Saltwater Dreams: Workshop

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Presentation for OSRAS

We weren't the only people frustrated with CTARS and the current board of directors. A man named Rich and his wife, Brenda decided they were going to go off on their own in their own state and start their own club. They named it Ocean State Reef Aquarium Society.

The intentions started out fabulous. They felt that the bod of CTARS was hiding funds and being shady and that the meetings were not teaching anyone anything. At the time, CTARS had had two or three meetings in a row on how to make fish food. People were getting antsy. We were stoked that someone had taken the reins and decided to do this. Also, Charleen, the current secretary from CTARS was acting treasurer and secretary for OSRAS until further notice.

It wasn't long and Rich called us up and asked if we could do a fragging presentation for their club. We gladly accepted the idea of this and began working with Rich on how he wanted everything to work.

Flyer that was posted online, at libraries and stores and given to us as a present

It was going to be a simple 'Fragging 101' workshop and Rich wanted Chris and his father to also bring in corals of their own to sell somewhere in room. Simple enough. Even better was the fact that Rhode Island is really only a hop, skip and a jump from where we live so, joining this club as well was really a plus for us. More info about the reef-keeping hobby the better!

Chris and I starting our presentation

Chris and I put together a few video's this time to aid in our presentation. We actually had our oldest daughter help so that I didn't have to figure out yet another thing on my computer. It made things a little easier this time with the presentation. Rather than trying to put up little plugs and pieces of epoxy and trying to explain "okay everyone, your now going to glue this tiny piece of white stuff to this blah, blah...", there was a video to accompany a variety of simple fragging processes up on the projector. We did one for soft leathers, sps, lps (we used our wall hammer) and zoanthids.

Our video on fragging a soft leather coral

(don't mind the sound on these...we had the computer muted during the presentation)

Another video but, this time fragging a SPS coral

Rich brought some corals from a LFS (local fish store) of his choice and just as the fragging demo we had done at Charlene's, there was a twenty-five dollar buy-in to acquire one of these pieces before leaving. People were also allowed to bring corals of their own that they wanted to learn how to frag.

At the end of the meeting, Rich and Brenda had all kinds of idea's for the club and asked to have Chris and I on the Board of Directors as well. We declined their invitation however, agreed to help out with the club as much as possible. Rich seemed to have some wonderful idea's and we looked forward to seeing something new in the reefing hobby as it had been such a while with CTARS.

Chris and I left happy with our demonstration and up in the air with Rich and Brenda. Their agenda for the club seemed wonderful but they themselves were, I don't really know how to explain it...off I guess. We decided to go with the flow, what would it hurt right?

Rich and Chris setting up

Selling frags in the back corner

Peeking in to see what will get fragged today

It's always nice when someone comes along to help!

Friday, September 6, 2013

Fragging Workshop

CTARS had been demonstrating how to make fish food for months and Ego had just simply irritated so many people that Chris and another board member got together and decided to hold a separate meeting that held no affiliation to any club whatsoever to teach people how to frag coral.

Chris worked out a deal with Happy Coral, Inc. to get in two very large rare SPS and anyone who chipped in $25 was able to leave with a piece of each.

The Post read as follows:

Charlene and I have been speaking about having different types of workshops for some time now. For this first adventure we have finally come up with a date!

Saturday, August 11, 2012 I will demonstrate how I frag SPS, palys, and zoanthids and any other corals you may want to bring to the workshop that you have been hesitant about fragging or just don’t know how. This workshop will be hosted at Charlene’s home. (I’ll let her ultimately decide how we are posting or PMing her address)

I would like to purchase two large sized colonies to frag for this meeting as well. This would guarantee everyone leaving with at least two decent sized frags of a unique SPS for a decent price depending on how many people we can get to sign up for the workshop. The prices I am looking at right now (in order to get free shipping) would be a minimum of 10 people signing up at $25 apiece. Charlene and I are already in so we only need eight more people. This price could be more if there are less people!! Of course we could always decide if there are a large amount of people signed up, to purchase additional coral to keep the cost at $25 a person or lower the cost per person. It would be a GROUP decision at that point.

In addition, I have also already received a few coral donations from a gentleman that had to break down his entire tank because he had to leave in order to go serve our country. Not only do we thank him for those donations, but, we thank him for his sacrifice for our freedoms.

This is open to ANYONE. You do not need to be part of any club in order to come to this workshop, only a reef keeping enthusiast! Anyone interested is invited! You do not need to be part of the buying in portion in order to attend however; you will not leave with one of the frags from those corals.

I absolutely DO need a sign up list ahead of time however for the buying in portion of the workshop! I need everyone to sign up by July 14, 2012. On July 15, 2012 I will get the majority decision here on this thread on what we would like to do if there is a large amount of people signed up for the buying in portion (ie: additional corals or lower costs per person). All payments MUST be made by July 21, 2012 by PayPal. I can provide my address to you through a PM if you must send a check.

Donations are always welcome. Frag plugs will DEFINITELY be needed!!

Remember, bring anything that you want fragged but may be hesitant to do yourself!

This is something for everyone…a learning experience for those who aren’t sure about fragging and for those that do, a chance to get some frags they don’t have for an inexpensive price!

This immediately became a HUGE hit! Everyone was going to be able to leave with a coral no matter what because the donated corals were going to be given away and if you bought in, you were going away with two cool frags as well. On top of everything, if you didn't have any experience with fragging, you also would have the opportunity to learn something! Win, win!!

In the weeks to follow we collected the money through PayPal and then when the final date came up, we ordered the coral. Of course I'm always the one that has to accept the packages when the arrive and acclimate the corals and these ones I was especially worried about. They weren't MY coral to kill...they were everyone elses! On top of everything else, the owner of Happy Coral had already spoken with Chris and told him one of the ones he wanted wasn't looking good. He sent us three SPS instead of two and good thing because one arrived dead. The other was on thin ice but, Happy Coral had promised that if it didn't make it to the Fragging Workshop date that he would give each person a $25 gift certificate.

The day of the workshop arrived and everything went wonderfully. One person was kind enough to bring a ban saw and everyone was able to work hands on to learn and have a wonderful experience. Rather than go on and on trying to explain everything, I'm going to let my pictures do the explaining this time!