Aquatic Gardeners Association
Convention
San Francisco, California 2006
This year aquatic plant hobbyists were
invited to San Francisco to attend the AGA convention. Board members of the Aquatic
Gardeners Association worked very hard to make this a memorable weekend. The
event was hosted by the San Francisco Bay Area
Aquatic Plant Society (sfbaaps). As a club, they are extremely successful
with over 300 members and monthly meeting attendance at over 40 people! And this
years convention was a true testament to the club and their ability to host a
flawless gathering. Everything went very smoothly, club members were helpful,
and the speakers were world class (literally). The event concluded with a
fantastic meal, annual contest winner announcements, and a first of its kind
competition.
The vendors came through for the event after
some last minute changes. It was great to see fine products available from ADA,
Tropica, Seachem, Zoo Med Labs, and donations from Kingfish Services. Not only
was their support and donations a great help but in talking with them they
seemed to be having a really good time.
Event services were provided by the San
Francisco Airport Sheraton located right along the bay, an easy hotel to get to.
The conference room was comfortable and held the 80+ people in attendance with
plenty of space.
Friday night started with the opening
presentation by Eric Do, a sfbaaps member. His presentation entitled
"Invertebrates" had everyone in the audience captivated by the
beautiful and diverse shrimp species. He also included some helpful insights
into keeping dwarf crayfish and snails. His macro-photography was amazing and
highly professional.
Following Eric's presentation Jeff Senske
took the podium. Jeff is another highly accomplished aquarium photographer
and co-author of "The Inspired Aquarium." He gave an introduction to
photographing aquariums. Then showed how images are brought to life through post
production techniques. It was great to learn how his many great images are
polished.
Saturday morning started bright and early
with a light and enjoyable presentation by Dorothy Reimer from London, Ontario,
Canada. She is an award winning hobbyist and competition judge with over 41
years in the hobby. Dorothy presented some "secrets" to eradicating
snails and their eggs, how to trick some plants from going dormant in the
winter, and her low tech approach to the hobby.
Next to present was Troels Andersen the
product developer for Tropica Aquarium Plants in Denmark. He gave a very
insightful presentation on the morphology and physiology of some aquatic plants.
Troels conveyed an important message on how there can be important differences
between CO2 uptake, light, and nutrients, in submerged and emerged plants. Also
the differences between natural environments and the aquarium was discussed.
After a lunch break Ricky Cain kept everyone
in a good mood with his light hearted presentation. Ricky has held multiple
offices in the Dallas Ft. Worth Aquatic Plant Club and just recently turned his
hobby into a profession by joining Seachem Laboratories. His creative talk dealt
with the people, places, and things that can inspire aquatic layout techniques
and spark our imagination.
Ricky was followed by another of the Seachem
team, Dr. George Batton. Dr. Batton is a chemist and the Research Director for
Seachem Laboratories. He made some of the many difficult concepts of aquatic
chemistry actually easy to grasp and explained the roll of substrates, buffers,
and suppliments in successful plant tanks.
Saturday's lecture segment concluded with
another guest from Denmark, Ole Pedersen. Ole is an Associate Professor at the
University of Copenhagen where he works in their Freshwater Biological
Laboratory. In addition he is the webmaster for the Tropica Aquarium Plants
website as well as maintaining his own site. Ole gave a fascinating presentation
on natural freshwater ecosystems ranging from far Northern latitudes to the warm
tropics. His lecture touched on an important point. Currently plant tanks are
designed as very low water flow environments but Ole showed the effects of high
flow streams on plant morphology and growth patterns. This suggests an
opportunity for hobbyists to experiment with water flow patterns in closed
systems. The results may be quite interesting.
The evening festivities got under way with a
great buffet dinner and socializing among attendees, speakers, and the
organizers of the convention. This was followed by a presentation of the winners
in the 2006 AGA
International Aquascaping Contest. Most of the judges for this years
competition were on hand and gave some comments on what they were most impressed
with during the judging process.
The last event for Saturday night was the
first ever Iron Aquascaper Challenge. Based on the popular television series,
"Iron Chef" two teams were selected to compete for 1 hour to design a
layout, plant, and fill a 10 gallon aquarium. Tables were setup at the front of
the room with materials, plants, and the aquariums all donated for the event.
Once everything was in place the two teams were announced.
On the left side of the tables was team
leader Jeff Senske from Aquarium Design Group. Jeff introduced his team
consisting of two other Aquarium Design Group employees. On the right side was
George Lo of Aqua Forest Aquarium. George introduced his team which included his
brother Steven and an employee. The two teams then prepared to start their 1
hour competition. Judging the event were three judges, Ole Pedersen, Dorothy
Reimer, and Troels Andersen.
Just like in the television show a mystery
plant was revealed just before starting. The requirement was that this plant
must be present in each aquascape.
Once the announcer started the clock both
teams immediately began to lay down their substrates. Rocks and wood were
brought in from central California to give a local flavor to the layouts. They
were pilled up on the floor and both teams raced to select the best pieces for
their designs.
Jeff arranged his large rocks with a great
deal of thought. While George focused on adjusting the position of small,
foreground rocks.
Just like in the television show cameras were frantically
trying to capture the progress of each team.
Time went by very quickly as each team
focused on getting the stem plants in place, mosses tied down, and final
adjustments made. Tanks were slowly filled so as not to disturb the aquascape.
Each team finish with very nice layouts. The
tanks exhibited both the different styles of the teams and the limits of
available plants.
After completion both team leaders commented
on the difficulties of working under pressure and how they went about developing
their layouts. They also shared some ideas how to improve next years
contest.
All three judges then examined each of the
displays. They discussed in private their observations then judge Ole Pedersen
shared the results with the audience.
The very close competition ended with George Lo the winner
of this first Iron Aquascaper Contest. Each team then congratulated each other
on a great effort. Both teams were available after the event for comments and discussion
with hobbyists.
This years convention was captured on high quality video.
The DVD's are scheduled to be ready by Christmas. So if you would like
to learn more and see all the presentations in their entirety you can contact
the Aquatic Gardeners Association at:
