Last Saturday, our club hosted Next Wave 2006. 175 hobbyists showed up to be taught by Julian Sprung(author and owner of Two Little Fishies), Robert Fenner (author and owner of WetWebMedia), Jorge Gomezjurado (owner of dracomarine.com), and Anthony Calfo (author and aqua-culturist). The day went very well, and everyone had a good time. As president of the DFWMAS, it was very important to me that everyone get the most out of it. Based on the smiling faces and positive feedback that has come in, the Board of Directors can feel confident in saying "Mission accomplished!" :)

Julian's talk about DSBs was very interesting to me, considering how back in the 80s, he was firmly against them. He explained how flow (wave motion) over the sandbed actively filters the water, and had slides and a brief video documenting how the flow moves through the sand.

Robert talked about fish health, and gave good suggestions when it comes to shopping for that next fish. He went into disease, and helped us understand how important it is that we observe them closely.

Jorge talked about seahorses, indicating that they aren't nearly as frail or difficult as many have feared for years. His company raises them from fry, in several colors. He pointed out that they can handle plenty of flow, that feeding once a day will suffice, and that they can be in a reef-like tank as long as they don't have to compete to eat. So Casper's home is perfectly fine, being surrounded by zoanthids and LR.

Anthony cut an anemone in half, as we all watched and winced. Seeing how easy it was to cut stony corals on a wet-saw makes me want to get one as well.

The raffle that evening was great, with lots of winners. I bought Julian's new book "The Reef Aquarium Vol III" at the conference, and look forward to reading it.

For those of you tuning in, the latest podcast at www.reefcast.com should be out sometime today (1/31). If you've not done so yet, you can subscribe at iTunes.com and new podcasts will automatically be downloaded to your computer or iPod.

Three new corals were added to the 280g reef:
Yellow Scroll

Unknown 

Candy Cane