The March meeting of the NJAGC was held on Saturday, March 25, 2017 at the home of Ross and Sandi in Whippany, NJ. President, Khanh T called the meeting to order at 1:18 pm. There were 16 members in attendance and 1 non-member. The members in attendance are Ross, Hock, Steve K, Steve M, Raymund, Frank W, Johnnie F, Khanh, Darek, Isaac, Jim, Jay, Johnny A, Paula, Hank, and Frank Z.
The meeting began with several announcements. Dragon stone is still available for sale and was displayed following the meeting. Additional topics included that there will be a plant swap following the meeting, NJAGC has a library with books and DVDs available to borrow with a deposit, membership discount cards are available and able to be used at multiple local fish stores. The club purchased a PAR meter and is available to be borrowed. Jay delivered a treasurer’s report and the core team was reintroduced for those who haven’t been around lately. Jim mentioned to see him at some point during the afternoon as he was representing Jerry in all the library and fertilizer transactions.
Immediately following announcements, Ross began to explain his tank and answer all questions regarding it.
Ross has a 75 gallon fully planted freshwater tank.
It is home to approximately 40 fish / invertebrates and over 30 varieties of plants.
In order to maintain it, Ross prunes daily, performs 25 – 30% water changes weekly and doses potash and iron biweekly. Fish are fed twice daily with a diet consisting of krill, brine shrimp, flakes, and supplemented with live blackworms in the afternoon. He gauges the quality of his food based on ratings found on www.oscarfish.com. In place of CO2, approximately 20 ml or 5 cap-fulls of Seachem Excel are added each day to increase plant growth (as opposed to using CO2). Ross checks his pH every few months and finds it consistently at 7.6. He has a very hard water. His lighting consists of T5 lamps which he changes roughly every 15 months. He also replaces the floss in his Fluval 406 filter every month. His oldest fish is a Pleco.
After the tank tour, refreshments were served and various smaller discussions took place.
At 3:23 pm, a plant swap occurred with roughly 20 different plant varieties, newest members got the first pick, then many others participated. The last few members departed around 4:30 pm.
Thank you Ross and Sandi for hosting this event.