Sunday, September 6th, marked the first Annual Inland Empire Coral Farmer's Market. This event added another date to the industry leading Coral Farmer's Market Events (CFM) put on by Art Petit and Steve Tyree. Special thanks go out to the Inland Empire Marine Aquarium Society (IEMAS) for set up and tear down of the exhibition hall. CFM events bring in hobbyist coral farmers, professional farmers and stores, as well as leading manufacturers.
Some Of the Crowd
This event took place in the Ontario Hilton off of the 10 Freeway and Haven, the same venue as the popular South West Coral Farmer's Market. The SW-CFM is the Original CFM event that has been operating since 2006. This event is held every spring, and has spawned other events in the Bay Area, Dallas, and once again in the Inland Empire. The CFM company thought that a second show would be a good business decision, as the South West event has been the most popular event.
Busy Busy at The Mystic Reef Booth
Speaking of unique fish, our friends Dan & Tina, from Wet Thumb Frags, had some very interesting tank raised clowns from C-Quest Farms along with a great variety of coral frags. These included a tank of Van Gogh Clowns, similar to ORA's Picasso Percula, however these being an extreme color morph of the Ocellaris. Another Extreme color morph of the Ocellaris is the Wyoming White Clown, similar to Snowflake Clowns.
Van Gogh Clowns
Wyoming White Clownfish
Industry leading manufacturers Warner Marine, Blue Life USA, and Reef Nutrition were also their showcasing their unique products. Reef Nutrition was there showing off their entire line of specialty feeds for reef aquariums, such as Tigger-pods, Macro Feast, Fuzzy Phytes, Arcti-Pods, and more, all available at The Mystic Reef.
Blue Life had their entire line of Precision supplements; Aiptasia, Red Slime & other Controls, and their assortment of Bulbs. The Precision line of chemicals is very comprehensive and excellent quality, most of the products are some of the most concentrated on the market. I also use many of the Blue Life T5 bulbs on my display tanks at the store.
Blue Life USA
Warner Marine's Booth
Warner Marine was also there with some of his excellent skimmers, including the new K2. He also had some canister filters, along with the full line of some of the hobby's most trusted additives, like Ultimate Aminos and Calxmax. Also a first from Warner Marine is the new Ultimate Snow. Its similar to the Zeovit product Coral Snow. Like all WM products, you can be sure of the quality of this product. I have been testing it out on my tanks and so far just as WM claims, it has given me noticeably clearer water over night. The skimmers also seem to be removing more skimmate than usual. This product can also be used in conjunction with any supplement, including Ultimate Aminos, as a transport mechanism to more efficiently deliver it to corals in an appropriate particle size. If your interested in this product, we have some available at the store with more on the way! More info on this exciting product and more in a later post.
Ultimate Snow
The Auctions and Raffles are also a very fun part of the event, unfortunately I wasn't able to participate this year because I was just too busy. Normally however, the odds are fairly good on the Raffles, especially on some of the lesser know pieces. Last year I walked away with a Ponape Birdsnest and I only put in a few tickets. This event was no different with many of my customers walking away with something in their hands.
The Auctions are also very popular for some nice coral frags. Many First Edition LE's are auctioned off to try and establish a base price. There were plenty of great pieces getting sold at very reasonable prices, it made me wish I was over there when I heard the price some things were going for.
Congrats CFM on another great event! See you at the next one.
-Adam Mullins
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