A club announcement flyer was presented and accepted by those present. Mike Teague will work with the club officers and Dennis to create and distribute this. Club officers will also work on putting ads in low cost or free publications.

Ripley's Aquarium Trip 

This is scheduled for October 18.  We will meet at 2 pm, inside the entrance, just outside the ticket gate turnstiles. The club decided to have our meeting in a classroom at Ripley’s instead of paying to meet in a formal conference room. We will have a presentation by Neal, the caretaker of the live coral reef aquarium. Members will have to pay the admission fee of $16 for adults. Mike Teague will send out an e-mail about the trip that will be used to RSVP and discuss transportation.

Group Purchases

Joe offered to arrange group orders for club members on items such as dry goods, live rock and some corals (no fish). This would be priced comparable to many of the online vendors with 7% sales tax but no shipping charges. These orders will have to be paid in advance of order and all orders must be finalized two weeks before the next scheduled meeting. Joe will deliver items to the meeting.

Greenhouse Coral Propagation System Discussed

Joe and Marie gave a brief talk about the process of coral propagation. This included overall cost of the operation, the use of sunlight and how some corals would still need supplemental lighting (SPS). The filtration used for the tanks, which were eleven 240 gallon fiberglass tanks, is live rock, live sand and protein skimmers. For water movement in the tanks, Joe is using airlifts, 6 per tank, and will be adding two powerheads per tank for additional water movement. Each tank is a separate system so that if a problem happens in one tank, it doesn’t get transmitted to the others. The supplements that are used are Kalkwasser, Phytoplankton, Golden Pearls, and Daphnia. Joe does bi-weekly water changes of 60 gallons per tank using RO/DI water and will be using Kent salt. Joe also stated that he uses about 300 gallons a week of RO/DI water to replace water from evaporation. The cooling of the greenhouse is accomplished with a 36” exhaust fan and 2 shutters which are controlled by a thermostat.  Joe also has eleven 18” fans, one for each tank, to move the wet air away from the tanks. The 11 fans are controlled by a separate thermostat. The heating of the greenhouse is done by a 50,000 BTU propane heater, and of course, sunlight.
 

Future Educational Sessions

During open discussion, club members requested (1) pH and (2) lighting as future topics of discussion. Joe has purchased informational DVDs that cover lighting and other topics. At least one of these two topics will be part of the educational session at the November meeting.

New Members

Several new members joined ETRC!

Door Prize

One lucky winner took home Ocean's Blend two-part additive as a free door prize.

Greenhouse Tour

The meeting concluded with a tour of Joe and Marie's coral propagation greenhouse where corals were available for purchase.