Jersey's Frag Swap & Conference

     The New Jersey Reefers Club was supposed to have it's conference right after Hurricane Sandy. However, flooding of the Expo Center cancelled this date and instead brought it to June 15th. 

     Chris and his dad decided early on that they were going to split a booth at this frag swap in order to try to meet some new people and to sell the coral we have been trimming to reefers outside of our area. 

     I'll admit it, I was against this idea right off the bat. I didn't like the idea of going to another state and pouring out a ton of money for the booth, hotel room and anything needed for bringing and distributing the coral. It wasn't until about two weeks before the swap that I agreed to go. 

     I went down to Camero Signs and had a banner made for Chris to put up. I figured it looked more 'professional.'

     Just like the FFM, we brought our own water and this time asked NJRC to only hold a small amount for us just in case. We used our buckets with our homemade frag holders again, brought the tank that Emery made for him and of course everything else you could possibly need. Bags were on order to pick up at the swap and the bank account was all snuggled and ready to receive payments with credit cards too. We brought Emily with us because she was soooo helpful at the FFM and I borrowed my mothers car because it was way newer than mine. 

     We met Emery and Lisa somewhere on 95 that morning. We were pretty much operating on very little sleep and it was still up in the air as to whether or not we were getting a hotel room after the swap. Chris was worried about the corals and setting up the tank in the room which was understandable but, before we ever even got there I was exhausted. 

     Lisa bought us all matching color shirts to wear and even put little rhinestones on the ones for us girls.

     The swap went very well. We didn't pull in as much as we had hoped (all the funds went towards our upcoming wedding) but, we still had a great time and met some fantastic people. 

     Everytime I turned around Chris was off at another booth checking out corals and zoas! Just like a kid in the candy store. 

     Next time, we go back to using the light we had at the FFM or something else to help make them pop. The light we used drowned out the color of our corals terribly which I think kept people from buying some of them. 

     A ton of photo's of the swap can be found by Clicking Here

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Lisa Messier

Photo by Lisa Messier

     We did end up spending the night in Jersey. We were all wiped after the swap ended. The next morning, Chris only lost one of the corals that he bought and we attributed the loss to him keeping it in the bag instead of just putting it in the tank with the rest of the frags.      

     Until next time, keep fraggin! 

Acrylic and a Blowtorch

     After a long time of discussing a different location with another member, Chris and this gentleman finally worked out a date for CTARS to hold a meeting at the Wildwood Christian School in Norwich, Connecticut. This school actually houses it's own saltwater aquarium in the room we were in so, it gave everyone something to look at and discuss before and after the meeting too. 

     Meeting topic: Working with Acrylic. This time though, Chris' dad Emery would be doing the presentation.

     Emery had been making some tanks for himself and they came out great (did you see the tank from the FFM? One of his!). The club had originally planned for someone else to come out and do the presentation however, it fell through. Emery stepped up and offered to demonstrate how to build a small frag tank and then raffle it off at the end. Chris wanted the proceeds of the raffle were to go to the Lutz tank though and not the club this time. Done deal...

     The turnout was nice, the room was filled and there was standing room only shortly after the demonstration began. These photo's are actually later on in the meeting (during the raffle ticket sale) but, I figured they made the point either way.

     Emery had made all the cuts prior to the meeting and started first by explaining the costs of a sheet of acrylic, where to buy it in his area, and how to make the cuts. Then, fire....

 

     After that, he began the assembly with Chris' help and answered any questions people had.

     Then he started to seal/bond the acrylic together. 

     While chatting with the President, Kyle.

     In the meantime, raffle tickets were sold for both the tank and for all the other items brought to the meeting. Chris put together some great frag packs and brought a large sps colony and someone else also brought a large soft coral for the raffle. Kyle brought a bunch of frags from his tank too as well as a few others. The raffle table was awesome!! 

     Here's our VP & secretary trying to play name that coral...

     The raffle begins.

     And the happy winner of the tank is Country Bob!

     Successful meeting! Everyone was happy afterwards, even if they didn't win the tank, and the Lutz received a nice donation. 

Until next time, stay fraggin!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2279985

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2286424

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Aquascaping...it's my thing ;)

     So, I'm engaged now! I've also recently lost about ninety pounds (remember those Atkins bars and shakes?) so, I'm feeling pretty damned good too. Life is good! Now, it's time to put on another demonstration!

     I hate getting these things ready and feeling as though I'm going to bore the audience. As I'm putting together the powerpoint, which only needed tweeked from my last one, I kept running over certain areas trying to make them more interesting...nope! Sometimes it's just boring shit. I guess it's all in the demonstration which everyone always raves about afterwards however, putting these things together makes me want to drink Maalox for a week.

     Emarco Rocks apparently heard about our presentation and decided to donate rock if we named him as the sponsor of the meeting. I had told Rich I was up in the air about this as we were teaching people how to use a more economical approach with the emaco concrete (which is the same thing...you should know this if you've read my other posts) but, if he wanted to accept the donations, it was his club, his choice. He did.

     I tweeked the presentation a little more to not so much deter people away from our meeting sponsor but, it still gave money comparisons at the end for the two concretes.

     Day of....Rich introduced us to the small crowd of people that gathered in the Providence area they have selected to have their monthly meetings. Despite all the advertising, there was only one or two newcomers to this presentation. OSRAS is having a hard time getting people to come aboard...

     Then I start the presentation (I look suuuuper smart here right?)

     While Chris builds small structures to raffle off at the end of the presentation. 

     Rich shows off his piece to the crowd in order to not only show off my masterpiece and what he will be putting in his tank at home but, to show everyone how well the concrete holds once cured.

     Chris also shows everyone one of his favorite tricks. Placing epoxy into the tank to put in a large colony and then propping it up with sticks (we use skewers) overnight while it cures. We wanted to show this to people at the CTARS presentation as well but, Ego never gave us the chance. 

This Photo Courtesy of Rich Hogan

     A look at the structures after they were built...and yet another clueless look on my face. Can't anyone snap a photo of my looking intellectual? 

This Photo Courtesy of Rich Hogan

     I always ask people to send me photo's of their structures later on down the road so I can see how they are doing and possibly use them in later demo's. I can't remember who won these structures so, I can't ask or look for their tank photo's anywhere. However, on a search I did happen to find Rich's. He built the rest of his in his tank with the remaining concrete and the one we made for him is over on the right hand side. Rich has never been able to keep a tank very well. Chris was helping him for a while (more on that later) and with these photo's it goes to show that he still needs some major areas of improvement on his tank knowledge and care. 

Photo found on OSRAS.com

Photo found on OSRAS.com

     Someone even posted a message that he had some corals ready for fragging. Huh?!!

     *Sigh* Anyway, until next time, smart reefing & happy aquascaping!! 





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Just Call Me the Aquascaper!

     It's February now and I'm losing my mind with Rich and Brenda's phone calls and messages. However, I keep my cool (most of the time) and press on. The screaming and swearing usually happens before or after the phone calls with Rich. The calls/emails usually went a little like this...

Day ten of question one: "Seriously man, how many times do I have to explain to you that I'm not going to post about the conference every day? Why? Because it will piss off the few people that we do have that have liked the page! Please trust me okay? Okay." 

Day fifteen of question 1,568,034: "Whhhhyyyy did you post an invitation  to the conference on your Facebook when there is already one on the OSRAS Facebook page? This is going to confuse people. Please take it down.

Day sixteen: "Please?" 

Day seventeen: "Please?" 

Day eighteen: "Please!" 

Day twenty: "PLEASE!" 

Day thirty-nine: "Oh my god! Fucking take it down!"

Day forty-one: "What do you mean you don't know how?!" 

Day forty-four: "No, I never had access to your Richard Facebook page! What are you talking about?!"

Day forty-five: "This is the info on how to add the 'like Facebook' to the OSRAS page you requested" (insert html and website info here)

Day forty-six: (this is me ignoring Rich's message about not understanding how to add the 'like Facebook' to the OSRAS website)

     Anyway, I'm sure you catch my drift here. I have learned to have patience over the years, far more than I did when I was younger but, its still far thinner than most peoples. Especially when people are just plain untrainable or think that they are right when they are just plain dumb. I have a life outside of OSRAS and that means I do not have time to argue over petty shit. Please try to remember, I'm doing you a favor here buddy...this is not my job. 

     Part of my not-job was to prepare for yet another presentation for the club. This one wasn't too big of a deal though because we already had most of the presentation done because we had done it for CTARS already; our aquascaping presentation. 

Flyer for the Presentation

     Rich and Brenda gave us the money to get the concrete while holding yet another BoD meeting at our home and at the January meeting gave us some rock to build them a structure for their tank to show the meeting. Wait, what?! Hold on one second! They wanted us to build them a structure for their tank with the concrete bought with OSRAS money? What the fuck! I thought this shady shit was the entire reasoning they started their club. Whatever. Then they asked me to make kits with the concrete to raffle out at the meeting too. Okay. No problem! 

     So, one fine sunny day Chris and I started the project....

I start by making the structure I want first...

     My dog Sparky decided he wanted to help too. His idea of helping is just dancing around like a little ballerina I think because he's half chihuahua and that's all I usually see these dogs doing...that or talking about taco's. 

Told you I was losing my mind! 

     Then came the process of actually putting the scape together.

     Chris also worked on large and small disks to raffle off at the meeting.

  

     Now, imagine that this next photo is me saying something along the lines like "this is one kick ass scape." I'm really in all reality saying something like, "we need to move this really soon so that we can get the pot roast on the table for dinner tonight." I prefer the first version better, it's just more fitting with the hand gesture I'm making. 

     When we were all done I went out to Walmart and bought these cool containers that I'm sure some of you will actually recognize, bread bags and used some old water bottles for the Acryl 60 mix and made five and ten pound kits for the meeting. I was extremely happy with the results of these. When I sent the picture to Rich he called me up and asked if there would be enough concrete and mix left for him after the presentation to finish his aquascaping in his tank? Seriously? Okay, I get it. And yeah, there will be plenty.  

    I didn't let Rich see his structure until the day of the meeting and I'm happy to report that he was extremely pleased with the finished product. Those pictures will follow later.  

     This aquascaping thing is actually one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. Give me some live rock and leave me alone with a tank and I'll be happy. Give me some live rock and this concrete and I'm even happier! 

     Until the next blog....happy reefing!