poidog
Active member
Wow. That's all I can say is Wow. MACNA 2011 was amazing. It wasn't that crowded this year and good corals were to be had all the way until the end of the show. It was great to see and talk to all the different vendors, really get to know their product, and but a face with a name for those you've talked to in product support. I didn't take a bunch of pictures at the show because we were too busy having fun, but I've included what I did take.
Brett from Tanked! was there all weekend and he was actually a really nice, and cool guy. He stayed at the Marriott with us and was always kept bumping into each other. He said that season 2 is signed up and next season they have forced the producers to show more of the "behind the scene" that were cut from the first. The biggest question that kept coming up was "how can you use hose water!" He said the show doesn't show you the huge RO/DI and salt mixing truck that they have!
I saw the next 3 ORA releases. I could have chosen then when I won the ORA raffle, but passed. One was some sort of LPS (I forgot what it was), Second was a pink gorgonian, Third was a neon green acro. It was described as having the exact same growth patter as the Red Planet, but had a lime green base and neon green tips.
OMG lets talk about swag. Just in the swag alone you made it out on top. Most venders gave you the t-shirt of the knick-naky stuff, but if you actually stopped to talk to them for a while they gave you practically anything that wasn't bolted down. Here's what I made away with just in swag:
- 2x Marineland Reef-Capible 18" LED fixture, 2011 MACNA edition
- Marineland Maxi-Jet 1200 pro
- Marineland Maxi-Jet 600 pro
- 2x Marineland blue LED waterproof strips (free swag at the dinner)
- Tropic Marin Salt
- 3x bags of frag plugs
- AccliMate acclimater
- Chemi-pure
- 2x Kent purple up
- 20 different t-shirts
- 12+ towels
- box of blow pop (I know random)
- acrylic beer mug
- 3x Instant ocean flake food
- 5x Instant ocean gel food
- 4x Instant ocean additives
- 6x ecotech coral glue
- 2x matted marine photographs
- assorted fish foods
- assorted nick-naks
- reusable bags
Now onto the raffles.... Besides the big, main raffle, booths were doing their own. I had 100 raffle tickets and this is what I won
- Tierra del Fuego mini colony from Oculus Aquatics (valued at $1500)
- AI Nano LED (valued at $350)
- 2x ORA frags, one from ORA one from Marinegeek . com. I picked ORA Joe the Coral and the ORA Stoli (valued at $60 each)
Here is what I bought. The prices were great compared to the vendors on-line sites. Also, they were slashing prices on Sunday:
- ORA Hawkins
- 12 heads of Malibu beach acan from Cherry Corals
- Palmers Blue Milli
- Snowcone Prostrata
I am already planning on how we can make 2012 MACNA in Dallas!
Show floor
Banquet Dinner (which was good)
Speaker. Was so boring! (can you tell?)
LED goodies!
Cherry Corals
Brett from Tanked! doing the raffle
Ipad raffle (we were so close - in the top 15 finalists!)
Jason Fox won the iPad (there should be a rule against that!)
Acclimating Sunday night
Swag
Brett from Tanked! was there all weekend and he was actually a really nice, and cool guy. He stayed at the Marriott with us and was always kept bumping into each other. He said that season 2 is signed up and next season they have forced the producers to show more of the "behind the scene" that were cut from the first. The biggest question that kept coming up was "how can you use hose water!" He said the show doesn't show you the huge RO/DI and salt mixing truck that they have!
I saw the next 3 ORA releases. I could have chosen then when I won the ORA raffle, but passed. One was some sort of LPS (I forgot what it was), Second was a pink gorgonian, Third was a neon green acro. It was described as having the exact same growth patter as the Red Planet, but had a lime green base and neon green tips.
OMG lets talk about swag. Just in the swag alone you made it out on top. Most venders gave you the t-shirt of the knick-naky stuff, but if you actually stopped to talk to them for a while they gave you practically anything that wasn't bolted down. Here's what I made away with just in swag:
- 2x Marineland Reef-Capible 18" LED fixture, 2011 MACNA edition
- Marineland Maxi-Jet 1200 pro
- Marineland Maxi-Jet 600 pro
- 2x Marineland blue LED waterproof strips (free swag at the dinner)
- Tropic Marin Salt
- 3x bags of frag plugs
- AccliMate acclimater
- Chemi-pure
- 2x Kent purple up
- 20 different t-shirts
- 12+ towels
- box of blow pop (I know random)
- acrylic beer mug
- 3x Instant ocean flake food
- 5x Instant ocean gel food
- 4x Instant ocean additives
- 6x ecotech coral glue
- 2x matted marine photographs
- assorted fish foods
- assorted nick-naks
- reusable bags
Now onto the raffles.... Besides the big, main raffle, booths were doing their own. I had 100 raffle tickets and this is what I won
- Tierra del Fuego mini colony from Oculus Aquatics (valued at $1500)
- AI Nano LED (valued at $350)
- 2x ORA frags, one from ORA one from Marinegeek . com. I picked ORA Joe the Coral and the ORA Stoli (valued at $60 each)
Here is what I bought. The prices were great compared to the vendors on-line sites. Also, they were slashing prices on Sunday:
- ORA Hawkins
- 12 heads of Malibu beach acan from Cherry Corals
- Palmers Blue Milli
- Snowcone Prostrata
I am already planning on how we can make 2012 MACNA in Dallas!
Show floor
Banquet Dinner (which was good)
Speaker. Was so boring! (can you tell?)
LED goodies!
Cherry Corals
Brett from Tanked! doing the raffle
Ipad raffle (we were so close - in the top 15 finalists!)
Jason Fox won the iPad (there should be a rule against that!)
Acclimating Sunday night
Swag
