badxgillen

What do we have for September gatherings you ask? Well, it has been a while since we made it up to North Mississippi  to visit our friends at Moloko's so we decided to have a casual meet and greet at this sponsors awesome reef themed pub. If you have not been there you are missing out on a very unique establishment. This will be a perfect mingling opportunity prior to next months upcoming big Frag Fest event. We can chill out, relax, and talk salt or just get to know each other more... A far cry from the hustle and bustle of the Expos.

 Being a meet and greet situation I think it would make sense to get a frag swap going on, I know many of us have some corals to trim and being two weeks away it makes for an ideal heal time on any of those fresh cuts. And since the shindig doesn't start until 4 it will give us a chance to shop at some of the Portland area saltwater stores prior, so bring a small cooler.

The address is-- 3967 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR 97227

Starts at 4:00PM until 6:00PM or whenever you want to go home on Saturday the 29th, they have a full service bar as well as some nice panini sandwiches amongst other edibles to choose from.

https://molokopdx.com/

Yeah, I think I will let the next in line go in for the prize, I was just in it to have fun really...And the frag of zoas of course.

Well a big kudos to those who were able to hang onto those polyps these last few months and grow them out, they were a finicky bunch at times weren't they. On the final roster we had...

Emerald 4 - 11,

JMurray 5 - 7,

Badxgillen 5 - 12,

LewisFishermana 4 - 8,

PDXmonkeyboy 4 - 11,

Kev311 4 - 22,

Jeremyeveans 6 - 12,

KristenHerr 2 - 5,

I will back rack some and double check but it is looking like the first place and grand prize goes too

Kev311

With second/Third place tied by PDXmonkeyboy and Emerald.

Congratulation too you all, anyone who still has their frag is a winner in my book. Thank you all for playing along with us, as always it was fun and insightful, until next time.

So I am sure many of you are going to wait until the last minute to post the final entry to get maximum growth for the allotted competition time. That being said tonight at midnight is the DEADLINE! Here is my last picture post, as you can see there are almost 12 polyps but they are all closed up now and looking downright shabby...At least I made it to the finish line though.

The end of the contest is upon us, its time to have a look at all those mini colonies you all are hiding, lets see who we can crown as the winner of the CNC Zoa Grow Out 2018.

 

I might be persuaded to give up my old PVC pipe and rubber band/zip tie setup...How much!?

That is correct, ONE more month to go! 

Then I am taking mine off the plug and mounting it to a rock and switching tanks... This Zoa has been very tempermental with me. Maybe one of youk nows the secret to keeping all the polyps open and would like to share?

I will grab some briquettes and lighter fluid just in case, I could grab some chips too while I am out and about.

I am going to try and be there a tad early to take it all in, provided weekend coast traffic isn't too bad, it is looking to be a really nice day ahead of us.

See you all there.

Tonight at midnight is the last entry time...Here is mine, slipping in at the last minute.

I actually have some growth, although they are not open, there are like 12 polyps now so almost double from he start. Almost as good as some of the other contestants here.

 

I was thinking cookies or brownies, as of now I am leaning towards brownies, so I would say Sweeeet. I have my fingers crossed for some good weather the day of the meet, last year was amazing so I am optimistic.

I will be attending and probably bringing something sweet food wise, it should be a wonderful weekend at the coast so I hope most of you can make it over. I am excited to see the renovated areas of the science center, and for Sid's presentation.

Yes it does look like purple plasma, sometimes when it gets hit hard by high lighting it can turn green like that.

Defibatelly a kind of Cladaphora type algae. I have said it once and I will say it again, this stuff is the Devil. It does not respond to the standard algae removal protocols. Almost nothing eats it except certain urchins, mostly ones that remove the first rock layer with their food stuffs, making control in nooks and crannies next to impossible. It can take prolonged Hydrogen peroxide dips and caustic PH kalkwasser burns only slow it down.

Make sure this stuff does not get anywhere else in the tank if possible, another time where prevention is much much easier than the "cure".

Sorry I am late to the party here but I have been absent for a few days.

If you have another pic of them top down that would be great to help get a more positive ID. But I have to agree that being preventative would be the best course of action and manual removal and dips being your go to "combat" methods. If they are So a eating Nudis it will take quite a bit of effort to deal with them.

I actually have a new polyp so I am at 7 heads now. Here are some terrible cell phone shots for my update.

Just creeping along, some days it they don't open and other days they are open and happy, not sure if something in my tank is disturbing them.

Good  job people, I am seeing more growth on some of these than I am mine but there is still alot that can happen in a couple months time. And don't forget folks, tomorrow is the deadline for the May updates.

May 2018 meet was another over the top meeting for the PNWMAS. For those who could not make it you missed out on a great event. 

Rudy at The Golden Basket hosted the May gathering and did Great, his family works together seamlessly and handled the clubs needs without a hitch. And Kim, Siirena, Scott, and Saun did an amazing job of coordinating, cooking, and setting up all of this. Wonderful people right here! 

Kim an Sirena in this pic getting all the kinks worked out before anyone even got there, this is an amazing couple right here. Emerald is ready with tickets for raffles in hand and in the background Sirena is making sure the margarita machine is ready to go...

And Yes, You heard that right, margarita MACHINE! One side was for the virgin blue raspberry slushy mix and the left was for the real deal margarita with tequila. This is the first "meeting" I have been to that had a margarita machine to dispense beverages.

Chef Scott helped Sirena by making a few things at home and maning the grill like he does so well. That marinated skirt steak was tasty stuff, never would have guessed there was soy sauce involved.

Albertareebt  in and setup a whole sound system for music along with a mini amp for the speakers and raffles. As you all know Saun is a stand up guy, always willing to pitch in here and there.

I had to include as much vertical as I could on a couple pictures here, not only to show off our OSU Beavers tent, but to take notice of the amazingly beautiful clear and sunny day we had. Several people had enough forethought to bring camping chairs to sit down outside and enjoy the sunny weather.

Like Lewisfisherman here, polarized shades are not a bad idea today...You might still need them once you go inside and see some of the amazing corals. I know you found a few bright gems in Rudy's shop.

Mark and Exodus having a conversation right before things got started, there were several early birds who were more than willing to be of assistance where needed like these two. Both are seasoned veterans in the salt water hobby.

Eclipse on a sunny day!? Good to see you, glad you found a little time to come out and hang with the PNWMAS crew.

As usual, once inside you see Rudy and his team just working away, move em in and move em out. These guys are either taking pictures or bagging corals, not a bad gig if you ask me.

Pantherguy, stopping in for a little bit. This guy has some insanely colored corals if you ever get a chance to snag a frag from him I highly recommend it.

BAAHHH!!! Its OptimusPrime rolling in with the cooler in hand, full of goodies no doubt. Sounds like you might need to setup an anemone containment tank, I have that other bubble tip for you next time we meet up.

Maxicurls here is a guy I haven't seen for a while, maybe we should make one of those impromptu Molokos meets and see whats in the reef tanks by the bar, while eating my panini.

PDXMnkey aand Albertareef talking about financial changes in the market and effects on consumers, alot has changed in the last few years that's for sure, I think it is great when things become more available and affordable. Win win for a guy like me.

Did someone call for, the Zorro!? Whenever there is a reefer in trouble he is there, and whenever there is a must have high end Acro, he will have it. No trouble here,except trying to pick only ONE must have high end acros at Rudy's...I went with the Olympic Torch but really there is no wrong choice.

Tesch here for another round of PNWMS meeting fun! We are one big coral reef family here at our Marine Aquarium Society with everyone on the same page of reefing. Hit me up sometimes if you want to do some trading man, I always have something that needs a trim.

Youcallmenny conversing with PDXreefer front left, in the back ground we have Albertareef laughing on the left, FlashyFins and Princeton talking with the Sasquatch center background, and Ken on the right.

Sharklover and DarkAngel didn't miss out on the festivities, so many cool corals and cool people this was certainly the happening place to be this last Saturday.

Was nice to meet a couple folks I had not seen before. Thanks Saltedwaffles for the zoa frags, hope the chalice works out for you, just let me know if it gives you any trouble and I will see what I can do.

Jeremevans and his future reef enthusiast.  hope you two are ready for a talk, because the PNWMAS Board chose a few members to act as a panel to answer some SPS focused questions. 

We missed you Roy, but Rudy and I tried to manage without you, we covered a lot of ground in a short time so I hope some of the audience was able to use at least some of the information spoken. For those of you who missed it Roy answered a few questions right here.  http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/topic/43136-what-sps-questions-do-you-have/?page=2

 

We even had Danlu speak about lighting wavelengths and LED diodes which can shed some "Light" on aspects of coral colors and growth. Recurrent flicker of %100 strength diodes to solve wavelength issues seems totally sound. If you want to talk about lights this guy knows a thing or two for sure.

After the presentation was done we moved onto the next event...The Raffles!

Get Your Tickets!!!

Just look at all these prizes! I don't know how we pull together so much good stuff for these raffles but alot of it has to do with our amazing group of officers and our generous sponsors, Thanks You Guys and Gals!

Patiently waiting with tickets for the ensuing raffle. Back left R-3, front right ReefRun, and behind right we have Walt.

Damien taking home one of the LED units, Whoop Whoop!!! Solid units right there man, nice score.

FlashyFins taking home the Upscalees Certificate here. Show me the Money!

Spectra coming in for the win! This guy most certainly deserves it, he has always been very generous as well as being a helpful hand when he can, Scotts a good man.

Lora and SRoberts took home not only the other LED unit but also a pass to the upcoming MACNA event. Talk about a lucky day!

At the end of it all we had all the helping hands we needed to take it down and wrap it up, you could call this team work or comradery , either way I love this crew.

Sirena and Kim loading the truck to the brim Ike they have done this before, these two are real troopers, excellent job ladies, excellent job.

So that was our Awesome May 2018 meeting. Another one for the records, a most outstanding meet if I do say so myself. The feeling of community was really there, the laughing, the trading, the conversing, and all round good times.

Thank You GoldenBasket, Thank You Emerald, Thank You Sirena, Thank You Spectra, Thank You Albertareef. you ALL made this one special and one to remember. And thanks to our PNWMS Crew, you make this forum go round, keep it real y'all...See you next month at the MHSC yeah!

Reef On!!!

 

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We bring you another public PNWMAS announcement, the Annual summer MHSC visit is almost upon us and the day is set for this informative upcoming meeting. Last year the weather was wonderful making the trip to the Newport Coast fabulous for before and after visits up and down our west coast! Sid is doing his best to make sure we have access to their personal break area which includes an indoor and outdoor alcove with benches, picnic area, and a grill spot sporting a Weber BBQ. I recommend a potluck style event were you can bring a dish and sample others so bring something healthy, or bring something sweet, just bring something good to eat.

You all will want to save the date on the calendar for this one. 

June 30th 12:00 at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.

2030 SE Marine Science Dr, Newport, OR 97365

And for those of you who don't know the facility has had a recent overhaul a couple months back improving just about everything there is, so it should have plenty new to see even for those of us who have attended the previous years. And if all this wasn't enough reason to come out, the director Sid is going to take us to a different wing of the marine center and give us a personal hands on fish health workshop demonstration! Here are a few pics from last years killer presentation.

Last year this was an amazing experience in which we learned a number of protocols implemented in a facility like the HMSC including skin scrapes, gill samples, microscope identifications, and health assessment.

I mean who wouldn't want to get the knowledge and experience of this kind of nitty gritty tooth and claw kind of stuff!. There is much to see and learn here.

Say AAAHHHH Mr. Wolf Eel, its time for your check up.

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

I actually gave the bobbit worm to my son a while back to keep in a small nano by itself, I am sure I have a few here pictures here somewhere.

I am bringing the OME that was requested and  couple SPS frags for good measure.

I am sure I have a few pieces I could part with, but I live in Corvallis.

YES, that is correct, it leaves about a two week window which should be enough for even busy people like myself.

Looks like I might need to grab some extra tickets for this one. This is indeed another set of killer raffle prizes, thanks a ton to all our sponsors for their contributions and to Golden Basket for throwing down so many extra prizes. Good Stuff.