awesome!
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Macna 2013
- Thread starter Fish Brain
- Start date
awesome!
We stuck out in the regular raffles and did not stay down for today's mega raffles. Our flight was too early but I will take the ai. I felt like I was channeling you Anthony.
Good job guys
Edwardw771
NJRC Member
And here is a picture of my Red Lamborghini Aventador in the garage with the lights out…..notice the custom seats.
Come on Mike, give me a break! What a tease!
Come on Mike, give me a break! What a tease!
And here is a picture of my Red Lamborghini Aventador in the garage with the lights out…..notice the custom seats.
Come on Mike, give me a break! What a tease!
I don not need to anger the reef gods with posting pics right away. I will let the stuff settle in and then get some pics. Also, there was one vendor who is shipping stuff back to dnov99 and myself so there is actually more coming.
The "more" is acros and one favia I believe (but I am not certain since I thought we had bought 5 things from this vendor and Mike says closer to 10). . .
Outside the joking around I wanted to do a quick rehash of MACNA and experiencing it (and any show for that matter) as an attendee and not running it.
First off: They picked an amazing venue and had really great weather which just really helps the experience. We never left the hotel and where in a pool, the ocean, the conference, a steak house, a sushi bar, a sports bar, a spa for massages, an outside reception area on the intercoastal without putting a foot in the cab. This really makes it so much easier because everyone is having fun and in a good mood which is nice.
The function: They ran the show very smoothly as well. They broke the attendance record for the banquet and I am sure for the overall as well (not really confirmed numbers, just some very late night chats with Tony Vargas). I have a few very tiny nitpicky things, but then again we all do for every show. For example the raffle on Saturday (the only one we participated in) ran about an hour which is just long. It looks like for the main raffle today they moved it into a hall which was a great idea. The volunteers were everywhere and very helpful to us so I was impressed.
Live stock vendors: Really brought their a games. There was so much it was almost too much. There was not one type of coral I did not see that was not represented there in multiple booths. We bought from probably like 10 different vendors, off the top of my head WWC, Cherry corals, Jason Fox, The Coral Kings, Coralgasm, Rare Reef, zoanthids.com, reefkoi, a reef creation, cornbred, frag junky, beautiful corals, unique corals and carolina aquariums. My coral basically came from all over the country which was awesome. Some of these vendors don't even have websites and have never sold outside their respective areas. That is certainly going to change. It was also cool to see some wholesalers even though they were a bit of a tease because they were only selling to vendors. A special shout out to the gorgonian vendor who had the brightest red gorgs I have ever seen. I am working Elos to try and bring a few in as they are beyond stunning.
Dry stock vendors: This is really not my specialty, I am not an equipment geek. It was nice to see Coralvue who basically run my whole setup, but I was not going to go crazy over the new DC pump skimmers as it just really does not interest me so I don't have any crazy updates here. I got a really nice media basket form InTank for the 12g that I am realy excited to seutp. Obviously the highlight was winning the AI raffle. Here is how it worked, on friday you went to their booth and got a t shirt, you would then wear that t shirt on Satuday which you then got a wrist band, they would then draw the winning number off the wrist band. I was the first number pulled, at that point I was not wearing the AI shirt (we went to the beach in between and I was rocking a NJRC swap t shirt) and got roundly booed for it. Luckily Nikki had her tshirt still on so no drama. Other cool stuff we saw was Dr. Tims lineup of full products which we will be ordering, the Aquamedic phyto and rotifer cultures, and some of the amazing, amazing tanks that people brought. There was one tank there that actually gave me tank envy from Reef savvy (I think), it was 8 feet long, by 36 deep but only like 20 inches high. It was like 325gish an was just amazing. The last think I will mention is something we might get in the future which is a jellyfish tank, they had three on display that were out of this world stunning. Cost is a little steep, otherwise I would have ordered one when we got home. Might be a long term plan.
Reception: Outdoors and right on the water and was amazing. We had a blast there and you get to do the one of the things that make MACNAs worth going to: mingle with the heavyweights in the hobby. Getting to chat with speakers and vendors from Ken Niedermeyer, Richard Ross, Scott Fellman, Jason fox, Todd Cherry and Chris from Reefkoi (to name a few) is just amazing. It is also one of the few times you can ever walk into a crowded bar and just overhear all fish conversation. It is a major geek out moment when you are chatting fish around everyone that is chatting fish. Had a great time at this one. Also got to chill with plenty of New Jersey peeps which was cool as always.
Next Year: It is going to be in Denver and the intro price is still good for a few weeks so check it out. We have not booked yet but we might turn it into a vacation.
First off: They picked an amazing venue and had really great weather which just really helps the experience. We never left the hotel and where in a pool, the ocean, the conference, a steak house, a sushi bar, a sports bar, a spa for massages, an outside reception area on the intercoastal without putting a foot in the cab. This really makes it so much easier because everyone is having fun and in a good mood which is nice.
The function: They ran the show very smoothly as well. They broke the attendance record for the banquet and I am sure for the overall as well (not really confirmed numbers, just some very late night chats with Tony Vargas). I have a few very tiny nitpicky things, but then again we all do for every show. For example the raffle on Saturday (the only one we participated in) ran about an hour which is just long. It looks like for the main raffle today they moved it into a hall which was a great idea. The volunteers were everywhere and very helpful to us so I was impressed.
Live stock vendors: Really brought their a games. There was so much it was almost too much. There was not one type of coral I did not see that was not represented there in multiple booths. We bought from probably like 10 different vendors, off the top of my head WWC, Cherry corals, Jason Fox, The Coral Kings, Coralgasm, Rare Reef, zoanthids.com, reefkoi, a reef creation, cornbred, frag junky, beautiful corals, unique corals and carolina aquariums. My coral basically came from all over the country which was awesome. Some of these vendors don't even have websites and have never sold outside their respective areas. That is certainly going to change. It was also cool to see some wholesalers even though they were a bit of a tease because they were only selling to vendors. A special shout out to the gorgonian vendor who had the brightest red gorgs I have ever seen. I am working Elos to try and bring a few in as they are beyond stunning.
Dry stock vendors: This is really not my specialty, I am not an equipment geek. It was nice to see Coralvue who basically run my whole setup, but I was not going to go crazy over the new DC pump skimmers as it just really does not interest me so I don't have any crazy updates here. I got a really nice media basket form InTank for the 12g that I am realy excited to seutp. Obviously the highlight was winning the AI raffle. Here is how it worked, on friday you went to their booth and got a t shirt, you would then wear that t shirt on Satuday which you then got a wrist band, they would then draw the winning number off the wrist band. I was the first number pulled, at that point I was not wearing the AI shirt (we went to the beach in between and I was rocking a NJRC swap t shirt) and got roundly booed for it. Luckily Nikki had her tshirt still on so no drama. Other cool stuff we saw was Dr. Tims lineup of full products which we will be ordering, the Aquamedic phyto and rotifer cultures, and some of the amazing, amazing tanks that people brought. There was one tank there that actually gave me tank envy from Reef savvy (I think), it was 8 feet long, by 36 deep but only like 20 inches high. It was like 325gish an was just amazing. The last think I will mention is something we might get in the future which is a jellyfish tank, they had three on display that were out of this world stunning. Cost is a little steep, otherwise I would have ordered one when we got home. Might be a long term plan.
Reception: Outdoors and right on the water and was amazing. We had a blast there and you get to do the one of the things that make MACNAs worth going to: mingle with the heavyweights in the hobby. Getting to chat with speakers and vendors from Ken Niedermeyer, Richard Ross, Scott Fellman, Jason fox, Todd Cherry and Chris from Reefkoi (to name a few) is just amazing. It is also one of the few times you can ever walk into a crowded bar and just overhear all fish conversation. It is a major geek out moment when you are chatting fish around everyone that is chatting fish. Had a great time at this one. Also got to chill with plenty of New Jersey peeps which was cool as always.
Next Year: It is going to be in Denver and the intro price is still good for a few weeks so check it out. We have not booked yet but we might turn it into a vacation.
The show really was great. More dry goods and coral than you could even imagine. Like mike said it was really cool seeing some vendors that I have never heard of with amazing selection. The jellyfish tanks were awesome I believe they were called cubic. And the jellyfish vendor they had with them had one of the best names I have heard in a while. PB and Jellyfish. P and B correspond to the two owners last names. I can't wait for Denver.
Now that was cool! Thanks for sharing that Ed. Would love to have see that in person!
I agree with mike 100% it was a very awesome venue. and winning 3 vortec pumps definitely helped my experience. a mp10 in the Friday raffle, a mp10 in the Saturday raffle, and a mp40 in the sunday raffle. I could not be happier. my 7 y.o. koralias are on their last leg, and I could never afford to justify the expense of these pumps for replacements, but winning them makes it possible.
Mike, sounds like you too had a blast. I think you may need another tank to fit all that stuff into!
I meant to ask you to scour MACNA for some possible organizations our club can donate to. When you get back and settled in, give me a call and we can chat about some of those "heavyweights" you were speaking to... maybe we can find a good cause to help out.
I really hope some NJRC members took some pics of the venue. Would love to see what I missed.
I meant to ask you to scour MACNA for some possible organizations our club can donate to. When you get back and settled in, give me a call and we can chat about some of those "heavyweights" you were speaking to... maybe we can find a good cause to help out.
I really hope some NJRC members took some pics of the venue. Would love to see what I missed.
I have a bunch of pics to upload including the jellyfish tank.
Cherry Corals tank:
Forgot which vendor:
AI:
Pacific East:
Living Color
Forgot which vendor:
AI:
Pacific East:
Living Color