Marine Aquarium Expo 2008'(MAX)-pic and review.

[prow]

first sorry for the pic, just got the camera and only read on part of the manual before shotting these. also i edited some with only increasing the sharp image, normal window tools used. after looking at them, should of left them alone

[prow]

hey everyone, just wanted to share some photos of my trip to MAX this year.

quick review,
i was somewhat disappointed. many of the vendors did not have a lic. to sell in So. Cal. that kinda sucked as i wanted somethings there but they could not sell them to me. no free stuff at all either, nothing at the door nothing from any vendors, not even a refrigerator magnet, calendar or note pad, nothing. dont know why i expected something but i did.

timming was not good for me, the first day being the day of the finial four, not good. some dont care, but had to go after the game and only got a couple hours to cruise around, still it was enough time to make a couple laps.

the raffle was very disappointing, actually a joke. so much so, i may not even go next time just because of it, forsure will not participate in any other drawings they may have down the road. i really wanted to have fun with it, win or lose. but they held all the good stuff for Sunday. the PFO 14" Solaris LED Lighthood, Red Sea Max complete Reef Systems, Reefkeeper II Aquarium Controller, 46" EcoLight LED Submersible Aquarium Lights, Vortech MP40w Pumps, Outer Orbit HQI/T5 Lighting System and more, none of these were up for Saturdays drawing. ok, there were still some cool prizes to win. but then there was the way they did the raffle, it really sucked. get this, after you bought your tickets you place one or more tickets in a box for that prize, only that prize. that means you could only win that prize and did not have any chance on anything else. people stuffed the boxes for the one prizes they wanted. one group of 5 stuffed 3 prize boxes and won them all, that kind of stuff. i bought $25 in tickets and place them in various boxes (iteams i really could less about winning, but want to have fun with it). then during the drawing there was a time they raffled off about 30 iteams that i did not place a ticket in. but because i did place some for other items, i had to sit there for 30+min watching them raffle things i couldn't win cause i did not place a ticket in that box. just so i could be there for the items i put my tickets in. it was like not participating in 90% of the raffle. did not even allow me to get a little excited. i mean if you buy $25 in tickets and placed them all in one box for one prize and that was the first prize they were raffling and you lose thats it raffle is over for you. or if it was the last item you had to sit there a hour watching, losing interest as they raffle things you can not win. sucked i tell you, no anticipation to get you into it at all.

no deals on anything. everything was the same price in the stores or online vendor sites. many of the booths had no rep around to ask questions. i went to neptunes booth(and others) about 5 times, looked and played with things grapped a price list acted very interested loudly said i want to know more about this, i did this a couple times no one was around to answer any questions. better getting info else where than there booth. many were like this, only a couple booths had reps that would interact with the public. booze you got tell elos to interact with the public during these events more.

so aside from elos all the pics below are of vendor boths where the rep
actually did more than just setup a display.

[prow]

i must thank booze for the timely delivery of the camera, thank you sir with out his and his wifeys efforts no pics, so everyone lets give booze a that a boy.........
so, with that, i feel i must start off with the elos booth.

[prow]

on to the petting tank, the kids were digging on this. took a while to get a shot as the kids were all over it


eruoreef had there prize skimmers out, and a .com booth, good booth but I asked about their sps selection they keep. They said lps and sps we have them all. I said well with my lighting most lps will burn, I am looking more for sps and clams. Then the guy tried to tell me 250w MH’s on a 20”tall tank is good for lps.

[prow]

ok time some eye candy
here are a few of some aquacultured/farmed coral booth.

[prow]

well now here is the new RK2 system coming out soon. this is a sweet looking unit. the guys were very helpful and seemed eager to tell me about it. they were at ready for any and all questions, even though they did not have a lic. to sell here and the units are not up sales yet. based on my visit to neptunes and RK2 booths, i think i will switching over for my current neptunes system to this bad boy.

[prow]

skimmers anyone??? check these bad boys out. dont think the RK2 here is the same as the controllers.

[prow]

time for some more eye candy, but check the prices




then the demo on the Vortech Pumps with MP40w upgrade(controller). i tried to get a couple shots so everyone can see the surge they create, pretty impressive.

[prow]

this tank was pretty cool. it overflows over the open top and down the sides to a trough. LEDs for lighting. makes it hard to get pics but its nicely setup.

[prow]

talking about LED lighting. these are sweet setups, the answer to solaris setups. but i like them much more than the solaris setups. solaris was there too butt.. their booth did not make the cut these here are from reefgeeks booth, a online vendor site i highly recommed. sorry boys and girls i did not get a pic of the controller unit



but i did get a couple shots of the tank with lighting dialed to very blue and white. you can dial them to whatever mix you want. they penetrate well to, hold there PAR levels to something like 36".

[prow]

here he is Greg himself (reefgeek.com) sporting some of the ATI skimmers he sells. then the ATI bubble master 160 in action a great guy and great site to buy goodies from. a little props for him and reefgeeks- they carry many other things not listed on the site, if you dont see it on the site just call or email him.



Well hope you enjoyed the pics and stuff. its was pretty cool I am glad I went dispite the little things that bugged. Needles to say I came home with nothing but I did have fun. again sorry about the pics, they looked better on my computer just before posting, still need to fiq out the camera stuff.

[deaclauderdale]

Thanx Gary you allowed me to live vicariously through you.

[boozeman]

Thank you so much prow !!!
man I'm sure that all those coral vendors mustve been pretty ticked off to discover that they couldnt sell any frags after lugging all those tanks and setting up

oooohhhhhhh that lamborghini orange 160xl is beautiful !!!

[kathywithbirds]

nice, thanks for the pics Prow!!!

corals do look nice, shame they couldn't sell there. Is it a PITA to get a license to sell corals in CA?

Have to agree with Booze on teh orange... I could do that one, I have a thing for orange!!!

[SJS]

Nice pics - I was there on Sunday and was not real happy with the vendors/booths. Found that many of them weren't in their booths, got some liturature, but no real info.
I did get to buy some goodies and will post in my thread later...