February 2010 Meeting
Rick and Mary Dotson hosted February’s GWAPA extravaganza, which featured a talk about fertilizing by Cavan Allen., bookended by the usual socializing and yet another fine auction. With the tendency of GWAPA members to at least experiment with high tech aquarium set-ups, fertilizing, or the lack thereof, becomes a limiting factor to success.
He underlined the importance of a regular fertilizing regime, especially in a “high-tech” style set-up, and broke down the difference between macro and micro nutrients. Cavan also stressed the importance of daily iron supplementation (as it gets used up or precipitates out of the water column very quickly). Finally, Cavan presented a real world example of one of his aquariums. Cavan only touched on the two different schools of fertilizing thought, the “estimative index” (or EI) method and the “perpetual preservation system” (or PPS) method. A more detailed discussion of these regimens was covered in Jeff Ucciardo’s 2008 presentation, found here. As long as you’re delving into the wayback machine, see the ‘08 presentation on making your own autodoser. It’ll save you time and energy in the long-run.
After some Q and A, the group held its monthly auction.
Photos from the Meeting (photos by Jim Michaels)
February 2010: Blaise, the auctioneer
February 2010: Blaise tries a new technique to ID a plant
February 2010: One of Rick's Bettas
February 2010: Cavan Allen Presents: Fertilization