Win a FREE Trip to MACNA 2017?!?

[Zack]

All!

MAAST has been invited to participate in the 2017 Marine Aquarium Hobbyist of the Year sponsored by Neptune Systems!

The prize for the winning hobbyist is:

MAHY award presented at the annual Neptune Systems MACNA meetup!
Airfare to New Orleans & Hotel accommodations
A full ticket to MACNA
$500 in new gear of their choice from Neptune Systems.

Qualification:

Must belong to a club, for at least one year, as well as being a charter member.
Must currently own and maintain a marine aquarium of any size.

Nomination:

Nominations can only be made by a MASNA-member marine aquarium club. An individual aquarium club may only nominate one member for this award – chosen in any manner they desire.

Selection:

Neptune Systems will select a 3-5 member committee of respected individuals in the marine aquarium industry These individuals will work with Neptune Systems to come to consensus on who they believe is most deserved of the award based on the criteria above. Selection will be made by 8/10/2017 and the winner will be notified privately so arrangements can be made. Announcement of the MAHY winner and the presentation of the award will take place at the 4th annual Neptune Systems 2017 MACNA Meetup on Friday morning, August 25th, 2017 in New Orleans, LA

We will be accepting nominations from now until right before the board meeting with voting being held this Sunday, the 30th at Justin Nelson's house at the conclusion of the BOD meeting!

[Zack]

I'd like to nominate Mike Rudolph and Marcello Cantu

[Zack]

Please if you accept, also write a short bio about your experiences with MAAST and your involvement in the club.

[bskidmore]

Can we nominate ourselves? If so, I would like to nominate myself. If not, i nominate Jeremiah Nichols

[Zack]

You can! Please shoot us a quick bio here.

[Zack]

What I'm thinking we will do, is take these bios from those who accept their nominations, and read them at the BOD meeting. The Board and those present during the Board Meeting will decide down to 2 or 3 (depending on number of nominations) members to present to the full membership attendance on Sunday during the Chasing Coral Screening.

Because this BOD meeting is EXTREMELY important for the club, I'd like to give a bit of additional interaction to those who will be attending it.

Everyone will then vote as to who would be best to represent the club for this nomination during the actual member meeting.

If you have been nominated and accepted your nomination, it would be awesome if you could make this Sunday's meeting for our members to interact with before voting. Meeting begins at 12PM at Justin's and I can PM you his address if you're interested.

[Frogman]

Can we nominate ourselves? If so, I would like to nominate myself. If not, i nominate Jeremiah Nichols

I respectfully decline the nomination. There are many people in this hobby who have done much more to contribute to the advancement of our group and of our coral population in San Antonio. I sincerely appreciate the nomination, but I would like to advance the nomination to one of our board members, Justin Neison has done much more for our group and his tank is an excellent example of what our hobby is about. I know the board has specific requirements and rules regarding not participating in certain events, however, the purpose of this is to highlight members who have progressed our hobby.

Please se accept his nomination.

Thank you

Frogman

[Zack]

Because this contest is judged by a third party panel of Neptune employees, I would be ok with accepting that BOD members could be nominated. Can I get 2 charter members to second and third this nomination being that it is for a BOD member?

[leliataylor]

Second the nomination of Justin.

[Justin]

Wow, thanks guys for all of the kind words. I accept the nod. Not sure what I need to do but I will submit whatever is necessary. I would also like to nominate the following folks:

Brandon Skidmore
Frances Santos
Josh Avila
Art Campos

[Justin]

Oh yea, Ty Farmer as well!!!

[Francis]

Wow, thanks guys for all of the kind words. I accept the nod. Not sure what I need to do but I will submit whatever is necessary. I would also like to nominate the following folks:

Brandon Skidmore
Frances Santos
Josh Avila
Art Campos

Thank you for the nomination, however, I respectfully decline as I will be busy traveling for work all the way to the end of the year. I believe Justin will be perfect nominee for this. Good luck to everyone that were nominated and have accepted!


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[Justin]

Sad that you're not going to enter but I understand, you've been traveling quite a bit lately. Thanks for the kind words.

[Zack]

Ttt. Nominations close tomorrow morning

[Umiamifan]

Thank you Zack for the nomination! My love for the hobby began wayyyyy back in 1998 when I started working for Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL. I mainly worked with reptiles and birds, but we also took care of Africa Cichlids. At my second zoo I worked with reptiles and aquatics. That's where I really started to learn about saltwater and the hobby. I was a manager at Petsmart for seven years and during that time I set up my first saltwater tank and I haven't looked back. I moved to San Antonio 6 years ago and I was excited to see the hobby doing so well here. I've been a member of Maast for many years and have definitely learned a lot from this group. When I meet a person new to the hobby I always recommend Maast for all their questions. During my time at the San Antonio Aquarium I got together with Maast to make sure the frag swaps and meetings go as smoothly as possible. You would normally see me walking back and forth during the swaps with a walkie talkie next to my ear answering radio calls. I made sure to request Sunday off to be up there during the swap, but came in uniform to help the aquarium since there is only one manager on Sunday's. I always try to help Maast as much as possible to help grow the relationship with the aquarium. It's amazing to have these two groups come together to raise awareness about our oceans and hobby. I can't thank Maast enough for being here. It's definitely a great community where everyone can come together to learn, help, and have a great time.

[FarmerTy]

Oh yea, Ty Farmer as well!!!Thank you Justin! I accept the nomination!

I am honored to have been given the opportunity to participate. Here's just a quick biography of my experiences and what has driven my passion for this amazingly rewarding hobby!

I won't tell you of the first time I smelled saltwater, or of the first time I setup a betta tank. I will tell you that I was an absolute nature show nerd (back before the Nature Channel or Discovery Channel existed) and when I saw my first video of a coral reef... I was in love!

This passion even drove me to attend Texas A&M University at Galveston and major in Marine Biology. That's where the intersection of my dreams versus reality set in and I realized there wasn't much of a career to be had for me in Marine Biology, so I majored in Ocean and Coastal Resources instead and became an environmental scientist. Fast forward to me moving out to California to be a beach bum and during my first Christmas out there in 2003, I went home to spend it with my family back in Texas and my brother sends me back with a 12-gallon nanocube. If he'd had known the obsession he inspired with the one thoughtful gift, he may have gotten me a new sweater instead!

I ran that 12-gallon nanocube for the better part of 5 years. Being the tinkerer that I am, I upgraded the fans, added an extra power compact bulb (probably cranking a whole 100 par by that time... wow!), turned the back middle chamber into a refugium by adding chaeto and a refugium light, and proceeded to nail down my water change schedule to every two weeks, religiously. That nanocube purred like a kitten.

Then it was time for me to move back to Texas... can't keep a southern guy away from the south too long! What did I do? Well, drain the water down to 4 inches, strap that nanocube in the passenger seat of my Jeep, and drove almost 22 hours straight to Austin because it was the middle of the summer and I couldn't risk everything dying in my tank. Yes, I am an absolute nut.

I upgraded to a 65-gallon tank once I bought my house and had a little more real estate to put a bigger tank in. That was quickly replaced with a 125-gallon tank and that's where the tang and*SPS*obsession began. I met a good guy named Tim who lived dangerously too close to me. He quickly got me hooked on*SPS*and I killed my first 4 pieces he gave me. Then he helped me tweak my levels and proceeded to replace the 4 pieces he gave me to try again. Once they started encrusting on the plugs and colored up, I knew right there, I was going to be a*SPS*junkie for life.

Fast forward again to 2014 and I upgraded to a 215-gallon tank and built my masterpiece tank full of angels and acros, two of my favorites. After moving this year, I'm currently working on my new in-wall 215-gallon tank and fish room. I hope to bring it up to the same level of success as my old one.

Experience-wise, I've been running a reef system for 14 years now. I dive into every research article I can get my hands on and I'm a big fan of experimenting on my tank. I'm a big fan of technology as well and enjoy automating everything with my Apex. I also enjoy the testing and tweaking of my water parameters to see if there are ways to improve growth and coloration.

During this whole process, I do what I can to document and share my findings with my local board and boards in neighboring cities in Texas, of which I am active in as well. I have a thirst for knowledge and a desire to share that knowledge to help out my fellow reefers. I am also a mentor on the Austin Reef Club and make myself available on all forums to assist my fellow reefers.

I've seen a lot, been through a lot, and hope some of what I've run across can help someone down the road avoid the same early pitfalls and make sounder decisions regarding their reef tank.

-Ty

[Zack]

Accepted nominations: Justin, Brandon, Ty, and Mike. We will allow nominations in person at the bod meeting at 12 also. Please pm me or justin for the info!

[Zack]

Congrats to Justin! Winner of our nomination for Neptune Systems 2017 Marine Aquarium Hobbyist of the Year!

[FarmerTy]

Congrats to Justin! Winner of our nomination for Neptune Systems 2017 Marine Aquarium Hobbyist of the Year!Congrats Justin! :) I'm glad you're getting all the recognition you deserve for all the work you do with the club.

[Justin]

Thanks Ty, I am truly honored by the nomination.

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[Zack]

Here's Justin's MAHY interview for those who are interested! https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5j7OF7gFKfDMVhza2Z3ZXZtX0k