A Newbies First Frag Swap

[Mirya]

Depending on if I get stuck with an on call shift or not next weekend, I might travel to Cleveland for the Lake Erie Advanced Reefers Frag Fest. This will be the first frag swap I've been to. Anything I should know in advance? Anything I should take with me (other than lots of cash)? It is about a 2 hour drive, so I figure I will take along a cooler to put any purchases in for the drive home.

[B16acrx1988]

Great question I'm wondering the same thing as I plan on going to a frag swap about 1 1/2 hours away next month.

[Tamberav]

If its like the frag swaps I have been to. The prices go down as time goes on.. of course so does the selection. Anything really good or rare will be gone really fast.

 

You can also haggle prices.

[JR!]

money and a cooler, thats all. alot of the vendors have the ability to take credit cards there. might see you there

 

 

o and come early. there will be a line

[ksuflash]

I will be there. Last year they had over 800 people attend this event, so it should be a full house. This will also be my first frag swap.

[hogue2112]

Sounds awesome!

[Boggers]

I have never been to one so far away from my house, and just wanted to ask for those that may not have thought about it. At 2 hours away and the time spent at the swap....how do you keep the frags/water warm?

[Gooburz]

The frag swaps/shows I've been too a kooler is key to bring with, maybe heating pads if it is cold outside to keep inside of kooler warm. Cash is a must but lots of vendors now take cards too, if you see a coral you like have the vendor put it aside for you and they will hold it for you while you continue to look around so you don't have to have it in a bag all day long. Prices do drop a lot as the show draws to an end so get what you really want off the bat and wait till the end and you can get a steal on a lot of corals!

 

And don't be afraid to ask questions to the vendors, they LOVE to talk about their corals and what they do for a successful reef. You can get lots of good ideas from there from not only the vendors but other reefers there too.

[BluCrab]

Thanks for posting this question!

Going to my first show tomorrow here in Houston, Reef Currents 2014.

NOW I know about bringing my own small cooler.

[Nocturnal]

Ok, so as a newbie take your time and go slow.You can just watch your first time. You don't have to run in and get your arm wet all the way to the elbow. Also make sure to be safe, you don't want to pick up any pests. The last thing you want to do is bring home something nasty. Sometimes the lighting used can throw you off. Just because it looks good under black lights doesn't mean you will want to show pics to your friends later.

 

 

 

Oh, Frag swap...never mind.

[natalia_la_loca]

I just went to my second-ever frag swap this month. I find it helps to go in with a list of species and color morphs that I'm most interested in and are likely to do well in my system, as it's easy to get overwhelmed with all the variety available.

 

I second Nocturnal's note about lighting. Frag swap vendors skew their lighting heavily toward blue, so it's impossible to know what the frags will look like under daylights. They can sometimes adjust them for you so you can get a better idea of how a specimen may look in your tank.

 

And definitely either get there really early or pop in at the end when the crowds are starting to thin. My first swap, I arrived about an hour after it started, and it was absolutely packed with people. This time I arrived super early. It was great to be there with fewer people around and see all the beautiful corals they had available. Even though I only wanted to take home a few specific varieties, it was fun to window shop.

[Mirya]

So, I went to the LEAR frag swap yesterday. As I mentioned in my OP, it was the first swap I've been to. It was a lot of fun, and I found everyone's advice useful!

 

I brought along a cooler to put my purchases in:

 

I got there about 20 minutes before the doors opened. (We could have been there sooner, but the husband and I decided to have breakfast at The Original Pancake House. That was amazing and almost put me in a food coma.) The line at that point was already >150 people long and snaked through the hotel:

 

The swap itself was in two large ballrooms:

 

Vendors were arranged around the walls of the room:

Most of the vendors were livestock, but there were 2 or 3 dry goods vendors as well.

 

Hobbyists were set-up in the middle of the rooms. FragSwapper had over 100 pages of listings, so there were tons of pre-arranged trades going on. Plus some hobbyists had frag tanks set up as well.

 

Overall the amount of frag tanks between the vendors and the hobbyists was a little overwhelming!

Most of the tanks were lit with actinic lights only, which really made the corals pop, but kinda messed with your eyes after awhile. And, like others in this thread mentioned, made it hard to discern how the specimens would look in your tank at home. I wish I could have gotten better pictures of some of the frag tanks, but the actinics don't play well with the iPhone camera.

 

The selection and variety was happily overwhelming. I made a quick zip around the two rooms, spotting vendors with rock anemones which was my main target. Then I made my anemone purchases right away once I figured out what vendor had the nicest selection. The nicest specimens -- whether they were nems, clams or corals -- did disappear fast! But there were still nice purchases to be made a few hours into the swap.

 

If I didn't have a nano tank, I would have made a ridiculous amount of purchases yesterday! Overall I had fun and look forward to going to more swaps. Thanks for the advice, everyone!

[karen nation]

What are prices like!  I did the stupidest thing!  I just got a small 10 gallon, I got the fever from watching youtubes, but have spent many sleepless nights looking at used bigger systems and research, at the end just decide to use a 10 dollar one from petco buck a gallon sale.  For now anyway, o I see advertised on her live sale.  Prepaid 30 buck shipping , they said they would be putting out 5 dollar frags all day!  haha.  I got on like 10 am saw lots that had sold already for 5 bucks so I figure many new one will come out soon so I snag an 8 dollar purple star polyp, now they had me.  No refundable once you place that order!  The entire day no new 5 buck ones!  before wok I go to sale page and buy an 8 dollar favia, because it wasnt purple and green like everything they were selling, to make along story short I just started to buy things.   got 12 frags, 230.00.  They didnt even offer freeshio like every site and their website says freeship after 150.00  After this I find sellers on ebay selling something cheaper, mostly got lps and softies and out of desperation at last minute I finally got 2 5 buck one but sps.  I will probably kill them.  I was going to back out because i had a reason now because they delayed my delivery until after the holidays and broke the contract basically so paypal would probably get my money back and then I see I won a 1,000 dollar torch of the gods torch coral! lol.  I have yet to find a torch coral named that but there are some rare torches for 1,000 bucks online!  Now to top it all off feb 2 35 40 minutes from my house a frag swap!!!!   I Have no room in my tank,plus admission and my whole family would want to go.  maybe I can bring frags of my 1,000 torch to swap!!!  What are prices like?  like a chalice, or a duncan, or a torch, can someone give me an idea so I know If I should back out or get them maybe change my order a bit, since I picked a bunch of stuff I dont really like.  Just too much purple and green!  blastos, 10.00 microlord acan, not bad I guess but 200.00 bucks total.!   I Wish I would have won a bigger tank...lol  Thanks to anyone who read this incredibly long posts?  Anyone in tampa want afraid of my 1,000.00 torch..lol

[Tired]

First of all, I can't really read that post. You gotta put paragraph separations in there. 

 

Second, it's going to depend MASSIVELY on what things are like in your area. Demand, supply, what people are selling. If you go near the end, you'll get things super cheap because people are trying to leave with as little as possible, but most of the good stuff is gonna be gone. If you go near the start, all the good and rare stuff will still be there, but nothing will be on sale. 

 

Also, if a website says free shipping over a certain price, and then doesn't seem to be providing free shipping past that price, you don't pay them. You email or phone them and ask about it. 

[karen nation]

Thanks for reply and I was up all night researching when I wrote that and I can barely read it myself! LOL  I havnt asked for refund yet because it clearly said no refunds but I did call paypal and they said they could start a claim but may not win!  You see the thing is I did get some good buys but seemed everything was green and purple so towards the end I just starting adding things that were orange to add a pop of other neon colors. I figured I may as well make a neon tank!  Now to top it off they said I was the grand prize winner of 1,000 value torch of the gods!  There is no pic on there website of it and no such listing showing up on google search. I assume its a torch.  I know some rare torches are going for 600.00 a frag in my area!

 

I have been doing some hard core research up until late in morning and not sleeping much over this whole thing!  Just trying to decide what to do.    I should have never put that much in a new tank to begin with!  I should have started slow! I may end up killing all of them!   I am afraid if I piss them off they wont send me the torch I won, and I was going to try to get them to do some substitutions.  If prices arent that low at the swap or by the time they lower prices everything is gone than I guess I did good at 13 frags for 200..00!  They advertised free shipping on website if I spent 150.00.  But nothing was mention on the live sale, so they will probably dispute it and if I start a paypal dispute and they win, then there goes my free torch and also them substituting if they even agree.  I just wanst sure what to say to them to get out of it.  They did agree to a date then changed it!  Not right at all,probably why they are bribing me with the torch coral because I was suppose to post comments on their site to be eligible and I did not do that!  Someone suggested I go buy one coral locally just to test the waters that this is to much to soon on a new tank!  Hitting myself in head at this moment! LOL

[Seadragon]

34 minutes ago, karen nation said:

Someone suggested I go buy one coral locally just to test the waters that this is to much to soon on a new tank!

 

I wouldn't buy anymore corals at this time.

 

I would:

1. Call your online retailer to delay & break up the shipments.
2. Seed your tank with live rock from your LFS to jump start the cycling process.
3. Buy a complete test kit and test for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, Calcium, and Alkalinity.  This will let you know if your tank is cycled and ready more so than buying another coral to "test" with.
4. Ask your LFS if they're able to hold some new corals you're getting in one of their tanks.  Some LFS will do this for a small fee or maybe even for free, but it never hurts to ask.

 

I hope you do get that "$1000 torch of the gods".  All too often, the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" usually applies.

[karen nation]

You were right about that saying!  I had the fever so bad and wasnt thinking things out!  It started off good and If I had of known that no more 5.00 corals were going off the rest of that day I would have never bid on that purple star polyp!  The next day (sunday)  I missed the beginning and that must be when they load up the page on 5.00 ones.  They were not updating the listings and every now an then they would put  a few up but corals but lots were reduced , or so they claimed.  You had to go to ur cart and pay as you went and seemed like every time I would do that is when they would put out the 5,00 ones!  I missed a 5.00 torch doing that!  Also scrolling through their listings I missed some.  Seems like everything was green and purple so I started adding orange zoas and chalice to add neon colors!  Then end of sale they put out some more and I snag a turbinaria and platygyra!  I dint even realize they were sps! I was so desperate to get something for 5 bucks

 

After the sale I was kicking myself finding things cheaper on ebay and Aquarium depot! Anyway, I decided to email them a long letter making up a BS excuse of why I needed a refund.  I will call tomorrow to talk and see what they say.  What you said is a great idea.  They already said one of my items was backordered and would be shipped end of january.   If they say no which they probably will I am not sure if I should pursue it. If this torch is bad ass like the aussie orches than I would be dumb to let that go by and I did find a LFS that said he would trade me some of mine if He didnt have in his inventory.  I dont even like platygara, at all.  Its hideous imo.  I Hope she will let me substitute other things I want.  One problem is their inventory is so low on their website now and so many things have been removed since out of stock.  I guess If she says no I wont pursue it with paypal because It is a gamble that I may lose and piss her off and not get the substitutions and torch.  What is ur opinion on that? I could win though since she canceled the agreed upon date and it hasnt been shipped an no date is set, but I am I really winning letting this torch go?  She never even sent me a pic of it, not on her website and its name is fictitious!  I found out when I clicked livesale on her website now, just to see if any items were on there.  She didnt even mention it in her email for me to call and set a new date!  Kinda weird huh?

 

Sorry to ramble so much, just lots to explain.  I should have picked up live rock today instead of the candy cane!  LOL. I do have live sand Ocean direct and many youtubes of people putting fish in immediately.  Bulk Reef supply even had a video doing just that. I read that you dont even need to cycle for corals but I wasnt taking chances and got live sand. I have the water from their tank with my candycane.  I may use that.  I could add bacteria starter as well but dont think there is a need.  The bag of sand says cycles immediately as well. 

 

I picked up the wrong test kit!  I am going to get a reef one. I got the api saltwater kit that tests nitrate, nitrates, ph and ammonia.  I need to return for the reef one.  Do you know if my tank will continue to fully cycle with just one coral?  I have read people adding fish food and ammonia, to keep cycle up.  If I get out of this mess I will pick up a few more but no more than 3, and thats going to be hard since aquarium depot is having a 50 % on all coral and some are already reduced.  I could have done so much better and what a dumb time for me to do this sale since the frag swap is coming and xmas sales going on. Lesson learned!  Never do alive sale again.!

[Seadragon]

11 hours ago, karen nation said:

I had the fever

Every time I read one of your posts, I think you still got the fever 😉

 

The only thing I haven’t mentioned yet was if you’re buying from a lesser known website (since you never mention which one), you should tread very cautiously.  From the way you describe things, it sounds likely you won’t end up with a $1,000 coral and that may have just been a gimmick to get you to pay them right away.  I’ll leave that whole ordeal up to you on how you want to proceed.  But, I’d be very cautious and careful in case things don’t turn out the way you have planned.

 

In the grand scheme of things, to me, a $5 coral isn’t worth it if it ends up being something crappy and you still have to spend $$$ for overnight shipping on it.  On top of that, you got a bunch of other people trying to buy the crap before you can.

 

I think it’s much better to plan your tank out, find out what corals you love and how to take care of them, and then buy them from your LFS or a popular online retailer with a good reputation.  A coral you love will always be better than something cheap that wasn’t exactly what you wanted and you end up paying more due to shipping costs and handling/box fees.

 

If you do a google search, you’ll find that ammonia will kill most living things in any fish tank.  It’s just so toxic and it’s probably the number one killer of tank inhabitants for new hobbyists.  Your best chance of seeding the tank the fastest will be live rock from your LFS. The water won’t matter since most of the good bacteria lives on the surface area of everything in the tank.  That’s why hobbyists will either use live rock or bio media to seed their new tanks for an “instant cycle”.

[Jmevox]

7 hours ago, karen nation said:

You were right about that saying!  I had the fever so bad and wasnt thinking things out!  It started off good and If I had of known that no more 5.00 corals were going off the rest of that day I would have never bid on that purple star polyp!  The next day (sunday)  I missed the beginning and that must be when they load up the page on 5.00 ones.  They were not updating the listings and every now an then they would put  a few up but corals but lots were reduced , or so they claimed.  You had to go to ur cart and pay as you went and seemed like every time I would do that is when they would put out the 5,00 ones!  I missed a 5.00 torch doing that!  Also scrolling through their listings I missed some.  Seems like everything was green and purple so I started adding orange zoas and chalice to add neon colors!  Then end of sale they put out some more and I snag a turbinaria and platygyra!  I dint even realize they were sps! I was so desperate to get something for 5 bucks

 

After the sale I was kicking myself finding things cheaper on ebay and Aquarium depot! Anyway, I decided to email them a long letter making up a BS excuse of why I needed a refund.  I will call tomorrow to talk and see what they say.  What you said is a great idea.  They already said one of my items was backordered and would be shipped end of january.   If they say no which they probably will I am not sure if I should pursue it. If this torch is bad ass like the aussie orches than I would be dumb to let that go by and I did find a LFS that said he would trade me some of mine if He didnt have in his inventory.  I dont even like platygara, at all.  Its hideous imo.  I Hope she will let me substitute other things I want.  One problem is their inventory is so low on their website now and so many things have been removed since out of stock.  I guess If she says no I wont pursue it with paypal because It is a gamble that I may lose and piss her off and not get the substitutions and torch.  What is ur opinion on that? I could win though since she canceled the agreed upon date and it hasnt been shipped an no date is set, but I am I really winning letting this torch go?  She never even sent me a pic of it, not on her website and its name is fictitious!  I found out when I clicked livesale on her website now, just to see if any items were on there.  She didnt even mention it in her email for me to call and set a new date!  Kinda weird huh?

 

Sorry to ramble so much, just lots to explain.  I should have picked up live rock today instead of the candy cane!  LOL. I do have live sand Ocean direct and many youtubes of people putting fish in immediately.  Bulk Reef supply even had a video doing just that. I read that you dont even need to cycle for corals but I wasnt taking chances and got live sand. I have the water from their tank with my candycane.  I may use that.  I could add bacteria starter as well but dont think there is a need.  The bag of sand says cycles immediately as well. 

 

I picked up the wrong test kit!  I am going to get a reef one. I got the api saltwater kit that tests nitrate, nitrates, ph and ammonia.  I need to return for the reef one.  Do you know if my tank will continue to fully cycle with just one coral?  I have read people adding fish food and ammonia, to keep cycle up.  If I get out of this mess I will pick up a few more but no more than 3, and thats going to be hard since aquarium depot is having a 50 % on all coral and some are already reduced.  I could have done so much better and what a dumb time for me to do this sale since the frag swap is coming and xmas sales going on. Lesson learned!  Never do alive sale again.!

You have ignored everyone's advice.  Go back to your first post asking for help and actually read what people are saying.  There is absolutely no reason why you should have bought another coral with no live rock at all in the tank.  You haven't even started your cycle.  Just adding sand from the beach is not enough biological filtration.  

[Tired]

Oh, ouch. Yeah, dude, your tank isn't cycled and everything you put in there is probably going to die. You NEED live rock, and you need good, cycled live rock if you're going to be putting corals in there soon, or you're going to have a massive waste of time, money, and perfectly good aquarium life.

[Tamberav]

16 hours ago, karen nation said:

You were right about that saying!  I had the fever so bad and wasnt thinking things out!  It started off good and If I had of known that no more 5.00 corals were going off the rest of that day I would have never bid on that purple star polyp!  The next day (sunday)  I missed the beginning and that must be when they load up the page on 5.00 ones.  They were not updating the listings and every now an then they would put  a few up but corals but lots were reduced , or so they claimed.  You had to go to ur cart and pay as you went and seemed like every time I would do that is when they would put out the 5,00 ones!  I missed a 5.00 torch doing that!  Also scrolling through their listings I missed some.  Seems like everything was green and purple so I started adding orange zoas and chalice to add neon colors!  Then end of sale they put out some more and I snag a turbinaria and platygyra!  I dint even realize they were sps! I was so desperate to get something for 5 bucks

 

After the sale I was kicking myself finding things cheaper on ebay and Aquarium depot! Anyway, I decided to email them a long letter making up a BS excuse of why I needed a refund.  I will call tomorrow to talk and see what they say.  What you said is a great idea.  They already said one of my items was backordered and would be shipped end of january.   If they say no which they probably will I am not sure if I should pursue it. If this torch is bad ass like the aussie orches than I would be dumb to let that go by and I did find a LFS that said he would trade me some of mine if He didnt have in his inventory.  I dont even like platygara, at all.  Its hideous imo.  I Hope she will let me substitute other things I want.  One problem is their inventory is so low on their website now and so many things have been removed since out of stock.  I guess If she says no I wont pursue it with paypal because It is a gamble that I may lose and piss her off and not get the substitutions and torch.  What is ur opinion on that? I could win though since she canceled the agreed upon date and it hasnt been shipped an no date is set, but I am I really winning letting this torch go?  She never even sent me a pic of it, not on her website and its name is fictitious!  I found out when I clicked livesale on her website now, just to see if any items were on there.  She didnt even mention it in her email for me to call and set a new date!  Kinda weird huh?

 

Sorry to ramble so much, just lots to explain.  I should have picked up live rock today instead of the candy cane!  LOL. I do have live sand Ocean direct and many youtubes of people putting fish in immediately.  Bulk Reef supply even had a video doing just that. I read that you dont even need to cycle for corals but I wasnt taking chances and got live sand. I have the water from their tank with my candycane.  I may use that.  I could add bacteria starter as well but dont think there is a need.  The bag of sand says cycles immediately as well. 

 

I picked up the wrong test kit!  I am going to get a reef one. I got the api saltwater kit that tests nitrate, nitrates, ph and ammonia.  I need to return for the reef one.  Do you know if my tank will continue to fully cycle with just one coral?  I have read people adding fish food and ammonia, to keep cycle up.  If I get out of this mess I will pick up a few more but no more than 3, and thats going to be hard since aquarium depot is having a 50 % on all coral and some are already reduced.  I could have done so much better and what a dumb time for me to do this sale since the frag swap is coming and xmas sales going on. Lesson learned!  Never do alive sale again.!

 

Do not use live sales...they are traps to make you buy extra or more than you planned. Avoid them in the future.

 

Torch corals are finiky and free or not....it will likely do poorly in a uncycled tank. No telling it's worth without a picture. It is only worth what someone will pay for it and nothing more. 

[mcarroll]

20 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Do not use live sales...they are traps to make you buy extra or more than you planned.

I get that it's a ploy of some king, but I still don't understand what a live sale is. 

 

Is it kind of an "auction" but where the seller controls the price the whole time?  I don't get it.

[Seadragon]

59 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

I get that it's a ploy of some king, but I still don't understand what a live sale is. 

 

Is it kind of an "auction" but where the seller controls the price the whole time?  I don't get it.

Imagine on eBay if I post up a Buy It Now listing for $5 (and the shipping is $30, but anything else you buy from me for today only will get free shipping).  Now take that listing and put it on my website instead.  And I will post a few cheap corals at first to lure you and others into paying me the shipping fees.  And then later, I will only post more expensive corals to increase my profits.  So you end up paying me for a bunch of corals that you don’t really like and I got rid of my crappy stock that doesn’t really sell and made out like a bandit.

[Tamberav]

On 12/23/2019 at 12:57 AM, karen nation said:

You were right about that saying!  I had the fever so bad and wasnt thinking things out!  It started off good and If I had of known that no more 5.00 corals were going off the rest of that day I would have never bid on that purple star polyp!  The next day (sunday)  I missed the beginning and that must be when they load up the page on 5.00 ones.  They were not updating the listings and every now an then they would put  a few up but corals but lots were reduced , or so they claimed.  You had to go to ur cart and pay as you went and seemed like every time I would do that is when they would put out the 5,00 ones!  I missed a 5.00 torch doing that!  Also scrolling through their listings I missed some.  Seems like everything was green and purple so I started adding orange zoas and chalice to add neon colors!  Then end of sale they put out some more and I snag a turbinaria and platygyra!  I dint even realize they were sps! I was so desperate to get something for 5 bucks

 

After the sale I was kicking myself finding things cheaper on ebay and Aquarium depot! Anyway, I decided to email them a long letter making up a BS excuse of why I needed a refund.  I will call tomorrow to talk and see what they say.  What you said is a great idea.  They already said one of my items was backordered and would be shipped end of january.   If they say no which they probably will I am not sure if I should pursue it. If this torch is bad ass like the aussie orches than I would be dumb to let that go by and I did find a LFS that said he would trade me some of mine if He didnt have in his inventory.  I dont even like platygara, at all.  Its hideous imo.  I Hope she will let me substitute other things I want.  One problem is their inventory is so low on their website now and so many things have been removed since out of stock.  I guess If she says no I wont pursue it with paypal because It is a gamble that I may lose and piss her off and not get the substitutions and torch.  What is ur opinion on that? I could win though since she canceled the agreed upon date and it hasnt been shipped an no date is set, but I am I really winning letting this torch go?  She never even sent me a pic of it, not on her website and its name is fictitious!  I found out when I clicked livesale on her website now, just to see if any items were on there.  She didnt even mention it in her email for me to call and set a new date!  Kinda weird huh?

 

Sorry to ramble so much, just lots to explain.  I should have picked up live rock today instead of the candy cane!  LOL. I do have live sand Ocean direct and many youtubes of people putting fish in immediately.  Bulk Reef supply even had a video doing just that. I read that you dont even need to cycle for corals but I wasnt taking chances and got live sand. I have the water from their tank with my candycane.  I may use that.  I could add bacteria starter as well but dont think there is a need.  The bag of sand says cycles immediately as well. 

 

I picked up the wrong test kit!  I am going to get a reef one. I got the api saltwater kit that tests nitrate, nitrates, ph and ammonia.  I need to return for the reef one.  Do you know if my tank will continue to fully cycle with just one coral?  I have read people adding fish food and ammonia, to keep cycle up.  If I get out of this mess I will pick up a few more but no more than 3, and thats going to be hard since aquarium depot is having a 50 % on all coral and some are already reduced.  I could have done so much better and what a dumb time for me to do this sale since the frag swap is coming and xmas sales going on. Lesson learned!  Never do alive sale again.!

 

Anything come if this? Jw as I am probably going to purchase from this vender. Not a live sale. Want to know if their customer service was good.

[mitten_reef]

42 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

 

Anything come if this? Jw as I am probably going to purchase from this vender. Not a live sale. Want to know if their customer service was good.

Who is this seller if I might ask? Since I didn’t see any vendor name mentioned and I can’t find any place online claimed the name of “torch of gods”.