MACO, which has been in operation in association with Reefs.Org for
many years, is once again coming to the forefront of reef keeping on
the internet with a wide selection of courses on offer. Historically,
courses have been offered by leaders in the field including Scott
Michael, Brian Ferguson, Sanjay Joshi, Ron Shimek and others. This
year’s course offerings are no different.

MACO is a system by which hobbyists can take high level courses
designed to instruct in many aspects of reefkeeping. For example, the
first course offering of the 2005 series is a course in the creation of
a kalkwasser reactor, with the main focus being on the basics of
fabricating with acrylic. Courses include not only highly respected
instructors, but weekly chat sessions to discuss reading topics,
bulletin board forums for posting questions you have as you move along
in the material, and the ability to network with other course
participants in order to expand your hobby oriented horizons.

Review of previous courses, which ranged from 35-75 participants per
course, have been glowing! Students carry away all of the information
they need to continue projects or continue to study in the area of each
course, and many are course repeaters.

The newly improved MACO includes a completely revamped website that
provides a course management system specifically designed for
classwork. Included with registration is access to the website, ability
to post images and descriptions of your projects, access to
participant-only forums and chat rooms. These tools make the course
work more enjoyable and access to the instructor easy.

The 2005 course listings include:

• Acrylic Fabrication (creation of a kalkwasser reactor) by Bryan Green
• Reef Lighting by Sanjay Joshi
• Woodworking for Beginners (creation of a canopy/hood) by Kevin Whitney
• Reef Conservation and Restoration (with certification) by ReefBall Foundation
• and many more to come!

For more information on each course or the sign up, please visit the website at www.aquaristcourses.org.

#reefs IRC Speaker: April Kirkendoll
Topic: Breeding Cleaner Shrimp

In other news, Reefs.Org is proud to present April Kirkendoll as a
featured speaker. She will be chatting about the captive breeding of
cleaner shrimp. Her presentation will be on the online chat group
#reefs on the IRC network afterx.net. The presentation will begin
February 19 th (Saturday) at 9pm EST. For information on how to
connect, please see: http://www.reefs.org/access/index.html Door prizes will be awarded!