Cincinnati, Ohio

May 23-25 , 2008: The Cincinnati club invited me to fly out and speak to their membership...

I flew out of DFW at 2:45 p.m. Friday and arrived in Cincy at about 6 p.m. Weather was overcast, nice and cool, and had just rained. It felt great, right around 60F.

Ed was waiting for me in baggage claim at the base of the escalator. We just hoped we’d find each other, as I’d forgotten to get his cell number. He ‘kinda recognized’ me from the picture on my website. Basically, we got lucky. Due to the quickness of meeting up, a parking fee wasn't incurred as we left the airport parking lot, which Ed told me was maybe nine minutes tops.

We drove to downtown Cincy to Ed’s office and I got to see his brand new tank & setup.

His tank was purchased used, and is around 215g. New corals were added to his reef two days prior. The tank is aquascaped with Marco rock. Lumenbright reflectors were attached to a sliding light rack. Two VorTech pumps were ready to install, but he didn’t realize he had the thin rubber pads on hand, and had recently ordered more instead assuming they were lost. (On Saturday evening, I showed him that he already had them, as they were simply attached to the pin-spacer section and merely needed to be peeled off, much to his chagrin).

You can see a 'bad' crab in this acro, if you look for the black tipped claw poking out.

The tank is lit with Lumenbright reflectors, which still need to be elevated much higher. The lighting period is set to 5 hours a day, staggered over an 8 hour duration.

The sump is filled with live rock and the skimmer, and the return pump is a Barracuda.

The power center, ballasts and RO/DI unit are all secured to the wall in an area with easy access.

Additionally, I got to see the beautiful prints he made from my pictures, which were 11x14 in size. Since I've never printed out any of my own pictures, it was really nice to see how they come out on paper.

We went to dinner at the Montgomery Inn, famous for their ribs. They were delicious, as was the sweet potato side dish and a healthy salad.

After dinner, we went to Kevin (vice president of the club) & Natalie’s house where I got to see their current tank, and all the related equipment hidden away in the basement. Houses with basements seem so practical, because you end up with tons of space to do more – such as have a huge play area for your kids. Their home was beautiful, and they provided me with a very comfortable guest room during my stay.

Sump (above) with the lid closed; Sump (below) open to display remote DSB (Deep Sand Bed)

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