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January 2007 Meeting Our third meeting was held on Saturday, January 20, 2007. The meeting was hosted by Walter Reed and his family at their home in Hawthorne, NJ.
As folks began to arrive, there were some general discussion. Walter invited everyone to enjoy the nice collection of beverages and goodies he put out.
“Refreshments are served” Once everyone had a chance to have something to eat and drink, the meeting gathered in Walter’s living room. Mike Firrincili and Jay L. started off with a welcome and some business about the club. They were both impressed (as were many others) with the number of people that turned up!
Mike and Jay Walter then invited us, a few at a time into his
Tony, Irwan, Hank, George, and Jay
The other tank in that room, is a “planned” Oceanic BioCube 14, but this one is going high-tech. Walter already has a nicely crafted cabinet under it, with all the bells and whistles. A 5lb. CO2 tank delivered via an ADA pollen glass diffuser is in the works. The power strips and remote ballasts are all nicely mounted, behind what used to be separate drawers, but were “stitched” together to make a door.
After everyone had a chance to discuss the plans for this tank, and some ideas on the other one, Walter prepared for the unveiling of the “show” tank – his 125 behemoth!
Jens, George, Walter, Paula and Mike and more looking at the 125 Walter went into an explanation of the tank, where it was “algae prone” just a short while ago, but from the looks of it, he certainly seems to have a stranglehold on it now!
The 125 full view He went on to further discuss the “business ends” of the tank. He has a 20lb. CO2 tank on there, with a split regulator output, and is thinking of further splitting it into a 3-way output, allowing the introduction of misting output. He doesn’t run a pH controller, and has the CO2 come on one hour before lights on, and go off, one hour before lights out.
On the top of the tank, he has 4 – 96 Watt AH Supply lighting rigged into the canopy, along with 2 cooling fans for a whopping 384 Watts. He runs the lights on a staggered start/stop, utilizing all 4 banks only for a few hours midday. Walter mentioned he has some issues keeping the tank below 80F, so there were some discussion surrounding that, as well as his desire to have more of a “scape” to the tank. Giulio brought some rock in that I really liked the look of, and may play very well into the scape of the tank. Perhaps a large stump and the rock might work out well. We had a lot of good discussions about the future of the tank.
Jay inspecting the lighting setup While these discussions were taking place, Sergio was on hand with his massive LaMotte kit, and performed a number of tests for members.
Sergio “the Chemist” Canabal doing the water tests We began to wrap up the meeting with a plant jamboree!
Let the feast begin! The rest of the items brought in were there for the swapping! And there was certainly a lot to pick from. Plenty of java ferns, riccia, all sorts of stems (although I didn’t see any Anacharis!). The “leftovers” were collected and sold to fund our club’s internet servers.
And, here are some other sights and sounds from the meeting…
Walter, George, Paula, Lynn, Giulio
Giulio, Walter, Paula, George, Jay and Ingo stare into the 125 [display_podcast]
Irwan, Ingo and Paula
“The one that didn’t get away” Chris, Irwan, Vincent, Lynn, Tony, Lance Thanks to Walter and his family for their hospitality! On a sad note, Walter’s son was pretty sick – Hope you are feeling better Joseph! This meeting was brought to you by the letters N, J, A, G, C and the number 1. Until next meeting, |
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