UPDATE: After a bit of confusion and misunderstanding, we’ve recently been told by the original founder of BAYMAC that he is very much a part of the show and a 2012 BAYMAC will likely occur. The show’s founder created the event with plans to eventually hand it over to the Bay Area Reefers organization, which was to start this year. However, board member changes within the club have stymied this transition. Fortunately, many different companies and individuals have come forward to help make this show happen.

A few days ago, we posted an article claiming that the Bay Area Marine Aquarium Conference (BAYMAC) was going to vanish as an annual event and that 2011′s show was its last. In our article, we were referencing a post that appeared on the BAYMAC Facebook page that stated the event had lost its host and that it did not have enough volunteers to keep it alive. The post also hinted that the show could be resurrected if a new host was found and some volunteers stepped up, and now we have come to find out that this has all been a misunderstanding. We received a tip from fellow blogger Joost de Vries stating that the person who originally started BAYMAC has stepped down from the event and has since handed the reigns over to the Bay Area Refers club. Joost also told us that BAYMAC 2012 will occur as usual and that it will still be hosted at Chabot College. Curious, we wandered on over to the BAYMAC Facebook Page to confirm what we were told, and to our surprise the post we based our original story on was nowhere to be found. In its place, the page admins posted a call for volunteers to help out with the 2012 BAYMAC. We’re pleased to hear the show is still going strong, and we wanted to thank Joost for the heads up.

A few details from the above article need to be fixed. Chabot College appears to no longer be a viable venue for BAYMAC 2012. The college will not be able to open up its facilities the night before the event, which makes setup almost impossible. So, a new location needs to be found. Additionally, the Bay Area Reefers aquarium club will not be hosting the event. Due to a major change in the club’s board member population, they simply cannot take on the event at this time.

UPDATE: We’ve recently been told by the original founder of BAYMAC that the show is very much alive and kicking. In fact, a 2012 BAYMAC is currently in the planning stages. For more information, please see our follow up article.

According to a recent Facebook posting, the Bay Area Marine Aquarium Conference (or BAYMAC) that was held earlier this year will be the last ever apparently. The annual conference was already planning for it’s fifth consecutive year when show operators announced that they lost their host, which we assume to have been Chabot College as they have played host to the event in the past. We don’t know all of the details surrounding the host and their decision to pull out of the event, but event coordinators have hinted that it could be resurrected if certain stars align properly…such as getting a new host and an army of volunteers, among a few other things.

You can also read about this story on the Marine Engineers blog.

The annual DFW Marine Aquarium Society hosted NextWave event in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas is just around the corner, and the event’s registration is open to the public with a little added incentive. If you register in the month of December, you will be automatically entered to win a free frag pack that was donated by DFWMAS members. This well put together and well attended show takes place on March 3rd at ballpark in Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers professional baseball team, and this year’s show is actually taking place during the club’s 20th anniversary. Tickets for NextWave are $25 for a full conference pass, which gives you access to the vendor hall and the four guest speakers. This year’s speaker lineup includes Paul Whitby, Christine Williams, Tony Vargas, and John Coppolino.

We attended the show in February of this year and had a fantastic time. We encourage everyone to consider making the trip, as we know you won’t be disappointed. For more information on the show, please visit DFWMAS NextWave. If you would like to see pictures from this year’s NextWave, be sure to check out our Photo Gallery.

The Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (aka MACNA) is always a huge show that draws in thousands of visitors, all of whom get the privilege of laying eyes on amazing livestock and brand new or even unreleased equipment. While at this year’s show, we took over a thousand photos and shot dozens of videos, compiling a handful of each into the recap video above. A couple of protein skimmers we saw at the show included a massive Deltec TC4580 external protein skimmer churning away and an ATI PowerCone 250i showing off all of its features. The LED products were all over the place, with AquaIlluminations and EcoTech Marine both showing off brand new fixtures to enamored attendees of the show. Ecoxotic was also displaying new LED products at MACNA, with their RGB Panorama Pro modules simulating clouds and mixing up the color spectrum. Also making an appearance is the LED illuminated Eheim AquaStyle nano aquarium, which would make for a perfect desktop aquarium at work or at home.

These were just a small sliver of the products seen at MACNA, and some that really caught our eye. And even though the show is two months in the past, we’re still talking about the products seen there. And as always, stay tuned for more aquarium related news from AquaNerd.

While at MACNA, we decided to stop by one of the most visually appealing booths at the show and shoot some video footage. LiveAquaria had a gorgeous reef tank full of corals and plenty of uncommon fish like the black tang (Zebrasoma rostratum), a pair of Labout’s fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus laboutei), and even a margined coralfish (Chelmon marginalis) to name a few. To make the whole display even more interesting, most of the wrasses were flashing and showing off almost the entire time. Of course, those small fish move very rapidly and are quite difficult to catch on video or still images, but we managed to get some of this displaying on video. Even though the fish were the show stealers for us, we still managed to focus in on some good looking corals as well. The neon green torch coral swaying in the current and the orange Cycloseris plate coral with yellow tentacles are just two of the corals highlighted in the video that we saw in LiveAquaria’s tank at MACNA.

We recommend watching the video in high definition and be sure to enlarge it as well. Most of the small reef fish are hard to see if the screen isn’t maximized.

The Midwest Marine Conference of 2011 is a quickly approaching aquarium event put on by the folks at the MarineLife Aquarium Society of Michigan. The two-day event will be held on November 4-5, and while most aquarium events take place at hotels and large conference centers, the MMC is being held at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, a natural history museum. What a great spot for an aquarium event right? The show will open up on a Friday with a reception, but the follow day is where it’s all taking place. Saturday is full of guest speakers, a hall full of coral vendors and exhibitors, an aquascaping contest, and the traditional aquarium event raffle. The guest speaker list includes Charles Delbeek, Steven Pro, Ret Talbot, and filmmaker Mike deGruy.

One thing we noticed about this show is that it doesn’t break the bank. Full conference tickets are available at $25 (or $15 if you’re a member of MASM), and if you don’t want to listen to the speakers or hang out with the aquarium guys on Friday, admission to the exhibit hall is only $3 at the door from 1 pm to 5pm on Saturday. Almost seems like a typo if you ask me. The full conference pass gets you access to the show at 8am and all of the guest speakers.

We’ve finally added a photo album of our recent trip to the Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA) in Des Moines to our Facebook Page. While we would have liked to have more livestock pictures in the album, it is more heavily focused on aquarium equipment, as a majority of the show was also centered around equipment. So far, we’ve got just a little over 60 photos even though we took over a thousand while roaming around the event. We’ll keep adding photos to the album and videos to YouTube, so stay tuned.

Photo by Jessy Timko

The famous House of Fins aquarium store, which is known for their rare and beautiful livestock, is set to celebrate its 54th Anniversary Splash event. The two day event takes place on October 1st and 2nd, and will be full of insane specials, including 30% off all livestock for starters. To make Splash that much more enjoyable, there will be a robust lineup of guest speakers that includes Jake Adams, Adam Blundell, Ret Talbot, and Tony Vargas. As far as rare livestock expected to be at the fish store, House of Fins has brought in “Gem Tangs, rare Centropyge angelfish, a one-of-a-kind Triggerfish, and the tiniest Lionfish you’ve ever seen”, all of which are sure to draw the attention of everyone walking through the door. To round out the show, several vendors will be on hand to show off their products and interact with curious aquarium folk.

Seeing the success of House of Fins and the Splash event, we wish more fish stores would get in on these sorts of social gatherings (especially the local stores!), as they are great ways to educate the community with the help of people who know about aquariums inside and out.

Photo above is courtesy of Jessy Timko and was taken at last year’s Splash.

Aquarium events are all the rage, and the Reef-A-Palooza event sponsored by the Southern California Marine Aquarium Society (SCMAS) is one of the larger ones to takes place each and every year. Despite all of the vendors clamoring for booth space, the event organizers are still keeping the show true to the aquarium hobby by allowing hobbyists to purchase booths to sell their locally grown corals. The booths will be available for $125 per hobbyist, with a single table able to be shared among at least two hobbyists. The hobbyists can setup two separate 2-foot long frag tanks or a single 4-foot long aquarium to be shared amongst the aquarium keepers. Of course, the invitation by the club is aimed at non-commercial hobbyists who don’t have a website to sell their corals, but still need a public venue to unload some aquacultured pieces. To sign up, all the hobbyists have to do is complete a registration form and the final selection will be made in early October. Members of SCMAS will have a higher priority, and only 6 to 8 booths will be available.

Even though MACNA 2011 just ended a handful of days ago, the 2012 conference scheduled for September 28th in Dallas, Texas is already on the minds of many people, especially vendors, potential guest speakers, and all of the hardcore aquarium hobbyists who live for these sorts of events. But that doesn’t mean casual hobbyists shouldn’t be thinking about MACNA 2012, as now is the best time to purchase tickets to the show. As of right now, the full-conference ticket prices are set at $85 per head. However, this price will increase very soon, as in September 18th. So, if you want to make the trip as affordable as possible, get your tickets now! We’ve already bought our tickets and we’re excited that the event is basically in our back yard.

To get your ticket, please visit DFWMACNA to plan your trip and get more information.