badxgillen

This February meet at PDXMonkeyboy's is going to be a full blown free for all frag swap, so those attending are encouraged to get some corals ready to trade in anticipation of the event. These are the general guidelines I like to recommend for these coral exchanges.

If you would like, you can do your trading on the fly by just bringing by a few pieces and hoping that some one will have a desirable coral you want...Or better yet, you can post up what you have to trade and work out a preemptive exchange here on the forums, that method always works best for me. You can feel free to use this thread to post your trade-ables in or start a thread of your own.

But First, let me get you some of Bert's basis tips for success here.

1.) make an attempt to have a fragment of reasonable size and health and try and get things cut and ready a few days to a week ahead of time to have the wounds healed up for the exchange. And double/triple check for pest invertebrates or algaes before sending your corals out, we try to keep invasives to a minimum here...And once you get your frags home, just in case, always acclimate the specimens then dip the corals before you put them into your personal aquarium. QT Aquariums are best but good old Potassium Chloride, Revive, Coral RX, Melafix, Iodine, or other suitable coral dip will do much better at prevention than nothing.

2.) Try to package your corals appropriately. This can mean not putting a spiny coral like birds nest into a thin dollar store bag or not utilizing insulation on an extended cold or warm trip. Try a small cooler or Styrofoam. If you can't find either of these and the destination is a long distance, keep the vehicle air conditioned or heated appropriately. As far as packaging goes you can double bag and use thicker mil plastics, or something else like a Tupperware or specimen container. I have even used washed out yogurt or cottage cheese containers that stack well inside the coolers. Just use something that will work, nothing like losing a nice and colorful animal because the bag got too cold and leaked all the water out on the way home.

3.)Do your best to be courteous and fair to one another by not take advantage of each others ignorance or generosity. These are people of all levels in the hobby so give them the benefit of your knowledge and experience instead of the cold shoulder. And speaking of generosity, that giving nature has always been smiled upon here at PNWMAS and pay it forward tends comes back around these parts.

So Let's see em folks,  Whatcha Got!? Corals that is!

Where does the time go? It is February already, and that means there is another upcoming PNWMAS meet. This time we have something special for you, our comedic and ingenuitive member PDXMonkeyboy has been gracious enough to host a full blown frag swap at his home in Portland Oregon! In addition to the free for all coral exchanging we will have a tank onsite to float frags and a coral sale to benefit the Tanks For Teachers program.

This means there will be corals of all sorts, from all over, at one place! for trade, for sale, and even maybe just for free if you get that winning raffle ticket. This also means you all might want to get ready for the event by seeing what you may have to offer up and what you may be looking for to fill that empty spot in your home aquarium. I will post up one of those ever so popular Frag Trading threads here

http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/topic/44400-frag-swap-thread-february-2019/

so we can keep this thread to our regular banter and various updates as they come through.

When- February 24th 1:00 PM.

Where-

Parking:  There is a long looping driveway and a parking area next to the house.  You can park in the street or anywhere in the driveway.  There will likely just be shuffling when its time to go.

Our PNWMAS club will provide some refreshments and some delectable local pizza for those who attend.  

So get those frag racks out and filled up then stay tuned, this is gonna be a good one!

 

The first meet of the year of 2019 was held a the Upscales Saltwater and Reptile pet store located in Tualatin Oregon, and boy was it a riot!!!

It had been about a year since I was last in the Upscales store and things were looking better than ever! A new back coral system that I had yet to see was full of colorful goodies, and the rest of the store was just as awesome as I always remember it. Cool corals and vibrant fish tucked into every corner of the shop, YES!

Not just frags here in this shop but many many colonies as well. I have made a few great purchases from this store by just simply sharing the costs and breaking a colony apart. Win Win in my book right there. In fact were talking a little about an Upscales Grow Out in the future perhaps, no shortage of jewels here.

Everything was so crisp and clean, I was certainly impressed, as usual. So many corals and so little space, love how the corals each get their own little bungalows.

I couldn't help myself but to walk away with some killer coral, JeremEvans and I went in on a colony of a gold Millipora and a go at the Echinata Acropora.

Travis packing up some goodies on the right here and Kelly Limpit getting the merchandise. The Upscales team was outstanding at their job and never skipped a beat of fish netting and coral bagging fun. And believe me, there was a ton of fun.

As you can guess it didn't take long for the socializing to get started and the party to get lively. I have to point out again how organized and clean the facility was, open isles and stocked shelves were very nice. I could look at corals and dry goods all while being in a conversation with my peers.

In this pic we have far left Jeremevans our club treasurer, middle- LewisFisherman from our Board Of Directors, and right-Gumby also one of our outstanding B.O.D. Jim here always has something interesting to talk about and once again this meeting is no exception. A little coral chat with the boys I see. I will see about setting aside a couple frags of those Acros I was talking about and we will see if they color up some more. Gotta Share the Love.

Youcallmeny and his daughter sitting in the full blown 20,000 Kelvin and actinics blaring out of the surounding reef tanks. Youcallmeny is another one of our awesome PNWMAS Board Of Directors helping behind the scenes when he can.

 

A change of the blue actinics to back outside. Here we have ZorroReef with a few primo mushroom frags. You got me sold on looking into some of the finer shroom specimens. Now I have to save my money or break my piggy bank, for soft corals those can get pretty spendy man. And I though my Acros were costly.

One of the highlights of this meeting was that SuncrestReef here brought his microscope along with n attachment meant for holding a cell phone. This meant that you could take pictures and or video of the subjects very easily. This here is a copepod being put on the glass and under the scope.

As you can see the system worked flawlessly, the quality was very good, and allowed fro some amazing shots.

Here is the tip claw of one of the legs, our microcosm is so fascinating. I might lose a lot of my free time in a microscope unit like this if I had one, it would be like my own nature show right in my home living room.

Thank You so much for bringing this in and letting us all get a glimpse of the miniature world in the reef tanks we all own. I imagine we would be interested in another future demonstration if you would be willing Suncrestreef.

Trailerman about to take advantage of that old Upscales SPS frag special. I used to hit up this section first, but over time I developed a different route to take before hitting the Acroporas and other SPS up for grabs. Don't want to blow it all before you know what is there.

Natedawg left appearing to be jealous of the old school PNWMAS T-Shirt he doesn't have and can no longer get. Just kidding around here, kind of. Laughing about it is the very stylish Walt!...Which reminds me, we need some of those new shirts and cards for our upcoming annual Frag Fest.

Vance and his daughter up taking the serene view of all the beautiful corals, there is a lot to take in so I see why two sets of eyes are better than one.

Once raffle time comes up people get serious...Okay, not serious, maybe a little goofy actually.

Get Your Tickets!!! BicycleBill sharing his contagious smile with everyone else in the room. One of the old school reefers that has always been generous to his fellow hobbyist. Like I said, I will get a couple other Acroporas cut for you and we will see how they do in different aquariums systems. Developing colors in ocean specimens is always exciting.

The professional rafflers here, FlashyFins and ALbertareef, top notch officers on our PNWMAS club. They both pull more weight behind the scenes than most of us will ever know, thanks you two, we appreciate it...

And now to commence in some winning pictures.

PDXMonkeyboy wins the Seachem Gift pack with a variety of cool products. I had my eye on that and threw a couple tickets in but as they say, to the victor goes the spoils. PDXMonkeyboy and OptimusPrime here would make great sales reps for any form of goods, just look at the genuine excitement and satisfaction. Both of you two are hilarious. Far right here we have Gill&Fin trying to stay out of the camera shutter, Gotcha!

Speaking of OptimusPrime, he had a winning ticket for the mini Aquatic Life R.O. system. Those are so compact I love it, my home unit takes up a huge portion of a wall and I hate it.

Willapa winning the Gyre pumps!.. That's right, both of the pumps were won by Wilapa in the raffles fair and square. But being an amazing sport, he passed off the other Gyre back into the prize lot for another name to be drawn for the win. What a stand up guy, if you want a frag or two from my tank I can make that happen no problem, thanks for doing that man.

And here we have Flashyfins, right, handing off the generously re-prized Gyre to BOD LewisFisherman. Flashyfins is also our new Tanks For Teachers coordinator so be sure to give her a round of applause.

All in all, as usual, it was a wonderful time. Got to meet some new folks, got to chat with some of the old crew, and snagged me some nice corals from one of my favorite reefer shops, Upscales.

Thank you all for helping make this happen, thank you all at Upscales for hosting, and thank you all for attending and making this a fun and productive meeting. Definitely a success!

Like I always say, our club PNWMAS ROCKS!!!

Reef on everyone!

Lucky!!! The ones I get are always after something I don't want them too eat like my corals... Except the time I had some babies of the Elysia Genus rolling around my tank, that was cool, and that is what this one reminds me of.

I will be leaving here shortly so I can make it on time, I made a little room in my tank this morning for some Upscales goodness, see you all there.

Sorry Eli, I got your message and cut a few things but they may need a little time before I can get them to you.

And for those of you who are getting frags from me at the meeting I can accept Paypal or cash, I am very flexible so if something seems off to you please send me  Private Message and I will do my best to remedy the situation. If anything doesn't make it from the long travel I can generally replace what doesn't work out.

Gonna put this thread on hold while I make sure that I have everyone covered the best I can. I will update this a little later on today.

Well this is Cool! I just got confirmation from Upscales that we will have a spot for a table so that SunCrestReef can setup his Microscope!

If you haven't checked it out I recommend that you take the opportunity to do so and Geek out with us! Diotoms, Dinoflagellates, prtotozoans... Everything is cooler up close and in person.

SunCrestReef- will provide clean glass slides and cover slips if anyone wants to bring a specimen for viewing.  They don't need to bring much because one eyedrop is all that's needed.  I'll also have my universal cell phone bracket that people can use to hold their own phone up to the eyepiece and record video or photos of their specimen.  They will be able to view at 40x to 2000x magnification.

Thanks for doing this man, looking forward to the conversations it will bring up.

If you will be at the meeting at Upscales this weekend I can grab you some moss.

I will get you that Sarcophyton for sure Jack.

Salted Waffles I am sure we can work something out at some point, are you making it to the meeting in Tualatin this weekend? I am pretty booked up until then but that doesn't mean we can't hook up sometime in the near future.

Albertareef I can set aside a frag pack if you would like, whatchew afta brudah?

Anyone else getting a little excited for this coming weekend? I know I am! I have been trying to make room for some much anticipated coral from Upscales, doing the old frag tank shuffle.

Corvallis is where I live but I will most certainly be at this months meet at Upscales Tualatin.

As the title states, I need to make room ASAP! I have tons of corals that need trimmed and tons of frags that need a new home. Let me know if there is something I can do for you or my corals.

Prices are negotiable, but I was thinking about making $10-$20-$25 frags of each coral for those interested...Obviously the size/polyp count will vary depending upon the coral in question.

Acropora

"Aussie Pink Hyacinth" Acropora:

Maricultured Green Acropora: 

Maricultured Plating Acropora: 

Maricultured Purple Acropora:

"Miyagi" Tort Acropora: 

"Super Blue" Stag Acropora: 

Rainbows in Spain SOLD-Pending

"Twilight Dragon" Acropora: 

"Upscales" Microlados Acropora: 

 

"Birds of Paradise" Bird's Nest: 

"ORA Hyacinth" Bird's Nest: 

"Purple Hystix" Bird's Nest: 

"Dainty Green" Pocillipora-

"Neon Green" Pocilipora-

Pink Lemonade"Pocillipora-

ORA Purple Stylophora

"PEA Yellow Base" Stylophora

Anemones

Multicolor Bubble 4"+ anemone

Rose Bubble 3"+ anemone

Chalices

"Alien Eye" Echinopora: 

"Green Eyed" Mycedium:

"Hollywood Stunner" Oxypora:

"Mango" Mycedium:

Cyphastrea

"JF Bling Bling" Cyphastrea:

"Lucky Charms" Cyphastrea: 

"Minefield" Cyphastrea:

"Super Red" Cyphastrea: 

Euphellea "Hammer/Frogspawn Coral"

Bicolor Frogspawn: 

Green-tipped Hammer: 

Purple-tipped "confused" Hammer:

Favia

"Joker" Favia:

War Coral Pentagona

Candy Crush Pentagona

Blue Valley Brain Favites

Galaxia

Bicolor Galaxia: 

Gold Galaxia: 

Green Galaxia: 

Gorgonian

Gruubs Gorgonian: 

Green Stars Encrusting

Green Star Branching

Green Star Fade

Purple Star Encrusting

Blue Cloves

White Pom Pom Xenia

Lobophyton "Devil's Hand"

Lobophyton: 

Neon Green

Montipora

"Candy Red" Monti' Cap'

"Flower Petal" Monti' Cap'

"Green Apple" Monti' Cap'

"Idaho Grape" Monti' Cap'

Purple Monti' Cap'

"Aquaman" Montipora

"Naughty Spiral" Montipora

"ORA Supernatural" Montipora

"Super Man" Montipora

"White Daisy" Montipora Foliosa

Branching Montipora Digitata

"Forest Fire" Montipora Digitata

"German Blue" Montipora Digitata:

Green Montipora Digitata

"Super Red" Montipora Digitata

"Citrus Mistress"

Sunset"

Mushroom Coral

Green Discosoma:

Purple Discosoma:

Red Discosoma:

"Mean Green" Rhodactus

"Purple Passion" Rhodactus

Orange Ricordia Yuma

Orange & purple Ricordia Yuma:

Rainbow Ricordia Yuma:

Psamacora

"Damsel Blue" Psamacora

"Forest Green" Psamacora

"Lemon Lime" Psamacora: 

"ORA Kelly Green" Psamacora: 

"Pumpkin Pie" Psamacora:

"GB Watermelon" Psamacora: 

Green Cactus Pavona

Sarcophyton

"Figi Yellow" Sarcophyton: Sold Out

Green Sarcophyton: 

"Tyree Green" Sarcophyton: 

Zoanthids

"Blueberry Field": , "Bumble Bee": , "Captain America", "Flame Skirt", "Radioactive Dragon Eye" , Devils Armor, Eagle Eyes, Nuclear Winters, Pink And Golds, Mohawks, Kiwi Crushes, Iron Mans, BBBithes, X Mas, Gobstoppers, Ring of Fire, 
And a plethora more.

I apologize about the format and odd listing, I was trying to multi task and it didn't pan out the way I had hoped. I can get pics for those interested but didn't want to bog down the thread with countless photos. I will be at the meeting at the end of the month as well so feel free to PM me about something you may want.

I will update this in the near future.

I have been in office for so long I can't remember what my "rank" was. I know at some point a long time ago I had the title of Reef Baron and I liked that.

Yeah, that is one sparkling Walt Disney there. Reminds me of their pyrotechnics.

I kinda liked the Itrader rating but I remembered some people found it "unfair" when they couldn't recover their rating after being judged negatively.  Personally I thought it was a nice perk to have even though I rarely used it.

[language filter] Fish Flakes! And I only have bad memories from Cregslist sales and "deals", so I steer clear of that for the most part.

And if your coming to the meeting this month maybe I could grab a frag pack from you, I could cut you some corals and have em ready for you by then.

Upscales and the PNWMAS club have got some awesome raffle prizes coming up for this months meeting. Take a look at some of the goods we have for the winning tickets pulled.

An Aquatic Life 50 Gallon Per Day Reverse Osmosis unit. Not a bad idea to start with the cleanest water you can, nor is it a bad idea to have a back up unit in case the main unit has some down time or needs a tune up.

An Icecap Gyre 1K to get flow to some of those spots in the aquarium that you didn't know needed it, these things are supposed to do their job well.

And for the larger tanks there is a bigger model, the coveted Gyre 3K will also be making an appearance at the January meeting... I have had my eye on these pumps for a while and am dying to try one out.

It is $5 for single tickets or $20 for a strip of 5, and don't forget paying members get a free entry ticket to increase those odds some. We will have a few other items added to the raffle list over the next week or two so stay tuned.

Are you going to run these on your tanks at home, is the power, coverage, and cost comparable to the previous Reefi LED units?

Scratch that, found a few of my answers here. http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/topic/42363-new-reefi-led-product-in-prototype-and-testing-phase/

Looking good my friend.

Happy New Year!!!

To kick things off in 2019 we are going to be taking a trip to one of the most old school salt water shops around, Upscales.

Known for their killer salt water fish, amazing corals, and exotic reptiles, Upscales has a little something for everyone. Join us at the end of the month for a meet and greet at one of our oldest sponsors to get your reef on. I still have my Oregon Tort and my Upscales Microlados but I am sure Travis and his crew will have a plethora of other must have corals in stock that I will be tempted to walk away with, gotta hit up those buy one get another coral half off deals. And they always have nice clams and anemones to choose from as well.

Here are the basic details below.

Time---Sunday January the 27th at 1:00PM

Address---19295 SW Martinazzi Ave, Tualatin, OR 97062

Stay tuned for updates on the event as they roll in, there is always something brewing here in the PNWMAS club.

Another Awesome December holiday meeting in the bag! Last year we had our gathering further north into Portland where as this year we took it down to the city of Salem. At Wallery's Pizzeria to be exact. We have held a few meets at this venue in the past so it was familiar surroundings to me. The establishment lets us have the whole back room that has 4 large seating tables and a couple smaller tables for us to do the white elephant gift exchange and to get our raffle on. We certainly needed the extra table room as we had developed a large pool of prizes.

You can also see that underneath we have already started a line of coolers, boxes, and styrofoams to accommodate the corals for the frag swap.

PNWMAS making themselves right at home, despite the automotive decor and draft beer signs the club went straight into reef mode and our salt water conversations permeated the establishment.

At the end of this festive table we have Markvo sitting next to Reefrun and her son. At the head of the table is Jim and Roy and sitting to their right is R-3 Ryan...Included in this pictures FAR left in the stylish Christmas sweater is Youcallmenny.

R-3 and Gumby taking advantage of the meet and greet and having a nice reef discussion. I am always happy to see some of the Washington guys come down south. And Jim, if you still need any coral frags for the Boys and Girls club aquarium hit me up with an address and I will see if I can ship you out a little package. Jim was a major player in having their club host the Annual Frag Festival this year and last, so they have my continued support.

Left here is Kathleen, middle is Garret of The Premium Aquarium, and right we have Lexinverts. All very nice people here, Lexinverts is our Vendors Relations officer here for our club and Garret has been a supporting sponsor for a number of years making contributions when he can. Thanks Guys!

Left in this pic is BicycleBill, middle we have Taylorhardy, and on the right it's optimusprime. Bill, if any frag you get from me doesn't work out for some reason just let me know and I will get another one lined up for you. The cyphastrea I brought was very fresh cut and a little rough,. If you give it a dark spot and not too much flow it will come to and encrust, then color up a lovely bright golden red. Taylor, I hope your new tanks equipment acquisition goes smoothly, and once you have more room keep me in mind and I will cut you a piece of something. Very generous of you to hand out all those Acropora frags to people you have never met, in time the generosity will come back to you for sure. Dodge, you and I should meet up outside a meet sometime and shoot the pooo, I can bring a frag or two and maybe do a trade, or just let me check out the system. I been meaning to make a reefer run up north sometime in the not too distant future.

Garret saying hello to one of the newest coral kids on the block, Dominic and Reefermadness's newborn son. He is SO Tiny!!! Gonna take a while to grow that one out, but so far he is looking like a healthy start.

Gumby sitting down not knowing that FlashyFins is right behind him with a nice pair of rabbit ears. Merry Christmas!!! Cherany is another one of our awesome PNWMAS members who spends a number of unpaid hours working behind the scenes for our club. Thank You Cherany.

Stylaster sharing some of his coral wisdom with Ryan. Roy has been a generous contributing PNWMAS member for years and years and has served as club president on multiple terms. If you ever get a chance to strike up a salt water conversation with him, you should, he is a seasoned salty dog with a wealth of knowledge.

And yet another outstanding member of our club, Albertareef on the right has been a valuable asset to our PNWMAS office and Board Of Directors for a while now, always pitching in on keeping things straight and proper, good man.Here you can see that Flashyfins and Shaun make a stand up team and just knock out the tasks at hand like real pros, they ran the raffle like the veterans they are. 

And speaking of raffles....

DSBlack gets to add quite a bit more flow to his tank at home with his new Hydor circulation pump. It's always nice to have more flow or a back up pump that's for sure.

Lexinverts took away the AquaMedic Doser pump, I love the brand but have not tried a doser, once you get a chance to put it to the test maybe let us know what you think about it.

Talk about excited here! Youcallmenny gets a winning number pulled and hits it big! The Gyre pump should make some "waves" for you man. Put that thing to good use yeah.

Whats cool here is that from what I understand Brian and Grace here needed an RODI unit. Nice Score man!

Taylor got a brand new Vectra DC pump that will put his big boy tank build on the right track. Check that one off the list right!? 

The room had less than desirable lighting so many of my pictures were sub par. I did manage to get a couple that came out of the White Elephant but not many unfortunately. Next time I need to bring a flash, usually the ambient lighting at our events is from high lit reef tanks or outside so these incandescent bulbs really made it difficult on my camera.

White elephant gift exchange?... Or Pink elephants gift exchange? Sorry Dodge, you won't be holding onto that Malibu for long, there are a lot of thirsty folks in the room and you got your number drawn so early. By the way, love the VW shirt, represent.

Badxgillen AKA Bert unwrapped a whole box of fine hazzlenut chocolates...And when I say unwrapped, I mean I unwrapped them then and there. I have a little bit of a sweet tooth. I do like to share though so no one missed out on these treats.

BicycleBill unbagging a load of fishy ocean treats, looks like it could b e movie night soon Bill.

FlashyFins got some porcelain ocean life decor to spruce up her bathroom a little.

After we wrapped up the gift exchange we proceeded to just socialize and eat pizza. I acquired a few new coral frags and met a couple new faces that are on the forum. Combine that with getting to see my old friends and you have a winning combination. Unfortunately, before I knew it, it was time to leave.

After the meeting many of us went home as the weather left much to be desired, but several of us that don't get to Salem very often made a short trip over to The Premium Aquarium.

As usual the store did not disappoint and was full of aquatic treasure.

Did I mention I like candy?... 

There even just so happened to be a buy 3 get one free deal so you know I had to get myself 4 nice corals before I hit the road.

Tanks looked really good guys, keep up the good work yeah.

Anyhow, as I mentioned above, the annual holiday meeting did not disappoint, a room full of cool people, good food, killer prizes, and non stop reef talk made for a very fast and full 2 hours. Just like Christmas day, you take all the time to make sure it is a success, but then it is over before you know it.Well, regardless,  I had a Blast folks!

Thank you all who were able to attend and a BIG thank you to all who helped make it possible, our fine group of officers and BOD. Badxgillen, FlashyFin, Jeremevans, Lexinverts, Albertareef, Lewisfisherman, Youcallmenny, Paratore, Chief, TheClark, and All of our sponsors and All of our members...

You All ROCK, Reef ON!!!

HO HO HO, Merry Christmas Favia!!!

Hope you all had a happy holiday!!!

Yes Sir, it was a good one, we sure missed you and your crew Jeff. I am working on a little write up here so I will throw that up as soon as I am back from work. These holidays really kick my rear so I am now just getting back in gear.

Well Shoot!!! It seems there will be quite a few people not being able to make it to the meet, probably busy with holiday agendas I imagine.

I will be bringing the Red Cyphastrea, Oregon Mummy Eye, and a number of Twilight Dragon Acropora Frags that I need to get out of the sump. Let me see if I can get a frag of that green Digitata in there too.

 @Mandinga could you hook me up with a small frag of those fruit loops please?

 @Jeremevans I would not mind a little frag of those "Agaves" if you could spare em?

 @Gumby Do you still want some of the green with blue polyped flower petal Montipora?

 @pdxmonkeyboy  did you get your Appleberry Montipora?

 @Jeremevans  would you have a frag of that Acropora or the Purple Monsters?

 @Paratore maybe I could talk you out of a frag of Vampires or scrambled eggs?

 @youcallmenny let me know what you want me to snap off for your tank restructure and I will see if I can bring em tomorrow.