MACNA 2012 review

[OneReef]

Just getting back from MACNA in Dallas this past Monday morning at about 1:00am. I feel like I'm still recovering, I must be getting old, lol. I will try to write up a quick review and post some pics, and maybe Rendos will add some pics in and comment as well.

OneReef, Rendos and Cateyes left Memphis about 7:30am Thursday morning last week. We made pretty good time, stopped once or twice, at the TX visitor center and to eat once.

Got to Dallas about 4:30pm. We checked in and walked around the hotel for a bit before dinner. Then we 3 went to a sushi restaurant to eat, that was put on in a private wine room for us (well, Richard and Lisa really, I got to tag along) by AGE tank manufacturers. They treated us to dinner and drink and good conversation. One of us who shall remain nameless drank a few too many and broke the elevator and a coke machine back at the hotel......ha. No further info will be given.

 

[OneReef]

Got up early Friday morning to hit the show. This place was massive and filled with more vendors than Ive ever seen in my life. Filled the whole conference center and a few ballrooms. Equipment, tanks, corals, food, drygoods, etc etc. I wandered around for 3 days straight and still feel like I missed some things.

There was a raffle drawing every afternoon and some of the best prizes you could imagine. A trip to Tahiti, four 50" flatscreen Sony TV's, ipad 3, two iphone 5's, nono-tanks, big tanks, entire reef setups, livestock, skimmers, lighting LEDs (many!), tank food, sumps, SLR cameras, HD videocameras, frag tanks, bulbs, shirts, Vortech powerheads, other powerheads, pumps, and so many other things that its too much to list. I actually won a nice acrylic frag tank to use at swaps to sell coral. And I missed the tahiti trip by a few numbers. The winning ticket was like 0047427 and I had 0047422, whatever it was, I was like 5 numbers off. I was dying when they read it off slowly, number by number, and I had them all down until the very last digit called, ugh. So close. And that on top of missing our local frag swaps grad prize last weekend by only 1 number..... Maybe I should go to Tunica, I am close to being lucky....ha

Some of the companies like AquaIlluminations, Ecotech, Vertex, and Neptune had massive, elaborate and beautiful displays set up. I counted them up and there were about 125 vendors displaying there. Some with just equipment, and some just selling livestock, and some both. Very impressive. I talked a few of them into coming to the Memphis frag swap next year.

There were speakers all day every day. I caught a few of the talks, not as many as I would have liked since I was talking to so many people. I got to hear talks on sumps and designs, aquascaping, carbon dosing, lighting, "Myths in the hobby and misinformation and how to not waste your money", and one or two more. There were some I wanted to hear, but maybe they will have a DVD come out of the presentations, I hope so.

 

[OneReef]

Friday night was a reception with finger foods and a Casino night. They gave you $500 in fake money, and you gamble with it. You could cash in your winnings for raffle tickets at the end of the night. I won about $2000 and got about 20 free tickets.

Saturday night was a sit down more formal reception. They handed us each a brand new Marineland Maxijet just for walking in the door. Then served us salad, chicken, steak, green beans, finger potatoes and chocolate or pecan pie. Then Jean-Micheal Cousteau spoke for about an hour or so. They also raffled off 2000 gallons of Instant Ocean salt to a dinner attendee, which I think was won by one of the Arkansas club members.




There were lots of freebies given away. I ended up with about 15-20 free tshirts, pens, buttons, pads, coupons, free fish food, free additives, signed poster from the Tanked team, signed 8x10 by the guys on The Fish Tank Kings from NatGeo. Got my picture taken with the Tanked and Fish King guys. Oh, and a few of the hot booth girls, lol. I made my MACNA ticket price back in just tshirts. I also won a coral that was raffled off by the Tanked guys. And as I said before, I won a $350 frag tank to use from the raffle.


JMcousteau booth:

Julian Sprung:

TANKED:

FISH TANK KINGS:

Double D Jewelry Model:

 

[OneReef]

I learned alot of good info. Talked to the manufacturers of every product I use to learn more about them. From food to equipment to lighting to additives. It was nice to get info straight from the source and not someones opinion on a forum.

I bought some coral, spent about $600 on coral and a few reef drygoods. Ive been planning this trip for a year now, so I was prepared to spend a little money.




MACNA is in Miami FL next year!! Who's going???

 

[OneReef]

The GREAT BUTTON HUNT CONTEST:

 

[OneReef]

 

[OneReef]

 

[OneReef]

 

[OneReef]

 

[OneReef]

There was WAY more than to it than what I am presenting in text and pictures here. I just don't have the time nor the amount of pictures that it would take to accurately portrait MACNA. You have to go see it for yourself. Its wild. I hope more of you will go with us next year. Richard has a big surprise for everyone now that we have left MACNA. I won't spoil it, so go by the store at Memfish and ask him about it. Also, he has alot of coral for sale that he got at MACNA. Go to Memfish and get yourself some MACNA coral.

 

[Rendos]

First - I didn't break the elevator - I improved it. And the coke machine was already in disrepair. Aside from that, I had a great time. Jay is correct - you cannot describe in pictures and words what MACNA is all about. But I guarantee if you go to one you will love it and want to go back every year.

 

[Reef264]

I'm so in for next years MACNA

 

[neuroslicer]

What talks did you guys go to and what did you learn?

 

[OneReef]

First - I didn't break the elevator - I improved it. And the coke machine was already in disrepair.

I never named you, ha. Could have been me. Although I did have to pull over on the trip back home to throw up on the side of the highway. That was great fun with cars going by watching me......lol

 

[shirley386]

Sounds like y'all are the kind of people Mama told me to stay away from!

 

[OneReef]

We did learn that if a coke machine is broken, if you press a button on the inside of it, all the quarters fall out.... Lol

 

[Rendos]

Sanjay Joshi spoke on the differences between PAR (photosynthetically available radiation) and PUR (photosynthetically useable radiation) and why that difference is important to us. He spoke about the differences in Metal Halide lighting and LED. The thing I didn't agree with was that he compared a Radion which runs at 130 watts to a Radium 400 watt metal halide. Of course the ratings were lower, but if you look at it watt for watt, the Radion LED puts out a comparable amount of PUR compared to the 400 watt but with 1/3 the heat transfer and energy consumption. To me that says a lot. If I can get similar output with less energy and less heat, I am all for it.
Mark Levenson put on a "How To" when it comes to aquascaping. The techniques covered are similar to those discussed in the book "The New Marine Aquarium" by Paletta which has been around since 1998. Kind of old topic for 2012.

 

[neuroslicer]

Thanks Richard. So are you saying that PUR is more important/relevant for coral health? Is there any advantage in the higher values of PAR found in the MH bulbs (or are those wasted photons)? Maybe I need a physiological definition of both PAR and PUR to understand this.

Did anyone discuss the need to provide added protein (as opposed to amino acids, etc) for coral growth?

What's the latest fad that has caught on? or perhaps that hasn't caught on?

 

[OneReef]

I thought he just compared the spectrums of the radion and radium. Maybe they did compare par/pur of the two, I don't remember. Bah.

He said PAR meters are pretty much worthless for rating LEDs. That's where PUR comes in. He had a formula, maybe Richard remembers it. I bet there is a copy of his presentation somewhere, I'd like to get ahold of it to review.

 

[OneReef]

Thanks Richard. So are you saying that PUR is more important/relevant for coral health? Is there any advantage in the higher values of PAR found in the MH bulbs (or are those wasted photons)? Maybe I need a physiological definition of both PAR and PUR to understand this.

Did anyone discuss the need to provide added protein (as opposed to amino acids, etc) for coral growth?

What's the latest fad that has caught on? or perhaps that hasn't caught on?

LEDs are the fad, All the rage at MACNA. Out of 125 booths, only 1 (one), yes that's right, one, booth had a halide on its tank. A 20K Radium halide bulb, and i thought that their coral looked better than all the other booths that were just actinic blue LEDs to try and make them look better. All other tanks beside that one were LED lit. Don't know if that's a fad or actually the future of lighting, but that's all you saw there in terms of lighting.

Sanjay didn't go into feeding and aminos, just lighting. I didn't hear another talk on the feeding subject, but I think there was one there that I missed on it.