It’s that time again! We’re nearing the end of the month which means only one thing - it’s time to catch up and review what’s been happening on UltimateReef throughout August! This month has been full to the brim with heartache, camaraderie, retirement and promotion, oddly enough mostly ginger related... Enjoy reading; it’s been a good month!

This month’s TOTM was awarded robertus who keeps a truly stunning four foot system, focusing almost entirely on SPS coral. With a huge selection of small fish this is the perfect example of how to make a small tank look large and maintain a happy, peaceful environment.

Click to view the August TOTM article.

Congratulations Robert!

July’s photography SOTM was won by Snowsurfer with this stunning image of a yasha goby. An awesome image of a beautiful little goby.

Click to view all the entries of July’s SOTM

Congratulations Snowsurfer, a great picture.

This month is a month to keep an eye on the local forums, with plenty of meets happening all over the country. Be sure to attend as the locals usually manage to drive down the prices!

The second Dutch MarineAquarium event will be hosted on the 27th of September. With names like Ron Hessing, Eric Borneman, and Joe Yaiullo this event is sure to be cram packed with knowledge. Anyone lucky enough to be going will (hopefully) return with some amusing stories and will post a thread detailing the events and adventures. View this thread Dutch MarineAquarium Event to find details of the trip.

As many of you know, this month was the yearly Reefkeeper’s Weekender! Many of you will be attending when this newsletter is sent out, but if you missed it this year make sure you book early for next year’s event! It’s not something to miss! Keep an eye out for the inevitable thread with all the gory details of what went on. As a sneak peak I received some inside information that apparently Philfish streaked through Ron Hessing’s first talk, Jobr got beaten up by a bloke in a Paddington bear suit and Pavlo yet again won all the raffle prizes. Hopefully we will hear more when they all return tomorrow.

This month has been full of change, additions, losses, confusion, and emotion. First on the list is the departure and subsequent return of Reef Bloke from the team! At the beginning of this month our good friend Reef Bloke decided that he would rather spend time looking back on UltimateReef from the sidelines in order to keep his sanity and also the inevitable need to spend time with his family. Thankfully before the month was out he realised that his family were dull in comparison and that the lure that is the running of UltimateReef, was just too strong for him to resist. This may be a bit of an odd announcement at first, but it is the only way of explaining why the much missed SOTM (Subject of the Month) is back. See the News thread

At the beginning of this month UltimateReef welcomed a new sponsor - Complete Marines. Their high quality stock will certainly please not only South Yorkshire locals, but reefers countrywide!
Welcome to UltimateReef! To visit their site click www.complete-marines.co.uk

Some of you may be interested to know that 'LostBoys' came forward and asked if we minded if he tried to organise a weekly discussion night using the UltimateReef chat room. Well, we thought about it for several days but despite our best efforts we just couldn’t think of a reason to say no. Henceforth, every Sunday at 8pm in the chatroom will be an organised and deliberate discussion on a given topic. For one hour conversation will be limited to that topic. Whether you are experienced or a beginner, it would be nice if you could pop in and share your thoughts or questions with other like minded people. LostBoys aims to have discussion topics at least 4 weeks in advance, and we aim to keep you informed of future topics by way of announcement and this newsletter. If you have any suggestions for topics, feel free to pm LostBoys or a moderator and they will do their best to engineer it into the 'upcoming timetable'.
Thanks LostBoys for offering your time to sort this out, we hope its a success!

Also, our congratulations go out to Lucy on her recent wedding, and AlanM on the birth of his new baby girl, Eden.

And last but certainly not least, the UltimateReef team is delighted to announce that ‘Tetley’ has now joined the ranks of the NMHT! After being pestered and continually pushing away the offers, Tetley finally relented and will now suffer with the rest of the NMHT.
Welcome on board Tetley, the very best of luck!

With the above announcement of the new seahorse forum comes two new articles which will shortly be appearing. If however you are not reading this on the day it was sent then you will find them there already! Both articles are a superb read, both very informative, and well worth a good read.

You can find the seahorse article here.

And the fry-raising article here.