Coral reefer
Past President
Smart and final usually
BAR 2018 Annual Regional Frag Swap
- Thread starter Wlachnit
- Start date
If anyone needs containers and will be in Walnut Creek prior they can stop by and grab some here. I have plenty to give out.
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Smart & Final if you want "small" amounts (package of 50) Costco Business center if you want hundreds. Or you can just go in with someone who has a bunch, then save the ones you get after the frag swap, the problem is some people use nicer clear deli containers, some use the smaller "dixie cup" sized one for like condiments. even had one guy who would regularly use specimen cups from a hospital (I'm going to pretend they were never used)
They were used. They were cheaper for me to purchase that way as medical waste.
Was thinking about coming up with some corals but this whole event is pretty confusing to me so I am hesitant. I wonder how many other people out there feel similarly. I know you veterans all get it but . . .
1. What am I paying the door fee for - not opposed at all to paying - but are you feeding people, is there a swag bag, is there a door prize raffle, or is it just for the entry and ability to participate?
2. How does this work? I have no idea. I see lists of corals and some crazy algorithm there should probably be an app for. What do I bring, how much/many, and then what?
3. Is this basically an honor system? Many of these corals are impossible to verify while in their cups.
4. How long does this usually go on for? What kind of time commitment is required by the average swapper?
5. What if you have corals not on the lists but are certainly sought after corals?
Sorry guys for the noob questions.
1. What am I paying the door fee for - not opposed at all to paying - but are you feeding people, is there a swag bag, is there a door prize raffle, or is it just for the entry and ability to participate?
2. How does this work? I have no idea. I see lists of corals and some crazy algorithm there should probably be an app for. What do I bring, how much/many, and then what?
3. Is this basically an honor system? Many of these corals are impossible to verify while in their cups.
4. How long does this usually go on for? What kind of time commitment is required by the average swapper?
5. What if you have corals not on the lists but are certainly sought after corals?
Sorry guys for the noob questions.
Rostato
Guest
I’m a noob myself. I’ve read all the main post and the two other posts like a dozen times. I’m pretty sure I get it now.
Key points...1 ultra (has to be on the list or preapproved) gets you 1 bonus ticket
3 bonus corals (same as above) gets you 1 bonus ticket
All other corals are fine for the rest of the rounds but you must bring 3 total to participate.
Your paying to help offset the cost of renting the facility
Yes, honor system, but your putting your screen name in the coral. So if you lie I. Sure you’ll be blacklisted or stoned publicly.
It lasts the whole day because you’ll be rushing home to acclimate and dip your corals
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
1. What am I paying the door fee for - not opposed at all to paying - but are you feeding people, is there a swag bag, is there a door prize raffle, or is it just for the entry and ability to participate?
I'll let someone on the BoD handle this, since I'm not sure of what is provided. That said the entry fee goes primarily towards the rental of the room and allows for the club to pay for expenses throughout the year since no other events have an entry fee.
2. How does this work? I have no idea. I see lists of corals and some crazy algorithm there should probably be an app for. What do I bring, how much/many, and then what?
Bring at a MINIMUM of 3 different corals that are not on the banned list (there should be a link on the main page) the corals that you bring go on tables with the corals of everyone else and are separated into various generic categories, LPS, zoas, softies, sticks, etc. At the time of check in you draw a letter out of a bucket to determine your picking order. When the swap starts those with a bonus ticket (more on this later) go first and get to pick a coral (or more depending upon the number of bonus tickets they have??) in a set period of time, then group A goes and they have a set period of time to pick a single coral, then group B, C, D, etc when the end of the letters are reached the letters go in reverse order all the way back to group A, then it reverses again and repeats until all the corals are done, each time though you get less time to pick. The time ranges anywhere from 2 to 3 minutes usually so you can't spend too much time "window shopping". You will leave with at least 3 corals, possibly more as on average people bring more than 3 each. Remember these corals are frags from existing colonies you have, so you're not giving up your colony, just a frag of it.
Now if you have bonus corals, the level of "bonus" is determined by people have have their finger on the pulse of "what's hot" in the coral world, if you feel you have something extra special make a post in the bonus coral thread about that, most corals that go into the swap are not bonus though. The idea of bonus corals isn't to set up some sort of class system, those with bonus tickets do get to pick first yes, but the idea is help lure people into bringing corals you may not normally see. That said some people see frags as just that "here's frags to give away" others see frags of these corals as a source of revenue, but whatever the bonus people will only have one bonus picking round (note: this has changed over the years so might be slightly different)
3. Is this basically an honor system? Many of these corals are impossible to verify while in their cups.
Yes the honor system, of sorts. You are required to put the coral name, lighting conditions and your name on every coral container, so if it turns out your "super rare ultra sparkly rainbow palythoa" is really just a green palythoa then there is some sort of record and if the person who picked it raises a gripe about it then there is a record of that person POSSIBLY gaming the system, mistakes do happen, often it's not a huge deal, and often you just go with the flow however if you were expecting a fantastic coral then sometimes the parties can reach an agreement if a mistake happened it happened. I'm not saying you'll be banned from future events if you goof up, but there is technically a record of who brought what.
The reality is none of the corals will really look like they do under tank lights, zoas and palythoas are really the only ones that are hard to tell because typically they're closed up. But mistakes happen while people are dropping frags into containers the morning of the event, again unless it's a super fantastic one you nabbed with a bonus ticket I wouldn't worry too much. And ultimately you are responsible for what you pick, the containers are clear, so if you see a single polyp floating around in a container, or a bleach white acropora frag, then don't pick it just on the name that is written on the container.
4. How long does this usually go on for? What kind of time commitment is required by the average swapper?
Depends how many picking rounds go on for, and if you plan on sticking around for the raffle. A 2 hour window is probably a safe bet from the actual start of the event, you'll want to be there a little earlier so your stuff can get taken care of. Those who run the event do try to speed things up by first lowering the picking time, then in later rounds upping the number of corals you can pick from 1 to 2. But you can imagine if there are 10 groups, and 2 minute picking times that 1 round will take 20 minutes, the first round is typically a tad longer so 30 minutes
5. What if you have corals not on the lists but are certainly sought after corals?
Post in the bonus coral thread, often with a picture if it's not a commonly known one. They will tell you if it's bonus worthy, and give you requirements (often the size of the frag is the requirement). If not then it's not a bonus coral and simply enters the swap as one of your normal corals.
Sorry guys for the noob questions.
No worries, I often tell my students that there are no dumb questions, the questions you ask are probably questions other people had as well.
I'll let someone on the BoD handle this, since I'm not sure of what is provided. That said the entry fee goes primarily towards the rental of the room and allows for the club to pay for expenses throughout the year since no other events have an entry fee.
2. How does this work? I have no idea. I see lists of corals and some crazy algorithm there should probably be an app for. What do I bring, how much/many, and then what?
Bring at a MINIMUM of 3 different corals that are not on the banned list (there should be a link on the main page) the corals that you bring go on tables with the corals of everyone else and are separated into various generic categories, LPS, zoas, softies, sticks, etc. At the time of check in you draw a letter out of a bucket to determine your picking order. When the swap starts those with a bonus ticket (more on this later) go first and get to pick a coral (or more depending upon the number of bonus tickets they have??) in a set period of time, then group A goes and they have a set period of time to pick a single coral, then group B, C, D, etc when the end of the letters are reached the letters go in reverse order all the way back to group A, then it reverses again and repeats until all the corals are done, each time though you get less time to pick. The time ranges anywhere from 2 to 3 minutes usually so you can't spend too much time "window shopping". You will leave with at least 3 corals, possibly more as on average people bring more than 3 each. Remember these corals are frags from existing colonies you have, so you're not giving up your colony, just a frag of it.
Now if you have bonus corals, the level of "bonus" is determined by people have have their finger on the pulse of "what's hot" in the coral world, if you feel you have something extra special make a post in the bonus coral thread about that, most corals that go into the swap are not bonus though. The idea of bonus corals isn't to set up some sort of class system, those with bonus tickets do get to pick first yes, but the idea is help lure people into bringing corals you may not normally see. That said some people see frags as just that "here's frags to give away" others see frags of these corals as a source of revenue, but whatever the bonus people will only have one bonus picking round (note: this has changed over the years so might be slightly different)
3. Is this basically an honor system? Many of these corals are impossible to verify while in their cups.
Yes the honor system, of sorts. You are required to put the coral name, lighting conditions and your name on every coral container, so if it turns out your "super rare ultra sparkly rainbow palythoa" is really just a green palythoa then there is some sort of record and if the person who picked it raises a gripe about it then there is a record of that person POSSIBLY gaming the system, mistakes do happen, often it's not a huge deal, and often you just go with the flow however if you were expecting a fantastic coral then sometimes the parties can reach an agreement if a mistake happened it happened. I'm not saying you'll be banned from future events if you goof up, but there is technically a record of who brought what.
The reality is none of the corals will really look like they do under tank lights, zoas and palythoas are really the only ones that are hard to tell because typically they're closed up. But mistakes happen while people are dropping frags into containers the morning of the event, again unless it's a super fantastic one you nabbed with a bonus ticket I wouldn't worry too much. And ultimately you are responsible for what you pick, the containers are clear, so if you see a single polyp floating around in a container, or a bleach white acropora frag, then don't pick it just on the name that is written on the container.
4. How long does this usually go on for? What kind of time commitment is required by the average swapper?
Depends how many picking rounds go on for, and if you plan on sticking around for the raffle. A 2 hour window is probably a safe bet from the actual start of the event, you'll want to be there a little earlier so your stuff can get taken care of. Those who run the event do try to speed things up by first lowering the picking time, then in later rounds upping the number of corals you can pick from 1 to 2. But you can imagine if there are 10 groups, and 2 minute picking times that 1 round will take 20 minutes, the first round is typically a tad longer so 30 minutes
5. What if you have corals not on the lists but are certainly sought after corals?
Post in the bonus coral thread, often with a picture if it's not a commonly known one. They will tell you if it's bonus worthy, and give you requirements (often the size of the frag is the requirement). If not then it's not a bonus coral and simply enters the swap as one of your normal corals.
Sorry guys for the noob questions.
No worries, I often tell my students that there are no dumb questions, the questions you ask are probably questions other people had as well.
Last edited:
Kim Pattison
Guest
Corals not listed on the lists are considered regular entry coral. All are acceptable except the banned ones. I think the banned list is xenia, brown and green palys?, and green star polyps.
tankguy
Guest
Last year we also kicked around the idea of adding Birds Nest. It seemed like everyone brought theirs in for the swap. There was tons of it
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
I don't mind birdsnest, if it's actually a nice color. However brown birdsnest because it was that piece that was shaded by the rest of the colony is a bit much 
Another idea, is maybe instead of banning it, put minimum sizes on certain corals, I mean 1" frag of JF Homewrecker would be jaw dropping to most, 1" frag of birdsnest? (or most to the point a few frags because it's so damn brittle it broke into 3 chunks)... not so much.
Another idea, is maybe instead of banning it, put minimum sizes on certain corals, I mean 1" frag of JF Homewrecker would be jaw dropping to most, 1" frag of birdsnest? (or most to the point a few frags because it's so damn brittle it broke into 3 chunks)... not so much.
We shouldn’t ban corals just because they grow well in reef tanks and are easily swapped. In fact I’d argue that we should be encouraging those, based on wanting to help new hobbyists be successful without undue impact on the oceans, and in accordance with the BAR mission statement:
BAR seeks to promote, foster and encourage education and appreciation for the ethical husbandry and propagation of marine life.
I think a substantial fraction of our club would be happy to get birdsnest, perhaps a silent majority. For a lot of people it’s their first successful SPS. I’m planning to bring a few frags along with a variety of other corals to the swap.
Maybe a good compromise is to loosely organize frags on tables with common/less sought-after corals at 1 end.
Banning corals that can get out of control and become invasive pests is a different story and reasonable.
BAR seeks to promote, foster and encourage education and appreciation for the ethical husbandry and propagation of marine life.
I think a substantial fraction of our club would be happy to get birdsnest, perhaps a silent majority. For a lot of people it’s their first successful SPS. I’m planning to bring a few frags along with a variety of other corals to the swap.
Maybe a good compromise is to loosely organize frags on tables with common/less sought-after corals at 1 end.
Banning corals that can get out of control and become invasive pests is a different story and reasonable.
Coral reefer
Past President
Coral reefer
Past President
Or maybe just have a birdsnest section? Like we have a monti section?
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Or maybe start an early education bit about frag swaps? I think one year I tried on my own to educate about frag sizes and that minimum doesn't mean that you have to actually do the minimum, probably fell on deaf ears though.
Plus the 3 separate corals requirement means that one person doesn't bring 3 pieces of birdsnest to enter, they still need 2 other corals (and as long as it's not pink, brown and white birdsnest we're fine!), is it really any different than purple mushrooms? Or anything else that people might have.
I mean it really comes down to this, for some people they may not have lots of corals so that is their way into the swap so they can get more corals and diversify their tank a bit. Now if you got a tank full of ultra limited edition <insert name of coral farmer here> colonies and you do the bare minimum with birdsnest being one of your three corals, then you need a beat down
Plus the 3 separate corals requirement means that one person doesn't bring 3 pieces of birdsnest to enter, they still need 2 other corals (and as long as it's not pink, brown and white birdsnest we're fine!
), is it really any different than purple mushrooms? Or anything else that people might have. I mean it really comes down to this, for some people they may not have lots of corals so that is their way into the swap so they can get more corals and diversify their tank a bit. Now if you got a tank full of ultra limited edition <insert name of coral farmer here> colonies and you do the bare minimum with birdsnest being one of your three corals, then you need a beat down
Coral reefer
Past President
A beat down with a birdsnest?