The Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA) is the premier marine conference focused on the hobbyist and the industry that serves it. The final planning for MACNA XVIII is well underway and we have an incredible weekend planned for September 22 - 24, 2006 in Houston, Texas.
As always, the core hobbyist comes first. We have phenomenal speakers that will inspire attendees of all levels of knowledge. There will also be workshops by leading professionals.

There are over 100 booths where vendors will be displaying and selling the lastest in hobby equipment as well as livestock.

As always there will be an incredible raffle that will include many items donated by our vendors and sponsors. Just a few of this years raffle items include a show stopping 74" silver and gold Jelliquarium (donated by Midwater Systems) and 2 trips for two to Jamaica (donated by PCL Travel).

The MACNA XVIII website has all the details you need including the conference schedule, listing of speakers, raffle prizes, sponsors, vendors, as well as a forum for requesting additional information. In addition, the website has all the information you need to register and secure hotel reservations.

While there is plenty of room for those wanting to come to the conference we are quickly running out of space at the Friday night reception and Saturday night banquet. Please make your plans to attend now.

We will also be hosting a Frag Booth for Charity. Locally raised frag of a variety of corals will be for sale and the money from the sale will be donated to a reef related charity or organization.

www.macnaxviii.com

Thank you from your MACNA XVIII Planning Committee and the 2006 host club the Marine Aquarium and Reef Society of Houston.

If you have any questions, please let me know - Brian

__________________
MARSH - Your 2006 MACNA Host
www.marshreef.com
www.macnaxviii.com

Brian, thanks for posting this info

Is anyone going to MACNA this year?

I'm going! I'll be there all 3 days :) Of course I'm a local this time.

Brian

Guess I will see you there!

Guess I will see you there!

Yep, feel free to stop by the frags for charity booth, I'll be there most of the time!

Brian

Hello all,

A couple of announcements.

1. We will be at booths 48 and 49 at MACNA with at least 200 gallons of tanks holding frags for Charity.

2. We will have at least 100 corals donated by Eric Borneman with many other corals donated by MARSH members. We are still counting, but it looks like we'll have a lot more than 100, so stop by!

3. We have changed the name of the booth from the "Frag booth for Charity" to the "Invertebrates For Charity Booth" as I will personally be donating several different mobile invertebrates to the charity as well. (Mostly Gastropods and Echinoderms, but a few others as well). All the frags are propogated and all the mobile invertebrates are captive bred. I will announce a list of what we'll have soon.

4. MARSH has selected the charity that will receive the proceeds from the sales generated by the "Invertebrates For Charity Booth". We examined many options and wanted to give our donation to the best charity that would help promote a sustainable trade in corals and reef animals.

We have chosen TERANGI (The Indonesian Coral Reef Foundation) which is a non-governmental organization that is working to preserve the coral reefs of Indonesia through education and training of the local population to produce a sustainable harvest.

60% of the worlds coral reef species are found in Indonesia, yet 82% of the reefs there are threatened with a variety of problems. Hopefully MARSH's donation can help make a difference at the source.

If you want more information, please visit their website:
http://www.terangi.or.id/index.htm

If you want to see what they have already done, visit this page:
http://www.terangi.or.id/about/done.htm

I will have more information soon on what corals and invertebrates we will have at our booth.

Brian

man im so totally cranked that we dont have a reefing convention scene like these. i should prob stop feeling gutted and organise one!

brian, thats a fantastic idea! hope your raise abit of dosh!

man im so totally cranked that we dont have a reefing convention scene like these. i should prob stop feeling gutted and organise one!

brian, thats a fantastic idea! hope your raise abit of dosh!
if you do you better invite(fly) my there.. :)

Brain,
thanks for the update, i wish i was going this year...

Brian, I am totally excited about this whole thing. I will definately stop by. Hopefully the coral can survive the trip home on teh airplane wihtout water.

Most corals will do fine wrapped in a damp paper towel. Eric Borneman is donating many of the corals and he said he has shipped most of them in damp paper towels with good success.

Brian

Hello all,

Now that Project DIBS is officially public, I am happy to announce the Project DIBS and Addictive Aquatics are sponsoring the Invertebrates Booth for Charity.

Addictive Aquatics is a local company that does a lot of fragging of softies and will be donating several pretty soft corals.

Project DIBS is a growing community of people dedicated to collaboration, distribution and education surrounding captive raised marine invertebrates. I have been organizing the booth from the beginning and I will be donating the following invertebrates to the charity:

10 Pack of Family Amphiuridae sp. #1 mini brittlestars
10 Pack of DIBS Turbo sp.
10 Pack of DIBS Turbo sp.

1 Nano snails pack:
10 Columbellid sp. snails
10 Cerith sp #3 snails

1 LFS pack (Local only):
15 Pack of DIBS Turbo sp. snails
10 Pack of Ophactidae sp #1 or sp #3 (depending on supply)
3 Cirratulid sp. worms (hair worms)

For those of you coming to MACNA this is an opportunity to become a DIBS Registered Breeder without the cost of shipping invertebrates to you.

I may have some more invertebrates available for those that are interested in the Breeder role.

For pictures of the above invertebrates, you can browse the species pages found here:
http://www.projectdibs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=17

If you have any questions, ask away! I'm looking forward to meeting everyone at the booth!

Cheers,

Brian

If you don't remember which booths we are at (48 and 49), just look for this sign:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/garagebrian/RCTemp/FragBoothLogo1Draft1.jpg

Brian