Ghazanfar Ghori said:
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