nwkermit
Valuable Member
Once a year(Orlando), aquarium hobbyists and vendors from all over the world gets together and meet at one of the biggest aquarium show out there. Reefapalooza been on my radar all year, and I was very excited to go to the event this year. I was there Friday to check out the location to figure out where to park and where everything going to be.
This year the show was hold all in one room with a side raffle room. Last year, the two room gave us a bigger space, but it was a pain running back and forth between the 2 room to get to the vendor drawing and checking out the prices. I liked the one room idea. Victor and Lou was all over the place from WWC. Amazing at the amount of work that they do to put on the show. Toward the end of the setup Friday, vendors and few lucky hobbyists got invited to Go-kart to rub shoulder...
Typical Florida weather, it looked like the storm was coming, we saw lightning and figure this thing will be cancelled. But the race went on, and it was tons of fun. Couple of crush and tons of spin out later...everyone make it out alive and the show was on.
I was going to make it there first thing in the morning; but my basketball jones got the best of me. After few hours of morning basketball...
I was on my way to the show. Got there around 11:30, all the free door prizes was gone already. I walked in and the whole place was packed already, I make it down the aisle, found reef2reef and met Revhtree, very nice guy. Got my free raffle ticket, show the lady I am a member here, got 5 more, and I was on my way to see the corals.
I like to walk around and figure things out and know the prices before I start buying. There was a lot of acro colonies at the show, along with tons of mushroom and any other corals you want to see. People was dropping money left and right and some corals was demanding top dollars...there was a few mushroom listed at the $3000, according to the vendor-they were sold. I am very lucky to live in Orlando and have WWC and top shelf aquatic to be my 2 main LFS. The only thing I was really looking for was nice acro and a nice jawbreaker mushroom. I search and search but I couldn't find a good deal so I ended up not buying one single corals the whole weekend. It was kind of a disappointment. There was a few nice mushroom, but the wife was there and she would of killed me for dropping $2000-3000 for one coral(I also think price was kind of high).
I end up going to the different vendors, getting a few samples here and there. Reef nutrients rep was super nice. I met the people from Rod's food the day before at the race track, they hooked me up with some shirts and food(great people). Went to the Saturday raffle, saw a few things I liked, spend $20 and ended up with nothing.
Sunday, got there around noon, I make sure I get there before the R2R raffle. Tons of people on location.
they were giving away everything except the kitchen sink(or maybe they did). My number was called and I ended with this
very happy I got this awesome GEO calcium reactor...now just have to figure out how to hook it up.
Next drawing was at LRS, some lucky winner got 20 pack of food and someone else got the grand prize nice $500 reactor. 2 o'clock and it was time to head to Aqarium Specialty for their drawing, I don't even know what was the prize, but free giveaway...who cares. They picked the winner, someone last name Gonzalez, was walking away joking maybe I can pass as Gonzalez(not a chance) but the person didn't show= redraw. They read the second name, couldn't read the person terrible handwriting....but as soon as they read the first name I know it was all me. The prize turn out to be something awesome, a water tester that can test tons of different things
As you can see I was one happy man.
With my luck at all time high, I headed to the main Sunday raffle, dropped $60 on raffle tickets, main target was the high end prizes and most importantly euroaquatics E5 bulbs. There was 5 E5 give away, I put 10 in each of them, and the other 25 into ATO, radion, ice cap, 150 gal tank, and etc. my luck finically ran out and I didn't get anything, but those girls next to me got the jellyfish tank and the jbj tanks...they were very lucky. Would love to get my hand on those E5 bulbs, maybe next raffle. All in all, even without any coral, I had tons of fun. Met tons of great people and got tons of stuff. Caribsea also hooked me up with a bag of free sand on the way out the door. This is my total take home for the weekend-
My fishes and corals should have enough food for the rest of the year. Can't wait till next year!
This year the show was hold all in one room with a side raffle room. Last year, the two room gave us a bigger space, but it was a pain running back and forth between the 2 room to get to the vendor drawing and checking out the prices. I liked the one room idea. Victor and Lou was all over the place from WWC. Amazing at the amount of work that they do to put on the show. Toward the end of the setup Friday, vendors and few lucky hobbyists got invited to Go-kart to rub shoulder...
Typical Florida weather, it looked like the storm was coming, we saw lightning and figure this thing will be cancelled. But the race went on, and it was tons of fun. Couple of crush and tons of spin out later...everyone make it out alive and the show was on.
I was going to make it there first thing in the morning; but my basketball jones got the best of me. After few hours of morning basketball...
I was on my way to the show. Got there around 11:30, all the free door prizes was gone already. I walked in and the whole place was packed already, I make it down the aisle, found reef2reef and met Revhtree, very nice guy. Got my free raffle ticket, show the lady I am a member here, got 5 more, and I was on my way to see the corals.
I like to walk around and figure things out and know the prices before I start buying. There was a lot of acro colonies at the show, along with tons of mushroom and any other corals you want to see. People was dropping money left and right and some corals was demanding top dollars...there was a few mushroom listed at the $3000, according to the vendor-they were sold. I am very lucky to live in Orlando and have WWC and top shelf aquatic to be my 2 main LFS. The only thing I was really looking for was nice acro and a nice jawbreaker mushroom. I search and search but I couldn't find a good deal so I ended up not buying one single corals the whole weekend. It was kind of a disappointment. There was a few nice mushroom, but the wife was there and she would of killed me for dropping $2000-3000 for one coral(I also think price was kind of high).
I end up going to the different vendors, getting a few samples here and there. Reef nutrients rep was super nice. I met the people from Rod's food the day before at the race track, they hooked me up with some shirts and food(great people). Went to the Saturday raffle, saw a few things I liked, spend $20 and ended up with nothing.
Sunday, got there around noon, I make sure I get there before the R2R raffle. Tons of people on location.
Next drawing was at LRS, some lucky winner got 20 pack of food and someone else got the grand prize nice $500 reactor. 2 o'clock and it was time to head to Aqarium Specialty for their drawing, I don't even know what was the prize, but free giveaway...who cares. They picked the winner, someone last name Gonzalez, was walking away joking maybe I can pass as Gonzalez(not a chance) but the person didn't show= redraw. They read the second name, couldn't read the person terrible handwriting....but as soon as they read the first name I know it was all me. The prize turn out to be something awesome, a water tester that can test tons of different things
As you can see I was one happy man.
With my luck at all time high, I headed to the main Sunday raffle, dropped $60 on raffle tickets, main target was the high end prizes and most importantly euroaquatics E5 bulbs. There was 5 E5 give away, I put 10 in each of them, and the other 25 into ATO, radion, ice cap, 150 gal tank, and etc. my luck finically ran out and I didn't get anything, but those girls next to me got the jellyfish tank and the jbj tanks...they were very lucky. Would love to get my hand on those E5 bulbs, maybe next raffle. All in all, even without any coral, I had tons of fun. Met tons of great people and got tons of stuff. Caribsea also hooked me up with a bag of free sand on the way out the door. This is my total take home for the weekend-
My fishes and corals should have enough food for the rest of the year. Can't wait till next year!
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