MACNA 2015: Photos, Recap & Review

Marcoss wrote: It sounds like MACNA is for retailers that is open to the general public, for some reason. I go to a number of expos a year, but they are for buyers/retailers only. They show the newest trends, what is cool, and what you can expect to see in the future. At the end of the day, they let you buy items that the vendors do not want to take back. I have never been to MACNA though but from reading what Bob is saying, sounds like that to me.

I think MACNA may be more "Trade Show" heavy than some of the other Conferences; tilted a bit more towards buyers and retailers than say MAX or ReefAPalooza...

But, as Jon pointed out, there is a big 'educational' aspect to MACNA. You could literally go to Speaker Presentations every hour of the entire 3 - day Event

I won a pair of clowns from Proaquatix that I totally thought they would be shipping to me.  When I found out it wasn't a voucher I did call TSA.  They said fish were cool as long as they were sealed and you could prove they were swimming.  For coral they had no clue.  She gave me a supervisors number but he wasn't there. 

I think for 1-2 coral we could have had them hand screened and hoped they had sweepers out.  But we ended up with like 12 coral and felt it wasn't fair to them and may piss them off. 

We passed on the clam, the big ones were wild caught and I had a bad experience on that, even that company said for us not to get one if we were flying.  The other ones were awesome but helluva risk at 80 bucks.  We got that styro bucket from Dirks for 5 bucks (I will use that thing forever on LFS visits) and we used the coolers we got from Neptune.  Zoanthids gave us specimen cups so we could put smaller coral in, then we put those into the Neptune coolers.  We had 3 in bags that wouldn't fit in a cup and just double bagged those.  Put them in the coolers.  Then we put the Neptune coolers into the styro.  I packed in my suitcase (checked) and surrounded it with swag tshirts. 

I was worried it would look bad on the scan.  When I dropped off the bag I went behind the scanner and they did pull it and went through it.  I probably shouldn't have but I went up to the guy (who was not happy to see me) and said they were just coral.  He never looked in styro, thumbed through my magazines and shirts.  Then sent it on it's way. 

Normally we have an ice chest, towels and specimen cups. 

Before I talk more about the Conference, I just want to touch on something Jon already covered... but I think it is important enough to have everyone reading this thread 'chew on the info' a bit more.

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WMAS Paid Member Brad Syphus ("tileman" on our Message Board) was awarded the 2015 Marine Aquarium Hobbyist Of The Year at MACNA.

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One more time:

BRAD SYPHUS (aka "tileman") OF MURRAY, UT WAS CHOSEN AS THE #1 MARINE & REEFKEEPING HOBBYIST ON THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT AT MACNA THIS YEAR!!!

Yes, that Brad Syphus, the guy with the absolutely stunning 335 gallon Reef Tank filled with gigantic SPS colonies; beautiful, rare and hard - to - keep fish; the same Brad Syphus who takes phenomenal photos (and wins our POTM contest about every other month )... the guy who goes to MACNA and hob knobs with the likes of Sanjay Joshi, and Larry DuPont, and Tony Vargas and Joe Yaiullo...

And the same humble, down to earth guy who is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet in this hobby...

I just got 2 more things to say about this...

1) A well deserved honor!!!

2) Pretty damn impressive, my friend

Edited by BobC63 - September 09 2015 at 11:50pm

Also, I read on the TSA website that there is an exception on the amount of liquid you can take on a carry on when it is a live fish. Have you tried taking anything on your carry on before? I wonder if zoa and paly toxins would set anything off.



Edited by Hogie - September 09 2015 at 11:50pm

This was the poster I picked up for my grandkids:

And, oh yeah, I kept bumping in to this guy:

I guess they will let anybody into these things nowadays....

Bob I have never had an issue with checked luggage before and coral/fish.  TSA doesn't really care whats in it but the airline sure does (I said it was fish food which is technically true if ever asked whats in the cooler).  My worry was how it looked to the xray and if they would take the thing apart which may cause a leak. 

Glad that didn't happen.

One thing I forgot that I give a ton of credit to MACNA for.  Started in Denver but got really good in DC.  They mad an app for your phone.  The app was really useful. 

It had your speaker schedule (and would set reminders), raffle items and ticket winners, floor layout, speaker info, map of area and a social networking aspect so you could post and share things with other app users.  I loved it.  Was great information and MACNA could send out messages to all users too. 

None of the videos worked for me?