CTARS Club Meetings

BfishLpond78

BfishLpond78

FUPA
Hello all CTARS Members, I guess as your Public Relations Officer, I should, uhhh, well address the public :bounce3:

So, unfortunately June did not go the way that we had planned and a lot of people were bummed out, including myself as I was working with Bob at Exotic to facilitate the outing. Something had come up on Bob's end that would have sidelined anyone. We are still planning something at the Milford store so the event will still happen.

Now as far as the club meetings go, I've been to as many as I can and have noticed that we, as most clubs, have a core group that always makes it out the meetings which is great cause I know I have built some great relationships with a lot of folks. The occasional newcomer makes it out but for the most part its the same group of people.

I'd really like to hear from all the current members what types of either topics or events they would like to see, hear or do at the meetings.

I'm hoping this topic doesn't stur up anything political or turn into an argument...so I'll start...
A few things I've always wanted to see was:

1. A fragging demonstration, I know I missed the large event that happened some time ago, but I would like to see one done at a meeting cause I havent a clue on how to properly pluck off zoas and glue em down. Using a combo of epoxy and super glue to get SPS looking nicely on rock work. (Club purchases a bunch of colonies to be used for the demonstration)

2. The art of aquascaping to make your tank aesthetically pleasing and the do's and donts of aquascaping.

3. The real chemistry behind dosing your tank, the benefits of using two part, calcium reactors or Zeo...the pros and cons.

4. Maybe even have a few meetings on the different types of corals, a soft coral day, Zoa Day, LPS day and SPS day...go over the general speices, requirements, do's and dont's and care levels...

5. I would love to see people come in and show off all their DIY projects that they have, or at least talk about them. Almost like a show and tell or if its currently in use, more of picture and tell if possible.

6. I would like to try and bring back tank tours, even if we do it on the side, just an excuse to get fellow hobbyist together to hang out for :beer: and a good time.

These are just to name a few.

Again, I know its the summer time and it's hard to really focus on the tanks until the weather starts getting colder, but I would like to plan ahead so we can hit the reef season full steam ahead!

Thanks for your time and Happy Reefing :fish1:

-Mike
 
BfishLpond78 said:
4. Maybe even have a few meetings on the different types of corals, a soft coral day, Zoa Day, LPS day and SPS day...go over the general speices, requirements, do's and dont's and care levels...
Click to expand...

This is a great idea! Agree on this one completely.

I try to make as many meeting as possible , but it makes it alittle "easier" to miss if the topic is something that doesn't pertain to my tank or interests (ie. Calc Reactors )

No excuses when a meeting topic is all about corals , cause thats what ALL our tanks have in common.

Looking forward to the next one for sure.
 
Im game i can host a large tank tour, pizza, social some time in Sept. as long as my brother inlaw and mike doesnt kill my tank while im gone in aug for 3 weeks!!
 
I like anything to do with corals but would also like to lea4n more about setting up, maintaining, and running different reactors. I use a gfo/carbon reactor now but am currently dosing for sps and hate it. I want a calcium reactor but don't what to look for in one and how to run it properly. Im also interested in kalk reactors
 
My old club used to do different topics at each meeting and since I'll be joining CTARS in August, I hope it's ok if I throw out a suggestion! Feel free to poo poo it, if you want.

We used to have "fish of the month" topics sometimes. We'd get together and someone would talk about different groups of fish e.g. gobies or blennies. I'm a huge goby fanatic so I would just bring pictures and tell people all about the different kinds of gobies and what types of systems they're suitable for. For blennies, you could tell people about the different groups of blennies (like the free-swimming fang blennies or the hole-inhabiting ones like Midas and Bicolor or the algae blennies).

I also thought that at one point it would be cool to actually gather the parts and DO a DIY project. So my suggestion for that was to build actinic LED strips. We could gather all the parts in a group buy and put them together at a meeting. Admittedly, this idea is a little pie in the sky because actually getting enough people together to buy all the parts and show up to make them at one time...it's not easy. But most people could use LED actinic strips on their tanks. It's just difficult to get them to agree on which LEDs. People could easily make different lengths of strips though. I have a 120, so mine could be four feet. Someone with a biocube or nanocube could make a one foot long one. It'd be the same process.

Anyways...those are just some ideas for things you guys could do! No biggie if you don't want to do them or think they're not feasible.
 
EvilMel said:
We used to have "fish of the month" topics sometimes. We'd get together and someone would talk about different groups of fish e.g. gobies or blennies. I'm a huge goby fanatic so I would just bring pictures and tell people all about the different kinds of gobies and what types of systems they're suitable for. For blennies, you could tell people about the different groups of blennies (like the free-swimming fang blennies or the hole-inhabiting ones like Midas and Bicolor or the algae blennies).

I also thought that at one point it would be cool to actually gather the parts and DO a DIY project. So my suggestion for that was to build actinic LED strips. We could gather all the parts in a group buy and put them together at a meeting. Admittedly, this idea is a little pie in the sky because actually getting enough people together to buy all the parts and show up to make them at one time...it's not easy. But most people could use LED actinic strips on their tanks. It's just difficult to get them to agree on which LEDs. People could easily make different lengths of strips though. I have a 120, so mine could be four feet. Someone with a biocube or nanocube could make a one foot long one. It'd be the same process.
Click to expand...


I like the first idea, maybe we could couple it along with a fish of the month and coral of the month, since like someone said, that's why we are all here!

I've wanted to do a DIY project for some time with the entire group, was thinking of asking some of the local DIY experts if they would be willing to put together a small classroom setting or however many people we could and do something like this.
 
For anyone who is willing to offer their expertise, whether it be with DIY projects, knowledge of certain corals, or anyone wanting to offer up and event they would like to host please PM me and I can put you on a list and we can work something out.
 
BfishLpond78;21712430 [B said:
4.[/B] Maybe even have a few meetings on the different types of corals, a soft coral day, Zoa Day, LPS day and SPS day...go over the general
Click to expand...

Love this!
 
I like the idea of the different types of coral and their care also love the idea of a fragging meeting where someone could show is how to frag all the different types of coral.. I am still looking forward to making my first meeting!
 
I am a fan of all the suggestions. I especially like the idea of doing DIY projects as a group and the fragging lessons. I would love to see a workshop on setting up various reef related stuff as well, i.e. dosing pumps, Apex or ReefKeepers, reactors etc. I am planning on joining at the next meeting as well. I am kinda new to Saltwater Reef tanks (Had FOWLR tanks for years but been doing Reef tanks for only 1.5 years) and I am getting more involved and trying to set up the "Perfect" system. So any "how to" kind of topics are great in my eyes!!
 
I am new to the hobby, so any of these topics sound great, especially the demonstrations on how to use various equipment in the hobby.
 
@bfishpond
I would be more than happy to put together a fragging demonstration and/or aquascaping demonstration again.

PS. as long as it doesn't get political, the first frag workshop I put on workshop was a great success. I'm not sure if it can be done unpolitically, but I figured I'd throw it out there. :) always looking to help.
 
BfishLpond78 said:
Sounds great Chris!!!

I totally forgot that you had put on the demo, we will def have to do it again.
Click to expand...

maybe to be more unpolitical, and a little less work for me we can pick one species like zoa or sPS or LPS or softies . and just focus on one or the other. last time we did a little of everything and it became quite lengthy, never heard any complaints we had a good time but it was a long day for me.
 
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