September 15, 2007

September 2007 Meeting

The eigth meeting of the NJAGC was held on Saturday, September 15, 2007.

It was hosted by Walter Reed at his home in Hawthorne, NJ.

Walter had an interesting and tasty assortment of pickled items out, some nice stromboli, (and more. Then, Rebecca turned up with a first…

Walter enjoying a fishy cookie

First off, no, that isn’t Rebecca…In the past, I’ve mentioned that, “I am still waiting for someone to serve fish with a salad and/or Pepperidge Farm Fish“. Well, Rebecca brought some fish shaped cookies (and some gravel shaped ones too). They were tasty, yet, somehow twisted…

Then, we almost got another lesson on how to not pack plants for meetings. A few meetings back, there was a bit of an incident with a leaky bag, so, for review, here are two bags. The one on the left has the correct amount of water, none, the one on the right, well, add a HOB (Hang on Bag) filter, and you’d have a tank.

A properly packed bag on the left, a nano tank on the right

We got underway with the meeting shortly after everyone had a chance to grab some eats, and Mike kicked off the meeting with some business, next meeting announcement. Walter went over the finances and then Mike wrapped up the business and handed off the meeting to Walter.

Sergio, George, Vince, Walter, Mike and Jay

Walter opened up with a general overview of the tank, the plants and hardware.

Walter, Vince, Paula, Ingo, Glenn and Frank

Walter recently, and still to some degree, has been battling BBA in his main show tank. He described his H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide) regime, and it certainly seemed to do the job, and according to Walter, with very little affect on his livestock.

Walter holding his H2O2 dosing contraption – a syringe and the stick from a ballon

Then, he went on to go into a discussion about what direction he wanted to take the tank, and his recent switch to PPS Pro style fert dosing instead of EI.

PPS Pro Solutions – Macros and the Traces

Ingo brought up a topic that caused a bit of debate, about what is a “high-tech” tank, and is it really necessary, as well as what makes a tank “high-tech” and the discussion has continued on into the forum.

The host and his tank

When then paused for some informal discussions and to grab some more food and drink.

Walter, Rebecca, Sergio, Jon and George

Once we all gathered back at the tank, Walter started asking for input on the changes he was planning. He showed us some rocks and some driftwood that he planned on integrating into the tank once he removed the crytps that he thinks aren’t working, and has a real desire to get a real scape going in the tank. There was another good discussion on placing rocks and driftwood into an aquascape, balancing the placement/size and color, and matching/blending colors with substrate and backgrounds.

Jay inspecting the Walter’s rock

Walter, Joy (Dog), Jay, Glenn, Ingo, Paula, Rebecca

Once some of the ideas were discussed, we moved into the living room and watched one of our member’s, Giulio Sista, presentation on the big screen. The presentation, still in a draft stage of sort was well received, with some good feedback to Giulio.

Watching the presentation

L-R – Jon, Rebecca, Vince, Glenn, Ingo, Jens, Frank, George, Mike

Finally, we wrapped up with the plant swap. There was a nice assortment of plants there, but one real standout.

Rebecca, Glenn, Ingo, Jon, Mike, George

Paula brought along Audrey II. Audrey II was an Eichhornia azurea which she grew in her 90 GALLON TANK!

Paula holding Audrey II – With her cage to the right

Just look at the size of that thing!

Rebecca, Glenn, George and Ingo Holding Audrey II