melev

Saturday, April 2, 2011 - Irving Tx - DFWMAS had its spring Frag Swap at the Irving Bible Church. It's a beautiful venue that is quite spacious, but once you add a bunch of tables, frag tanks, corals and people, it can quickly feel crowded. Part of the reason for this is the excitement of finding that next coral to add to your personal collection.

16 sellers filled their reserved spaces to display tank-raised frags available to trade of sell. Some had small frag tanks with lighting, while others opted to bring a cooler filled with bagged pieces. Just about anything one could want was there, from the easy to grow starter corals to the nicer corals that carry a nickname and a bigger price tag.

Each seller donated one frag to the raffle, allowing everyone a chance to win a frag in addition to any purchases they made that day.

Since my tank is newly set up, I didn't have any frags to sell so I brought some drygoods, including brand new items I've had in my possession that I was probably never going to use. Here are some pictures from that day, taken after the crowd had dispersed. It was exciting... I couldn't wander around with my camera until the room had cleared out significantly.

You may notice that number of these frag tanks were built by melevsreef. This one belongs to Anton, aka ReefGod. The pictures on his backdrop allow others to know what the parent colonies looked like.


This frag tank is going to be set up permanently next to the parent reef tank, so an external overflow was added that can contain a Durso Standpipe. To create some teeth to keep snails out of the overflow, I made this lid with the teeth affixed. When you take the lid off, the teeth come with it. Just an interesting variation on what we see usually. The black box on top is one of the Floaters I sell, allowing a person to view frags even when the surface ripples.


This is Ben, whom I adopted Bunny from, and he had his corals in small deli containers. The laptop showcased his colonies.


David had a few of these display tanks available for purchase.


Wes and Marco shared this frag tank, and used an iPad and an iPad 2 to show the parent colonies to everyone. How cool... dueling iPads, right?






Dennis used a Reefkoi Evolution light over his corals.


Mike sold many of his frags quickly.


Esteban used his PAR 38 LEDs to show off his frags. He had the same set up last time, and everyone liked it.


The raffle prizes were in Drew's frag tank. The light was close to the surface, only because there wasn't anything to suspend it.


Tito uses tiers to separate his corals. With a taller tank, you can get away with this.


Ryan brought some frags from his beautiful 400g reef.


Rick and Chris are long time members of DFWMAS, both former BOD members. Catching up with friends is always fun.


Carol and her husband drive nearly two hours to bring their frags to each of our frag swaps. They always have a lot to share.


Michelle had a bunch of used gear for sale.


Deb sold out every last coral.


Jason sorts his frags by price, easily identified with the colored sections.


Jimmy drove up from Glen Rose (1.5 hours) with the corals his tank has produced.


And finally here was my little booth. Don't worry, I came home with frags. Winning!!