Blog on Rocky Cove Aquarium Club

Show & tell night in photos

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Some meetups are better shown than told. Here is June’s show & tell night, in pictures.

Doors at seven, and the demo tanks drew a crowd before the kettle had even boiled.

Riko’s two-year-old planted scape, the deserved star of the evening.

The swap table: cherry shrimp, cuttings, and more spare sponge filters than anyone will admit to owning.

New tank 101 recap: five tanks, zero panic

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our biggest beginner night yet. Twenty new keepers, five demo tanks, and one very patient discussion about the nitrogen cycle.

The highlight was watching first-timers realize that a beautiful tank is mostly patience: cycle first, stock slowly, and let the plants do the work.

Thank you to everyone who brought spare equipment for the giveaway table, three members went home with their first complete setup.

Taken by the sea: notes from our first tidepool walk

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We traded our glass boxes for the real thing: a low-tide morning on the rocks at Rocky Cove.

The club that spends every meetup arguing about water parameters went very quiet in front of the first tidepool. Anemones, hermit crabs, and a sculpin doing its best impression of a rock: nobody’s tank has ever been this well aquascaped.

Half of us came home planning a brackish setup, and all of us came home humbled. The ocean has been running the perfect reef tank all along, no protein skimmer required.

Freshwater vs saltwater: what our panel actually agreed on

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We expected a rivalry; we got a love-in. Both panels agreed on more than they disagreed: stability beats gadgets, water changes beat additives, and the best tank is the one you’ll actually maintain.

The saltwater camp made their case with a rock-solid frag display; the freshwater camp countered with a carpet of Monte Carlo that drew audible gasps.

We’ll call it a draw, until the rematch.

Field trip diary: a day at the Vancouver Aquarium

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Fifteen of us spent a rainy Saturday exactly where we wanted to be: in front of very large tanks.

Highlights included the kelp forest exhibit, a spirited discussion about sump design, and one member taking ninety-two photos of the same anemone.

We left inspired, humbled, and with a shared list of wildly unrealistic dream-tank plans.