September 2016 Calcium Reactor introduction Pictures

[badxgillen]

For those of you who were not able to make it the PNWMAS September meeting this year was held at one of our club members homes Higher Thinking. Andrew and his wife Lauren purchased the house recently and opened their doors to our group for a very nice meet and greet shindig.

 

 

 

Right inside you walk right past a very nice fresh water planted tank. He gave a run down on how to keep an attractive shrimp aquarium, wich is also something he knows quite a bit about, I didn't get any close ups of this particular tank but I did get some shots of the others.

 

 

 Once you walk past the fresh water tank you are just hit by this large reef just glittering in the middle of the room. YES!!! Are those Radions I see? Nice canopy, it looks pretty slick in person.

 

 

Higher Thinking even cleared some space right next to his tank for our cub frag tank. My good friend Miles and I got the trade tank going on for some coral exchange.

 

 

A very healthy spread of food was layed out before we had even gotten their by our generous hosts. Mac and cheese, sweet cornbread, 3 kinds of delicious pulled pork, Sirena's killer tortellini pasta salad, and 

Check

This

Out!

 

 

FISH CUPCAKES!

 

 

CORAL CUPCAKES!!!

 

 

With OUR Name on them! Very Cool Lauren and Andrew, Very Cool.

 

 

Not only that but Andrew offered up his knowledge and time to give us all a refresher course on Calcium reactors. Conveniently he has it plumbed underneath his house were it resides in a separate closet that happens to be adjacent to were the meeting was taking place. 

 

 

He did very well at the presentation, ran through all the basics, got into some of the technicalities, answered questions, and with some input form Bicycle Bill pointed out some tricks of the trade as well as thoughts on some reactor maintenance. Thank You Andrew, you did well.

 

 

AND let us not forget about the Big Raffle that went on. So many generous sponsors this year! In the pot at this September meeting were... Rod's Frozen Foods, The Premium Aquarium, Upscales, Avast Marine Works, Sea Horse Supply, Ocean In A Box, Barrier Reef, and the Golden Basket! 

 

Not only that but there was tons of cool reef stuffs brought such as bags, buttons, hats, and various sample products from test kits to coral dips. Thank you Holly and Kim!

 

Kim even brought the Club T-Shirts for our members to grab one before we revamp the style...So much good stuff in one place.

 

[Lexinverts]

Bummed, I missed it.

[badxgillen]

ANd as you know its not a meeting without people yeah.

 

 

We had Mr. Bret in the House. He made up some of the nicest festive raffle tickets I have ever had. They brought me much luck as I won the TPA certificate that I was able to spend on my way home, Thanks Bret.

 

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Bicycle Bill, whats in the bin!? Why coral of coarse. Always good to talk with Bill here. He knows a thing or two about reef tanks and has some pretty nice SPS colonies in his 90. He shared a quite a bit of Montipora today and I aim to pay that forward here very soon. Thanks Bill.

 

 

Daniel and Joshua showed up right after us. Daniel with his new Reefi light in hand, a pretty killer product that he is more than happy to demonstrate. And Josh I didn't notice Bruce was DJing until I looked at the pictures later on, I dig it man, love the shirt.

 

 

Karen our TFT Coordinator and Vance, both not too far off from home I believe. The meeting was in Scapoose so a bit more north than the usual Portland or Salem venues. Good to see you both. Hey Karen, maybe you can get a started shrimp culture form Andrew and keep em in a 2 gallon desktop tank? Pretty cool right? And Vance, your only a couple months off from getting the tank rolling, when you do hit me up...I will just be chillin in Corvallis as I am going nowhere fast.

 

 

Lauren, one of the hosts, was very gracious and accepting of our foot traffic and geeked out conversations. Thanks for putting up with all of us in your home, everything was wonderful and much appreciated. Hope we were not too much of a burden.

 

 

Our President herself, Emerald handing out the raffle prizes. She ended up with a winning ticket too! And she deserves it, she has always bee such a generous person. Keep up the good work Prez, shine on.

 

 

Holly and Bret getting the raffle show on the road, another shining example of good board members. Thanks for what you all do for our team, it takes alot of gears to make the system run smoothly.

 

 

Sirena here in a group shot, I have to give here a shout out too as I know she does some behind the scenes work as well...And that was one bomb pasta salad.

 

Andrew, Lauren...It was a Great meeting thanks to you two opening up your home. We all appreciate it very much. Glad you are part of our group here.

 

Reef On my friends, Reef On!

[albertareef]

Sorry I missed it - and fish themed cupcakes too!  Glad to hear it went well and thanks to Andrew and Lauren for hosting.

[Higher Thinking]

It was really fun doing my part on this event! I have a lot of thank yous to issue as well. Thanks to Robert and Miles for setting up and tearing down the frag tank (they were like a pit crew at a race track, lightning fast and efficient).  Thanks also to Robert for the generous coral frag pack. Like I said in the meeting, if people want to venture to Corvallis, Robert is great person to buy coral from. Huge selection and always generous with his deals.  Thanks to Bicycle Bill for the monti hook up as well as jumping in on the calcium reactor talk. It was nice to have some backup to bring additional insight and reinforce points.  Thanks to Kim, Holly, Bret and the rest of the board for putting this together.  And thanks to Robyn and Chris for bringing me a nice acro pack and hanging out the whole evening.  It was good to catch up with you two!! It's been too long!  And thanks to everyone for making it out to my place, it was a blast!

Edited September 26, 2016 by Higher Thinking

[TheClark]

So bummed I missed it.  Lots of good people, good talk, good prizes and a super host.  Looks like allot of fun, thanks for sharing the pics!

[Emerald525]

Thanks as always for the pictures and commentary!!

 

You and Miles also did an incredible job setting up and breaking down the frag tank! You 2 are pros !!!

 

Thanks Holly and Bret for always being present to help out!!

 

Thanks Andrew for opening up your home! Loved your dog too and great saltwater and planted tanks! You really know what you are talking about !!

 

Bicyclebill also was a wealth of information !

 

Thanks Lauren for the great cupcakes!!

[Bicyclebill]

Awesome write up Bert, as always! That was really fun, and I'm glad I got off my butt and ventured out to hang with my reef peeps after a bit of a hiatus. Thanks to everyone that made it happen!

 

 

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