SAVE THE DATE

We are excited to bring in Tia to speak to the club about successful care of macro algae and use as a bio-media.

 

WHO: WAMAS Club Members & Family

WHEN: November 14, 2026

Time:  2:30 - 6:00 pm 

WHERE: Green Acres Center, 4401 Sideburn Rd., Fairfax, VA

Speaker: Tia Davis-Wells - "TBD - (talk on macro algae) 

 

BIO:

 

Tia is a marine biologist whose work bridges ecology, chemistry, and aquaculture.  An Honors graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Marine Biology program, Tia has conducted research on zooxanthellae expulsion in Cassiopeia sp. with implications for coral bleaching, conservation of the endangered diamondback terrapin, and more. She is the head scientist at a mushroom cultivation and compost analysis lab, where she develops algae-based nitrogen supplementation, and she also leads her own company dedicated to scientific testing and the aquaculture of macroalgae for agricultural applications. Her current research investigates how different macroalgae species absorb trace elements, the biochemical properties of algae—including pigments and nutritional value—and their potential applications in sustainable aquaculture.  Tia is a frequent speaker at the Reefstock and Reef Retreat conferences.

 

 

 

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

- 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.

Workshop:  LPS fragging. We are planning on using a wet saw to frag some LPS.  I have a large elegance >12", that has been in captivity for a number of years (not your's @YHSublime) that we are planning on fragging into three.  One frag I will keep for myself, one frag is being traded, and the third frag will be donated to the club as part of the raffle.  If you've ever wanted an elegance where you didn't have to worry about ECS (elegance coral syndrome), here's your chance.  That particular frag will not be handed out at the meeting.  Instead it will be brought to my house to recover in my tank.  The raffle winner can come all the way down to Fredericksburg to pick up and enjoy some time on 95, or alternately, I will bring to the winter meeting.  Winner's choice.  

 

The elegance in question:

 

Here is @YHSublime's old elegance that I took ownership of about 18(????) months ago.  It's been in three different tanks of mine at this point.  I placed it in this lagoon defined by my rockwork thinking it would have plenty of clearance from rocks (worry about the large, fleshy polyps tearing themselves against rocks).  Boy was I wrong.  It literally fills the lagoon and strikes out at anything that attempts to bother it...save for the torches, which have proven to be the dominant coral in the tank.  Currently a pair of ocellaris are upset about the lack of a host anemone and have decided the big Catalaphyllia jardinei should be their host.  

 

There are two other elegances in the tank as well.  This one has only been in captivity for about 9 months or so, and in my possession for the last 7.  I kept it in isolation for a few months until I felt comfortable adding it to the tank with the big guy.  

 

 

And the last one was a freshly fragged elegance that I picked up at Reefapalooza in NY not that long ago.  Again, it went through isolation in a fallow tank before being introduced.  It had a purplish base when I got it, but has been changing colors in my lighting.  We'll see where it ends up.