Northeast Discus Meeting..Fall 2009

[Ed13]

WOW, looks like it was a blast! Great job Steve!

[David Rose]

Great shots Martha and Jason...thanks for sharing! Looks and sounds like it was an awesome meeting!

[Cooldadddyfunk286]

It was an awesome meeting! I wish I didnt forget my camera at the hotel!! I woulda had waaaay more pics of the meeting to post. either way, good pics were taken...martha got some good shots, I know don in virginia got some good ones on his camera that Im sure he'll post. group shots.

I had a great time. the food was awesome, and everyone was so friendly. it was a blast. Im really looking forward to future meetings. it was great meeting everyone and chatting. some new faces too (every face was new to me, but you know )

the raffle was sweet. Kenny won an AC110...Billy won a sweet 40 gal. tank setup. some good stuff. Rich got the ozone thingamajig ...all around good time. Steves monster planted tank had everyone in a trans for a while too, beautiful tank!

[brewmaster15]

Sounds like it was a great get together...I really wished I could have gotten there...but unfortunately my wife's Grandfather had been in the hospital and took a turn for the worst....so my attention had to be turned elsewhere.... The hospital felt his time was short here.....sadly he passed away yesterday but at the long lived age of 96.. He had a very good and healthy life up until very recently...I can only hope to do as well as I age. Needless to say, we'll miss him.

My apologies to all of you that I had planned on seeing there...Raincheck for another time..I promise.


Steve and Maureen, Thanks for hosting this event... and to all of you that attended it... Thanks for making the time to meet, greet and talk fish. Hope we can all get together soon.

take care,
Al

[David Rose]

Sorry to hear Al...same here as I posted earlier with my folk's. I hope there is improvement very soon!

I'm already looking forward to the next meeting given the updates and success at Steve and Maureen's.

[DonMD]

Steve Colley . . .

Maureen . . .

Thank you so much for your generosity and hospitality - letting all these FISH NUTS into your house! Good grief.

I did take a few shots - still trying to learn how to use the darn camera. But, I'll post a few shots here.

Steve, I've got lots of questions, I'll be posting them. GREAT PRESENTATION! I am sorry that I had to pull up stakes before the "automation" presentation, but believe it or not, the "Planted Tanks 101" was for me, outstanding. The sharing of ideas and experiences trumps all the good food and beer/wine (well, barely . . .)

[Cooldadddyfunk286]

Im sorry to hear that too Al, I've been in your shoes pleanty of times, it sucks.

you missed a good one! even tho it was my first one, I know that it wasnt the same without Al there. I hope to meet you soon man! PM me on the surf and turf mix. I would like to buy some. let me know Al.

take care my friend, my reguards to you and your family.

thanks Al.

[DonMD]

And Steve,

We'll need to figure out how to get copies of your PowerPoint presentation. Seriously, there's tons of great info there, can you post it for all of us?

And here are a few shots of the happy campers!

[Cooldadddyfunk286]

great pics Don! ...whos that handsome young man in that black rugby jersey??!!?

I cant stress enough how cool I thought the meeting was. I was happy to meet all of you guys, RichT...I think its cool you got your son on board with Discus. and Mark, those wings were AMAZING! my girl and I were in honey BBQ wing heaven!! really great of you to donate all that stuff to the raffle too, real cool dude!

who made those meatballs?! they were AWESOME!! remember? the meatballs in kind of the whitish sauce?? ...awesome

Ashay had me laughin all night, and it was real cool talking with Martha, Rich, Don and everyone else. nice meeting Billy and TFH. glad I finally got to meet Kenny (acroken) and thank him personally for the breeding cones!

I think it was perfect having this meeting at Steves place. his house is so beautiful, and his family so welcoming. SUPER cool and knowledgable guy! I really learned alot in the power points! thanks again for everything!

just trying to paint a picture for anyone who didnt make it. cant wait for the next one!

take care everyone!

[Billy Vu]

Al,

Although it was unfortunate that you could not make it, however, our thoughts and prayers goes out to you and your family. Hope all is well.

All the best,
Billy

[mmorris]

who made those meatballs?! they were AWESOME!! remember? the meatballs in kind of the whitish sauce?? ...awesome

!

They were Auntie Martha's famous meatballs. Many thanks! It was great talking with you too, Jason.

[Cooldadddyfunk286]

I thought so! man, those were some of the best meatballs I've tried...really different than your standard "red" meatball. Def. great talking with you too Martha, I had a blast!

take care.

[acroken]

I really want to thank Maureen and Steve for a perfect day. It was a great time filled with good food and friends. The food was out of this world. The presentation Steve put on about planted tanks was brilliant. Steve is such a great guy and crazy SMART. Even though planted tanks are not my thing it was very informative. As always it is nice to see some new and old simply members. We are all so luck to have a community like Simply. Steve's tanks were remarkable. The automation and technology he incorporates into his tank set ups is something you would see at NASA, if they were into this kinda thing I am looking forward to the next one.

Kenny with his new friend
[IMG][/IMG]

[scolley]

Folks, your kind words were not necessary, though appreciated all the same. I feel comfortable in saying that Maureen has been welcoming of my hobby, in a very large part, because of the wonderful people she has met through it. Thank you VERY much for reinforcing that opinion. She had a nice time, enjoyed meeting you (as did I!), and I have no doubt that she will be even MORE tolerant of my next discus purchase because of you. Thank you!

The pics are great! Thanks folks. We knew we were camera limited going into the event. I like two shots in particular... One is the group shot. But for the record (and for those of you not able to make it), there was a decent number of people that were either not interested in having their photo taken (I should have stuck with them), or were temporarily away from the meeting, to return later.

The other shot I like is "Kenny's new friend", our dog "Buddy". He's a sweet dog, and a VERY good boy. If he licked any of you - PLEASE accept my apologies! I tried to warn people. But for every bit his breath stinks, his heart is pure gold. He's the definitive "good dog".

I said I'd distribute the slide show Don, and here it is... follow this link to bring it up. Or maybe right-click if you want to download a copy. To review the slides themselves, it seems like two VERY short presentations! Not much content in the slides themselves. It's all the extra conversations and questions that turned what I though would be short slide shows into lengthy presentations. Sorry about that.

I've modified it to correct the errors I caught in the meeting. And I removed all the references to Aquarium Automation. Not that I'm holding back on that topic. But we didn't get a chance to cover it in the meeting, and it should be a good topic for some future meeting some day. In the interim, you've had a glimpse of what automation can provide (a large, decent looking, planted discus tank that takes next to no maintenance) and I'm happy to field questions - either in this thread, or a PM. But I prefer the thread... that way everyone benefits from the discourse.


It's cool to learn something new at NEDA meetings, and I learned something this time! When it's your turn to host one of these - declare it a pot luck! We were left with more food, wine, chips, golf fish, meatballs, wings, brownies, dip, bottled water... you name it! We were eating leftovers all week! Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and we STILL have leftover food in the fridge! And that's after inviting friends over Sunday for a "Help Us Eat All This Food" party. LOL! Your generosity was enormous. My requests for food/beverage help... clearly excessive. Thank you though! My belt is happy that it's finally been able to move up to a - thus far never used - brand new buckle hole.

I've been associated with a number of different on-line communities - forums - as some of you know. And make no mistake about it, the people on SimplyDiscus... the same people attending NEDA meetings - are the nicest people I've met in the aquarium hobby. It was a honor to host the meeting, and a pleasure to have you in our home.

Don't be strangers. It was fun!

[DonMD]

Hi, Steve,

I think you are worrying too much about the length of your powerpoint presentations. It's OK that they ran longer than your estimate. All the questions really added value to it, I think. Often, someone else's question made you think about things you might not have otherwise. Great presentation.

Only problem: I can't access it, either by clicking on the link, or trying to save it. Can you verify that it's uploaded on the host site correctly?

I do have one question about your fabulous tank. Seeing that you don't vacuum the substrate anymore, so as not to disturb the sand, do you have to worry about any bulidup of anaerobic bacteria?

Thanks again, Steve, we had a blast! -Don