Impromptu Meeting, coming to a local reef club near you!

[PelagicMagic]

"Hello Everyone,

NFMAS will be putting together an impromptu meeting during the lag time before our next scheduled meeting in Jan. 07.
The Place, Date & Time of this meeting is to be announced.

This meeting will be a workshop to openly discuss and to participate in, all aspects of water parameter testing and procedures, with our main focus being the quest for the utmost precision and accuracy within our tests used in our REEF aquaria.
In this workshop, we will limit our testing to: Temp, Salinity, pH, Alk, Calcium, Phosphates, and Magnesium.

SeaChem will be our major meeting sponsor, and is donating a full range of test kits and Reference Solutions which will later be raffled off at the end of the meeting.

Robs Reef will supply his Colorimeter for more precise Phosphate Calibrations.

Acroholic will supply a Calibration Thermometer for Temp Calibration: A German made ERTCO glass nitrogen filled mercury calibration thermometer (NIST-Calibrated) partial immersion, accurate to +-.01

You should bring the following (for testing and/or calibrating);

• Water Sample ( 1 liter)
• Temperature monitor, thermometer etc.
• Salinity / Conductivity monitor, refractometer, hygrometer..etc.
• pH test kit, monitor, pen…etc.
• Calcium test kit, monitor
• Alk. Test kit
• Magnesium test kit
• Phosphate test kit

Or basically bring whatever you are using to test your water parameters, which are portable.

This will be a relaxed/laid back atmosphere and will most likely be held in a member’s home. We need to hear feedback quickly on who will be interested in this format, and those who propose to attend.
Please post here if you are interested in attending or have any questions or suggestions. - "Acroholic"


I would like to thank Acroholic (Brian) for all the hard work he has done to get this meeting going including getting Seachem to sponsor us with free test kits. It is great to see members taking the initiative to better the club. I think this is a great topic to discuss since it is so important to the health of our corals and livestock. When we have more info you will be updated. Anyone who would like to offer their home, store, or location please pm me. Please share any ideas you may have and let us know if you would attend a meeting like this.

-Steve

[MikeAtJax]

I am there.

[avalanche wolf]

That is awesome you guys are so orginized which Northern Ca was....

[teach]

Sounds great!

[Acroholic]

Oooops......double posted...Sorry.

[Acroholic]

Originally Posted by Acroholic

Ummmmm.....I'm going. I'll offer my home if we can't find anything centrally located.

Do YOU know what your water parameters REALLY are??????
You will be surprised to see how far off some of your faithfull reliable test kits and instruments are, and may not be giving you the best information.
For instance:
When I tested two Salifert Calcium test kits against a known reference solution of 390 ppm.....both Salifert kits read 420-430 repeatedly!
My high dollar refractometer was keeping my salinity at 1.028 for the past 6 months..the whole time I was trusting it, which was telling me it was at 1.026...OUCH!
One of my temperature probes was 2.1 degrees off! (DANGER Will Robinson!)
I tested two of my Magnesium Kits against a known reference of 1275 mg/L........one read 1150 and the other read 1380?....Whaaa?
I could go on and on.........
So I thought I would organize this meeting, to inform ourselves on how accurate or inaccurate we are in our water parameters!

[mecold]

I will be there. If you could let me know what day it would be on, I will take the day off

[mecold]

Acroholic,

Thanks for organizing this! Now, next step is frag auctions to support nfmas!

Paul

[jjaalmaraz]

Sounds like a plan Stan....If I have to I'll hop on a bus Gus....I'll be there to get your back Jack....so count me in.

[racerw]

sounds like a great meeting, we would try to make it

[Lageo04]

You can count me in, just set a date and time.
Brian, not to put you on the spot but I know we would love to see your aquarium and equipment room. Defiantly state of the art.

[Goldstripe]

Hey Acroholic, per our chat yesterday, I'll be there. I know I haven't been to a meeting in a while but football season is over after next weekend for me. Well, it's been over for a while but technically we have 1 more home game after this weekend. Hopefully by going to this meeting, I'll get the motivation I need to build my canopy and get this big tank stocked. It's cycled and ready...

[PelagicMagic]

Bioreef has been kind enough to allow us to use the store during reasonable hours so this can be the first choice of a meeting location. We still need to get the test kits from Seachem. The bonus of using bioreef is that Craig, the owners son has a M.A in Biology. However I do not want to bother them during business hours and we will be distracted by all the corals and fish.

I am also going to see if UNF will allow us to use a empty lab and I am going to try to contact the President of the UNF reef club which Scott (fisheyrn) and I helped to start to see if they would like to join us. We probably need them to attend to use the Lab. I was their assistant lab manager so I will call my old boss to see if its even possible. Any ideas please share

[patharm]

Hi Steve,

It would be nice to see your tank. Do you have enough room to consider having it at your home?

Patrick

[fishhyren]

Any idea where, when, or how many people are interested?