April 25th 2010 CTARS Conference

[hans1976]

Welcome to our latest vendor - Paradise Corals



They are joining Magic Pet, Puppy Center, Cherry Corals, Unique Corals and Reef Nutrition just to mention a few.

We hope to see you here on April 25, 2010 at CMAC V.

[hans1976]

The conference is only 5 weeks away (but you only have until April 17th to order tickets online for $20 – after that, tickets will be available at the door for $25). 

For those joining us for lunch:
Garden Tossed Salad with Assorted Dressings, Home Style Potato Salad, Creamy
Coleslaw, Pasta Salad and Marinated Grilled Vegetables

Entrées:
Rotisserie Roasted Chicken
Eggplant Parm
Baked Ziti with Basil Ricotta

Accompanied with Fresh Seasonal Vegetables and Chef’s Selection of Potato or
Rice, Cheddar Cheese Biscuits and Cornbread

Dessert:
Individual Fruit Pies, Cakes and Fresh Fruit Salad

Hurry, there are only 10 seats left at the lunch table!!!

In addition to increasing the speakers to 4 this year, we have added a dozen new vendors and a touch tank for the kids.  We hope to see you here at CMAC V.

[hans1976]

Just a reminder, next Saturday (April 17) is the last day to sign up on line for $20.  After that, you will be able to buy tickets at the door fro $25.

[audioguy]

just signed up!!! almost forgot to lol. hope to see everyone there!!!

[gregsreef28]

I had a great time at the conference today!!  Lots of nie stuff for sale. Hard to resist overspending but my wife kept me grounded.  Got some great frags though

[audioguy]

the conference was definitely a great time. i wish we would have set up a meeting place and time for our club members so we could all hang out. my friend and i ran into jim and lisa and bummed around all day lol. didnt recognize anyone else though...

i won a new bulb for my mh fixture in the raffle. lisa won a little something too but ill let her make the announcement...

some great talks by the presenters and a lot of really great deals from the vendors as expected.

a BIG thanks goes out to folks at ctars for having us and im already looking forward to next year!!!

[Sherri]

I really wanted to go but just could not make it.  Next year I will try again!

[Myk]

It was a great time.  Had some fun and saw some familiar faces.  Even walked out $6.00 richer!   Then again, spent $100.00 on a new clam and some frags so the six bucks doesn't look like much anymore!  Hehe.

As always an excellent talk from Bob Fenner.  Brought up a few interesting points.  Most notable is in the aquisition of new and interesting species for the hobby by simply asking for them to be collected and in the transfer of new species to the display.  He talked about acclimating corals to our systems over the course of days, possibly weeks to get a new piece acclimated to the "chemical warfare" given off by other species.  Makes sense and could explain why some newly added corals and other inverts like clams and such seem to occasionally just melt away.

I hope that all that attened had as much fun as I did!  For those that didn't please try to make it to a show sometime as it is a great experience.  The next MACNA will be in Florida this year.  Trying to secure a house for a few days down there if anyone wants to go!

[Amazon]

aw, I didn't spot you Myk    I was looking for familiar faces.  Only saw that Yankeee hat 

We did OK, donated $50 to the casino.  $20 on raffle tickets.  But won a Vortech MP10.  So I think we came out ahead 

Picked up a couple of frags.  We were more restrained this year over last year.  No winnings to spend... But, they had so many more coral vendors by comparison (it seemed to me).  Picked up a few cards from places we'd like to visit or perhaps order from in the future.

Looking forward to 2011.

MACNA in Florida huh?   

[gregsreef28]

Darn, I never win anything!!  A meeting spot would have been a great idea.  I am sure I saw many of you, just haven't met many members before so wouldn't recognize anyone.  I was very close to leaving with one of the many scoly I saw, but alas I could not bite the bullet.

[joanstone]

Yeah, a meeting spot or some other way to identify each other would have been a good idea.  I was only there for some of it-the LED talk and Bob Fenner.  I did enjoy Bob Fenner's talk , he was the main draw for me (the LED talk was rough for me).  My husband had had enough of the casino so I didn't stay for Sanjay's talk (or buy anything).  We were kind of in the area anyway, so it wasn't down and back in the same day luckily as it's  3 1/2 hours away from where I live.  I'm sorry I couldn't get there for the reef nutrition talk, how was that?

[Myk]

A bunch of wayward NHRC members!  Sounds like there was a few there, but a lot of misses!  

We left shortly after Bob's talk too.  Sara wasn't feeling well and neither of us is much for gambling.

Tried to sqeak some info. out of Seachem about when their Bryopsis treatment would be hitting the market, but no word from them.  I would have liked to have seen more product vendors there for the industry.

[hans1976]

Glad to hear you all had a good time.

Having been the one who organized this (although the BoD won't admit it - politics), I can tell you that Ushio was one of the 15 or so vendors that had to be turned away.

It is expensive for manufactures to come to these events.  Seachem spent probably $2,500 to be at the show and couldn't sell a thing.  They should have worked a deal with the local stores (like Ice Cap did) so that people could buy there product.