2015 New England Frag Farmer's Market - March 7th 2015 Storrs, CT

[fitch4]

Lou Elkus, from Tropic Marin and a huge supporter of the school's project, and I had been talking about the range of the crowd at the FFM- from legendary reefer to complete newbie. Lou mentioned that he gives a number of talks about reef chemistry. Having talked to Lou a number of times about various aspects of my own reefs, I thought it would be a great idea to include one of Lou's talks at the FFM to get some of the newer people up to speed on their own tanks. Here is the official announcement for Lou's talk:



At 1pm in the lecture hall of the school (just around the corner from all the corals!) Lou will be giving a talk titled "Basic Reef Chemistry." The talk will be focused on teaching the newer reefer the basics of reef chemistry including calcium, alkalinity, magnesium and more. I have heard Lou speak a number of times and he really has a gift for breaking down the complex ideas of reef chemistry into an easily understandable package. I highly recommend it. Oh, and by the way, the talk is FREE and anyone who attends the talk will be in the running for a $25 FFM Gift Certificate to be pulled at the end of the talk.
Thanks and see you all in a few weeks!
Jon

[sassAwrasse]

No one has started posting any lists of what they are bringing...so I'll start it off..

SASSAWRASSE - ROOM 111

ZOAS/PALYS (Most frags between $5-30)

Bleeding Hearts, Blood Vulcan, Blue Hornets, Blue Orgasm Morph, Blue Tubbs, Candy Apple Red, Captain Americas, Chong Bongs, Chucky’s Bride, Hawaiian Ding Dangs, Eagle Eyes, Fire & Ice, Goblin’s Fire Morph, Godzilla Eyes, Gorilla Nipples, Jokers, Kedds Redds, King Midas, LA Lakers, Mohawk Morph, My Clementines, Nuclear Green Death,
Oompa Loompa, ASD Orange Mauls, Pink Panther Morph,
Pink Zippers, PS Blue Lagoon, Purple Death, Raptor Rainbow, Rastas, Red People Eaters (Hawaiian), Scrambled Eggs, ASD Spitfire, Toxic Revenge, Tutti Frutti, Tyree Orange Rainbows, Xmen, and
Many Unknown.







LPS/SPS/Mushrooms (Most Frags between $10-$30):

Limited quantities of Mushrooms, Acans, Favias, Chalices, and SPS including but not limited to: Green Pocillopora, Tricolor Valida, Green Mycedium, Miami Hurricane Chalice, Pagoda Cup, Orange Lepto, Rainbow Yumas, Green Striped Mushrooms, Blue & Yellow Yumas, Purple Stylo.

[Paintball1313]

Sniper. If I remember right, I think Jason Foxx donated 3 corals to the raffle, so it might have been from him. I don't remember if anyone else donated as well so don't quote me on that.

[fitch4]

Quite a few people donated corals. There are quite a few in it this year as well!

[sniper2be]

well then i will take a pic and bring it with me...

[fitch4]

I just got a note from Don over at Wet Pets in Vernon, CT with special salt pricing that he would like to extend to attendees of the FFM this year. He is doing preorders on the following salts:
All prices are for buckets of salt

Instant Ocean 160 gallon bucket $35.99
Instant Ocean Reef Crystal 160 gallon bucket $45.99
Red Sea Coral Pro 175 gallon bucket $65.99
Seachem Salinity 120 gallon bucket $49.99
Seachem Salinity 225 gallon bucket $79.99
Tropic Marin 200 gallon bucket Bio-Actif $89.99
Tropic Marin 200 gallon bucket Pro-Reef $85.99

All of these are preorder only. If you want to take him up on this, just call the store and let him know and you can pick them up at the FFM.
See you all in a week and a half!

[sassAwrasse]

I took some more pictures tonight. I've got everything uploaded here:

http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/nr...0Market%202015

[fitch4]

Just added zooanthids.com as a vendor!

[fitch4]

Here is the updated list as of this morning, with a few cancellations and a few additions. My apologies to any of the "vendors" whose home locations I mixed up...

AC Corals (CT)
Alex's Advanced Aquatics (CT)
ARKSC (CT)
Aquadreams (MA)
AZNnutty's Saltwater Connections (OH)
BareBottom Corals (NY)
Blastomaster (CT)
CTARS (CT)
Coralium (CT)
Dan Rigle (PA)
dizzzy1209 (NJ)
Elmafioso52988 (NY)
E.O. Smith Coral Project (CT)
Exotic Fish and Corals (CT)
Exotic Reef Creations (NY)
Fins Aquarium (NJ)
Fish Frenzy (MA)
Frag Freaks (MA)
Fraggin Waggon (SC)
Frank180Reef (MA)
Gotham Aquatics (NY)
Greg Hiller (MA)
Hammer (NH)
Ijamcorals (MD)
Jason Foxx (MD)
Kwong1998 (NY)
Marine Reef Habitat (MA)
Matt Spaulding (VT)
MetroKat's Sassy Frags (NY)
Micheal Reeve (CT)
MO~Idol (NY)
Neublian (CT)
New York Coral Farmer (NY)
New York Reef Club (NY)
Pablo (NY)
Pacific East Aquaculture (MD)
Pieces of the Ocean (NY)
Pimentinha (NY)
Polywise (NJ)
Popcorals (NJ)
R+R Aquatics (NJ)
Reef Creations (NY)
Sassawrasse (CT)
Shayna 123 (CT)
Shawn B (CT)
Shector (CT)
Long Island Sound School (CT)
SteelerMike (CT)
sydaze4 (CT)
Suicideissleep (CT)
The Coral Reef (CT)
Triggreef (CT)
Ultimate Corals (NJ)
Upstate Corals (NY)
Wet Pets (CT)
xclusive corals (NY)
zooanthids.com (OH)

[fitch4]

Oops, forgot one of own students who will be selling. Ethan's Frags!

[fitch4]

Time to start talking raffle and giveaways....
I just sat down and tallied up all the FFM gift certificates for this year and I am throwing in over $700 in Frag Farmers Market gift certificates this year. They will be given away and raffled through out the day and can be used at ANY of the vendors during the day.
That does not include the 1000's of dollars in other gift certificates, merchandise and livestock in the raffle. More info to come...

[180+55reef]

room 105



Some beauties

[180+55reef]

More

[180+55reef]

More goodies

[180+55reef]

Will have a tank with $5, $10, $15 etc frags......come by and say hi!!!

[fitch4]

I just got a note that Logan from Reefbreeders will be offering a few specials for the FFM this year.

First, he is throwing a Superlux LED fixture into the raffle, to go with the dosing pump he was already putting in. He is also offering:

$20 off all Jaebo pumps, at the FFM only. He NEVER discounts them.

$40 off all Photon Units, again only at the FFM.

[fitch4]

The boxes for the raffle are coming in faster than I can unpack them and some of the posts in the CT forum are SUPER nice in terms of what people are going to have at the FFM this year. This looks to be the best FFM yet!

[fitch4]

Ben at Building an Obsession is donating a very cool frag transport rack into the raffle. It is a step more than a "typical" rack, with plastic "locks" for the plugs so you can ensure their safety for your trip in/out. He is also sending out a few racks that can be mounted in your own transport containers, which I will have for sale that day. Lastly, he is offering FFM people a 15% discount off any orders from his site using the code : DR8UZWY
Thanks Ben!

[asonitez]

How is the snow situation in NE/CT at this time? I'm bringing my entire family up 3.5hr drive and while I'm in a SUV 4X4 I wanted to know what to expect up there. We are planning on staying the night at a hotel so we are not strapped for time but I wanted to know how things are.

[fitch4]

We are good to go up here. We have snow banks but the roads will be good and weather looks great for the weekend!

[fitch4]

I just got a package in the mail from one of the best guys in the business, Sorren at Sea and Reef. He sent down a bunch of clowns that will be in the raffle this year. Here is a preview of what he sent (the pictures are NOT the actual fish- sorry didn't have time to take any):

Pair of Sea and Reef Fiji Pink Skunk Clownfish (in greenhouse)

Pair of Sea and Reef Widebar Mocha Gladiators Clownfish

Pair of Sea and Reef Widebar Gladiators Clownfish

Pair of Sea and Reef Wyoming White Clownfish

Sea and Reef Maroon Lighting Clownfish

2 x Sea and Reef Orchid dottyback

Pair of Sea and Reef Spotchinctus Clownfish

[fitch4]

I have gotten a few emails about the FFM. I know it has been snowy this week but the FFM is still on for tomorrow. Looks to be the biggest and best one yet. See you all tomorrow!

[triggreef]

Guys I must say there are some vendors that really brought out everything they got this year. This year is not the one you want to miss. I would highly suggest using a sick day of you have to, to get the time off to go.

[fitch4]

I just got back from the school (okay, I might have slept for a few hours...) and about 1/2 the people came to set-up last night. I have to say that the stuff people brought this year, compared to previous years, is amazing. Just walking around, I saw quite a few things that I had never seen before. The only problem that I had was that I was too busy to cherry pick anything before the FFM got going! Seriously, I am positive that this will be the biggest and best FFM yet, with more set-ups, and just about all of the local clubs there to promote their events and club. Do me one last favor and tell someone about the event this morning, or just stop by their house and grab them on your way out. When you are at the FFM today, stop by and introduce yourself. I love to meet all the people that are just as crazy as I am!
-Jon

[fitch4]

I just want to extend a quick thanks to everyone that came out to the FFM yesterday. The event was awesome and it was great to see such a huge crowd all gathered together to talk reefs and pick up some great corals. It was also cool to see some of the local reefing "celebs" at the event. I also have to say that the quality of the corals that were there yesterday was way beyond what I have ever seen at the FFM in previous years.
I also want to thank all of the people who helped out with set-up, troubleshooting and clean up afterwards. Without all of your help, the FFM would not run as smoothly as it did. Thanks again and mark your calendars:

FFM IX
March 5, 2016