# Road Trip! Off to MACNA today.



## Crayon

Not sure who finally decided to go, but we leave (John and I) in exactly 35 minutes.
Anyone else driving down for the weekend?


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## Bullet

Wow oh wow, Ms Crayon 
Safe travels - send pics !!


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## fesso clown

Yippeee for you! Posts loads of pics for us to dtool over!


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## fury165

Have fun Cheryl! I hope you can find some spare time to update this thread with some words and pics


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## Green Ocean

Wish I could be there!


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## altcharacter

Pick me up something nice


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## Mikeylikes

me too !

I'd join you guys but my passport is expired .. so I just found out!


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## teemee

Have a safe drive down.
I know Hubert and Carol will be there, for sure.
Still disappointed I couldn't make it.
It's a much longer drive to San Diego (Macna 2016)!
Have a great time, and make sure you see some of the city - Washington is great.


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## Crayon

So, for all of you who live vicariously through others, I just want to tell you that the drive was awesome.
The hotel is great.
And the DC Corruption Ale excellent.

Don't know about fishy things yet.
Tomorrow is going to be crazy!


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## Crayon

Schedule for tomorrow:
Find coffee
10:00 AM Triton labs workshop
11:00 show opens
12:00 Joe Yiallo (I think that's how it's spelled) talking about the principles of diligent reef keeping
1:00 PM Kevin Kohen from Live Aquaria talking about unusual small fish for nano tanks. That one will be good.
And then I can't remember what else.


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## Crayon

First lecture:


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## notclear

Doesn't look like too many people attended. May be still early?


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## Crayon

That was the Triton lecture. Happened at the same time the doors opened. So everyone flooded into the show buying 3500.00 bounce mushrooms and 1500.00 wellso.
Decided if I didn't go into the show right away all the silly people who get their silliness out of the way first.
It worked.
Sort of.


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## fesso clown

Please report on the Neptune Apex booth... I here they are introducing a return pump and some kind of automatic waterchange set up.... 
Have fun!


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## Crayon

Well, you can't have this shroom anymore, it sold! 3500.00


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## Crayon

Unfortunately, I did drop a bit of cash at this guy's booth


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## Bullet

Crayon said:


> Unfortunately, I did drop a bit of cash at this guy's booth


Good to see that the pros use Kessil !! ; )


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## Crayon

fesso clown said:


> Please report on the Neptune Apex booth... I here they are introducing a return pump and some kind of automatic waterchange set up....
> Have fun!


Yes, Neptune is introducing a return pump. Need to discuss this tomorrow more with Neptune as well as see the new Ecotech DC return pump again plus compare them all with the amazing Abyzz pump. John was doing hardware today and it got overwhelming.

I did not see a Neptune automatic water change set up unless you are talking about the 2 channel doser pump.


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## notclear

Have you gotten the chance to check out the mind stream monitor?


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## Crayon

Crayon said:


> Schedule for tomorrow:
> Find coffee
> 10:00 AM Triton labs workshop
> 11:00 show opens
> 12:00 Joe Yiallo (I think that's how it's spelled) talking about the principles of diligent reef keeping
> 1:00 PM Kevin Kohen from Live Aquaria talking about unusual small fish for nano tanks. That one will be good.
> And then I can't remember what else.


Only made the first lecture. Missed the rest of the lectures I wanted to attend. The show was huge and I wanted to make it through All the aisles today just so I could see everything. Stuff sold like hot cakes. Some frag tanks were half empty.
It is apparent that there are a ton of conflicting opinions on how to maintain a reef. Still.
And of course everybody's product is the best.


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## Crayon

notclear said:


> Have you gotten the chance to check out the mind stream monitor?


Yes, John talked to them at length. Discs are 34.95/month but depending on the tank you can go longer. They suggested you could get 45 days, or even rinse them in tap water to extend the life.
Initial set up is 495.00 usd.
Gives you real time measurements but does not measure phosphates and no plans to do so for a couple years.
Will measure alk, calc, mag, ph, co2, salinity, temp, ammonia, oxygen, potassium.
But is this not a little like over monitoring a kid?
Although it does help to see what happens to a tank when you dose, or feed or do a water change.


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## tom g

*roaming reporter*

Good job to our roaming reporter... hope u get some relax time at the hotel
pic pic pics of the jason foxx zoas please.....
sounds like u are having a blast....


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## Crayon

Chilling in the bar tonight. Skipped the reception. Only so much of crowds I can handle.

Watching the jays lose right now.


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## uniboob

Tell your hubby he should have bought a roaming package  lol we just rocked our last clash of clans war haha. 

Hope you two have a good time and safe travels. 

I like the reporter aspect as well  


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## Crayon

We have a roaming package, plus free wifi in the hotel! But no reception on the show floor.

However, he just made it clear he does not "clash" on his phone. I guess he needs a bigger screen for his massive base......jj


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## Crayon

Bullet said:


> Good to see that the pros use Kessil !! ; )


All the frag tanks at the show use Kessils. We noticed and asked. It's because they don't block the tank and are easy to adjust colour. Seems everyone wants to see a coral in some specific colour.

I have yet to see anyone with a flash light however......just lots of orange glasses.


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## Crayon

For those who asked about ATO from Neptune









Internal optical sensor. Supposed to be released by end of this year. No price yet.


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## Crayon

And for those of you that asked about zoas......









They keep their tank very blue.


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## Crayon

And more.
Jason fox didn't have many zoas but this is his tank.


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## Crayon

The new products from New Life Spectrum including a food dough that you mix w water, make a dough and stick to the inside of the glass. I like the stuff that turns into a gel and sinks. Or the really fine coral powder food that has amazing ingredients and is not 30.00


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## Bullet

Great updates Ms Crayon
The community thanks you 
Sitting on my couch watching the BJ's game while enjoying your postings is almost like being there !!
Many thanks !
Sam


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## Crayon

The morning lecture. Dr Sonia Rowley on Gorgonians. She dives between 50m to 100m or so using a re breather. A lot of it was way over my head, but I caught enough. These deep corals should be at 20 degrees Celsius and there is some evidence that they thrive on really really dirty water and need a certain bacterial culture however are very adaptable as long as they get fed. She has discovered something like 300 new gorgs in the last few years.
TeeMee, you missed a good one!









Oh, and the lecture was 8:30 in the morning and all the partiers that had been bouncing on our heads at 4 AM in the room above us were not there.


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## Crayon

Bullet said:


> Great updates Ms Crayon
> The community thanks you
> Sitting on my couch watching the BJ's game while enjoying your postings is almost like being there !!
> Many thanks !
> Sam


Thankfully, the Jays are playing Baltimore so I can watch the game from the bar. Off to the Mindstream workshop now. Taking my beer with me.


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## simba

Are there any collectibles items there?Tshirt ,toys ,mugs .....photo please Thanks


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## Crayon

How cool are these frag plugs!
















I got 10 of them. Will trade for frags. Would look awesome covered in montipora


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## Crayon

simba said:


> Are there any collectibles items there?Tshirt ,toys ,mugs .....photo please Thanks


Omg, I got swag.
You should see the swag.
Pins, t shirts, bags.
Will trade for frags...... No wait! I got those too!
Will trade for something.
Photos later. I'm supposed to be paying attention in the Mindstream lecture.


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## Crayon

We don't know how good we have it.

R2O is bringing in pseudoanthias bimaculatus. These guys were at the MACNA show and all sold within the first hour on Friday for 75.00 USD each. From what I hear Ryan's prices are less.
Grab them guys, these are cool fish. Need to be fed often to keep aggression under control.









Awesome scribble anthias. On my wish list .


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## Crayon

Mindstream.









Our decision, after having listened to the lecture and hearing that nitrate testing will follow shortly is that this is a good investment and we are on board. With proper care it's possible to get more than 30 days from a disc.
The kickstarter campaign ends tomorrow and they will miss their target which will delay the launch. But they are going to market, and if you get on board for the 1 year program, all in, 1,000.00 they will give you more than 12 discs, so it might be possible to extend this out to probably easily a year and a half or two years.
For daily, real time, no test kit, no muss no fuss monitoring.
Got it from the horses mouth.
Or in this case, Joe.
The data from day to day or moment to moment becomes something that really will change your approach to reef keeping.
Or maybe becomes too much information......


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## Taipan

Nice pics. Great synopsis....keep it coming....


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## notclear

For the Mindstream, so far they only reach about half of their goal. Too bad the disc is so expensive. I have suggested to them to get a lot of people on board in just one day left, $1000 should cover the unit plus 24 replacement discs.


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## Crayon

Ruby reef.
This might be hocus pocus but a lot of people at the show swear by their fish dip. So I'm bringing some back to try. They say 10 minutes in the dip and the fish is clean of all surface pathogens including ich, brook, velvet and gill flukes.








They also have a whole tank, reef safe, fish safe, invert safe treatment program for ich and other stuff. Plus another thing that gets rid of dinoflagellates, and another that gets rid of 
Cyano.
Brought the literature, can't remember what they are called. Information overload......


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## Crayon

POTO, Pieces of the Ocean

Crazy collection of clowns. Plus the coolest gonipora that I managed to score!
And a gem tang for 2700.00 USD. Didn't score that. No way! They're nice, but they are still a tang, and I think the purple is way more interesting for way less money.
Nice people though. The wrasse kept jumping out of the tank and freaking everyone out.
Wrasse being wrasse,


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## Crayon

T shirt collection. Got Ruby Reef, Rod's Food, Abyzz, Schuran, something orange, Pacific East Corals, live Aquaria, a back pac, a black Kessil shirt









Will trade for frags.
Are not signed by me or anyone else. That will cost you extra. However the Rods Food shirt is a small. Can't be picky when they're giving them out for free.


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## Crayon

Joe Knows Reefs,









They had some nice pieces, too. Lots of weird things, which is great. The frags could range from 10.00 for the basic stuff, to 500.00 for a 1/2" rainbow chalice. Colonies were generally100.00+ but were normal stuff like we would find around Toronto. Scolys or brains, same prices as we would see in Toronto, just make the price USD instead of Canadian. The pectina for 200.00 right in the middle is exceptional. Out of my budget though. Might stop by tomorrow and see if there is a fire sale going on.
A few people commented on being jealous that we had places like Reef Raft. We have lots of awesome places beyond Reef Raft and the prices in Canada are comparatively good.
No, we don't have a Jason Fox. Not yet.


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## Crayon

Zoanthids.com










Sorry I can't give you close ups. On an iPad. Maybe it's better that way......
These guys were 50/50 zoas vs other corals.
Such fun! I'm totally geeking out!


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## notclear

Thanks for sharing, very nice.


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## matti2uude

I'm curious how you keep the things you buy alive until you come back? Thanks for sharing I wish I could be there too.

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## notclear

Probably still in the sellers' tanks until Sunday.


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## Crayon

matti2uude said:


> I'm curious how you keep the things you buy alive until you come back? Thanks for sharing I wish I could be there too.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk


I only bought from places that would hold stuff till sunday. Some people came w coolers, small heaters and battery air pumps.
Having never gone to MACNA before, I did not know what to expect. And John will tell you that I did say "don't let me buy any corals"
So it's all his fault.


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## simba

Could you please share some photo of clown fish collections.


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## Crayon

Will get photos of clown fish today. Hopefully. If they aren't all gone.

Dinner last night. Got the last seats way at the back between Tuscon and Las Vegas. A shout out to my new buddies, including one of the mods from Reef to Reef, Aquaph8 (Brett). So if any of you are on the Reef2Reef forum, you have to say "Canada says hi" for me.
Considering they served 3000 dinners last night, it was pretty good. Couldn't hear the speaker from the back, which resulted in some guy coming back and telling us to shut up because we were talking. (What? Me? Talk?)
He was probably from Boston.......JJ. Maybe Cambridge.









Ok, last day of the show.
Off to get coffee for the DH (dear hubbie for those of you who don't speak wife).
More shortly!


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## Bullet

Great updates Ms C. 
Many thanks from me and all of us who got a chance to "almost" experience the show, through your great pics and posts !
Safe travels on your way home


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## Marz

Great updates! Very interested in the Ruby Reef


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## notclear

Is their kick ich the same we have seen for many years?


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## Jmbret

*Amazing!*

So happy you guys made it!

Looks like reef ecstasy! 

Thank you for sharing!

J


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## Crayon

notclear said:


> Is their kick ich the same we have seen for many years?


Probably. What's your experience with it? People at the show who had used it, rave about it. Me? No experience. But I brought some of it back.


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## notclear

I have never used it but have been around for many years. I remember I did some research few years back, some said it is reef safe but some not. So not dared to try it at the time.


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## Crayon

Made it home tonight. All safe and sound.

This morning at the show was weird. A lot of booths were having fire sales, some places not. But there seemed to be a shark like feeding frenzy going on. People with boxes and coolers everywhere.

I did not have a cooler, but John helped so much carrying stuff out to the car that was coming home with us.
Here are the clown fish pics. The new morphs, the black spotted ones on a white background, I couldn't find this morning. They were super cool though. I think there's photos of them on the MACNA website.
Anyway, there were tons of clownfish, but some tanks I could not take pics of. The lighting was weird....


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## Crayon

The Sunday fire sale.....


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## Crayon

Same vendor. Hubert was at the show, I bet he has good pics!


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## Crayon

And how cool are these blue blubbers??? There were 3 vendors selling jellyfish and tanks.
I do not need another project.


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## Crayon

Or Black Sea Nettles.









I could be tempted.......but am resisting.....


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## Crayon

notclear said:


> I have never used it but have been around for many years. I remember I did some research few years back, some said it is reef safe but some not. So not dared to try it at the time.


They have several products which they classify as reef safe. All biodegradable. All 2 week protocols. I brought back some of the dip called Hydroplex. It is not reef safe, but they say 10 minutes for a new fish eliminates ich, brooK, velvet, etc etc.
We will see.


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## simba

HI I have never been to Macna .I guess you are driving.I am wondering let say you bring some frags or some fishes.Do you have to declare at the border.
How does it work?crossing the border with these stuff.IWe are thinking of going next year and want to be preparded.Do they asked you alot of questions and check your car?We are flying maybe driving .Hope you can explained your way Thanks Again


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## teemee

simba said:


> HI I have never been to Macna .I guess you are driving.I am wondering let say you bring some frags or some fishes.Do you have to declare at the border.
> How does it work?crossing the border with these stuff.IWe are thinking of going next year and want to be preparded.Do they asked you alot of questions and check your car?We are flying maybe driving .Hope you can explained your way Thanks Again


Next year Macna is in San Diego... I'm not sure you could possibly get any further away from Toronto... It's a very long drive.


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## notclear

Can't wait to see your experience with the Hydroplex!



Crayon said:


> They have several products which they classify as reef safe. All biodegradable. All 2 week protocols. I brought back some of the dip called Hydroplex. It is not reef safe, but they say 10 minutes for a new fish eliminates ich, brooK, velvet, etc etc.
> We will see.


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## Crayon

simba said:


> HI I have never been to Macna .I guess you are driving.I am wondering let say you bring some frags or some fishes.Do you have to declare at the border.
> How does it work?crossing the border with these stuff.IWe are thinking of going next year and want to be preparded.Do they asked you alot of questions and check your car?We are flying maybe driving .Hope you can explained your way Thanks Again


All the information you need to bring stuff back to Canada is on the Canada government websites. I strongly suggest you research this for yourself. I don't want to mislead you or have you blame me for something happening.
In certain circumstances it is completely legal to import fish or frags. Before I bought anything in the U.S. I checked:
-Canada customs website
-Canada fish and wildlife website
-CITIES to ensure none of the species I was looking at bringing in were listed as endangered or restricted
-all other references to other Canadian jurisdictions possibly even Canada Food and Drug agency
Here is what I can tell you:
-you must know the Latin name of everything you are bringing in. Customs doesn't like it when you show up with a Darth Maul Porities because it will not be in their database and it slows down the process
-you must declare everything and be prepared to have receipts. Ideally you want the vendor to list on the receipt exactly what it is
-you must be patient and nice when dealing with customs
-if you are flying, everything is going to be checked into cargo, so you may need to plan to have the box shipped via pressurized holding, as you would a dog, PLAN AHEAD

-or, realize that there is really nothing we can't get in Canada, and generally the prices are better. The cool thing about a trade show is that it's like having a mall of fish stores and we can see things in one place from everyone. Except not all the vendors bring all their product, and not everyone sells from the show. ORA wasn't selling any of their stuff, so I will be contacting Macko about this really cool purple algae I saw.
-but I know the cream of the cream for frags comes to a frag show and it's impossible to resist. Been there, done that.
The biggest issue though
-you will entirely be at the mercy of the customs agent you are dealing with to cross through to Canada. Better odds playing poker.

So my advice is to know what you can bring in legally, be prepared, be patient. However it's still no guarantee that you won't have an issue.


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## simba

Thank-You for the info.


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## Crayon

More new stuff from the show. Two new types of copepods. Maybe they aren't that new, but I hadn't seen them before.
Also Docs Eco eggs have changed their delivery method so it's not that thick. Yeah! This is one of my favorite foods for picky eaters. Hopefully it's easier to use now.

The black licorice was not from the show. that's mine. Mmmmm.


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## Crayon

I think these should be renamed "clownfish proof gloves." The idea that you can clean the algae off the inside of a tank with your hand, and not get bit by the clownfish attracted me.
That, and they are good for acrylic tanks.


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## Jiinx

Cheryl, wow ..you got some good loot! It must have been so fun! What was the most memorable booth? Lecture? Did you learn anything? 

Sarah


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## Crayon

Jiinx said:


> Cheryl, wow ..you got some good loot! It must have been so fun! What was the most memorable booth? Lecture? Did you learn anything?
> 
> Sarah


Hmm,
Having trouble deciding what was the most memorable.
Actually seeing some of the coral vendors products, like Cherry Corals or Jason Fox was pretty good.
Seeing the Abyzz pump shooting vertically 20' was really impressive.
Talking to the chemist from Fauna Marin about the zeolite system made us feel like we knew nothing about reef keeping.
Listening to Sonia Rowley about gorgonians and hearing that the industry still knows so little about keeping gorgs.
Meeting and talking to fellow reefers and sharing information. Realizing that we have a lot of excellent knowledge here on this forum and that we also have amazing coral suppliers in Toronto that a lot of other people are envious about. Can you imagine a city like Tuscon has one reef store in the entire city?

Oh oh! Something I didn't even get a pic of. The new trend to slim overflows. Like 1" wide x the length of the tank. We saw that at 3 or 4 different places.
Or the 30" long gyre........commercial sized. It was just a 3D printed version, but they now have the 180 which is the biggest gyre to date.
It was not one thing in particular, it was a lot of things everywhere.


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## fury165

Cheryl, fantastic updates and from the sounds of it it was a good show. Now we have this to go on I bet next year there will be a few more folks heading down to SD! I'd love to go, haven't been to San Diego in some years 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼


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## notclear

If these pictures are not enough, Hubert will be talking MACNA at MAST meeting tomorrow night.


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## PaulF757

I'm sure it was a great trip. Thanks for all the info and pics, please let me know how those new dips work out, very interested in them also.


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## PaulF757

notclear said:


> If these pictures are not enough, Hubert will be talking MACNA at MAST meeting tomorrow night.


MAST meetings have started already?


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## notclear

Starting tonight at 7:30 p.m. See you there.

Northfin will be there too to provide samples of their food.


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## Patwa

great update.....would have loved to check out that gorgonian talk!

Hubert - clownfish man - posted like a billion pics on his Facebook, almost every hour of each day lol....mostly selfies too! hahah .....i've never seen a Wand of Narcissus used soo much in such a short period of time.

z


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## Green Ocean

Any idea what the differences are between the new kessil led and the old model? I actually just bought 3 kessil 360w for my 150meters tank, the new ones weren't available and I want to keep away from thing that just came out.


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