The show sucked! Poorly designed, the booths were way too small, no real deals till 4:45 pm 15 minutes before they closed. A bunch of hyped up named corals. It's all the sme corals. There is no magical reef where these people get this stuff. There is a sucker born every minute.
RAP! What you get?
- Thread starter Travis1787
- Start date
Have you gone to previous shows to compare? I felt this was way more spacious than the first one I went to two years ago...
IrishTang
Member
I definitely thought it was smaller than last year even though they claimed to have expanded. Last years show was in 2 large ballrooms with what felt like more actual livestock vendors. Half the floor this year was dry goods and other equipment manufacturers. Which is fine I like seeing all the new innovations as well. I only go to pick up the items that are rare and costly around our area but cheap where some of these vendors come from. I also love making deals and think it is hilarious to see one booth selling say a 2 polyp frag of fruit loops for $100 and the booth 2 aisles down has an 8 polyp frag for $20.
cprice
New member
If you're looking for crazy cheap prices, find someone breaking down their tanks on craigslist. Not sure why you thought vendors would spend the extra time and money to come to the show just to sell cheap corals and a discounted price. If anything, you should have expected retail with a few small deals thrown in, which is exactly what it was.
I picked up some great stuff about mid-day on Sunday that was easily 30-40% cheaper than what they would have been anywhere else, including here on RC.
cprice
New member
Case and point, I picked up a 6 polyp frag of Utter Chaos for $25!
BobbyV
Established since 2008
This was my first experience of any sort with a convention/frag swap.
I showed up later in the day on Sunday around 2:15pm.
While everyone was in the raffle, the exhibit hall was much more manageable to shop.
It was my first time meeting the owners of the following companies.
World Wide Corals - Victor & Lou including Jacob
Jason Fox - Mr. Fox
Reefers Direct - Steve
The Stormborn Reef - respectfully their names slip my mind at the moment but incredibly nice.
Morgan the reef gardner - Morgan
Joe knows reefs - Joe
To my surprise all of them were extremely nice and were fully engaged in conversations with me about random topics. Some not even hobby related. Jason Fox shared with me his adventures to the Indo diving for corals and all the care he takes getting them back to the states. He mentions 30 hours travel time to just get to that area of the world then another day to get to the remote areas he dives to. So it is pretty cool to own some original JF if you find an opportunity.
Something to be said about these company owners in general willing to have a genuine impromptu conversation with an unknown like myself.
I also had some good dialogue with Ecotech, they even took the time to walk me across the hall to another vendor to educate me on a specific lighting inquiry I had. I can appreciate how professional they have always been from a customer service quality product standpoint.
As I was shopping with all the above, all of them minded their own business & not once did any of them speak negative about one another to win business.
I found it interesting that WWC and JF were neighbors. So if you had the time, you had the opportunity to discover best pricing on similar species of frags.
My list that I managed to procure:
Over the Rainbow Millipora
Jason Fox Flame Acropora
Reef Raft Asia
Pearlberry
Mr. Pacman
Tyree Rouge Millipora
Strawberry Fields Acropora
Strawberry Lemonade Acropora
Hawkins Echinata
Strawberry Shortcake Acropora
Superman Digitata
Orange Passion
3 more that slip my mind but they were Acropora. One being another rainbow variety of some sort.
My only regret was that I wish I could have met more vendors but at this point the raffle was over and it went back to being crowded again.
It was worth the trip, I encourage others to make the effort to visit the event when you can.
The only improvement I would suggest was to have a small consession stand nearby for soft drinks and snacks.
I showed up later in the day on Sunday around 2:15pm.
While everyone was in the raffle, the exhibit hall was much more manageable to shop.
It was my first time meeting the owners of the following companies.
World Wide Corals - Victor & Lou including Jacob
Jason Fox - Mr. Fox
Reefers Direct - Steve
The Stormborn Reef - respectfully their names slip my mind at the moment but incredibly nice.
Morgan the reef gardner - Morgan
Joe knows reefs - Joe
To my surprise all of them were extremely nice and were fully engaged in conversations with me about random topics. Some not even hobby related. Jason Fox shared with me his adventures to the Indo diving for corals and all the care he takes getting them back to the states. He mentions 30 hours travel time to just get to that area of the world then another day to get to the remote areas he dives to. So it is pretty cool to own some original JF if you find an opportunity.
Something to be said about these company owners in general willing to have a genuine impromptu conversation with an unknown like myself.
I also had some good dialogue with Ecotech, they even took the time to walk me across the hall to another vendor to educate me on a specific lighting inquiry I had. I can appreciate how professional they have always been from a customer service quality product standpoint.
As I was shopping with all the above, all of them minded their own business & not once did any of them speak negative about one another to win business.
I found it interesting that WWC and JF were neighbors. So if you had the time, you had the opportunity to discover best pricing on similar species of frags.
My list that I managed to procure:
Over the Rainbow Millipora
Jason Fox Flame Acropora
Reef Raft Asia
Pearlberry
Mr. Pacman
Tyree Rouge Millipora
Strawberry Fields Acropora
Strawberry Lemonade Acropora
Hawkins Echinata
Strawberry Shortcake Acropora
Superman Digitata
Orange Passion
3 more that slip my mind but they were Acropora. One being another rainbow variety of some sort.
My only regret was that I wish I could have met more vendors but at this point the raffle was over and it went back to being crowded again.
It was worth the trip, I encourage others to make the effort to visit the event when you can.
The only improvement I would suggest was to have a small consession stand nearby for soft drinks and snacks.
Last edited:
plyle02
Active member
Rob,
Not sure if I met you, but I was with Steve from Stormborn, we were out to the facility on Thursday, ACI is the coolest group at the show, when you have Chris's huge personality, I guess that makes for a fun group leader, lol... The facility is sweet, I took home corals that day
I did not take any home from the show though, lol...Cheers,
Fragaddiction
New member
I go to shows yo find stuff I can't buy locally, not bargains. Reefers realize their own struggles keeping corals well vendors have the same struggles. I don't mind paying an avg asking price for things I like. Hope everyone had a good time. These are the zoas I picked up. Purple orchids, blood shots, acid reflux & asskraks.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
CheckeredPants
New member
Aside from getting an expired bottle Nano pellets from from the Ocean Nutrition booth, I picked up a neon hammer, a frag of Purple Death and Nuclear Green palys, and a mixed no name Zoa frag!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Reefpilot11
New member
Well Emmett pulled though for me with a great mini colony of pink lemonade to replace the once I lost on the ride home from RAP. https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...=1604463092&set=gm.1872666419626637&source=48
Travis1787
Active member
Awesome!!!!
plyle02
Active member
Sound good Rob, I remember you and your username from years ago on the Tampa forum, glad to some of us still around... Hope all is well, and if you are ever near Daytona, PM me, would love for you to stop by and check out the tank, any pointers are always welcome
Reefpilot11
New member
+1
For anyone else interested Emmett has a ton of frags of a bunch of different stuff right now.
