MACNA.......our adventure and my thougts

[Gerwin]

First I must speak of the tragedy,
While in Orlando we decided to walk to a place to go eat and on the way there, Archie and Roger decided to talk smack to the wrong old guy and got beat down, it was ugly and not sure if either of them will recover anytime soon, luckily there should be no visible scars. But the emotional effects cannot be overstated and next time the three of us walk by a putt putt course they will stay away from me, as I smashed them and beat them down like guppies in a Oscar tank....by 9 strokes and shot 3 under par, so for that I give myself a gold clap

So wow, MACNA (Marine Aquarium Conference of North America), I am glad Phisher made the topic as I have been talking to go to one of these for about 18 years and either they where to far away or I was busy at a paintball event. I think going to the very early ones may not have been as good as the past years as so much more can be discovered with the technologies at hand but this was a great event.
Did I learn a few things? ABSOLUTELY but even more important it reinforced things I have been saying and doing most by trial and error and by my own observations or opinions. I feel very comfortable coming away from this that I have not inadvertently been giving bad advice from not knowing reading every book or every experts column.
Would the avg Joe tank keeper enjoyed this?
I think anyone who has kept RREF tanks for a few years and is REALLY into the why's and how to's would have gained some knowledge for sure or those who are afraid to ask questions at the local shop*(where they have knowledgeable staff).
But for the most part I think more folks were there for the trade show...I was totally unprepared for what I saw a big OMG! Hell it would be hard to focus on any lectures if you knew what was in that trade show. I figured it would be a few vendors selling there drygoods......I did not expect to see display tanks up and running a folks selling corals out the wazoo And I mean frags by the thousands, honestly stuff I had never seen as far as colors, OH! and don't think there was any real super deals there I saw frags up to 300+dollars. Bargain shopping was not the tip of the day but getting some CHERRY stuff sure was. I should have taken pics. SOB, I spent like 200 bucks and Arch probably did 300, of course some of mine was for Pete, but they were not "cheap cheap" but looked so good I just bought some for me too. The good news, I saw one of my distributors there and told him I want to see stuff like I saw there, not that he sends us crap but these were things from the next level, if he did not I was gonna play the racism card
yeah thats it, works for everyone else
yeah he is trying to prevent part Asians from making it in the Frag Trade we will see if it works.
Any questions anyone had about LED lighting being a fad or not working would have been to walk in there.......I only saw one lonely MH vendor there, and 99% of all the displays set up (which was a ton) was LED and more shapes and brands then I ever imagined. But do not think you are not in good shape, I mean if you were a vendor why would you not wanna use LED's:
Light weight*
Small Package easily hung*
Intense colors displayed*
I am sure they are growing a lot of stuff under MH and T-5's for sure and just breaking out the laser show for the events (on a side note I walk away from MACNA even appreciating T-5 power more than ever)

in conclusion:
If you are still in this hobby when it comes around again this way I would say go, if you are new to the hobby next round..meh go to to theme parks and hit the trade show on the way home. Met several folks who did just that
And as they use to say on IN LIVING COLOR I give this event 2 and a o

[Gerwin]

forgot about a couple other things I learned.....
Archie snores...and not the normal sounding kind either
and
Roger and Archie's digestive system does not react well to a lot of red meat that being said I could not imagine going to this event without them.
Its a good thing we were not in a college class together, not sure any of us would have passed.....can anyone say class clowns?

[Gz28]

I knew i would be kicking myself for not being able to go!! Glad you guys had a good time, Wish i could have been there, maybe next time!

[Doug]

Um, how is a Marine Aquarium Conference "Off-Topic"? I thought this forum was supposed to be for your random brain farts.

[phisher]

I agree everything was amazing. I was on the fence last year and didn't go, I really wish I had now.

Every level of hobbyist would get a lot out of this. Meeting the folks on the front edge of reef/fish/invert keeping was very exciting and informative to say the least. One of the speakers told me that when they are asked to speak at MACNA they are asked to present something that they have not before, so everything is brand new information.

We planned to make a mini vacation around going to Orlando but I really could not pull myself away. Also like Gerwin said the trade show was mind blowing. The corals and clams were amazing. Also talking to many of the vendors was, most were very helpful in sharing techniques they use for growth and color.

The LED displays were impressive. I was still skeptical going in but I am definitely coming around...winning a brand new (not even on there website yet) Marineland LED fixture helped . This thing is crazy bright, runs cool and has 15,000hr bulb life. Looking forward to seeing how it performs. We also left with now less than 20 tee shirts, hand towels, >100g worth of salt, stickers, magazines, fish & coral food, and a ton of misc. Not to mention a beautiful clam and a few frags.

Next year is in Des Moines, IO . Despite the fact I plan to attend, it would be great to have a local crew there representing.

[C-21 USAF]

Any particular name brands or manufacturers that were offering something cool or top-shelf quality product that rings a bell???

Any particular vendor have a lot of "cherry" livestock?

[Gerwin]

Um, how is a Marine Aquarium Conference "Off-Topic"? I thought this forum was supposed to be for your random brain farts.

Deep Thoughts by Gerwin

is how you labeled it and these are deep thoughts by Gerwin

[Gerwin]

Any particular name brands or manufacturers that were offering something cool or top-shelf quality product that rings a bell???

Any particular vendor have a lot of "cherry" livestock?

whew maybe phisher remembers some, I could not even tell you the name of who I bought the frag I bought from plus so many were cool and they almost all looked the same as far setup, there had to be 100 plus vendors there of some kind or another. The important thing to me was one of mine was there and I was able to show him what I wanted to get in the store. As far as product there...it looked like a trade show for dealers, anybody that was anybody in Manufacturing of Marine gear was there. I have been to Dozens of trade shows between the Pet Shop and the Paintball Business and I must say this was pretty darn good if not the best. Only thing about paintball is they usually have cold beverages and lots of eye candy around to keep you hanging around their booths. Because reefers are what they are, the eye candy had to be under water

My interpretation would be this is really heavy reef tank as far as lectures go (90%+) and about 75% reef for trade show and the only reason it was not 90+ is because all the dry goods vendors made stuff for both salt fish and reef. So top shelf? oh yeah Tunze was there , Vortech was there, Deltek was there and on and on and on.....I promise you ...you could easily have spent 8hours or more just looking and talking to vendor reps if you had questions. A got stuck talking to a few as I am a customer and just building our relationship and time flew so fast I had little time to study all the vendors as we went to 9 hours of lectures and left asap on Sunday to get home.Unlike my buddy Phisher I will not go next year or the next unless it is close. I have been doing this to long and some things become redundant to me, I can see where Phisher says it would be cool for all levels, I guess I am saying as a retailer for many decades I want to be enriched with knowledge when I go and I just do not think in 2-3 years things will have changed all that much from the keeping aspect, but if it was close it would be cool to just go to the trade show for sure, and maybe the putt putt course.hehehe
There are a couple speakers I will recommend you read their books in a future post. Most of what was told has already been written but its kinda cool to see the authors speaking before you in real life. The lighting would be the hottest topic...scratch that there is something hot happening in FL.
apparently FL has passed some very strict Aquaculture laws that just went into effect that weekend and tickets were being given to those vendors without licenses. From what I gather they cannot even trade or frag corals, EVEN as out of your home PERIOD without the license which involves you having inspection of your property and have proper water waste disposal facilities in place...thats right in FL you cannot just dump your tank water in the yard or drain! gotta have vats and dry it out then dispose of as the FL state regulates. NO EBAY frag sales, no clubs trades nothing unless they are approved aquaculture facilities. Now this is what I was being told, how accurate it is I am not sure..but now you got some juicy scuttlebutt to dwell on. Dont you just love the Government.

[phisher]

Yea the poor guy I bought my clam from was issued a citation as I was standing there.

I understand the for some of the laws passed in FL. With all the introduction of non-native species in FL (not just marine, pythons and iguanas) something needed to be done to keep from hurting local populations. I am guessing they are worried about tank water getting back to the ocean with algae spores or pathogens and causing havoc.

I will post some of the vendors I was particularly impressed with when I get unpacked and sorted out. Like Ger said the big names were all there but what impressed me were some of the smaller ones. Some of my frags came from a local family owned grower, great people came their home number if I had questions or needed anything else. I also met a chef who makes fish food with "nothing in it he would not eat himself." I also liked hearing about what products the experts recommended and used themselves-what they will tell you in casual conversation is much different then what you will see in black and white anywhere.

I don't know Gerwin, like everything else I expect to see changes and technology in this hobby accelerate rabidly. I am sure you can stay on top of things visiting something like this every few years, but what I heard sounded really fresh some of the information being just months old.



Speaking of vendors, Gerwin did you attend the Saturday evening banquet? You should really look into the Papua New Guinea live stock, looks promising.

[Sandy]

[quote="Gerwin"]First I must speak of the tragedy,
While in Orlando we decided to walk to a place to go eat and on the way there, Archie and Roger decided to talk smack to the wrong old guy and got beat down, it was ugly and not sure if either of them will recover anytime soon, luckily there should be no visible scars. But the emotional effects cannot be overstated and next time the three of us walk by a putt putt course they will stay away from me, as I smashed them and beat them down like guppies in a Oscar tank....by 9 strokes and shot 3 under par, so for that I give myself a gold clap



All you had to do is put a bark collar on one of them ,,,, he was probably the one who started it anyway and the other one just followed suit ........hahaha

[Sandy]

Um, how is a Marine Aquarium Conference "Off-Topic"? I thought this forum was supposed to be for your random brain farts.

I'm sure there was farting, just maybe not from the brain