[jerseyjay]

I have a laptop with internet access. Please check daily for more updates. Me and Giancarlo just arrived at the hotel and getting ready for VIP party w/ Amano.

Pictures coming up tonight. Be patient :lol:

 

[Sir_BlackhOle]

cant wait cant wait cant wait...where are the pics??? i dont see em yet?? oh...wait..you said tonight... :lol:

 

[plantbrain]

I'm leaving in a few hours. See ya thar.
Tom Barr

 

[jerseyjay]

Few pictures taken at the VIP party at Ghazanfar's house.

1. 10G reef tank by Ghazanfar Ghori

2. Amano looking at Ghazanfar's 75 aquascape

4. 46bow by Ghazanfar Ghori

5. At the dinner (left: Giancarlo Podio, Phil Edwards, Oliver Knott, Takashi Amano, Amano's translator, Amano's Business Manager, Luca Specchio)

6. Looking at the book (left: Takashi Amano, Amano's Business Manager, Jeff Senske, Karen Randall)

7. 75G by Ghazanfar Ghori

8. Ghazanfar and Giancarlo exchanging frags.

 

[Raul-7]

Nice! What did Amano say about Ghanazafar's 75g? What's the deal with the business manager, is he auctioning ADA products?

 

[jerseyjay]

Nice! What did Amano say about Ghanazafar's 75g?

I don't think anyone asked him that question. His face showed no emotion which is normal for typical Japanese person. I hope he liked it as much as we all did.

What's the deal with the business manager

Top Secret :wink:

is he auctioning ADA products?

His setup will be ripped apart after the workshop and entire ADA equipment will be taken by "Senske Corp." I'm not sure if there are additional items prepared for the auction.

 

[Bert H]

Thanks for the reports and pics, Jay. Hope to see more.

 

[niko]

Very nice, Jay!

Nice tanks too, Ghazanfar!

Please, post more pictures.

--Nikolay

 

[Claudio Trinta]

Very nice acquariums....

Claudio

 

[Sir_BlackhOle]

Awesome! man i wish i was there!

 

[Ibn]

Awesome...keep those pictures coming.

 

[chrisl]

Great looking tanks! Nice to put some faces to names, Thanks Jay!

Chris

 

[amber2461]

Thanks for the pictures and the names .... finally a face to go with the names !

 

[jerseyjay]

I just got home. Friday/Saturday was very intense. I was eating only once daily and enjoying rest of the show. I have over 2gigs of pictures which should be edited within next few days.

I'm in charge of editing ALL photo submissions from various individuals who took pictures at the convention. Please stay tune for new and improved AGA gallery.

I will add more to the forum and those who didn't have the camera at the time and I was taking picture of you and Amano can freely use it for their personal use.

At the end excellent news from AGA 2004.

Last night at the "VIP Party" Mr. Amano announced the following:

ADA products will be available in USA and Senske Brothers will be responsible for distribution. Save your money and get ready for top quality gadgets !!!!!!!!!

 

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

Convention? What convention? Why didn't somebody tell me there
was a convention!!!

Just got back home - last few days are a blur. Was running on
3-4 hours of sleep / night for the past 4 days.
Don't remember the convention .Will need to buy the DVD.

I do know - it was UNbeleivable! For the folks who missed it -
get the DVD when its out later this year.

Folks who attended - please post your comments!

 

[JLudwig]

Just got back home - last few days are a blur. Was running on
3-4 hours of sleep / night for the past 4 days.
Don't remember the convention .Will need to buy the DVD.

Heh, so I guess the auction finally ended I've never seen anything quite like it, 700+ bags of just plants, and not boring stuff either: HC, L. brevipes, oddball crypts, R spec. Green, R Spec. Nanjanshan, L sp. Cuba, on and on. I grabbed some HC and R. spec. Green... several stems being sold were "touched by Amano" in the aquascaping demo the night before

Since everyone at the conference gave me a jab for not being online as much, I'll make a little more effort to be around... life gets busy, but its good to actually go and meet some fellow hobbyists (nutcases) to recharge the planted tank batteries so-to-speak... met lots of new people, Gomer, Nathan, Phil, Bailin, Oliver, and Tom Barr for the first time, several old faces, good to see everyone!

Mike Senske did the awful awful (read: expensive for me) thing of showing us how he makes his paludariums, every last secret was revealed! No spoilers here - buy the DVD this one is worth it alone! He even reveals how to DIY fog, best way to plumb the tanks, best and how to use terrestrial ferts safely. This is my second time meeting the Senkes, they are very helpful and always eager to share what they know.

Jan started my next morning with a lecture on emersed crypt culture, once again, he told all, but in this case things were susprisingly simple. No secrets, but his rule of thumb was if it doesn't flower in 3 months change what you're doing. He also gave the helpful hint of using RO water for base and fert water to minimize algae problems.

I was helping with the best of show voting, so I didn't catch Paul or Oliver's workshop hopefully someone can post some summaries.

Mr. Amano gave an afternoon lecture in two parts, one with aqauscapes, then questions, then he gave a presentation about building his home. I think you all have seen the tank in the house, but he also showed us the creation of the pond outside his home which is equally if not more impressive... I can't really put this into words, you just need to see this to believe it.

Jan continued with another crypt lecture, this time crypts in nature with beautiful shots of SE Asia, problems with collection, and development. Not sure I would brave the leeches up the nose to get my hands on a rare crypt, but I'm glad people like him are up for it.

Dinner followed, I ate with some "fish" folks: Randy Carey http://www.characin.com and Milo from MN, glad to see we're drawing people from other parts of the hobby, this is very important folks - we don't want to isolate ourselves, not everyone is after an Amano scape, some people are in it to learn more about plants to help with breeding/biotopes/etc... fishrooms don't need to be restricted to duckweed and java moss, stuff like killie tanks are great for crypts, anubias, and plenty more. This is how we bait people in Erik Olsen, Bailin and Phil were also at the table, we all had a good time.

The contest winners were announced next, not sure when Erik is having the results come out so I'll keep quite right now, anyhow APC should be proud. Honestly, I didn't care for the judges having to explain themselves, a simple announcement would have done it for me. :roll:

Then the master set to work.... FAST. With the help of one day ADA workers Ben and Luis, Amano setup the tank in about an hour, altho he said 30 minutes is not uncommon somethings. It was amazing how unplaned the whole thing was. With respect to driftwood placement, he kind of threw it around in there like well driftwood. It looked like something that washed up on shore and he had no desire to manicure it. Plants went int he same way, he really only paid attention to height. Used a LOT of color, I was suprised.

Getting real tired, I'll leave off here for now, finsihed my summary later..

Jeff Ludwig

 

[gnatster]

Sean (SCMurphy) Murphy in shock about the contents of the goodie bag given to all. I cannot thank Mr Amano and ADA's Marketing VP Nozomi Hayakawa as well as SeaChem, Kent, Aquarium Pharmaceuticals and ZooMed enough for their generosity.

Contents:

AQ Pharm - Stress Coat
SeaChem - Plant Pack Fundamentals and various Planted Line items
Kent - Various Botanica items
ADA - 7 AquaJournals , 2003 and 2004 ADA Contest Book
ZooMed - Bags

 

[dennis]

: insert very elaborate smily for shedding tears and bashing head into computer screen So sad.........

 

[gpodio]

The convention was awesome! It was a pleasure meeting so many people and putting faces to names, everyone was a delight and I think we all had a lot of fun. I'm still recovering myself, think I lost a few brain cells at the "after hours" party...

Great news regarding the ADA products, I think they made a good choice both in the products to start off with and the parties involved in bringing them to us, congratulations to both ADA and the soon to be Senske Corp. :wink:

Thank you to all the organizers for making this happen, the speakers who presented some very interesting topics and revealed some of their secrets to us (can't wait for the DVD!), congratulations to all the contest entries and of course those who brought home ribbons!

Need to go through the photos, will post some later on. Jay took many photos, can't wait to see them all!

Giancarlo

 

[jerseyjay]

More pictures.

Please stay tune for New AGA Gallery and tons of pictures.

Mr. Amano with ALL the ladies

Placement of the wood

Help Squad (left: Luiz Navarro, Ghazanfar Ghori, Ben Belton)

Audience with the cameras

Help Squad (guys are wrapping rocks with java moss)

Mr. Amano pruning anubias

Mr. Amano adding anubias to the aquascape

Mr. Amano adding water to the tank. Diffuser was necessary at the end of the hose plus movements of the hose from left to right were performed to prevent from messing up the substrate

First peek at almost done aquascape

APC Squad

Finished aquascape