Gatortailale

Add ideas here for vendors and working to get more focused donations from meeting * gift cards from stores to get more customers in stores * big items from online stores

Time: 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Speaker starts at 3:00 PM) Where: North Bethesda Middle School, 8935 Bradmoor Drive, Bethesda, MD 20817 WAMAS members get in free. Guests are $10 each (paid at the door). Join WAMAS at this link Agenda: 1:00 Sign-in / socialize / frag sales 1:30 Workshop - TBD 2:00 Break / socialize / frag sales 3:00 Speaker - Charles Delbeek - Lessons Learned from Managing a 212,000 Gallon Reef Tank over 18 years 4:00 Break 4:15 Raffle! Directions to North Bethesda Middle School: - NOTE: The school is just inside the north edge of the beltway near Old Georgetown Road. Here's a map from Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/bKz79Y9HmQF2 Bio: J. Charles Delbeek is currently Curator of Aquarium Projects at the Steinhart Aquarium, California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California. Charles consulted on the design of the Academy's 212,000 gallon reef system and now manages the team that cares for this challenging system. Previously Charles spent 13 years working at the Waikiki Aquarium in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and serves on the Steering Committee for the Aquatic Invertebrate Taxon Advisory Group (AITAG). Charles' professional interests include the ecology and captive husbandry of marine and freshwater fishes, live corals, mangroves, seagrasses, freshwater aquatic plants and cephalopods. Charles co-authored three popular aquarium books with Julian Sprung from 1994 to 2005; The Reef Aquarium series. Since 1986, Charles has presented at over 160 conferences, aquarium clubs and scientific meetings, and has written over 100 articles and papers. In recognition of his long history of contributions to the marine aquarium hobby, he was presented with the MASNA Award in 2008. Presentation Title: Lessons Learned from Managing a 212,000 Gallon Reef Tank over 18 years J. Charles Delbeek M.Sc. Curator of Aquarium Projects Steinhart Aquarium - California Academy of Sciences While managing the largest indoor reef in North America over the past 18 years, one learns a thing or two. From lighting, to filtration to even the use of magic erasers, we have been able to glean a few things. However, the most telling thing, and the one that has led a miraculous turn around in our system in coral health, growth and system stability, has been the work we have done in understanding the role of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) levels, and more importantly, the ratio of these two and how this value level may have greater importance than their individual levels. While our understanding of the role of dissolved nutrients in coral health in aquaria is still evolving, I feel the examination of N:P ratios may be a useful tool to have in your toolchest when troubleshooting coral issues. This presentation will present an overview of the system and evidence of how the N and P ratios affected the health of our corals and, ultimately led to a dramatic improvement in the system. Sponsors On Site, Selling Vendors On Site, Selling Members On Site, Selling @gws3 Special thanks to theses sponsors. Please support them & say thanks next time you shop with them. WAMAS Platinum Sponsors - Air, Water & Ice - Avast Marine - Blue Ribbon Koi - Champion Lighting & Supply - ChemiPure (Boyd Enterprises) - Coral Candy Aquaculture - Exotic Reef Creations - Fintastic Aquariums of Maryland - Frank's Tanks - Reed Mariculture (Reef Nutrition) - Reef eScape - Supreme Reefs WAMAS Banner-Only Sponsors - Bulk Reef Supply - Cobalt Aquatics - Coral Magazine - Jellyfish Art - Maxspect - Two Little Fishies

Were you using an outlet to control a heater directly, instead of running heating control via an Inkbird? I did this few years ago and over time the energy draw of heater and cycling caused by EB832 to fail. I think I've read about people on Facebook neptune group discussing way to fix bar. But expensive lesson to learn to not have outlet control a heater directly. Mine did similar thing of flashing lights. Mine still has power to some outlets so I pulled the interface control wire and just use as a constant on power outlet now.

Hope everyone who came out to the meeting had a great time and went home with some nice frags. While you are snowed in the next few days feel free to share pictures of what you got.

Here’s your 2026 Officer team: President - Craig Kuhn @Gatortailale Vice President - Garrett Stone @gastone Treasurer - Chris Mahoney @ReeferMan Membership Director - Michael Iskander @monstamich Secretary - Jim Gentile @Jgents Thanks to outgoing officers Nilkki Bridges, Scott Friedman, & Milton English for their years of service to the club!

What a fantastic meeting and it was great to see over 85 member-attendees come out & enjoy a great lecture, feast on the potluck food, and go home with several frags to add to their collection. I reckon we were fortunate the weather held off so that we could go forward with event. Thank you Dr. Richard Pyle for taking the time to speak to our club. We are fortunate that we know a guy with connections to make it possible, @copps 😉 On behalf of myself and all the Officers + membership, we appreciate all the contributions from our fantastic sponsors - over 135 vendor donated frags - as well as the 150+ member donated frags. Thank you Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine @johnnybv @Coral Candy Aquaculture @Combat Corals Top Shelf Aquatics, & Frag Shack from NJ. Amazing! 🙏 And thanks to Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine, Combat Corals, & Frag Shack from NJ for setting up a tank with all those tempting corals in your booth displays, even with snow in the forecast. In addition, I want to thank all the members who answered our request for help in bringing a dish to share in the potluck or coming early/ staying late to help with the room setup & cleanup. Appreciate everyone engaging and making WAMAS community special to apart of. Special thanks to the WAMAS Officers, especially the newly elected who jumped into the fire and worked their butts off for their first time to put on the meeting, as wellas Dan who helped at the welcome desk. And thanks to Our President Emeritus, Tom & Doug, who continue to donate their time to help the club. 🙏 In closing thank you Garrett & Chris for your efforts working with our sponsors and vendors to source frags & developing a plan to get frags to our members & speed us on our ways. 🍻

Meeting is on - latest weather forecast shows snow not arriving until 11:00 pm tonight. We have over 125 vendor donated frags (SPS, LPS, Zoas, Softies, Euphyllia) from: - Blue Ribbon Koi - Coral Candy Aquaculture - Graham (GW3) - Fragshack - NJ - Top Shelf Aquatics * Attendees get a free ticket for a vendor frag; bring a potluck dish, get an extra ticket for a free vendor frag. * Extra vendor frags; and member donated frags, will be available in the WAMAS Fundraiser White Elephant Fragfest Exchange (for a small fee) - All proceeds go to WAMAS to help make events like this possible. We also have the following sponsors/vendors/members selling frags: - Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine - Combat Corals - Graham (GW3) will be selling frags and typically will pre-sale via the WAMAS forums. - Fragshack - NJ If you aren’t a member and you’d like to join, do it in advance of the meeting at https://wamas.org/forums/join.php/ You can join at the door, but we don’t want to create a backlog for our volunteer door checkers. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Forecast shows the snow holding off until later Saturday night, so right now we are still planning to hold the meeting. We will also look into adjusting the agenda and see how we can speed things up to try to get everyone out sooner and back home. We will update all social media platforms and send email from the Forums if updates or changes need to be made.

Welcome. Looking forward to meeting you and saying hi at the meeting. We appreciate the support as we are an all volunteer org. and your membership goes to good use putting on the meetings and paying for forums and other operation items. Craig

Rich Pyle's talk title and abstract has been added to original post.

We are working to get a list of vendor donated frags posted soon. In members-only forum is a thred on signing up to bring a potluck dish. Below are a few pictures from the frag event and potluck last year.

Next up to spotlight and thanks to is Fintastic Aquariums of Frederick. Fintastic Aquariums came on board as a WAMAS sponsor in early 2025. Whether you’re a Maryland resident or live in the DC Metro area Fintastic Aquariums has the fish & coral you are looking for to add to your saltwater collection. The staff can provide maintenance services to your aquatic system, offers install services for both residential and commercial clients, and 24-hour emergency service to help address a problem. The store also carries a complete line of products and supplies to keep your tank clean and livestock healthy and well fed. Be sure to visit the store or online at: Fintastic Aquariums of Frederick

Next up to give a special thanks to is Air, Water, & Ice. AW&I offers lab-grade water purification systems and filtration media at affordable prices. Check out their Reefkeeper line of RODI systems which are perfect for your saltwater aquarium. Need parts for your water filtration system, or want to expand and add a drinking water system to your home, AW&I has everything you need to get the job done. And orders over $99 ship free. Remember, WAMAS members get a 10% discount when placing orders with Air, Water and Ice! Use discount code #29439 Thank You Air, Water, & Ice for your support of the club! Check out the online store here: https://airwaterice.com/

Next up to give a special thanks to is Champion Lighting & Supply. Celebrating 40 years of business, Champion is your online one stop shop for all your saltwater hobby needs. Whether you are looking to pick up a name brand product or looking for an item from Champion's Blueline product line, they have it all. And considering their warehouse is located in PA most items arrive to the DMV area within one day of shipment. Beyond Champion Lighting & Supply sponsoring the club, they also sponsor and support numerous hobby-related conferences and aquaculture projects like Reef Retreat conference and the Florida Aquarium's coral spawning project (as discussed by Keri O'Neil at fall meeting). Be sure to add a note to the comments of your order to thank them for their support of the club. You can check out all Champion offers here: https://championlighting.com/

Next up to give a special thanks to is Reed Mariculture/Reef Nutrition. Reed Mariculture offers a vast line of cultured live feeds, phytoplankton, live pods, nutritious pellet foods and much more to support both the professional hatchery and home hobbyist alike. They are recognized as one of the industry leaders for their techniques in culturing & handling processes to create sterile products to help you have maximum success with captive breeding fish and inverts and feeding your reef tank. Reef Nutrition is a long time sponsor of the club and supports the club holding in person quarterly meetings. You can check out their product line here: https://reedmariculture.com/ Thank you Reed Mariculture/Reef Nutrition for your continued support of the club!

26th year of the club, Special Thanks To Our Sponsors: Next up we want to give special thanks to Two Little Fishies. TLFs owner/founder Julian Sprung spent time in his early years working at Rick's Fish & Pet Supplies in Frederick, MD. Julian has also authored or co-authored numerous books and articles over the years and is recognized at one of the leaders and respected speakers in the reef aquaria hobby. Today, TLFs is one of the premiere global companies who create aquarium products that work; feature a line of trace elements, filter media, salt, water conditioners, foods, and much more to support your hobby needs. He is the winner of 2004 MASNA Aquarist of the Year, and you can catch him speaking or working his booth at one of the Reefapalooza, Aquashella, Aquatic Expo, or other conferences. Julian has given talks to the club a few times over the years and was a strong supporter/sponsor of the club when we hosted MACNA 2005 & 2015 in DC. Be sure to pick up their products at one of the club-sponsor local fish stores or an online vendor who sponsors WAMAS. To learn more about Two Little Fishies & see Julian's Thing, visit the website here: https://twolittlefishies.com/

26th year of the club, Special Thanks To Our Sponsors: Next up to give a special thanks to is Supreme Reefs. The shop is located in Fairfax, VA and serves the northern Virginia/DC Metro area and the online community. Supreme has a knowledgeable staff with years of dedication to caring for and creating aquatic systems. The team maintains an extensive aquaculture farm of corals and also has a vast selection of fish & inverts. Need equipment, maintenance, or installation help, they can provide all that and more. Unique at Supreme Reefs is their offering of some rare fossils, minerals, and other crystal rocks & stones. Be sure to stop by the shop in person, shop online, or catch them at one of the regional coral shows to get some of their corals to add to your collection. Check out Supreme Reefs here: https://supremereefs.com/

Officer nominations for the 2026 elections of 3 positions is up in the Member News section - WAMAS Elections - 2026 (Nominations Thread)

26th year of the club, Special Thanks To Our Sponsors: Next up we want to give special thanks to Reef eScape. Another of the fantastic local fish stores in the metro DC area based in Fairfax, VA. Owner Phil Wind was also a WAMAS member in the early 2000's before stepping away from a desk job to open Reef eScape. In the shop's early years, the focus was on service accounts. However, after repeated request from numerous members, Reef eScape opened its operations to retail business as well. They now offer one of the areas most extensive fish QT protocol for all fish brought into the store. In addition, operations have expanded in recent years and the store has an extensive aquaculture farm operation running as well. If you are looking tank service, equipment, consultation on your next tank upgrade, and things in between, give our sponsor Reef eScape a look. Learn more about Reef eScape here: https://www.reefescapeaquarium.com/

26th year of the club, Special Thanks To Our Sponsors: Next up we want to give a shout out to Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine. One of the fantastic local fish stores in the metro DC area based in Catharpin, VA. BRK also has deep connections to WAMAS & owner John Bianchi was an active member of the club back in the early 2000s before he added the marine aquatics side to his business. You can also see the details of BRK's support of the WAMAS club on their about page of their website. In addition, at the 25th anniversary party last year BRK donated over 80 amazing coral frags that members go to take home for free. (Another frag-fest / member party is in the works for January 2026). BRK has a vast inventory of fresh and saltwater fish and inverts as well as the show-stopping Koi offerings and pond installation/maintenance. In short, BRK has it all to support your aquatic hobby needs. Check out Blue Ribbon Koin & Marine here: https://www.blueribbonkoi.com/pages/about-us Check out their Fantastic Fridays - last Friday of every month when they stay open until 10 pm and offer lots of specials.

As we wrap up the 26th year of the club, we wanted to thank our sponsors for their generous support. Their donations help make holding quarterly meetings with out-of-town speakers possible. We appreciate each and every sponsors support in more ways than we can say in words. So as you close out the end of year and holiday season and are looking for last minute gift ideas, or want to support a local (VA) company with deep roots to WAMAS, please give Avast Marine Works a look and check out some of their latest offerings - the Matey and Plank Mini to help with your feeding routine. Visit Avast here: https://www.avastmarine.com/ And from their website: Since 2010, Avast has challenged conventional reefkeeping by never accepting the status quo as the best it could be. The pirate mindset is a willingness to be transparent, a determination to disrupt the established order, and a push to design and manufacture truly groundbreaking solutions for modern aquarists. Aboard our ship, you will receive the highest quality American-made products, lightning-fast shipping, and world-class customer service. As an Avasty, you are not just buying a product; you are helping reshape the future of reefkeeping.

You can pay by check, info under about wamas page. Just DM me if mailing so I can check po box. WAMAS P.O. Box 8831 Reston, VA 20195-8831 Club account is not linked to Venmo, or Zelle at this time.

This year we are combining our Winter/Annual meeting with Fragfest. We will vote on club officer positions that up for election (President, Treasurer, and Membership Director); hand out free frags / do white elephant frag exchange; and enjoy a potluck lunch together and hear a presentation by Dr. Richard Pyle. WHO: WAMAS Club Members & Family WHEN: January 24, 2026 Time: 1:30 - 5:00 pm WHERE: Green Acres Center, 4401 Sideburn Rd., Fairfax, VA FOOD: Potluck lunch Speaker: Dr. Richard L. Pyle - "Diving Deep into Biodiversity: Leveraging the Latest Technology to Explore Deep Coral Reefs." Agenda: 1:30 Sign-in / socialize / frag sales 1:45 Potluck lunch 2:15 Club business & Election / frag sales 3:00 Speaker - Dr. Richard Pyle 4:00 White Elephant frag exchange 4:45 Raffle! 5:00 Cleanup - Quarterly meeting raffle prizes - 50/50 cash drawing (benefit WAMAS) - FREE Frags (from WAMAS Sponsors) - White Elephant - frag exchange gift table (bring a frag(s), get a frag(s) - bring frag(s) & get extra tickets for chance to win frag(s) from frag tables Come celebrate with us at this event. Dr. Richard L. Pyle Title: Diving Deep into Biodiversity: Leveraging the Latest Technology to Explore Deep Coral Reefs Abstract: Global Biodiversity is unambiguously the most valuable resource on Earth for the future of humanity. It provides the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat, likely contains the cures to most (if not all) human diseases, and holds solutions to some of the most important challenges of our time (e.g., removing CO2 from the atmosphere, converting sunlight into chemical energy with 90%+ efficiency, etc.). Global Biodiversity represents the Greatest Library on Earth, containing the accumulated wisdom of billions of years of evolution. At this stage in human history, we are like kindergartners running through the aisles of the Library of Congress, vaguely aware of the enormity of the information surrounding us, but largely oblivious to the value of its contents. Tragically, this Library is burning, with the effects of climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, over-exploitation and other factors converging to drive Earth’s Sixth Great Extinction event. Whenever a species goes extinct, it’s like burning the last copy of a book, forever losing whatever important secrets it contained. After more than 250 years of effort, we’ve only managed to establish 10–20% of the Card Catalog for this Library (i.e., naming and describing species) – let alone reading and understanding their contents. The remaining 80–90% of books in this burning library (undiscovered species) remain entirely unknown to us. Almost by definition, the species we already know about are the easiest for us to find. The vast majority of undiscovered species inhabit parts of the planet that are exceedingly difficult for humans to access. Oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface, and represent 99% of habitable ecological volume. As terrestrial mammals, humans are limited in their ability to explore undersea environments, replying on simple technologies to peek into the shallowest depths, and expensive submersibles and other devices to plumb the abyss. Oceans are Earth’s greatest unexplored frontier. Coral Reefs are often described as the “rainforests of the sea”, harboring an incredible array of diverse organisms. Although SCUBA has allowed researchers to explore coral-reef habitat down to about 50 meters (150 feet) or so for decades, coral-reef ecosystems extended down to about 200 meters (660 feet) or more. For more than half a century, a team of researchers at Bishop Museum in Honolulu have pioneered the use of new technologies to explore coral reefs. This included the use of early SCUBA and underwater photography in the mid-20th century, revolutionizing the application of mixed-gas diving and close-circuit rebreathers for coral-reef exploration starting in the 1980s and continuing today, and the use of advanced robots designed for space exploration and cutting-edge DNA sequencing techniques in recent years. Bishop Museum is about to launch the Center for the Exploration of Coral Reef Ecosystems (EXCORE), which aims to leverage decades of pioneering scientific exploration and discovery to fundamentally transform how coral-reef habitats and their inhabitants are documented. Humanity is in a race to document biodiversity before its lost forever, and there has never been greater urgency for us to pick up the pace. There is no time to lose. Bio: Dr. Richard L. Pyle is the Director of the Center for the Exploration of Coral Reef Ecosystems (EXCORE) and Senior Curator of Ichthyology at Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu. He received his PhD in Zoology in 2003, and his primary research interest is to explore and document Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems (coral-reef habitat at depths of 30-200 meters). He has led and supported over 80 exploratory research expeditions around the tropical Indo-Pacific, with particular emphasis on the discovery of new species of fishes and other organisms, and documenting patterns of biogeography and depth distributions. Richard’s other focus is the development of computer database systems, primarily to manage systematic and biogeographic information. He has published over 220 scientific, technical and popular articles and chapters on ichthyology, diving technology, biodiversity data and saltwater aquarium fishes; given over 270 public presentations (including two TED talks); posted dozens of blogs (including one of the first-ever real-time scientific expedition blogs in 1997); has been featured in over 50 film projects (IMAX, National Geographic, BBC, Discovery Channel, and others); has been profiled in over 50 published articles (including the cover-feature of Science); and has served in dozens of roles for organizations focused on research, exploration, technology and international data standards. He also recently completed his 18-year term as a Commissioner and Counselor for the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), and he conceived, developed and maintains ZooBank (zoobank.org), among other biodiversity data systems. As a lifelong saltwater aquarist, Richard’s passion for fishes began with collecting and keeping fishes in his home aquariums. Sponsors On Site, Selling Coral Candy Aquaculture @Coral Candy Aquaculture Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine @johnnybv Vendors On Site, Selling @Combat Corals @VA Coral Cabin Members On Site, Selling @gws3 Special thanks to theses sponsors. Please support them & say thanks next time you shop with them. WAMAS Platinum Sponsors - Air, Water & Ice - Avast Marine - Blue Ribbon Koi - Champion Lighting & Supply - ChemiPure (Boyd Enterprises) - Coral Candy Aquaculture - Exotic Reef Creations - Fintastic Aquariums of Maryland - Frank's Tanks - Reed Mariculture (Reef Nutrition) - Reef eScape - Supreme Reefs WAMAS Banner-Only Sponsors - Bulk Reef Supply - Cobalt Aquatics - Coral Magazine - Jellyfish Art - Maxspect - Two Little Fishies ** INTERESTED in helping make this event a success - please send an email to officers@wamas.org or send a message to me or any of the officers and let us know you are interested in helping. Fintastic.webp

Good luck with move. We will miss you. https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/live-coral

Post by Coral Candy of some of the coral candy they are bringing to meeting tomorrow. Facebook post - See video for better image quality than my screen-grabs below Zoas 5 for $75 rack