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Saturday, March 26, 2005
On a cold and rainy Saturday, 75 hobbyists braved the weather to attend the conference. Four speakers eagerly anticipated sharing their knowledge, while the club's Board of Directors focused on making sure the day would progress in a timely fashion. Below are some images that will hopefully allow you to capture what Next Wave is all about.
Once everyone was checked in and seated, we were ready to begin the conference. Anthony Patrick, Vice President of DFWMAS, introduced each speaker and kept us on schedule.
Bill Werner, the club's Audio/Visual coordinator, made sure we could see and hear every moment. Between speakers and during lunch, images from the reefs as well as other information were provided on large screens bracketing the stage.
After providing insight about some of the problems many have encountered, Steve quickly shifted gears and provided a brief demonstration of how he chooses to frag SPS colonies. His focus on the safety of the hobbyist as well as the coral was easy to realize. One suggestion he made was to frag corals from below when possible, and avoid cutting the live tissue. When fragging a thick Montipora capricornis, cut from below with a dremel tool, but not all the way through. Once it is very close, stop and use a flathead screwdriver to wedge and snap the frag off. Great suggestion! 
By lunchtime, Coburn's Catering already had tables set up and waiting for the attendees to line up. Hamburgers and hot dogs were available, as well as a vegetable lasagna for those that prefer vegan fare. Also provided were potato salad, beans, chips, canned soft drinks, & cookies. Coffee was available all day long, but the Irving Bible Church had a Starbucks right down the hallway for those that needed that specially flavored beverage. After lunch, everyone quickly took their seats for the next presentation.
 Her talk was animated, literally! She focused on Pixar's Finding Nemo to educate everyone about what could happen and what was not likely to occur when it came to the story about Nemo and his dad. Daphne is a marine biologist and clearly states that she is not an aquarist; thus her research is based only on what can be found in the ocean. Her knowledge about anemones and anemonefish was a great benefit to those seated in the audience.
The following images were taken by Larry last year while diving in the Great Barrier Reef during spawning season. 
 
 
 
 Raffle Time!
We want to thank all these vendors for the generous donations!!! Other prizes included the DFWMAS calendar (lots of winners), three sets of the MACNA XIV DVDs (13 disks per set), a GFCI outlet and even 80 lbs of aragonite-based sand!
Because the raffle contained livestock that had to be on display all day long, leaving it bagged was not an option. Not to mention that it arrived by plane on Friday around noon, and the prizes weren't going to be awarded until 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Thus, we needed a display tank and Marc Levenson decided to make one. The tank is 34" x 24.5" x 8" and lit with a 250w SE 13,000K MH powered by a IceCap Electronic Ballast. The simple reflector was probably frowned upon by Dr Sanjay Joshi. ;) To avoid heat issues as well as to avoid blinding the attendees while seated, the canopy was built with a 12" tall enclosure, and mounted on acrylic legs over the tank.
 
Nine zoanthid rocks were awarded as well, which was good for those
that don't keep SPS currently. DFWMAS thanks the Irving Bible Church for their generosity by providing us the perfect room for our conference.
A Review:For those who might have been considering attending - it was great! There were 4 very good speakers, all well-renowned in the field. Each had very good presentations full of years of learning and experience. Steve Tyree started the day with a discussion of the needs and various methods of care of SPS, including a fragging demonstration. He's an enthusiastic and energetic person, and his talk was very good. Next up was Dr. Sanjay Joshi discussing lighting and MH in particular. This was the most useful for me right now - his talk really demystified the topic of lights, ballasts and reflectors. Dr. Daphne Fautin spoke on anemone and their symbiants - this was great. Dr. Fautin is a marine biologist who does not keep tanks. It was a fascinating discussion of anemone and clown fish in the wild, with lots interactive discussion with the audience re: experience in aquaria. The last presenter was Larry Jackson with a slide presentation of one of his many visits to the Great Barrier Reef. Larry is a phenomenal photographers and his knowlege of the subject is very deep. That combined with his speaking skills, story telling abilities and a superb dry wit made this a great wrap on the presentations. The logistics were well managed, lunch was good and included a nice vegetarian offering. The layout was great; between that and the very professional audio visual support - there wasn't a bad seat in the house. And lastly, the raffle was unbelievable!! There was a tank full of beautiful SPS, frags and colonies, as well as some very nice zoanthid colonies. The dry goods were abundant, inlcuding a nice tank from Oceanic. The DFWMAS board worked hard to keep this event affordable for all, at $45 for non-members and $35 for members, it just couldn't be beat! It was a great investment of both time and money for the attendees. In summary, it was fantastic... don't miss the next one! - Dawn B. of Dallas
Things I learned:1. I never knew that clownfish
protect the anemone from predators in nature. • 1. MH lights don't shift spectrum at all. They only
lose intensity. • 1. Which corals can can go where
- upper, mid, or low in the tank - based on flow and lighting. • 1. I was changing my lights after 9 months. Now I will
lower them from 12 to 6 inches and get another 9 months out of them. • 1. Meeting fellow members and
having discussions over the topics presented by the speakers. • 1. You can maintain an anemone without much or any supplemental
feeding. • 1. The speakers, while all highly
intelligent persons, were able to present thier topics for a complete
wide range from novice to advanced. This is
the part I was worried about. They were able to make me understand
without having to resort to drawing stick figures! • 1. MHs don't seem to shift spectrum only intensity over
time. I think this could be huge if we come up with some easy ways
to raise and lower the bulbs we cold drastically
extend the life. • 1. Clown fish size is not due to age- it has to wait for another clown to leave for it to grow. And then a small one comes in behind to complete the cycle. • 1. To check your water clarity, siphon off about 5 gal.
of water into a white bucket. Light blue=good green=ok yellow=bad. • |
Steve
Tyree's talk discussed the needs of SPS corals. Image after
image, he helped identify these corals, providing excellent advice
on the placement of these challenging species that many desire to
keep in their reef tanks.
Steve
brought along a couple of his books as well as a number of CDs, VCDs
and DVDs for those that wanted to get more information on Corals,
Zonal Filtration, or Sponges.
Oceanic
donated a 58g aquarium.
