Jersey's Frag Swap & Conference

     The New Jersey Reefers Club was supposed to have it's conference right after Hurricane Sandy. However, flooding of the Expo Center cancelled this date and instead brought it to June 15th. 

     Chris and his dad decided early on that they were going to split a booth at this frag swap in order to try to meet some new people and to sell the coral we have been trimming to reefers outside of our area. 

     I'll admit it, I was against this idea right off the bat. I didn't like the idea of going to another state and pouring out a ton of money for the booth, hotel room and anything needed for bringing and distributing the coral. It wasn't until about two weeks before the swap that I agreed to go. 

     I went down to Camero Signs and had a banner made for Chris to put up. I figured it looked more 'professional.'

     Just like the FFM, we brought our own water and this time asked NJRC to only hold a small amount for us just in case. We used our buckets with our homemade frag holders again, brought the tank that Emery made for him and of course everything else you could possibly need. Bags were on order to pick up at the swap and the bank account was all snuggled and ready to receive payments with credit cards too. We brought Emily with us because she was soooo helpful at the FFM and I borrowed my mothers car because it was way newer than mine. 

     We met Emery and Lisa somewhere on 95 that morning. We were pretty much operating on very little sleep and it was still up in the air as to whether or not we were getting a hotel room after the swap. Chris was worried about the corals and setting up the tank in the room which was understandable but, before we ever even got there I was exhausted. 

     Lisa bought us all matching color shirts to wear and even put little rhinestones on the ones for us girls.

     The swap went very well. We didn't pull in as much as we had hoped (all the funds went towards our upcoming wedding) but, we still had a great time and met some fantastic people. 

     Everytime I turned around Chris was off at another booth checking out corals and zoas! Just like a kid in the candy store. 

     Next time, we go back to using the light we had at the FFM or something else to help make them pop. The light we used drowned out the color of our corals terribly which I think kept people from buying some of them. 

     A ton of photo's of the swap can be found by Clicking Here

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Lisa Messier

Photo by Lisa Messier

     We did end up spending the night in Jersey. We were all wiped after the swap ended. The next morning, Chris only lost one of the corals that he bought and we attributed the loss to him keeping it in the bag instead of just putting it in the tank with the rest of the frags.      

     Until next time, keep fraggin!