May's Speaker was MASLAC's own Scott Fellman! His topic was "Your Next Marine Aquarium", a humorous and informative look at all the things that you swear you're gonna do on your next aquarium set up! If time permits, Scott also discussed "Nutrient Control and Export", a look at ways to improve water quality and reduce/eliminate nuisance algae. Great presentation! Thanks Scott!

February's speaker was Eric Cohen, the owner of Sea Dwelling Creatures (SDC). He shared with us many of the things SDC does to promote sustainability in the aquarium trade including the new Green Label S.M.A.R.T. products they will be introducing into the marketplace in the near future. Ask your LFS about Green Label S.M.A.R.T. livestock from SDC. He also had a casual, town-hall style chat with the club about how SDC operates, what husbandry methods they employ at their business, their outreach to suppliers and collectors worldwide, compliance issues with U.S. Dept. of Fish and Game and general conscientious aquarist awareness. Eric also brought to our attention what we can do to help out. Any SCUBA divers or friends of divers, please check out www.ReefCheck.org. Get involved and help promote sustainable collecting practices!

A new service that SDC are introducing is called "The Furnace." This is a WYSIWYG web site where SDC photographs their primo, A-1, choice corals that come in every day, post them on their website and give each coral a unique identification number. If you see a coral that you MUST have from "The Furnace" you can reach out to Lance at his shop, Blue Water Lance, tell Lance the number of the coral you want from "The Furnace" and he can get it for you direct from SDC!

WOW! This is your chance to get the cream of the crop corals BEFORE they get shipped to the store! What an awesome service! Thanks Eric! Thanks Lance!

In case you didn't know, SDC is the leading supplier to public aquariums and universities in the world. This is for 3 reasons:
1) ETHICS. They constantly search for livestock sources that are obtained in a sustainable manner. They do not give a collector business based on price only.
2) VARIETY. They have the largest selection and many of the popular choices that everyone else has they get the same species from different locations, always striving to find a more humane collection technique as unlike most suppliers who only care that the fish arrives alive SDC strives to find the fish that will thrive long term.
3) INNOVATION. SDC is always changing things and trying new things to keep their livestock in top condition, rather than clean the tanks between customers as every one does there is a full time fish feeder, and a treatment room. They were the first marine wholesaler to use fluidized beds and at one time had a Carlson surge on each reef. As you can see Eric Cohen is uniquely qualified to answer all your questions on fish and inverts.

Thanks again to Eric and his wife for spending time with the club on a Friday night, and to Lance for bringing this together!

Sunday, March 1st was the 2009 Southwestern Coral Farmers Market Spring Event! We had 3 new members sign up and raffled away an eShopps Protein Skimmer and a RO/DI system donated by our friends at Air, Water & Ice. Congrats to our winners and a BIG thanks to Eshopps and Air, Water & Ice!

• The April 2009 Board meeting will be held at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, April 29th at the Carnival Restaurant in Sherman Oaks. The street address is 4356 Woodman Ave., Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. (818) 784-3469. Google Map is HERE.

The Board meetings are held each month. Check the website and the bulletin board for location, times and dates. Any and all members are welcome to come and are encouraged to attend and be a part of the planning that goes into Club meetings and events.

• Old members.... please come to our next meeting and RENEW your membership for 2009.

• New members.... please come to our next meeting and register a NEW membership for 2009.

2009 Officers

President: Lance Rettig

1st VP: Scott Fellman

2nd VP: Mark Horne

Treasurer: Carolyn Smith

Secretary: Beverly Bruce



2009 Committee Heads

Live Goods Raffle: Lance Rettig

Dry Goods Raffle: Lance Rettig

Membership: Carolyn Smith / Tom Sweeney

Web Master: Matt Buschbacher

Newsletter/PR: None

Librarians: Greg Bachayan / Lance Rettig

September NEWSLETTER