SuncrestReef

The Holidays are nearly upon us, so it’s once again time to hold our Twelve Days of Giving raffles.  We introduced this tradition in 2020 and again in 2021 to make up for our lack of in-person meetings, but it was such a big hit that we are doing it again this year in addition to our December holiday party.

We will be giving away some great reefing prizes, one per day, starting on December 1st.   Each day I will draw a random name at 5:00pm, announcing the winner of the daily prize.  The prizes get bigger and better each day, until the final prize is given away on December 12th.  Since our holiday party will be on December 10th, we will announce that day's winner at the party.  The winner does not need to be present.

Entry is free to all Supporting Members.  If you are not yet a Supporting Member, now is a great time to sign up.  Instructions here:  

Contest rules:

1. One entry per Supporting Member.  If you have a Family Membership, one entry counts for two.
2. Your Supporting Membership must be valid through the end of the contest, on December 12, 2023.  If you’re unsure of your membership expiration date, send me a PM and I can look it up for you.
3. To enter, post a reply to this thread saying “I am a Supporting Member”.  This will be your entry for all 12 drawings.
4. All entries must be received by 11:59:59 pm on Thursday, November 30, 2023.  This thread will be locked after the deadline.

Winners will be announced on this thread:  

Good luck, everyone!  And happy reefing.

3 minutes ago, Saltfishlover said:

That was the first time I've seen this and omg! Best video ever about coral

You're in for a treat:  He has over 70 of these True Facts videos about all sorts of animals, and they're all hilarious!  Check out his channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/@zefrank/videos

And here's another great new video, this time about crabs:  

Mark your calendars for Spy in the Ocean:  Deep Relationships airing on OPB at 8:00pm on November 8.  Looks interesting.

Preview:

https://watch.opb.org/video/about-spy-in-the-ocean-deep-relationships/

I'll be there.

Here's a video of my torch spawning:

Back when I had my tank, my favorite was watching my diamond goby at bedtime when he would dive through the sandpile he spent an hour building to finally hide for the night.  Here's a slow-motion video of the dive, and the confused look on the anthias watching him disappear:

Just curious, who were some of the big raffle winners?

Thanks to our PNWMAS community for raising a total of $2,597.02 for our Tanks for Teachers program during the meeting at @CuttleFishandCoral!!!

Another great video:

The following PNWMAS Supporting Memberships will expire before the September meeting at Cuttlefish.  If you plan to attend the meeting and would like to receive your free raffle ticket as a Supporting Member of PNWMAS, be sure to renew your membership prior to the meeting on Sept. 24th.

If your name is in the list above, see this post for instructions to renew your membership:  

If you're not yet a Supporting Member and would like to sign up (which includes a free raffle ticket at all PNWMAS events along with other perks) click the link above to become a Supporting Member.  It's only $24 per year for individuals or $30 per year for families.

PNWMAS Supporting Member benefits include:

• One free raffle ticket at all club events (two tickets for Family memberships)
• Member only raffles
• Member only Classified ads
• Access to loaner PAR meter 
• Group buys
• Limited Grow Out competitions
• Access to Officer/Board nominations and voting
• Larger profile picture

In addition the the list above, the following memberships will expire this week prior to the meeting.  Be sure to renew before Sunday:

On 8/19/2023 at 1:08 PM, SuncrestReef said:

Unfortunately our forum software doesn’t provide any way to check your own membership expiration date.  As an Admin I have access to that data.  When I return home from my trip on Monday I will run a report to see which accounts expire soon and reach out to those members to inform them before the meeting.

I just posted a list of expired memberships here:

https://www.pnwmas.org/forums/topic/52866-expired-memberships/

As we approach this weekend's August meeting at Upscales, I wanted to reach out to those PNWMAS members with expired memberships. Since all paid Supporting Members receive a free raffle ticket at club meetings, I don't want any of you to miss out in case you were unaware of your expired membership.  If your name is in the list below, see this post for instructions to renew your membership:  

The following memberships have expired recently:

32 minutes ago, Lexinverts said:

Good question, Mark. @SuncrestReef do you know how to check this? It still shows "supporting member" under your avatar so it looks like it is still valid, but I'm not sure how to see the date of renewal. 

Unfortunately our forum software doesn’t provide any way to check your own membership expiration date.  As an Admin I have access to that data.  When I return home from my trip on Monday I will run a report to see which accounts expire soon and reach out to those members to inform them before the meeting.

I’m on my way home from Malaysia where I spent 10 days on safari through the jungle.  I saw some amazing wildlife and wanted to share the photos with all of you.  Enjoy my photo gallery here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v27fxrgnwzpxfla/AAACw-RGlrBDXtKP2zj4y07Qa?dl=0

Cell phone carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon) were frequently blacklisting Neptune's SMS servers which led to tons of tech support tickets.  They eventually gave up on battling the SMS providers so that feature was removed.  The preferred method is to use Push notifications through the Fusion app on your phone or tablet.  Be sure to go into your phone's settings and allow notifications from the Fusion app.

I saw this photo of pink and red snow in Utah and immediately thought it looked like a case of cyano.  Turns out I was close.

Full story:  https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/25/us/watermelon-snow-utah-trnd/index.html

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend this year.  But here are some photos from last year's meeting & tour:

https://www.pnwmas.org/forums/topic/50752-june-pnwmas-meeting-hatfield-marine-science-center/?do=findComment&comment=489206

Holly,

I'm curious about how you're using your fish room now.  That was a lot of space.

Hope all is well!

I cut the bottom out of a small Tupperware container to use as a feeder ring to keep the fish food from getting sucked down the overflow:

How did it go?  Sorry I couldn't make it today.

Anyone have photos?   Who were the big raffle winners?

Before assuming the EB832 is bad, have you confirmed the EB832 output is programmed properly?  I assume you'd want this output set to "Always On" and let the ATO turn itself on and off as needed.

I agree with @Bevo5 to try resetting it to factory defaults.  Disconnect the Ethernet cable, then use a paperclip to press and hold the reset button on the back of the Apex for 30 seconds until the logo light turns red, then release the paperclip.  It should then cycle through all the colors and the logo should turn blue indicating it's in WiFi Setup mode.  At that point you can follow Neptune's instructions to set it up as if it was brand new out of the box.

8 hours ago, obrien.david.j said:

Your video has fantastic depth of field.  I haven't been able to reproduce that.   Any insights, or techniques to get better depth of field?

Obviously, I'm not a microscope guru.  I'm not even an experienced microscope driver.  Just a new microscope newbie.

I don't know of any specific settings to increase depth of field.  In my video, I was frequently adjusting the focus knob which changes the focal plane to show off the upper and lower structures of the subject, so perhaps that gave the illusion of greater depth of field.  The focal plane is a very thin layer, especially at higher magnification.  I think I was at 40x at the beginning of the video, then increased to 200x and 400x at the end.