Aquatic Gardeners Association Convention
San Francisco, California 2006

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:

http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/