Quest

2003:
10/9/03
9/19/03
9/6/03
8/23/03
8/8/03
7/13/03
7/08/03
6/21/03
6/13/03
5/19/03
5/06/03
4/20/03
3/25/03
3/23/03
2/18/03
1/5/03

2002:
11/11/02
10/11/02
10/03/02
9/1/02
8/10/02
7/14/02
7/2/02
6/4/02
4/6/02
3/14/02

2001:
6/28/01
5/31/01
4/26/01
3/29/01

2000:
11/30/00
10/24/00
9/28/00
8/21/00
7/27/00
6/22/00
5/25/00
4/20/00
3/10/00
2/24/00

Q U E S T Newsletter of the Madison Aquarium Gardeners Club 10/9/03

What is it?

A Living Machine!

Randall School fourth grade teacher Mark Wagler invites us over, to check out this "Rube Goldberg" contraption of plumbing supporting three aquatic venues: 1. Lake Mendota aquatic plants including Sunfish; 2. Bog with mud, Cattails, Arrowheads and Duckweed from Lake Mendota Picnic Point area; 3. Big tub illustrating water filtering down into an aquifer. Kids love it all.

There are several variations on the Living Machine idea. Original label, Living Machine came from John Todd, designer of systems using aquatic plants to clean sewage waste water. http://www.time.com/time/reports/environment/heroes/heroesgallery/0,2967,todd,00.html > Good story here.

NEXT MEETING: Thursday, October 23, 6:30 - 9:00 PM.
Science House, 1645 Linden Drive, UW Campus

6:30 - 7:00 / 7:15 Meet at Science House. Chat & Refreshments.

7:15 - 7:30 Car pooling: 10 minute drive to Randall School on Regent Street.

7:30 - 8:30 Presentation: "Mark's Living Machine"

8:30 - 8:45 Transit back to Science House

8:45 - 9:00 / 9:15 Wrap up.

SUMMARY OF LAST MEETING (9/25/03).

Sixteen chattering enthusiasts made two hours vaporize in record time! Thanks: Warren Berg, Austin Braganza, Naomi Delventhal, John Glaeser, Aaron Glass, Gerda Harms, Gordon Hartmann, Linda Horvath, Sam Joseph, Dirk Krueger, David Reese, Greg Stahl, David and Nathan Watson, Jerry Weiland, Paul Williams.

We appreciate Mark Adams for suggesting the evening's topic: “How have things changed from day one to now? That is: How have we changed our planted aquaria ideas and and practices through the years? Trials, errors and success of varying degrees have a way of debunking misconceptions and myths, replacing them with winning scenarios: (Can't grow plants too well in straight Madison hard water.......Wrong: You can). (Can't get enough light for your planted aquarium.......Wrong: Too much light can cause numerous systemic distortions, leading to algae problems galore. Low light level aquaria working at slower metabolic rates can be quite successful). You get the picture.

I hope to collate details of this excellent 9/25/03 FORUM and put it into our website under Articles. It'll take a while to get this together.

OTHER MEETING NOTES:

Have you ever seen a Vallisneria plant with a 12' long leaves? Thanks to Gerda Harms, several of these virile specimens showed up on the plant exchange table and Dirk Krueger wasn't the only one grinning ear to ear at the sight!

Our display of plants from Lake Mendota got attention. Thanks to Paul Williams for helping us identify specimens as we paged through (Nichols, Stanley A., 1999, Bulletin 96, Distribution and habitat description of Wisconsin lake plants, Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey). Austin Braganza from Milwaukee is especially interested in using local aquatic plants for his aquariums.

CLUB CULTURE:

Folks, I’m running out of steam. Next year I’m easing out of the Madison Aquarium Gardeners Club leadership role. Spreading myself too thin isn't good.
I need to focus on fewer projects.

Interested in planning our club future? Evaluating status quo and visioning the future is not easy. Possible changes? 1. Members sponsoring meetings in their homes. 2. Members posting planted aquaria narratives on our website. How about turning these stories into Q &A exchanges?

So, how about sharing your thoughts?

John 233-5182 or [email protected]