Origami

>> ANNUAL MEETING NOTICE<< Sunday, 21 March 2021 Time: 2:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M. (Speaker starts at 2:15 PM) Where: Virtual - Zoom + Facebook Live (to the WAMAS Group page) With our first virtual meeting under our belt, it's time to announce and to schedule our annual meeting, required by WAMAS bylaws. It's also an opportunity to get together and spend time to be both educated and entertained about topics on which we share mutual interest. . Like the last meeting, this meeting will be streamed to Facebook Live with limited participation available on our Zoom platform. We will post details of how to participate in this thread, so please check back as we update the thread with details. Since our last meeting went rather smoothly, we'll probably increase the number of Zoom slots available to the WAMAS Members, but (again) this will be by request only and first-come-first-served. (Please wait to make your request until AFTER registration has been announced.) This meeting will be free to WAMAS members and members of the WAMAS Facebook group. To view the meeting on the Facebook Livestream, you MUST be have an account on Facebook and must be a member of the WAMAS group. Only WAMAS members are eligible to vote in WAMAS elections and to participate in the raffle give-away (details below). Because we are unable to gather physically, we will establish and publicize election rules and the process to be used this year. ==> WAMAS ELECTIONS <== This meeting is also our annual meeting. The offices of Vice President and Secretary will be filled at this meeting (two year terms). Nominations will open soon for these position and will be announced here and in a separate thread. Agenda: 2:00 PM Announcements 2:10 PM Election Results 2:15 PM Speaker 3:30 PM Discussion / Q&A 4:00 PM Raffle/Doorprize Speaker: Stephen Hartter, Georgia Aquarium Topic: A Mega-Reef in Atlanta - The Past, Present and Future of a 164,000 gallon Live Reef Aquarium The Georgia Aquarium, located in downtown Atlanta, was the largest aquarium in the world when it opened in 2005. While the aquarium is known for some of its megafauna (Whale Sharks, Manta Rays, and Beluga Whales), it also contains one of the largest live coral reef aquariums in the world. In his talk, Steve will take a deep dive into the reef’s construction, modifications, maintenance, and challenges associated with such a large coral aquarium. Speaker Biography Since 1994, Steve has been an aquarium hobbyist and has filled his fish room with everything from aquatic turtles to planted and reef aquariums. To help pay his way through college and support his aquarium addiction, he worked at two large family owned fish stores in Michigan. Steve earned a degree in Zoology with a concentration in Marine Biology from Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University. Once graduated, Steve entered the public aquarium field. As a Senior Aquarist at the Florida Aquarium he managed a variety of exhibits from a few gallons to 500,000 gallons. Currently, Steve is a Senior Aquarist at the Georgia Aquarium, where he maintains the fourth largest live reef exhibit in the world. He is also heavily involved in the coral conservation field work that the Georgia Aquarium performs. Agenda: 3:00 PM Announcements 3:10 PM Introduction 3:15 PM Speaker 4:15 PM Discussion / Q&A 4:45 PM Raffle/Doorprize 5:00 PM End Raffle Prize(s) Grand Prize is The Plank Automatic Feeder from Avast Marine and some Reef Jerky! Avast Marine has deep roots in the WAMAS community, having been started and run by two long time members, Dan Lichens and Justin Casp. Many clubmembers have Avast equipment on our systems, or even other equipment that Dan originally designed, built and sold under the Grey Seas Aquatics name before founding Avast. The Plank automatic feeder represents another step forward by our favored sons (Captains) - attesting to a spirit of innovation that is grounded in a deeply rooted love of the hobby. The Plank is designed to feed your most delicate and selective tank inhabitants by delivering food the way many of them have evolved to eat - continuously, in microfeedings spread throughout the day. Safe and reliable, the Plank is designed to interface easily to an aquarium controller, automated light timers, or even smart-outlets controllable by your smart phone. Learn more about the Plank from Avast Marine, and all their innovations, at their website. And attend the meeting to get your chance to win one! As a bonus, the winner will also get some Reef Jerky! Other Raffle Items: $50 gift certificate to Puddle Aquatics, our newest sponsor! (Five chances to win!) $50 gift certificate to Dr. Mac's Pacific East Aquaculture (Two chances to win!) More to be added as we secure additional sponsor donations. We're hoping to have many chances for members to win, so don't miss this meeting! Raffle Process and Rules No purchase is necessary. The raffle is open to WAMAS members only. (You must be a member at the time of the drawing.) The WAMAS President is ineligible. The drawing will be held during the WAMAS meeting The winner must be "present" at the meeting (either through Zoom or Facebook) to claim the prize. If not present, we'll draw for the next winner. Members that sign up have an equal chance at winning. A week or so before the meeting, we'll start a sign-up thread in the forum. We'll post a link in this thread. Members participate in the raffle by posting once and once only to this thread. Duplicate sign ups will be deleted. If this rule is abused, a member may be removed as a partricipant. This thread will be closed the night before the drawing. No warning will be given to the thread closure. The WAMAS President will use an online random number generator to generate a number from 2 to the max post# in the thread and will announce the winning number. The drawn number identifies the winner by their post number (i.e., sequence number in the thread). If the winner is present, we'll mail or transfer the award to them. If not, we'll draw again until we have a winner. Thank You, WAMAS Sponsors Special thanks to these sponsors. WAMAS has deliberately avoided collecting sponsorship fees from them during these tumultuous times, but they need your support now more than ever. Please support them & say thanks next time you shop with them. You can find their website address by visiting their forum or the sponsor page on the WAMAS website. WAMAS Platinum Sponsors - Aquarium Depot - Avast Marine - Blue Ribbon Koi - Capital Aquarium - Chemipure - Dr. Mac's Pacific East Aquaculture - FishnReef.com - LRS Reef Frenzy - Pimped Out Aquarium - Piscine Energetics - Premium Aquatics - Reed Mariculture (Reef Nutrition) - Reef eScape - Reef2Rainforest Media (Coral Magazine) - SaltwaterAquarium.com - Supreme Reefs WAMAS Banner-Only Sponsors - Cobalt Aquatics - Coralvue - Jellyfish Art - Live Aquaria - MASNA - Two Little Fishies Special Thanks Special thanks to Eureka Strategic Consulting of Columbia, MD, who (through a donation) are sponsoring our virtual meetings in 2021. Watch this space for more information to be made available as it arrives!

Tony don't calibrate your refractometer based on an ICP test. Use a refractometer calibration solution. Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

It cleaned up real nice! Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

In normal operation, you expect a waste:pure ratio of 4:1 or 5:1. 20:1 is very poor. I suspect that your low pressure has a lot to do with it. The Dow Filmtec 75/100 gpd membranes that we see a lot of in the hobby, for example, cite 30 psi at the very bottom of their pressure curves with the lowest production. Low pressure also causes large amounts of waste water. A booster pump is needed or some other means of increasing pressure. On the plus side, if you're really getting 25 ppm TDS, that's really low and your DI resin should last a very, very long time if you have a decent membrane installed.

Welcome, Andrew. Sorry to be late to the welcoming committee!

Isaac, is it just that right hand small box with the hole or does the center one have one, too. Could it be that the two right hand boxes are for filtration of some sort, with the left most box as a return? The right most compartment might be first stage refugium or equipment, overflowing into the larger compartment on the left, then entering the two smaller boxes on the top (through the holes) to pass through mechanical filters media, then under the baffles to the last stage where the return pump is located. It is an unusual configuration....

Good gracious, it's Jessica! Welcome back. It's been a few years. I trust you're doing well?

Zoom slots closed. You can still join us on Facebook. We'll be streaming live to WAMAS group. If you're not already a member of the WAMAS group, join now and one of the admins will try to approve you before we get too far along.

Here you go, Paul: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDCaXm74Uu9aiTwnVub3xOg/videos

Lynn, try this link. I fixed it in Paul's post above.

I have a few more Zoom seats available for today's meeting. If interested, I'll take the next handful of requests before closing out the Zoom participant list. PM me if interested. We'll still be on Facebook Live!

Late raffle items from Reed Mariculture, makers of Reef Nutrition: * One $100 gift certificate * Two $50 gift certificates (2 chances to win) We'll raffle these off today. So that we can spread the wealth, if you win one of the previous items today, you'll be ineligible to win another raffle item. So we'll start with the MP10 and move down the list in order of decreasing value.

Just so people are aware: I am receiving various requests to attend the Zoom meeting. Because of our account, we have limited seats available to attend via that method and I will not respond to the requests until I have a full accounting of the situation. Your request has not fallen into a black hole. The default means of attending should be the Facebook livestream if at all possible to ensure that we have adequate resources available to all of us.

Moving thread to the dedicated tank build forum....

This meeting will be available to a very limited number of members through our Zoom account. (I've not yet set up the meeting link, but if you're interested in attending the meeting on Zoom, please send me a PM.) You will also be able to participate through a livestream to the WAMAS Facebook group. If you're not already a member of this group, you may want to sign up now because we may not be able to approve your request if things get too busy during the meeting.

Raffle Prize One Ecotech Marine MP10wQD Specifications Flow: 2,500 gph (9,500 LPH) Power Consumption: 8-19 Watts Tank Range: 2.5 - 50+ gallons (9.5 - 190 liters) Max Glass Thickness: 0.375 inches (9.5 mm) Raffle Process and Rules A virtual raffle is something that will be new for us, so please bear with us as we get through this together. Here's the essence of what we're thinking. No purchase will be necessary. The raffle will only be open to WAMAS members. Winner(s) must be present at the meeting to claim a prize if they win. If they are not present, we'll draw for the next winner. Members that sign up will have an equal chance at winning. A week or so before the meeting, we'll start a sign-up thread in the forum. Members would post once and once only to a thread in the members area. Rules will be included in the first post. The thread would be closed before the drawing. An online random number generator will be used to generate a number from 2 to the max post# in the thread. The resulting number would identify the member who won by their post number (i.e., sequence number in the thread). If the winner is present, we'll mail or transfer the award to them. If not, we'll draw again until we have a winner. If more than one item is being raffled, we'll repeat the process. (Previous winners will be automatically ineligible for subsequent drawings. If their number is drawn a second time, we'll announce the repeated number and simply draw again.)

Updated meeting topic and added raffle prize!

Saturday, 23 January 2021 Time: 3:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M. (Speaker starts at 3:15 PM) Where: Virtual - Zoom + Facebook Live (to the WAMAS Group page) This is our first shot at a virtual meeting and is aimed to educate and entertain, as well as work out any kinks in our meeting and streaming platform. We will try this first and will schedule our annual meeting for later - probably in March. We will post details of how to participate in this thread. We had Colby scheduled to speak last Spring, but COVID forced cancellation of that meeting. I'll update his bio and topic as needed/available. But, for now, I'll re-post his bio from last year's notice. Speaker: Colby Johnson Topic: Marine Angelfish: Life History and Reproductive Behaviors Colby will be providing an overview of the life history and reproductive behaviors of Marine Angelfish, and discuss how this information applies to our home aquariums. His hope is to convince aquarists to consider keeping more reef fish in pairs, and show them how to do it. Captive bred marine fish will continue to become ever more important, and there is a significant role hobbyists have to play in developing a greater understanding of captive reproduction of many of our favorite aquarium specimens. He will cover topics including selection, quarantine, tank sizing, nutrition and reproduction. Colby hopes that some of the audience will leave this talk with a renewed passion for marine angelfish and respect for their incredible diversity and behavior. Speaker Biography Colby is a 32 year old fish nerd, currently residing in the wonderful and rainy Pacific Northwest. His background runs the gamut from fisheries tech work, to aquaculture and of course, the marine aquarium industry. While he loves all fish, Marine Angelfishes and Syngnathids are histrue obsession. In the 20+ years he has spent in this hobby, he has had the privilege of working at numerous local fish stores and consulting for different companies in the industry. His professional focus is on marine fish reproduction and nutrition. In addition to numerous other hats, he is currently raising seahorses and working as an Aquaculture Technical Consultant for Reed Mariculture. Agenda: 3:00 PM Announcements 3:10 PM Introduction 3:15 PM Speaker 4:15 PM Discussion / Q&A 4:45 PM Raffle/Doorprize 5:00 PM End Raffle Prize One Ecotech Marine MP10wQD Specifications Flow: 2,500 gph (9,500 LPH) Power Consumption: 8-19 Watts Tank Range: 2.5 - 50+ gallons (9.5 - 190 liters) Max Glass Thickness: 0.375 inches (9.5 mm) Raffle Process and Rules A virtual raffle is something that will be new for us, so please bear with us as we get through this together. Here's the essence of what we're thinking. No purchase is necessary. The raffle is open to WAMAS members only. (You must be a member at the time of the drawing.) The WAMAS President is ineligible. The drawing will be held during the WAMAS meeting currently scheduled for January 23, 2021. The winner must be "present" at the meeting (either through Zoom or Facebook) to claim the prize. If not present, we'll draw for the next winner. Members that sign up have an equal chance at winning. A week or so before the meeting, we'll start a sign-up thread (click here) in the forum. Members participate in the raffle by posting once and once only to this thread. Duplicate sign ups will be deleted. If this rule is abused, a member may be removed as a partricipant. This thread will be closed the night before the drawing. No warning will be given to the thread closure. The WAMAS President will use an online random number generator to generate a number from 2 to the max post# in the thread and will announce the winning number. The drawn number identifies the winner by their post number (i.e., sequence number in the thread). If the winner is present, we'll mail or transfer the award to them. If not, we'll draw again until we have a winner. Thank You, WAMAS Sponsors Special thanks to these sponsors. WAMAS has deliberately avoided collecting sponsorship fees from them during these tumultuous times, but they need your support now more than ever. Please support them & say thanks next time you shop with them. You can find their website address by visiting their forum or the sponsor page on the WAMAS website. WAMAS Platinum Sponsors - Aquarium Depot - Avast Marine - Blue Ribbon Koi - Capital Aquarium - Chemipure - Dr. Mac's Pacific East Aquaculture - FishnReef.com - LRS Reef Frenzy - Pimped Out Aquariums - Piscine Energetics - Premium Aquatics - Reed Mariculture (Reef Nutrition) - Reef eScape - Reef2Rainforest Media (Coral Magazine) - SaltwaterAquarium.com - Supreme Reefs WAMAS Banner-Only Sponsors - Cobalt Aquatics - Coralvue - Jellyfish Art - Live Aquaria - MASNA - Two Little Fishies Special Thanks Special thanks to Eureke Strategic Consulting of Columbia, MD, who (through a donation) are sponsoring our virtual meetings in 2021. Watch this space for more information to be made available as it arrives!

Using inches as your unit of measurement, measure the inside diameter at the bottom and again at the shoulder. Add the two and divide by four. Square that number and multiply by 3.1415. Multiply that by the height of the shoulder from the bottom of the can. Divide by 231 to get a decent estimate of volume in gallons. Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

Tricia, first off you need to test whether or not your indoor air is the culprit here. Here's how. You'll need an air pump and an air stone for this. I assume that you've already got a calibrated pH meter. First, take a 1 - 2 cup sample of your tank water. Next, using a calibrated pH meter, get a reading on that sample. Now, aerate the sample for 5 to 10 minutes in fresh air. Measure the pH again after. If the pH rises in the sample, you have high indoor CO2 depressing your pH. That in itself need not be a concern. (I've never worried about chasing pH.) But, if you're really concerned and you're already dosing two-part, try switching from sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate. Sodium carbonate will absorb CO2, raising tank pH. Other methods, including using borate-based pH buffers are not recommended. Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

Typical stabilized salt rejection on this cheaper filter is 97% (96% min.). That's borne out by some of the reviews I just read. On the Dow Filmtec, it's 99% with a minimum of 98%. Under typical circumstances, you can expect your DI resin to last 3x longer with the Filmtec membrane (1% of dissolved salts passing through) versus the cheaper membrane (3% of dissolved salts). Operationally, you'll spend far more on DI resin before you have to change out your membrane. The Filmtec membrane is likely going to be a better choice.

Nice, Roni. Welcome back.

https://wamas.org/forums/topic/48670-steve-outlaw-is-not-the-only-one-now Here's one of several palytoxin threads here. These Palys were, at one time, somewhat common here in DC. People even saw them in some of the local shops back then. Mine came in on some rock that I inherited from the Membership Director that held the position before me many years ago. I had no idea that they could pack the punch they did

We have at least one more, too, that had a pretty serious run in. More serious than mine and it affected some in his household as I recall. .