Frag fest @ Rockford IL

[Mr.Firemouth]

This is going to blow you away.
As of this moment we have 37 donors
Nearly $5000 is raffle items
And this is with out counting the frags that will be donated
Here is the short list
Over $500 worth of Gift Certs to several vendors including Dr Smith and Foster, Dr Mac, Reef Science, Roe's Marine World, Air water Ice, Fraggle Reef, Reefer Madness, Frag Island, more and more and more
Auto top off products from aqua hub, Auto Top off and Blue line
Food from Liquid Life, Omega Sea, San Fransisco Bay, Two Little Fish, and more
Lighting from Blue Line, Gieseman, 150w Sunlight supply pendent, An ORBIT light from Current
More products from Nu Clear, Rowa Phos, Polyplab, Aquarium Design, Anthony Calfo, Oceans Blend, and so many more
WHO WANTS IMAC FOR FREE? COME WIN A PASS OR MACNA TICKETS FOR $75
Need flow??? Pumps, yes plural pumps from Iwaki, penductors, Ocean Motion goods
AND WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED THIS IS THE SORT LIST OF DONATIONS.
This is going to be insane. The raffle keeps growing and growing. We will have products you cannot find anywhere else. Giesemann Lighting is giving us a Refluxx fixture. Sweet stuff here
We just added Hagen with a Fluval 305 filter
Sea Swirl with a 1/2" device AND........
Aquarium Arts will be shipping some lucky winner
35 lbs of premium, hand picked, fully cured Fiji live Rock, shipped overnight to your door. This is worth $350!!!!! WOW!!!
Fore more info click on...FRAG FEST
Guest Speaker Jake Adams

Jake's Bio: Jake Adams is a marine scientist who recently moved back to the Denver area until he returns to grad school. Jake has researched coral spawning in the Carribean, has presented at IMAC, and has published a series of Advanced Aquarist articles about the importance of water flow for corals. He is an avid coral photographer, he produces podcasts on various reef aquarium topics and he features most of his endeavours on his website Coralite.net is an independent, informative website dedicated to providing a link between the scientist who research corals and the aquarists who grow and keep them . The purpose of this site is to advance our understanding of corals by facilitating
Here is an abstract from Jake on his talk:
Aquarists often describe the water motion in their reef aquariums in terms of the rate of turnover. Since flow speed is the critical measure for determining the rate of gas exchange, turnover rate does little to convey the suitability of the available water motion. Just shy of trying to kick start a paradigm shift in how we think about water motion for the reef aquarium, my presentation will attempt to make junior oceanographers out of all the reefers who attend. I will present a handful of studies of coral ecology which demonstrate that water flow is more important than light. I will continue with a crash course on fluid dynamics and how it can help us understand how water moves and how water motion helps our corals to "breathe" better. I will conclude the presentation by presenting a few ways aquarists can get the most water motion out of their current equipment simply by applying some of the principles of fluid dynamics. Just as aquarium lighting has received a much attention in recent years, so too must we start to reconsider how the water movement of our aquariums translates into water motion which is relevant and suitable for coral health.

[Samper]

I know Jake....met him in South Carolina and hung out at his house for quite some time. That's awesome.

[Mr.Firemouth]

Yeah, This is going to be incredible! They are now giving away a Zero Edge aquarium!

[CSeaSee]

I think I'll be there...

[CSeaSee]

Anyone else making plans? (It's a hour's drive for me...)

[wozza]

Damn you americans and your cool things that happen near you!
In england all we get is road works, rain and chavs (see: ChavScum)

[CSeaSee]

Here across the pond in Chicago, we've only got two seasons: winter, and construction!

[RJD2REEF]

The swap was a hit! 230 paid attendees! Congrats Rockford Reefers!
Here are some pics...











There were over 1,000 frags on hand and the raffle was incredible!
Jake Adams gave a great talk on water movement.
This was the best swap yet!!! A huge turn out!!!

[zhenya]

Oh man, I can't believe how many geeks in one place...
Congrats to all the winners and prticipants, looks like it was lot of fun.

[RJD2REEF]

Yeah, there was a snow storm and all these people came anyways! The pizza man bailed with 20+pizzas so no free lunch! I was starving when I left!

I wonder how many more people would of come if it didn't snow?

[CSeaSee]

I thought it was great! That hall had a very "rural" feel to it, and I made out like a bandit. A vendor had 40 lb of base rock that had been sitting out for an hour- my buddy and I took it off his hands for $30! And it was cured! There were live bristleworms when I put it in my tank a couple hours later. Such a steal. And the frags were all excellent. If I may make a suggestion: don't read out all the raffle numbers when there's an imminent snowstorm
- just post them up and let people come up to a booth where they can show a winning stub, and pick up their prize.