MACNA XV - Exhibitors and their wares
In a long corridor, about two dozen vendors provided plenty of eye candy.
A wholesaler provided fish at cost, and was very helpful with any bagged frags.
12 large tanks were tied in together to display the various livestock.
A clown trigger. Unfortunately many tanks suffered from a lack of water clarity.
These tanks are set up
hours before the conference began, and with all the activity some never could
clear completely.
It is eye catching, but is absolutely not reef-safe.
If you'll look closely at the bottom tank, you'll see a number of Hippo Tangs. Some were huge!
We got to wander from one display to the next. Things sold quickly,
but didn't have to be picked up until the end of the conference.
This sea squirt was in one of the seahorse displays.
Not everything was about selling. Many took the time to learn by asking questions.
This is the boothe for the Boston Reefers Society. They'll be hosting next
year's MACNA, XVI.
Daniel Knop is standing in the center of this shot. He gave a talk about Nano
tanks this year.
Reef Central, WetWebMedia, Reefs.org and others each had a table to encourage online knowledge building.
Champion Lighting and Supply had a lot of stuff on hand, including a large
variety of books.
Many types of lighting were on display, as well as pumps, test kits and Tunze
products.
The SCWD display was well done.
The Tunze "Stream" powerhead provides a lot of flow, but is rather large and unsightly.
Now this "rock" can help hide the pump, and be arranged in your rockwork.
I never asked what it cost, but I knew y'all would like to see it.
The plastic collar fits around the output neck of the pump snugly.
Coral Reef Aquarium had a bunch of fraglets for sale.
However, no matter what I asked about, it was already sold.
Jeremy, this vendor, reminded me that these are frags from ORA.
ORA is the acronym for Oceans Reefs & Aquariums. They endeavor to propagate
corals and fish,
to reduce the amount of wild-caught species. Check out their site
for their mission statement.
When you visit your LFS, watch for the ORA label on some tanks. Buying tank raised fish (or corals) is reef-friendly.
I love this little pink coral.
A few zoos were available as well.
A few softies were available.
One vendor sold his frags attached to plastic golf tees. He roughs up the
top with a Dremel tool, then
secures the frag with Super Glue Gel. He said they were easy to place in the
rockwork. Sometimes
people cut the tee at an angle to half its length, because the sharper point
fits into small crevices.
This was my favorite Walt Smith frag that was given away as a Banquet Prize
Saturday night.
Joy (Harbor Aquatics owner) called it a "bottle brush" Acropora
sp.
Joy from Harbor Aquatics had a number of SPS and clams again this year.
Reef Fanatic flew in from L.A. to show some of the devices they make.
This CO2 regulator has a solenoid to sense when power goes out.
If so, it shuts off the regulator to avoid pumping any CO2 into your tank.
MAC had a booth, as did Premium Aquatics and DT's Live Phtyoplankton.
Fishey Business had tank-raised True Perculas and Black Perculas.
Salty Critters had an all-in-one 13 gallon acrylic tank with internal protein skimmer.
Hikari had their products on display. I use their frozen foods in my home-made mix.