~~~March 17th PSAS Meeting~~~

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jesshimom said:
UPDATE: FYI thanks everyone, there was $143 in the donation box. That coupled with six new members paid the expenses last night.

Also, wanted to make sure everyone knew, that the halide setup in the box at the front table was donated by PFO and will be part of our June goodies to be raffled at the picnic.

Seems everyone had a great time, but not sure if we should do a speaker and frag event at the same time due to the distractions for the speaker. :):)
Click to expand...


I have pictures to post for those that want to remember the meeting. I think this was a lesson to all. There was some very valuable information at this meeting. PSAS has wanted PFO to visit for Three years. I sincerely hope they had a good time. They came on their own penny and donated a pretty cool Halide system to share at a raffle.

Here is a appoligy from myself. People had one hour to trade stuff. That was poor planning on my behalf. Colleen told me I could run the show for a bit. The next time I will be more organized. :) I will work on this.

I appoligize for not having a raffle, but the idea is to get all of you to Picnic this year. There is some cool things brewing for June. I told a few of you of some things.
Ok, I will get posting pictures...:)
 
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Its ST.Pattys Day lots going on in Bellevue!

Lets start off with the Frag/Equipment/fish Swap!
There was some pretty cool stuff that came in. Awesome deals on some really rare frags. People trading frags. Barrier Reef displaying a really cool skimmer. I want one. People offering deals on equipment. Even Fish coming in this time.

I got a Superman Denae and a few other really cool frags, time with people I enjoy seeing. I met some more cool people from Reef Frontiers. What did you get?
 
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Last night was my first ever frag swap/club meeting. It was alot of fun and I enjoyed meeting some new people that can relate to my trials and tribulations of the hobby. I was able to help out by bringing three frags and ended up coming home with five.:D
 
PFO, Simply the best for a reason.

What more can I say. PFO is the Top Manufacturer of Aquarium Lighting for a reason. I spoke with owner of PFO Pat. He had not done a presentation for a aquarium club for years. He said he usually has his staff do this. We got the real thing. Pat stated the work you were displayed was based on testing by his staff and some icons in the hobby. A few testers for his light were Sanjay, and Mike Palletta for example.

Here are some of the things that were discussed.

How important it is to have a good reflector. How glass shielding prevents salt creep, preventing damage to fixture. The loss of light with glass shield is about 7 percent. The loss of light reflectivity is usually 25 percent on a unshielded reflector due to salt creep without a glass shield.

The reflector matierials used and which one works best.
 
PAR vs Lumens

We learned which of the above was more inportant to corals. PAR is more important. Lumens is what the human eye percieves for asthetic purposes.
Pat showed us a PAR meter for measuering PAR. He also showed us a Lux meter or Lumen meter for measuering Lumens. PAR is distance measured from one point the lowest to highest point on scale. Someone help me on this a little more please.
 
Ballast information.

This one blew me away. As you can see from the chart below. This changed my outlook on electronic ballast.
 
Ok, why LED lights and which LED lights does PFO use.

There are two types of LED lights available. The one on the left beware of.
There is a manufactor trying to sell the one on left.
The one on the right is used in Solarius lighting systems. The LED on right has a radiatior on it. So it can run cooler. They can be overclocked. They produce more light. Due to cooler runing there is a longer life span.
The right LED usually run for ten years at least. Pat guarantees them for 5. Pat was very modest on all of his judements. Pat (PFO) wanted to provide the most accurate information to keep a honest relationship with customer. :)
 
Solaris advantages over Metal Halide for hard to sell

Pat gets questions sent in from Pro Metal Halide people. He explained which questions they were for the hard to sell. A very detailed explanation of why LEDs can out perform in some ways Metal Halide. :)

I ask you to look at the 250 watt lumens per watt on the USHIO 10K bulb. You can see that bulb is lower than 40 watts per lumen LED.
 
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How about you testing the equipment for yourself?

Thats right stick your hands in the water and test the PAR readings. A 400 watt XM 20K bulb dual halide system compared to the Solaris system. Here are the Lux meter and the PAR meter. ;)

Pat showed us how. But you need to try to see for yourself.:)
 
A good learning experience.

There were not corals in the tank. But if you look at Pauls arm You can see how bright the lighting was. :)
 
The bottom line...

The bottom line is Solaris may cost more initally. The PAR output is impressive. Solaris is efficient on energy. You will most likely not need a chiller with this lighting system. They have their own built in controller built in. The controller does everything or you can run it manually like MH lighting. Solaris dims to 13k to a very high 20K. The Solaris was bluer than the 400 watt XM 20K system. So save your money.

My goal was to run Susies old tank as efficiently as possible. I need to save my money. Wife keep looking at electricity bill. I have a ugly chiller sitting out. So I am working it.

I hope to see you next month. Thanks for the smiles.
Sincerely
Ed:)
 
Bloopers.....

Be on the look out for this guy and others such as Al G and James playing in the water fountains near you. They tend to move equipment like generators, large water pumps, trash cans and this yellow cart.

If you see them please contact your local Saltwater Aquarium Club Puget Sound Aquarium Society!:D
 
Ed you did great. I couldn't comprehend dragging a tank and all the "stuff" along to make this work. Glad you ignored me and did your thing.

Did you all know that Ed brought the tank, stand, generator, hoses, pumps and everything else from Kennewick? We are lucky to have him over here.

The guy stealing water from the fountain is Paul from the Tri-Cities also, who is going to be working on the PSAS web site. Hurray!
 
I had a great time I must say! I left with some $$$ and some new corals! I will post pictures of my new additions soon!

Matt
 
That picture stealing water from the fountain is priceless! Thankfully, no one has soaped it recently.

-Josh
 
jetaero said:
That picture stealing water from the fountain is priceless! Thankfully, no one has soaped it recently.

-Josh
Click to expand...
Or it could be a terrorist attack from the Tri-cities introducing skimmate to the fountain........:eek:
 
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