|
On Janaury 9th, 2010, the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club had a meeting at the home of Drew in Rockaway, NJ. In attendance were 16 members:
The Meeting kicked off with Walter doing a brief introduction, welcoming the many new faces as well as the “old”. It is really nice to see so many folks turn up for a meeting, good thing it didn’t decide to snow!
Drew, Jason, Johnny, Sergio Walter Drew had a nice assortment of wraps, chips, pickles, olives and other various food and drink out for all to enjoy.
Once Walter finished his “morbid” (what was that about a casket? – see what you missed Mike!) introduction, he handed it over to Drew.
Stephen, Johnny, Drew, Lisa and Jay Drew talked about everything in the tank, from the stand to lights. The substrate is mineralized soil, with pool filter sand over it, which he needs to top off occasionally due to both asthetics and loss from water changes, but overall, he seemed pretty happy with it as a cap to the mineralized soil base.
Drew has quite the collection of Crypts in there, Anubias and some other really nice plants – and I think I have the complete list here: Cryptocorynes: affinis, albida,cordata ‘rosanervig’, crispatula var. flaccidifolia, moehlmannii, parva, pontederiifolia, spiralis ‘Cook’ sn (Retzius Wydler), spiralis ‘dwarf’ and Echinodorus tenellus ‘micro’ Microsorum pteropus ‘needle leaf’, During the discussion of the mineralized soil, some folks were asking how long it lasts, and, it appeared to Drew that the potassium was first to be depleted. Now, that may be due to the fact that he used to have a bunch of stem plants in there, but regardless, he has begun a very scientific method of dosing potassium in to the tank, have a look: [display_podcast] Aside from the 100 gallon beauty, Drew also maintains a large emersed setup. He has a shallow layer of water in the bottom, with a heater to maintain the temperature, and it helps keep the humidity level up in there as well.
Emersed Tank Setup Beyond that, he has a nice little Cichlid 30g breeder setup..
where this little guy, N. buescheri, and his/her parents live and spawn for him…
Juvenile Neolamprologus buescheri Many further conversations about various aspects of just about everything planted tank and anything else took place as well. Drew also did a talk about another, lower tech tank in his collection, which for the life of me, don’t know why I don’t have a shot of that tank as a whole!? (Was I asleeep?)
Jason, Stephen, Jerry, Jay, Mark, Johnny
Puntius denisonii AKA Red-Lined Torpedo Barb, Rose Line Shark, Denison’s Barb
Trigonostigma espei
Puntius denisonii AKA Red-Lined Torpedo Barb, Rose Line Shark, Denison’s Barb
Caridina multidentata – AKA Amano Shrimp
You put your weed in there… The winning caption in the caption contest by Glenn |
Thanks to Drew for hosting!
Until next time,
-Joe