5th annual NCPARS/TFP Winter Frag Fest

[rigleautomotive]

Its on people.The biggest winter coral event on the east coast.Farmers from all regions will be in house with all the goodies.TFP will also be rolling out the Red carpet and have plenty of fun and deals on tap.Sign up to attend on fragswapper.com and list any live stock you want to offer up.You can also register on ncpars.org and you can pay for the event or membership at the shop ncpars button.A button will be added for the swap fees in the next day or two.Thank you for your support and hope to see you all at the show

 

[PAStreetGlide]

Yesssssss! I was just starting to have fragswapper withdrawls!

 

[Breadman03]

Looks like I'll have to sign up.

 

[jrhaughey]

If you plan on selling frags, please start making them now, or soon, so they have time to heal. I have had my share of fresh zoanthids that don't make it. This is not good for the buyer, seller, club, or the preservation of corals.

 

[spskid01]

What is the fee if you would like to setup a tank to sell a few frags? Also what time can ppl with tanks get in to setup? Lastly will there be electricity at each table or do we need to bring long cords to reach a outlet?

 

[rigleautomotive]

Table is free.
9 am is set up.
Power to area of each table but bring strip and cord.

 

[rigleautomotive]

OK peeps.It is going to be cold as heck so a warning is going up here.Be sure to bring cooler boxes and heat packs.The temps will be dangerously low and corals do not like several hours in cold water.Especially the acropora and montipora species as they are less forgiving then the soft and LPS type corals.12 hour heat packs and some sort of cooler is recommended.

Now for the vendors.Please make sure your animals are properly protected from the cold.Selling or trading corals that are stressed will get you a unhappy customer.The coral may die and if so the buyer will not check you out next swap.This is how you build a good rep with the group by making certain your animals are in perfect health..There is no magic bullet for making your corals appealing to the shoppers but a rock solid rep with large fragments of heathy corals will definitely start to work for you.I have seen many swappers resort to constantly refreshing there ad on fragswapper with no avail.Force feeding is not going to work.You need to create the demand by being great at what you do and selling top quality corals that are not stressed.

That being said,this is going to be a great event.That Fish Place

has rolled out the red carpet again and really stepped up to support our society.Please check out the deals offered in the retail section of the store as these deals will not be beat

Eco Tech has generously donated a MP 10 for the raffle and United Pet Group(marineland,Instant Ocean,Reef crystals) has also donated a beautiful aquarium and stand.There will be plenty of other goodies,free food and soda,and of course,the best corals and coral farmers on the east coast all in one place.

It is a no brainer.If you are withing driving distance of thgis show you must stop in.If you do,please be sure to stop by my table and say hi.Thank you for the support and see ya all at the show.

 

[Just Jim]

Dan, What time are the raffles? I've got a two hour window to work with and wanna try to stick around to get in on it.

 

[rigleautomotive]

Jim,we typically run the raffles near the end of the event around 4 ish but with the crowd and how busy these shows get,an agenda seems useless.We tend to make changes throughout the day to keep everything moving and with some sort of order.

Some have others watch there tickets for them if they need to leave early so this may be a option also

 

[gbru316]

This will be my first frag swap, I'm pretty excited.

Besides a cooler and heat-pack, is there anything else I should bring? Cups/bags for purchases?

 

[rigleautomotive]

You should be good there.The rest is usually no issue
Welcome to the group

 

[psusocr]

This will be my first frag swap, I'm pretty excited.

Besides a cooler and heat-pack, is there anything else I should bring? Cups/bags for purchases?

bring lots of money:headwally::beer::celeb1::hmm3:

 

[PAStreetGlide]

Does TFP have heat packs for sale?

 

[ReddyW]

Does TFP have heat packs for sale?

I assume they would since they ship livestock, but I couldn't find any for sale on their website.

Wal-mart has the small hand and foot warmers that claim to last 8 hours.

I put a reptile heating pad in an ice chest under a couple of mud packs with towels over those. It gets the ice chest up around 80 and keeps it there for a few hours. I'm hoping I can run the heater off a power inverter for the trip home.

If you pre-heat an ice chest with hot water and keep something with a large thermal mass (brick, metal, water, etc.) in it that's also hot, you should be good for the trip there. Be sure to insulate your hot mass with something like towels so the heat radiates slowly and doesn't blast your corals. :beer:

 

[ReddyW]

bring lots of money:headwally::beer::celeb1::hmm3:

I learned a trick last time I was shopping at TFP. Check their prices on dry goods on the web page before you go. The price in store is usually higher even when on sale.

Sign up for their loyalty card when you check out. They have prices set for retail, loyalty, web, and another that I couldn't read. Ask the cashier to check the computer and give you the lowest price. Instant savings!

Now you have more money for corals! :celeb2:

 

[gbru316]

Does TFP have heat packs for sale?

Probably not. Their online business is in a different location. In fact, I'm not so sure they are the same company. Both are divisions of fish net, inc.

 

[TFP Marine Biologist]

Probably not. Their online business is in a different location. In fact, I'm not so sure they are the same company. Both are divisions of fish net, inc.

This is not the case, we do have a seperate warehouse that handles all of our dry goods shipping and recieving, which also restocks our retail store daily. This is not a seperate company, only a seperate building that is located directly behind our retail store. The entire operation was once all in one location, we simply outgrew the space we have, and needed to move our mail order operation to another warehouse.
Our livestock mailorder operates out of our retail store, and ships directly from our fishroom.

We do not have heat packs as an inventory item that we sell online or in the store. We can sell them as a cash only item in the swap for folks who need them for $ 1.00 The packs we use for mailorder, do not get hot quickly, or get very hot, we use 20 and 40 hour packs, that go in heavy insulated containers. You may be better off with the shorter lasting pocket warmers that get much hotter, an heat up faster, depending on what you are transporting your frags in, and how long your trip is.

Dave

 

[psusocr]

If you have heat on in your car by your corals( especially by a vent) you can keep the water pretty darn warm...sometimes too warm as ive seen before,through a 5 gallon plastic pale

 

[gbru316]

This is not the case, we do have a seperate warehouse that handles all of our dry goods shipping and recieving, which also restocks our retail store daily. This is not a seperate company, only a seperate building that is located directly behind our retail store. The entire operation was once all in one location, we simply outgrew the space we have, and needed to move our mail order operation to another warehouse.
Our livestock mailorder operates out of our retail store, and ships directly from our fishroom.

We do not have heat packs as an inventory item that we sell online or in the store. We can sell them as a cash only item in the swap for folks who need them for $ 1.00 The packs we use for mailorder, do not get hot quickly, or get very hot, we use 20 and 40 hour packs, that go in heavy insulated containers. You may be better off with the shorter lasting pocket warmers that get much hotter, an heat up faster, depending on what you are transporting your frags in, and how long your trip is.

Dave

Thanks for the clarification Dave :beer:

 

[rigleautomotive]

If you have heat on in your car by your corals( especially by a vent) you can keep the water pretty darn warm...sometimes too warm as ive seen before,through a 5 gallon plastic pale

Haha,yea.me too/freakin 90 or so in our case bobby.He is speaking about our trip to long island aquarium with the giant derasa clam I had donated.The pail was right against where the heat comes out in the rear of my vehicle and after 3 hours,it had heated the 5 gal pail to more then 90 on a cold day.

Heat packs are best.They do not get too hot(And this is what you want) and work best for corals.The 20hr pet heat packs are fine (and a bargain at 1 dollar,thank you that fish place)and so are the packs from wal mart.I would not go trying the hot large mass as a experiment on live corals tomorrow but to each his own.The controlled temp of 70 to 78 is optimal and a bit cooler is not a death sentence but too hot will get you a bag of stink when you get home.Keep the heat wrapped in towels or newspaper and the box sealed and you are good.Keep the box away from direct heat in the vehicle if using packs.