vince Lim
Ingo Schobert
Jens Rohloff
Walter Reed
Dan Steinhauser (and Olga)
Hank Siegel
Brian Gary
Glenn McCreedy
Jens and his wife had an assortment of drinks, bruschetta, cookies, chips and dips. (I am still waiting for someone to dare serve fish with a salad and/or Pepperidge Farm Fish :-).
Members began arriving, with a decent assortment of plants, but one really stood out. This rather large Anubias was brought in by Ingo, along with a full bag of water.
Please make note of the “fake” time stamp…
Jay kicked off the meeting with an introduction, followed by the report from the treasurer, Walter.
Jay then turned the meeting over to Jens, who began by talking about his 24 gallon AquaPod.The tank has a Soil Master Select “Charcoal” substrate, and a complete Red Sea, paintball canister based CO2 system.
Walter and Jay open the meeting
There were a number of endlers looking really healthy in this tank. The glosso across the front seems to grow like mine which I also have in Soil Master substrate. With the amount of other growth, we’d expect that to fill in a bit more, but maybe we are on to something about the substrate with this plant? Nah, probably just us…
Front view of the 24 Gallon Bio Cube
[display_podcast]
The Red Sea CO2 System – Mouse-over for parts break-down
Jens, Ingo, Glen, Sergio and Jay discussing the 24 gallon Current USA AquaPod
Jens then moved us over to the 10 gallon REALLY high light, non-CO2 enriched tank. He doses 1ml of Excel daily into this little tank.
And the lighting for that little 10 gallon…only 55 watts or so. Maybe he could but somemason/ball jar nano’s on either side of it?
Wow, that is amazing, Hank brought a mason jar!
No, that was actually what he brought his sick Java Fern in. He was looking for a diagnosis on some Java fern problem he is having, but we are going to post that in the forum, but since this picture had the jar in, it had to be here.
Jay and Hank discuss the Java Fern problems
Ah, there it is, the “Ingo looking into a tank” shot? Are you tired of these yet Ingo? 🙂
Ingo checking out the 10 gallon tank
As the discussions on this tank were winding down, Jens briefly showed us the trick aquarium cover-up he setup. OK, no, it is his Chameleon environment.
Jens’ Chameleon (this is the one he can actually play with)
No, that isn’t it…well, I actually didn’t get a picture of it, but here is where it lives. If you can just imagine, a chameleon in the upper right hand corner…
Jens and his chameleon setup
Then, when no one was looking, Jens removed the cover from the last (for now, more on that later), most impressive, 50 gallon tank.
Wow, good growth, barely there algae, and, a plethora of species. Jens happily admitted to having collectoritis, blaming it on the plant swaps, but we know he just has to have one of each.
All kidding aside, it actually blends well. I liked the way the “reds” come from a deep purply red in the crypt into a lighter Reiinicki red. And somewhere in there Jens tells us that some driftwood lives. There was a nice little shoal of rummy nose in here, along with some hatchets and a few other assorted tetras.
Underneath (and a some above) the whole tank lives an automated water changing system, doing 10% a day. He tripped off the system for us to watch (note to self – bring video camera to meetings). It isn’t as exciting watching a still of it, but again, just imagine that tank draining and then filling on the flip of a switch. All solenoided and on timers, plumbed into the basement.
There are also auto-dosers for the macro and micro ferts, and even the fish food.
Jay, Jens, Sergio, Vince, and Hank watching the automated water fill
Moving on from the 50 gallon discussions, Frank Zillitto brought in a homemade T5 light setup. I was pretty impressed with the light output from it. He explained that he had some custom made reflectors crafted from a 4×8 sheet of polished aluminum. But this is where we had some real spillage…
In an effort to find an outlet so Frank could show us the fixture, do you remember that anubias in a bag of water from above…
Would you look at that spillage!
Well that would be REAL “spillage”. That was quickly mopped up, and I promised Sergio I wouldn’t post a picture, but he was mopping it.
Anyway, on to the light. Once the water was cleared up, that light in the picture above was plugged in.
Jens, Glenn and Frank holding his light
Once the fixture warmed up, it ran really bright, yet stayed fairly cool. Nice job there Frank – but isn’t it easier to get a tan in Florida?
We then moved into the basement, where, low and behold, what do you know, there was Jay’s old tank sitting on a sturdily “crafted by Jens” stand. Jens bought Jay’s version of a spillage tank, and he plans on re-siliconing it with some high end German silicon he is importing. We’ll have to keep an eye on this one.
Jay (looking sad), Jens, Hank, Sergio, and Glenn
The meeting ended with a nice plant exchange. That large anubias found a home in the only tank I didn’t include above, which is Jens’ quarentine tank.
Jens’ QT Tank
And here are some pictures I didn’t work into the summary…
Sergio and Glenn
Glenn, Jay, Hank, Frank, Ingo, Vince
Jay, Frank, Hank, Jens, Brian, Vince
Those normal sized thermometers just don’t work for Jens.
No, it is just a large pipette… 🙂
Jens, Glenn, Frank, Jay
Vince, Ingo, Jens, Jay, Dan
Thank you to Jens, his wife Daniela and his daughter Isabelle!
