Well??? How was the meeting????

Hey Joel....

Its a conspiracy to nab your corals! You werent supposed to see that post

Naaaa, nuttin' too fun. Brandon is coming in the pm to finish hooking up my RO/DI. I managed, among other things, to break my supply line to the sink. I forgot that if you kept bending copper tubing out of the way, it would snap. I thought it was too good to be true that I could just bend a pipe when it got in the way Duhhhhhh!!!!!!

And I have the pleasure of meeting Ray up at Lenox to complete a trade....cool!!!!

AND, as if that weren't enough, my shipment of corals from Lise at www.underwatercreations.com will be here this AM. Go check out my crystal bubble tip!!!!! Wooo Hooooo!!!!! Yippeeeeee!!!!!

Its gonna be a GREAT day!!!!

Thanks for the rundown, I'll be there next time

August meeting notes

Anthony Calfo is still scheduled for 11 October on a Saturday night.It will be free to club members.

The group powerbuy of Ph monitors has just till the end of the week before Andy orders.

Charles Kuehne and Sam have set up CafePress.com as a store for club logo merchandise.

Bob Lemke called for volunteers to be part of an October Tour of Tanks in conjunction with the visit from Anthony Calfo. He was thinking of 3 to 4 homes close together and shuttling 10 person groups. Tom Wyatt in North Carolina and Don Pelino of Columbus volunteered.

September will be at Aquarium Showcase in Alpharetta and November will be at Eden Gardens for elections. December might be a weekend meeting for families and kids.

Nominations for new officers will be accepted next meeting.

The Board of Directors met after the club adjourned.

Don Kingore from Kent

Jenn announced a 30% off all Kent products and 200 gallon salt for $39.99 during the meeting. Kent provided the club with two skimmers to auction. Don Kingore from Kent Marine was the speaker and explained Kent products. Don is also a collector for the last seven years.

The Kent, Instant Ocean, & Reef Crystals brands of salt are all produced at the same plant but Don wanted people to understand that the proprietary vitamin / nutrient solutions are transported direct from Kent.

Turbo Calcium is a calcium chloride powder, Liquid Calcium is the same in RO water, and Liquid Reactor is Calcium Carbonate in RO water. Liquid Reactor has a buffering ability and is judged to equal a calcium reactor's output. Tom Wyatt mentioned that coral skeletons are made from Calcium & Bicarbonate and 500 parts per million is a maximum stable concentration.

Garlic can make food more attractive to new tank inhabitants and may help animals adjust. It will change the chemical signature of an animal which may help it evade antagonists. Vitamin C is an immune booster for fish health.

Zooplex is a 800 micron, close cousin of rotifers and feeds corals such as Gonipora, Torch, and Hammers.

One cubic inch of BioRocker filters are the equivalent of 700 BioBalls and would require 4ft x 4ft x 12ft of sump space to equal one BioRocker. Live Rock may be better for low maintenance with a low fish load, but a heavily stocked fish tank can benefit from the mechanical filter, BioRocker bacterial filter and a protein skimmer.

The Natulis Skimmer is makde from PVC plastic which resists the brittleness of acrylic. It has O-rings to stop leaks and a high velocity venturi.

We let Don relax at 8:20pm to answer individual questions

Re: Don Kingore from Kent

wildemon said:

... Tom Wyatt mentioned that coral skeletons are Calcium Bicarbonate and 500 parts per million is a stable concentration...

Click to expand...

a minor correction, I said that corals use Calcium and bicarbonate to MAKE the skeletons from the water column. The skeleton formed is Calcium Carbonate. The question centered around the fact that Ca carbonate has a max solubility of 500 PPM, and as such, the product in question (Don said was Calcium Carbonate) can only get as concentrated as 500 PPM Ca in association with Carbonate in water (no salt), which is what we want our whole tank to be (ASW) in terms of calcium concentration. How can a product of that solution strength provide a dilution at 500 PPM when it is already maxed out in the bottle in concentrated form??? It would have to be a suspension at best, and as such, would be the same as adding the precipitate from the bottom of the Kalk reactor. Might as well just stirr up the Kalkwasser solution and add that instead of the clear liquid above a settled-out Kalk...

but I digress, just wanted to correct the mention of the bicarbonate above (Ted McConnaughay and Goreau models of Calcification/skeletalization)