I almost feel a little guilty posting something not flood-related, but we all need a break from that which sucks to think about that which is cool.
1. Neptune Systems plans to release a product around 2nd quarter of next year called Trident, an automated tester for alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium which links to Apex. They are planning for it to be in the $600 range, plus about $20 per month for reagents. This is based on their default schedule of 4 times/day for alk and 2 for cal and mag, which seems like overkill once a system is dialed in, so it would probably be less per month. One of the speakers, Richard Ross (who is awesome as a speaker and entertainer) has been using a prototype for over a year. There were also other testers from various companies, so maybe the days of the tedious spoons and titrations are nearly over.
2. ATM (you know, those wacky guys from "Tanked") has a serious R&D department with some interesting products. They make an anhydrous salt mix that is supposed to mix faster and be more consistent than other mixes. They also have several bacteria products that sound interesting. Their products are available on Amazon, but they said Fish Gallery was going to carry them soon. My wife and I talked with Stacey and his girlfriend for a long time - very interesting people and he is also in a rock band with his father playing bass.
3. I forgot to bring my blue flashlight, but it didn't really matter because every coral vendor had their lights so blue I think they would have made a turd glow. Probably more useful would be a white flashlight to get an idea what the corals would look like in more normal conditions.
4. Everybody and their brother was selling those yellow/orange bounce mushrooms, so their price is bound to come down from the grand some vendors want now.
5. The saddest thing I learned was from an excellent talk with cool videos from Hunter Hammond on wrasses. He does not recommend trying to keep pairs or harems of fairy or flasher wrasses because they don't work out long term. He has had pairs that spawned regularly for some time, then after a few more months the female turned into a male and they had to be separated. I was so excited earlier this year to finally find a female flasher wrasse, but I lost the male for some reason and now I guess I won't replace him but just let her become a male.
1. Neptune Systems plans to release a product around 2nd quarter of next year called Trident, an automated tester for alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium which links to Apex. They are planning for it to be in the $600 range, plus about $20 per month for reagents. This is based on their default schedule of 4 times/day for alk and 2 for cal and mag, which seems like overkill once a system is dialed in, so it would probably be less per month. One of the speakers, Richard Ross (who is awesome as a speaker and entertainer) has been using a prototype for over a year. There were also other testers from various companies, so maybe the days of the tedious spoons and titrations are nearly over.
2. ATM (you know, those wacky guys from "Tanked") has a serious R&D department with some interesting products. They make an anhydrous salt mix that is supposed to mix faster and be more consistent than other mixes. They also have several bacteria products that sound interesting. Their products are available on Amazon, but they said Fish Gallery was going to carry them soon. My wife and I talked with Stacey and his girlfriend for a long time - very interesting people and he is also in a rock band with his father playing bass.
3. I forgot to bring my blue flashlight, but it didn't really matter because every coral vendor had their lights so blue I think they would have made a turd glow. Probably more useful would be a white flashlight to get an idea what the corals would look like in more normal conditions.
4. Everybody and their brother was selling those yellow/orange bounce mushrooms, so their price is bound to come down from the grand some vendors want now.
5. The saddest thing I learned was from an excellent talk with cool videos from Hunter Hammond on wrasses. He does not recommend trying to keep pairs or harems of fairy or flasher wrasses because they don't work out long term. He has had pairs that spawned regularly for some time, then after a few more months the female turned into a male and they had to be separated. I was so excited earlier this year to finally find a female flasher wrasse, but I lost the male for some reason and now I guess I won't replace him but just let her become a male.
