Hey All-
I wanted to provide a short wrap up of a wonderful conference that Dallas Fort Worth Marine Aquarium Society (DFWMAS) put on over this past weekend.
The 1 day conference had 4 speakers discussing a wide range of reef-related topics as well as vendors and a chance to hangout and chat w/ fellow reef folks.
The turnout of about 125 folks made the day go very quickly for me w/ lots of new faces and lots of great conversation. So Many Thanks
A quick recap of the days events
Dr Sajay Joshi spoke about his thought process, as well as the engineering/mechanics behind designing/installing/keeping a large 500 gal tank. He was fantastic at laying out the groundwork of what was required and had a ton of stories about this trials and tribulation, and of course all the all-important excel spreadsheet w/ costs breakdown to convince his wife this tank would be "cheaper" and more efficient than his last one.
Hes very funny in person and has an engineers mindset when you talk to him about reef-related stuff.
Next Adam Blundell (from Utah) gave a very energetic discussion of the meaning of "reef-safe" and how much latitude we as reef hobbyists give our tank occupants when we call things reef-safe. His talk was filled w/ videos of mishaps and exceptions to every rule of reef-safeness, and he ended his talk w/ a great eye opening crowd survey on what people thought of different "reef-safeness" of fish known to be not reef-safe to reefsafe. Now I understand why people on reefboard get confused when asking about fish. He is definately worth hearing again.
Third up was Dr Mac (the owner of Dr MAC coral farms), and he talked about his setting up an mariculture station in Fiji. His talked showed the Dr Mac greenhouse and then it followed it up w/ a travelogue of his Fiji excursion. Pretty cool seeing the Fijian villagers and tribal chiefs getting in on the coral farming. Dr MAC (whos first name is Mac and hes a veternarian-hence the Dr part) has brought of bunch of frags and maricultured corals for display(and sale)
Last up was me, I spoke about world peace and feeding the hungry. Okay-not really. Fish breeding and I gave an overview of what is currently being bred at home and why. Fortunately there is alot of interest from the DFWMAS group on this.
My Hats off to Matt Little and DFWMAS BOD of directors for putting together a top notch meeting, and really making a great educational weekend for their club (and me)
I had a great time and these guys are a blast to hang out w/
I recomend that if you can make next years event- to do so
frank
I wanted to provide a short wrap up of a wonderful conference that Dallas Fort Worth Marine Aquarium Society (DFWMAS) put on over this past weekend.
The 1 day conference had 4 speakers discussing a wide range of reef-related topics as well as vendors and a chance to hangout and chat w/ fellow reef folks.
The turnout of about 125 folks made the day go very quickly for me w/ lots of new faces and lots of great conversation. So Many Thanks
A quick recap of the days events
Dr Sajay Joshi spoke about his thought process, as well as the engineering/mechanics behind designing/installing/keeping a large 500 gal tank. He was fantastic at laying out the groundwork of what was required and had a ton of stories about this trials and tribulation, and of course all the all-important excel spreadsheet w/ costs breakdown to convince his wife this tank would be "cheaper" and more efficient than his last one.
Hes very funny in person and has an engineers mindset when you talk to him about reef-related stuff.
Next Adam Blundell (from Utah) gave a very energetic discussion of the meaning of "reef-safe" and how much latitude we as reef hobbyists give our tank occupants when we call things reef-safe. His talk was filled w/ videos of mishaps and exceptions to every rule of reef-safeness, and he ended his talk w/ a great eye opening crowd survey on what people thought of different "reef-safeness" of fish known to be not reef-safe to reefsafe. Now I understand why people on reefboard get confused when asking about fish. He is definately worth hearing again.
Third up was Dr Mac (the owner of Dr MAC coral farms), and he talked about his setting up an mariculture station in Fiji. His talked showed the Dr Mac greenhouse and then it followed it up w/ a travelogue of his Fiji excursion. Pretty cool seeing the Fijian villagers and tribal chiefs getting in on the coral farming. Dr MAC (whos first name is Mac and hes a veternarian-hence the Dr part) has brought of bunch of frags and maricultured corals for display(and sale)
Last up was me, I spoke about world peace and feeding the hungry. Okay-not really. Fish breeding and I gave an overview of what is currently being bred at home and why. Fortunately there is alot of interest from the DFWMAS group on this.
My Hats off to Matt Little and DFWMAS BOD of directors for putting together a top notch meeting, and really making a great educational weekend for their club (and me)
I had a great time and these guys are a blast to hang out w/
I recomend that if you can make next years event- to do so
frank
