Buying frags at a convention

[NedFlounders]

There is a large reef convention this month in town. I very much plan on buying some frags or whole colonies.

I'm confused though...When you make a purchase, do you have to immediately leave the convention to get the coral back to your tank? Do you just carry a small cooler with you and keep wandering the floor and shopping/browsing? I mean, how long is acceptable to walk around with a bag/cooler full of corals before they are impacted?

 

[username in use]

I bring a cooler and walk around with it. I have one of those soft collapsible ones. Just throw it over the shoulder. Talk to the vendor though, some will let you leave the coral in their tank until the end of the day.

 

[Silly clownfish]

And plan on dipping and quarantining when you get home! Conventions and frag swaps are notorious for spreading nasties. My single experience with a frag swap led to zoa-eating nudibraches in my QT, and I did dip in Bayer. I am very glad I did not put the frags straight in my DT! They did enoug damage in QT.

 

[NedFlounders]

I dip all my corals before placing them :thumbsup: Thanks for the tips!

 

[sde1500]

I didn't even bring a cooler with me to the one I went to. Brought one of those reusable shopping bags. 2-3 hours walking the floor shopping, 45 min home, all did fine. Only soft cooler I have is the wifes, bright pink, soo....pass. If you are going for more than a few hours I'd say get a small cooler.

Have fun, those things are awesome. The one I went to this year was my first ever, and wow it was fun haha.

 

[username in use]

Only soft cooler I have is the wifes, bright pink, soo....pass.

A real man would have owned it and rocked that pink cooler all day.

 

[infpalex]

I just went to one two weeks ago... I brought one of those awesome rolling lunch coolers, that aren't too big. We stayed the full 5 hours, so we could be there for the end of day raffles my nephew loves... and he ended up winning a fish tank so we had to stay 2 more hours while they removed the corals and broke it down and everything. Got home and the corals in the cooler were still great!

On a second note... as Silly Clownfish said above, be sure to QT. I also was going to just do dips, but I decided last minute to set up a QT tank. (I keep ceramic rings in my sump at all times in case I have to set up a tank last minute, you never know :lol2: )

I ended up dipping everything and then putting it all in my qt tank. I let it all sit for a few days and ended up finding everything from aptasia that were hiding, to bubble algae, to spinoid worms, to hydroids.

Having them all in qt has allowed me to make sure every coral is perfect before I put them in my main tank which has remained pest, including aptasia free for almost a year :bounce3:. A few frags I even removed from the frag plugs because they were so bad. (The worst were a couple free frags my nephew won.)

But yeah, all I used was a 10 gallon, an oversized HOB pump for good flow with some carbon/the ceramic rings, and a strip light. Such an easy set up, and it was so worth it!

 

[sde1500]

A real man would have owned it and rocked that pink cooler all day.

:lolspin::lolspin:

 

[billdogg]

I take a 5g salt bucket. Something we all should have.

 

[thegrun]

Yes on the cooler, but most of the vendors will hold your frags in their tanks until you are ready to go.