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2003: 2002: 2001: 2000:
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Q U E S T 4 / 20 / 00 Summary of the 3 / 23 / 00 meeting at Olbrich Botanical Gardens: Attending were Mark Adams, Bill Benz, John Glaeser, Matt Hirvonen, Linda Horvath, Larry Jones, Victor Marsh, Melissa Maurer, Joel Redman, Dave Stalowski, Keith Strade and Susan West. Joining us for the first time were Tim Brown, Val Walasek, Bob Gilbertson, Kristi Brueggen, Thomas Givish, Elaine Hanna and Annie Stuart. Welcome! Hope to see you again, April 27th. We tried a couple of new things. Starting with open doors at 6 PM worked well. For those who had a chance to come this early, it was an opportunity to strike up friendships, check out the library, aquarium and have a few refreshments including some pizza. Round tables were used instead of utility tables. Any preference? Between 7:30 and 9:00 we proceeded though our agenda. Starting out we had round-the- table introductions and individual reports on personal aquatic plant projects. This was great. It gave us all an idea of what others were going with their hobby. Having question and answer vignettes along the way provided informative exchanges right off the bat. Along the way it came out that several members were having such success with growing Valesneria that they had to harvest and throw out plants. Please save them. Consider bringing surplus to the meetings for distribution. For some of us starting a new aquarium having some good plants to start with would be welcome. Perhaps an aquarium store would be interested as well. Victor Marsh reported on construction progress of our web site. You can access it using your browser (http://www.ivwebworks.com/mag/index.html). He emphasized the values of such a communications vehicle. In the chat room members could interact with technical questions and answers. With the wealth of experience in our ranks this could be a neat way of sharing ideas and solving planted aquarium problems. The site would be a good place to archive our history. A list of relevant Links is a plus. For a number of us all this is somewhat new. Hopefully during the coming months each of us can start experimenting with this space. Eventually we can get registered on some of the major search engines. Matt Hirvonen gave a presentation on CO2. He is a science researcher at the University and has a hobby of brewing beer and mead, that ancient honey based brew. He distributed an exquisitely detailed, two page document explaining how fermentation works. He went on to propose the idea of using honey instead of sugar for the familiar sugar / yeast / 2 liter cola bottle CO2 generator. In brewing mead the initial chemical reaction is quite robust, followed by a rather long, even, moderate production of CO2. He suggests 1.5 - 2 cups of honey, 1.5 liters of water, room temp (70-72 degF) using a champagne yeast (or other high ETOH tolerance yeast strain). Let the initial rapid reaction blow off and then enter the line into the aquarium. Apparently one reason for a longer run is the fact that honey is more complex. It contains Nitrogen, fat, vitamins and minerals. At our first meeting Susan West indicated a way of getting a more even CO2 output using the regular sugar / yeast method. She suggested two weeks after starting a batch, empty 1/2 of it and replace this with a fresh sugar water mix. Yeast from the original batch would multiply and the remaining alcohol would keep the CO2 stream reasonably steady. What kind of result would we get if we were to combine these two concepts? Matt said he might make some trial experiments this Summer. The club has 30 copies of Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana Walstad. Those members attending picked up their free copy. If you didn't make it last time, get your copy next time you come. Larry Jones offered to be on the agenda for next meeting. He has a technology intensive approach to aquariums. This should be most fascinating. We are seeing progress with our main goals: Focus, friendship, education and communications.
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