Midwest Marinne Conference

Well today was the first day of the 2010 Midwest Marine Conference put on by MASM (Marinelife Aquarium Society of Michigan). There are about 10 wet vendors at the show, notably Cherry Corals, Paul's Corals, Midwest Saltwater, and several others. Reef Nutrition is here, along with Rod's Food, Instant Ocean/Marineland, and several others. Speakers include Jake Adams, John Coppolino, Michael DeGruy, Sanjay Joshi, Kevin Kohen, and Richard Pyle.

The show had a pretty slow start today. I don't know that there were more than 20 or so people excluding staff, that showed up for today's event. It was a pretty dismal turnout, but the weather didn't help. It rained pretty heavily most of the morning, and I think that may have put a damper on things.

There is some unusual livestock at the show, nothing to absolutely die for but it is always neat to see what the livestock vendors have for sale. I still need to shoot some pics. I will have to do that tomorrow.

The event is being held at the Cranbrook Institute of Science. The Science Institute is basically a natural history museum. It is an amazing museum and includes shrunken heads, dinosaurs, an amazing geology/mineral collection, and even 2 really nice reef tanks! Elizabeth and I spent a couple of hours yesterday wandering the halls after we had our booth set up. It is a really cool place. Cranbrook itself is a private school that has classes from Pre-School through High School and the campus has a very Harry Potter feel to it.

Well anyhow, as promised before here are some pics from my recent trip to Houston. This first set of pics is from a shop called Fish Gallery. They have an amazingly beautiful shop, but sadly are going to have to move shortly. Here goes:

This is a shot looking at the saltwater side of their fishroom. In between the curved tank is the bagging station.

The massive filtration room taking care of all of the salt tanks.

One of their unique tiered coral display tanks.

Their huge 4 ft x 4 ft display reef.

Another pic looking across the salt side of the fishroom.

One of the many artistically aquascaped freshwater display tanks.

Another of the FW planted displays.

Their GIGANTIC south american display tank in their consultation room.

A VERY unique and eccentric FW display aquarium in their consultation room.

Finally, another look at the giant display tank and a cool circular tank that are part of the Fish Gallery consultation room.

And thats it for now! Ill try and snap some pics of the conference tomorrow, hopefully we will get a better turnout!

Cheers~!