September 2003 Meeting
Thank you EVERYONE for another great SEASL meeting. This meeting was an excellent example of what can be done with the talents, energy, and generosity that our members and local experts share so freely. Barry and Diane Pearlman were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed the beautiful weather as we conducted our meeting on their back porch.
The meeting opened with a quick introduction of the executive officers and 21 other people in attendance. It was great to see so many new faces, yet we missed our regulars who could not attend today. Hope to see you next month.
Old Business: - None
New Business:
Greg Frimel was elected to fill the opening for the third executive officer position. I know Greg will make an excellent addition to the executive committee. At the same time, we all noted Paul’s years of ongoing dedication to SEASL and wished him well as he rotated out of his executive officer position.
Barry Pearlman was elected to serve in the newly created position as secretary. The primary responsibility of this position will be to take meeting minutes and prepare meeting recaps. Those will be posted to our email list and our forum on Reef Central.
We discussed the progress of our "Under Construction" web site. We are trying to work our some technicalities in the web hosting function, but hope that soon (maybe before the next meeting) we can open the site.
The new email list is open for subscription. Since its opening the evening of 9/4/03 we have had 26 people subscribe. Please follow this link to subscribe.
http://mail.seaplace.org/mailman/listinfo/seasl Keep these tips in mind.
The subscription process is automated. As part of the process you will be given several options to configure your personal settings.
As part of the subscription process, you will be sent a confirmation email. YOU MUST RESPOND TO THAT EMAIL TO COMPLETE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION REQUEST.
If you respond to a posting, and you want your response to go to the entire list, you must use the "reply to all" icon in your email application. If you use the "reply" icon, your response will be sent only to the person who sent the email.
SEASL T-shirts are in process. Stay tuned.
Future programs were discussed:
Next month will be the coral propagation workshop.
November will likely be a DIY interest center program. Details are still being worked out.
December will likely be the Inland Aquatics trip.
Future programs may include: a trip to the St. Louis Children’s Aquarium, visit to Zilla III, a visit by Walt Smith (oops, did I forget to mention that at the meeting???), discussion on seahorses, etc. We’ll organize those as we get closer to the end of the year.
Member Discussion/Current Issues:
The group asked about membership in MACNA. The Executive Officers recognized that we need to learn more about that organization and conduct a cost/benefit analysis of membership.
Store tours were discussed. Interest seemed strong enough to begin returning to some of the stores we visited last season.
Velko of Aquatic Treasures in Highland, IL will be opening a store in Fairview Heights, IL. We’ll pass along the grand opening date once that is determined.
I discussed the value of an automatic battery backup air pump and passed around such a pump for everyone to see.
I shared my experience this summer regarding the importance of maintaining magnesium in order to maintain calcium and pH. Magnesium was the key for me to much more easily maintain Ca and pH.
Barry Pearlman discussed his experiment with LED lighting. It’s not perfect yet, but it has great potential.
Program - Reef Lighting led by George Grissmann (aka Griss)
George began by discussing the advancements made in reef lighting from standard output fluorescent bulbs to the myriad of metal halide bulbs now available. George brought in examples of different ballasts and explained the pros and cons of each. He also offered first hand advice on lighting configurations, bulb wattages and colors based on member’s questions. Based on his experiences, here is a list of several sites George likes for his lighting needs:
http://www.lampsnow.com/, http://www.premiumaquatics.com/, or
https://ssl.adgrafix.com/users/coral.../web_store.cgi
If you have more questions for George, you can find him on
http://reefcentral.com/index.php?s= as Griss.
The meeting ended with door prize drawings for five corals, a grab bag of donated macro algaes, hot dogs and hamburgers courtesy of Chef Barry, a great spread of deserts (an important SEASL tradition) and good conversation.
Hope to see you next month!