# SWOAPE February Meeting



## MatPat

The February meeting will be held in Columbus at Sean's house on February 25th at 2pm.

Hopefully some of the Columbus folks who have been wanting to attend a meeting can attend this one. Let's hope a few of the Cincy folks can make the trip north also.

The topic of this meeting will be setting up a Natural Planted tank. Don and Helen will be showing us how to set up Sean's 20g tank using soil and gravel and giving us some pointers on how things are done. I do believe Sean is supplying the supplies and hopefully we can get plenty of plant donations to get the tank off to a nice start.

I will send out an e-mail to everyone with Sean's address and phone number on Monday or Tuesday of next week. If you are new to SWOAPE or need to give an updated e-mail address for directions to this meeting you can PM me or Renee  (duchessren)  and we will make sure to add you to the e-mail list.

I look forward to seeing some new faces at this meeting!


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## Six

Wahoo!! Columbus!


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## Troy McClure

What kind of plants will be useful for this demonstration?


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## redstrat

The 25th is my birthday so I'm not sure if I'll be attending this month, it will be really close though so I might make it for a little while. I'm really interested in seeing the NPT demo


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## MatPat

Troy McClure said:


> What kind of plants will be useful for this demonstration?


I'm thinking mostly Hygro species, Crypts, Java Ferns/Moss, and maybe some Swords depending on the amount of light Sean will have on the tank.


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## t2000kw

If someone would be willing to take careful pictures, we could post them as a step by step "procedure" with a narrative under the pictures for those who can't make it or want to review it later. The 20 gallon tank we'll be doing should be easier to photograph than a big tank and make it easy to see everything.

It's certainly not rocket science, but it's helpful for some to actually see what they will be doing.

There is a forum on APC, El Naturel, that discusses this type of aquarium. There are some stickies, I believe, that have the basics. The book, _*The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium*_, though not a must, is a very useful handbook. There aren't many problems to encounter, but these are discussed, and reasons why the natural tank works so well with very little maintenance.

There are variations on the theme, too, and some combine some of the benefits of a soil substrate with a gravel barrier (to discourage algae from getting the nutrients from the soil) with high tech: CO2 and more light.

The really nice thing about a natural tank is that it is inexpensive (except for the plants, but our club can help with that).


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## ctmpwrdcamry

I am excited to have you all over again. Hopefully I can get the 75's scape back to looking good. With the snow and no c02 last week, the tank looks sad.

As for the 20 gallon we will be working on, i think it has about 30 watts with t5 bulbs and sun shine from the skylight.


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## t2000kw

ctmpwrdcamry said:


> I am excited to have you all over again. Hopefully I can get the 75's scape back to looking good. With the snow and no c02 last week, the tank looks sad.
> 
> As for the 20 gallon we will be working on, i think it has about 30 watts with t5 bulbs and sun shine from the skylight.


That's about the right amount of light for this. You do limit yourself to plants that tolerate or do well in low light. Some plants that do well in CO2 will still work OK in natural tanks. Others really NEED the CO2 and high intensity light.

If anyone has some plants that will do well in low light that you can spare, please bring 'em to the meeting. The more the better, up to a point. If we get too many, we can bag them up for others.

I'll try to remember to gring some water lettuce plants if you want them. If you don't want duckweed, you'll need to rinse the water lettuce well and keep an eye out for duckweed for a few weeks. We like it because it's somethinn that the goldfish love to eat.


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## Troy McClure

I guess I'll take the pictures. Hopefully I'll remember to bring my tripod. Matt, it probably wouldn't hurt if you also brought your camera even though it isn't that much better than mine 

For plants, I have some narrow/needle leaf java fern and moss.


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## evercl92

Any chance I can get the address for the meeting place?


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## ctmpwrdcamry

pm sent


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## evercl92

Thanks


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## t2000kw

I'm sure Matt or Sean will post directions.

May I suggest, Sean/Matt, that you give directions that include a point in town that's easy to find to your (Sean's) home, like maybe the intersection of 270/71, and have someone write down the streets as you pass by in the residential sections and where you turn to get there?

Mapquest was horrible! Street names were wrong or missing, etc. You remember we had a real difficult time finding it before. If you all weren't all out front looking for us and had we not called to get further directions, we might not have found your place.

If someone can post a marked up map like we had for one of the places in Cincy, that would be fabulous, but that might not be needed if you give detailed directions. 

Don


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## ctmpwrdcamry

Don, 

As you know, getting to my house can be a pain. I send Matt links to directions from Google, which I have approved. I also included my phone number which Matt was going to send to everyone. As for land marks, there really arent any. I live in suburbia, and it all looks the same.  

However, please do call if you get lost, I will find you on a map or come get you. :mrgreen:


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## t2000kw

I hadn't tried Google maps at that time. I use it almost exclusively now but never compared them. Sounds like they do a better job.


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## MatPat

I sent an e-mail out to everyone on the 12th of February with directions to the meeting  If you didn't get the e-mail and you haven't corresponded with me via e-mail before, you may want to check your Spam folder 

You can also PM me with your e-mail address and I will resend the e-mail to those who did not get it.


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## ctmpwrdcamry

t2000kw said:


> I hadn't tried Google maps at that time. I use it almost exclusively now but never compared them. Sounds like they do a better job.


Understand. I too have learned the lesson. Get two directions from two different sources. This usually means google maps and GPS


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## t2000kw

Someday I'll have a GPS. They're coming way down in price and I've seen some on Woot.com for around $200 to $250, good ones (I think they're good, anyway).


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## ctmpwrdcamry

Understand. If it wasn't for the fact that it came with the car I probably would not own one.


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## t2000kw

Here's some of the plants I use in my tanks--all of which are NPTs--all of these work well. 

marsilea--is that how you spell the very short four-leaf-clover looking plant?
sagitarius
any vals, I have spiralis, jungle and that thin grass-like kind someone brought to the meeting in January.
Amazon swords--I don't think these would work in a 20 gal unless it was a species that didn't get very big
elodea
najas grass
java fern
riccia
red root floaters
floating lettuce
coontail
any hygrophila
water sprite
cabomba--though I don't much like the way this grows if it doesn't get enough light
rotala 
crypts

I mean to bring some of these along. 

Melis (Hellen's the last name  )


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## Six

February flew by for me. I didn't realize it but I have to work on Sunday!! :Cry:

But you can come visit me at work, I work one day a week at Phishy Business - a reef aquarium store in Gahanna, just east of Columbus. It's a different flavor of aquarium keeping, but many of you guys might like it. 

I'd rather go to the meeting though. :sad:


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## ctmpwrdcamry

Six said:


> February flew by for me. I didn't realize it but I have to work on Sunday!! :Cry:
> 
> But you can come visit me at work, I work one day a week at Phishy Business - a reef aquarium store in Gahanna, just east of Columbus. It's a different flavor of aquarium keeping, but many of you guys might like it.
> 
> I'd rather go to the meeting though. :sad:


Never knew it was there. Maybe we should make our way over...


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## redstrat

I wont be able to make it either this month, sunday is my B-day and my family is takin me out for an early dinner at 3, I'll have to catch you guys next month. Sucks I'm gonna miss the demo, i was looking forward to it. 

to top it of I have to miss the CAFE Apisto presentation tomorrow night too for other birthday plans.


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## t2000kw

davis.1841 said:


> Sucks I'm gonna miss the demo, i was looking forward to it.


I believe that we're going to have someone taking pictures and we can put something together on our web site or in a sticky thread with a simple how-to narrative. Nothing like _*Diana Walstad's*_ book, _*The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium*_, but something to help someone put a NPT (natural planted tank) together rather quickly. The book can be a bit overwhelming if you don't skip over the chemistry parts of it. I have some college chemistry and can understand some of it, but I skip over most of those parts.

We probably won't photograph the other part where we demonstrate what a diatom filter can do, which is just a "bonus" that we thought about since some members don't have one of these but might want to know how well they work, what they can be used for, etc. There's not much to capture in pictures for that part of it. And you don't need to use one to clear things up when putting your NPT together if you're careful. Ours have cleared out without using our DE filter very quickly, almost immediately.


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## t2000kw

What are the store hours for the evenings and weekend?



Six said:


> February flew by for me. I didn't realize it but I have to work on Sunday!! :Cry:
> 
> But you can come visit me at work, I work one day a week at Phishy Business - a reef aquarium store in Gahanna, just east of Columbus. It's a different flavor of aquarium keeping, but many of you guys might like it.
> 
> I'd rather go to the meeting though. :sad:


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## evercl92

Six said:


> Phishy Business - a reef aquarium store in Gahanna


Is this a "reef/salt - only" place? I'm not familiar with it.


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## redstrat

t2000kw said:


> I believe that we're going to have someone taking pictures and we can put something together on our web site or in a sticky thread with a simple how-to narrative. Nothing like _*Diana Walstad's*_ book, _*The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium*_, but something to help someone put a NPT (natural planted tank) together rather quickly. The book can be a bit overwhelming if you don't skip over the chemistry parts of it. I have some college chemistry and can understand some of it, but I skip over most of those parts.
> 
> We probably won't photograph the other part where we demonstrate what a diatom filter can do, which is just a "bonus" that we thought about since some members don't have one of these but might want to know how well they work, what they can be used for, etc. There's not much to capture in pictures for that part of it. And you don't need to use one to clear things up when putting your NPT together if you're careful. Ours have cleared out without using our DE filter very quickly, almost immediately.


I'd really appreciate the pics in a thread like you were talking about, dont worry about the diatom filter part I have a vortex


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## ctmpwrdcamry

t2000kw said:


> I believe that we're going to have someone taking pictures and we can put something together on our web site or in a sticky thread with a simple how-to narrative. Nothing like _*Diana Walstad's*_ book, _*The Ecology of the Planted Aquarium*_, but something to help someone put a NPT (natural planted tank) together rather quickly. The book can be a bit overwhelming if you don't skip over the chemistry parts of it. I have some college chemistry and can understand some of it, but I skip over most of those parts.


Can you bring that book with you? Just to show off.


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## t2000kw

Melissa was bringing the book along to show it off. It would give you an idea of what it covered. It's NOT a picture book, more informational, almost no pictures.


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## t2000kw

*Computer Networking Stuff*

Since all of you who use the forum use computers to access it, I thought this might be somewhat related.

I'm about to ebay some used 802.11 b and g wireless networking stuff soon but thought that someone here might be interested and save the shipping cost. All are in good condition and work well, guaranteed to work.

PM me before the meeting if you're interested.

Here's what I have:

Belkin PC card for laptop (802.11 b)
Linksys PC card for laptop (802.11 b)
Netgear USB adapter (802.11 g) 
Belkin 4-port router (802.11 b)

Don


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## t2000kw

Don't let the bad weather forecasts scare you off from the meeting! It keeps changing, and it now doesn't look bad at all by Sunday morning.

We're planning on being there come hail or high water. 

Columbus officials said that they have extra road trucks on standby for this coming storm. The freezing rain should be over sometime early in the morning, changing to rain. With a high tomorrow of near 50, the roads should be in good shape by the time you leave for the meeting. 

I thought I'd post this in case bad weather might scare some off. 

The official NWS forecast for Chillicothe (usually similar to Columbus and Dayton) is below (this is as of 12:30 PM Saturday's report on their web site).

Tonight: A chance of rain between 8pm and 9pm, then freezing rain likely, mainly between 10pm and midnight, then periods of rain after midnight. Low around 33. East wind between 10 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

Sunday: Showers likely, mainly before 9am. Cloudy, with a high near 49. East wind 11 to 14 mph becoming south. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.


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