Fosters was awesome!!

[Jordan55]

Also thanks fostersmith for the raffle that was awesome and we all loved the prizes a couple t5 lighing systems a chiller and reef crystals, way more then we all expected thanks again.

[Jrmass]

Thanks again to F&S for the great trip and the excellent hospitality! I think out of our group I was the only one who had been on the tour before. Even with having been on it before it still blows my mind at the sheer volume of pieces that can be housed in one place! In some of the tanks there are literally 100's and in some case nearing a THOUSAND different variations of corals. It was great to be able to just chat with all of the staff. And being able to talk on a personal level with some of the main characters that run the whole show such as Steve, Tina, and Kevin made the trip even that much more memorable. Thanks to everyone who went and thanks Nick for getting this whole shindig organized. It is definately an event that I could see happening each year!

btw... the pieces that I bought I did tell my wife about (I knew there would be no way I could hide two colonies as large as I bought w/out her noticing lol) Luckily I must have good taste as she has laid claim to one of them as being hers already! lol. She was also drooling over the Superman Mushroom I got also with the two acro colonies.

My lights are off on the tank ATM so I will have to take some pics later... But, I can assure you that you all will not be disapointed **both of the colonies I bought were in the pics that Nick already posted =) **

Jason

[Afish4u]

Originally Posted by ZMattie

You definitly missed out if you did not attend! It was something that you HAVE to see! I was absolutly amazed by what they showed us today, but from talking to one of the employees, we didnt see it all! I guess the room that was directly above us houses the mother colonies of the "mother colonies" we saw today (HUGE colonies). I have 72 pics that we took today that I will post as soon as my computer decides to work with me!

The room upstairs is about half the size as the one down stairs. Unless it has been expanded also when they did the lower half. I wish I though about asking to go up there last year when it was the 5 of us.... a few years back that was the other part of the tour. (before they added on downstairs). they stopped that due to the "number of people up there and the weight limits." as they say. But you have to remember there are some corals they have that only become available ONE time a year and Kevin can't keep all the rare sps in his office. I think its become the area 51 of the reef world

was the divers den stuff on the main level?

Waybe in the fall ECRC can have a meeting over there.

[D.J.]

i agree aaron..........it would be nice for ecrc to be able to get together and go up there.........and then of course the lark members that didnt get to go or just wana go back could as well........I WOULD BE WILLING TO FORFIT MY MEETING TO GO UP THERE!!!!!!! we could just meet here since im right by 29 and could see my tank then....just a thought.......

[firsthesitation]

Here's the stuff I got:


ORA Pearlberry:


ORA Joe the Coral:


ORA Plumcrazy:


ORA Marshal Island Purple/Green Polyp:


ORA Blue Voodoo


Drs F&S Wildwood Bottle Brush:


Deepwater Bottle brush:


Rainbow Acan:


Unidentified from Steve:

[reefcrazy8587]

very nice!

[ReefLuvR]

Sweet!

[ZMattie]

Very nice Nick! How much did you spend again? lol only kidding..

[hansmatt]

very nice looking nick! I have some stick envy going on!

[williams.luca]

those all look awesome

[Jrmass]

Nick, what kind of a camera are you using that you get those pictures? I'm trying to get some pics of my two new pieces and all I get is purple from my XM 20k bulbs. Any tips would definately be accepted.

Jas

[firsthesitation]

Canon Rebel Xti with a Sigma macro zoom lens with a x4, x2, and a x1 magnifier added on top.

Best thing you can do is see if your PAS has a way to adjust either the IOS and/or the white balance. Mike was having problems with 20K bulbs also, I forget what he set his white balance to but you'd never have guessed it would make good pictures. He just took a set changing the white balance after every shot to figure out which was best.

Also shooting with a tripod always helps

[firsthesitation]

You could always get an underwater camera!!

[pogodzib]

Very nice guys. Now I really wish I didn't have to back out at the last minute. Oh well, at least it wasn't by choice.

So, who won the prizes?

[firsthesitation]

I got a box of salt!