Frag Swaps

[CoralBeauties]

I am glad that I reserved most of my corals ahead of time.  If you didnt have it reserved no one seemed to take alot of stuff that wasnt presold.  I was wanting to look at several pieces that were on fragswapper in person before buying but most didnt bring it if you didnt reserve it.  I was alittle dissapointed in that aspect.  It was crowded and kindof hard to find people but went well.  I think that when they had the larger format people brought more corals.  I did pickup some nice pieces and it was worth the drive over to columbus.  My biggest disapointment was that my red planet frag was a no show!!!!!!  Thanks to cora for a nice event.
Jeff

[verper]

I think you are right on that Jeff.  I think many did not bring coral to sell because there was no free table space and they didn't want to walk around trying to sell coral out of a cooler.  I know that the extra coral frags I brought were snapped up way faster than the pre-arranged stuff.

[mdcoblentz]

I sold all my "extras" fairly fast, but had about 3 that didn't sell. Ended up trading what I had left for some frag plugs from chief reef propagation. I was more than happy to trade for that.  It was a bit hairy at first and I didn't think the head table that had name tags was well placed either.  too many people without them.  But I did enjoy myself and am hoping and praying a torn up rainbow acan makes it. 

[slandis3]

I'll post pictures later after they've stopped sliming as much.

 

[CoralBeauties]

What seemed to be my biggest problem was by the time I got done trying to find the people that I had sold too and the ones that I had commited to buy anything else that was rare or unique had been snatched up.  My next problem was getting all of Bin's stuff in my trunk when we left
Jeff

[apelaston]

Hey jjoos i love the pocillopora i didnt realize u were from the club or i would have introduced myself. . . it is colored up pink real nice and polyps are out.. . .i did think that is was mainly presales today versus trading and i am guilty of not bringing what wasnt reserved an then getting approached to see the item. . . i will pack everything next time for sure and make my purchases first then worry bout the reserves tho to get some of the bigger n rarer pieces. .

[MechanicalEngineer]

My winnings for the day:

Acropora Equisita:


ORA Tort


Acropora something (Will picked this one out.)   


Montipora


Chalice (from Verper)


Rescue Coral #1 from Phishy Business


Rescue Coral #2 from Phishy Business


Rescue Coral #3 from Phishy Business


Orange Rhodactis


Green and Red Micromussa


Giant Baby Brittle Starfish
7 of these beasts came on one of my corals.  These aren't the little baby ones I have in my sump!!! 

[lazylivin]

I enjoyed the swap and had good company on the ride out. Here are a few things I picked up.

Pink Cap. It is very very pink. Almost looks not natural. Could not get a full pic with the bushy looking thing in the way.



Idaho Grape



Chalice from Scott



Blue Monti



Green and Blue Ricordeia



Purple Cap w/blue polyps, Tri Color Acro

[JoeAyers]

I have to admit that I like the old way much better. Vendors had nice setups and traders could set up nicer displays or layout on bigger tables. I understand the change from the club's leadership, but for someone that did not arrange any presales as a buyer there wasn't much to get.  I arranged two presales as a seller and wasn't able to find one of them since it was so busy.  But I did go to Phishy's afterwards and bought some nice stuff. He was running 20% off so that was nice.

Joe

[slandis3]

Thanks for letting me see what I missed out on    Did anyone go to Reef Systems, I know they were having a 25% off sale.

[MechanicalEngineer]

Scott, Jenn, Will, and I all went to Phishy Business and Reef Systems afterward.  Phishy's was awesome as always (minus that they aren't carrying much SPS anymore.) 

Reef Systems...well...I think their lace rock was about all that was nice.  Everything I wanted wasn't for sale...don't understand that one.  They only had a few clams in.  Wasn't impressed.  Most of the raceways were just full of brown corals.  One of the employees (possibly the owner...he acted like it), was very rude to me.  I saw a beautiful clam (also not for sale) and stated how I just had my ugly plain purple clam and wanted a nicer one.  He told me that if I would put better lighting on my tank, my clam would look better.  WHAT?!  He never asked me what my tank was like.  I have 560W on a 40g tank.  I don't really think I could put better lighting on my tank. 

Additionally, the same guy was talking about how flatworms and hydroids were ok to have in your tank (I definitely saw hydroids everywhere in their tanks...couldn't see well enough to see brown flatworms on brown corals.)  I left there with a VERY bitter taste in my mouth.  It makes me very happy to have the sponsors that we do.  Sorry for my rant.

[verper]

Thanks for letting me see what I missed out on    Did anyone go to Reef Systems, I know they were having a 25% off sale.

Reef Systems was what I expected.  I've read other posts where the nice looking coral are never for sale and it was the same yesterday.  I don't think I've ever seen so much brown coral in one place.  I've also read where someone took a chance on some of the brown coral and they turned out beautiful.  I'm just not up for that right now.

[MechanicalEngineer]

Will said that the coral he bought was from Reef Systems at the frag swap.  It's brown with turquoise tips, so we'll see how that turns out.

I will say, I broke the coral off the frag plug...and dipped it.  I didn't see anything come off of it or any of the other corals I got (except for the million brittle starfish on my Monti.) 

[slandis3]

Yea when we go there just about everything my wife wants is not for sale. These are his mother colonies. I will try to dig up a pic of a grey monti we bought there that is now green with a purple rim. Are mills and digitata have came from there as well. We always dip them and the most  have seen come off is a few bristle worms and some of those little star fish. We look at everything with a magnifying glass to make sure its ok before we put it into the tank.

[verper]

If the green with purple rim monti is the same as the one he wouldn't sell, it is beautiful.  Let me know if you frag it.

[apelaston]

I also dipped my corals and did not even get a lil starfish off of em. . . i was happy w that for sure!

[slandis3]

If the green with purple rim monti is the same as the one he wouldn't sell, it is beautiful.  Let me know if you frag it.

The one i have was supposed to be a  frag off the one he wouldnt sell. He had some problems with it and it turnd grey. Once it colors up completly i will let you know as well as post a pic of it. Im not 100% sure if it was really off the same colony or not

[slandis3]

ok here is a pic right after we got it. Im going to go try to get a good pic of it now in a minute

[slandis3]

ok the pic is a little blurry but you can see the color is starting to come back in it. You can also see the pink with blue polyps cats paw we got from there as well.

[verper]

It could be.  LMK

[apelaston]

your new frags look great in your tank. For being new with SPS you have some really great pieces to start with! Great mix of colors!

[CoralBeauties]

Here are a few pics of what I picked up yesterday.  I always leave mine at the bottem of my tank for a couple of days to let them get use to my lighting.  Everything seems to be doing good.  Good polyp extension on everything but my milli which even on my established ones dont seem to be as hairy as other people's.  The hairy green acro is insanely hairy with polyps!!!
Jeff

[MSUJenn]

Aha, I can see  what I'm typing if I do it from my iPhone. This was only my third swap, but I had a good time. I was with good company for the ride, so that probably had something to do with it. I got a couple of tri-color acro frags, a purple m. digitata, a sunset montipora (from Nikki), and the same little turqoise acro as Will and Nikki. Everything is in my qt tank right now after a dip in spectra d (spelling?) and a dip in FWE. My qt tank is not very pretty, so I'll post some pics later. I didn't find any pests on mine, just a few pods and an unknown snail which I'm pretty sure was a stomatella.