Another Great Year, Closing Statements

TORX

Administrator
Staff member
Website Admin
Joined
Nov 27, 2010
Location
Blenheim, Ontario
Website
www.thefragtank.ca
Looking back…

This was the first time I organized London Fragfest. It was very overwhelming at times, but worth every minute. I would like to start out by thanking Glenn Burgess of Sutton Realty who has laid solid ground work with previous shows, helping pave the way for yet another amazing year. We brought a whole new group of vendors and companies to the show. It was great to see all the positive feedback and support from companies looking to grow the hobby in the area. One thing for sure, we will be looking at a larger venue next year. We had just over 300 people come this year which is the most we have ever had. After expenses (exact numbers are still being worked out) thanks to everyone supporting the event, I will be cutting a check for approximately $2000 to Ronald McDonald House.

Thank you to the volunteers who helped by selling admission bracelets and raffle tickets throughout the show. Also thank you to Lindsey for manning the donation tank for thefragtank.ca while I was otherwise occupied. All of them did an amazing job and I could not be more grateful for their help.

There was a huge amount of support from companies that we had not had in the past. I would like to start by thanking Betty Vinson of MAST Canada and Ian Bell of Sustainable Marine Canada. They really helped out by stepping up and opening doors to several companies. They provided the stepping stones to working with these companies even more in the future. We had the pleasure of having several special guests. Ryan Nash of Farm Boy Reef came for his first year and was blown away at the support this hobby has in Ontario. I personally have been following his 700 gallon Phoenix build on his YouTube channel. I also was introduced to Phil Gilbert of Polyp Labs. I recently have been using their products to feed my reef, Ryan Nash does as well. Anyone who knows me, knows that I only recommend things that I use on my own tanks.

We had some new companies present as well. Bashsea was there with some of their extremely high end aquarium equipment. They have an amazing line of sumps that left me drooling. Right now you can order their products through Ian at Sustainable Marine Canada. We also had some amazing support from Reef Wholesale who provided a ton of products for the raffle. They filled baskets full of Piscene Energetics Inc.. There was also an amazing pack of just about every Reef Nutrition product available on the market. It made me wish I could put raffle tickets in myself. For the first year we had additional support from Neptune Apex who provided an Apex Jr, Canada Corals who provided $200 in gift cards, Reef Supplies who provided $150 in gift cards, J&L Aquatics who provided a Glamorca Gyre Water Pump. Bigshow Frags really stepped up the raffle items by providing a Fauna Marin Balling Salts Starter Set and other items. Fluval even provided a AIO Evo aquarium this year. Sealife Central as well as Bulk Reef Supply each provided RO/DI units. The list goes on, several vendors also provided gift cards to their tables. I did make the mistake about not getting all the winners names. We did try and get photos of all the winners. They will be posted on the site in the coming week. If you did win, please send me an email to londonfragfest@thefragtank.ca so that I can post your name with the photo as they get posted. I have contacted the winners of the Apex Jr and the few other items where the winner was not present. So far I left voicemails and I am looking forward to hearing back from them soon. Stephen won the Fauna Marin Balling Salts, Trevor Rae won the Apex Jr (if anyone knows him, please have him contact me, his phone rings for a while with no voicemail) and Chris won the Glamorca Gyre Water Pump.

In closing, thank you to everyone who attended and supported the show. It is the support of not only the vendors and companies, but also the hobbiests who share their knowledge and experiences with each other, that make gatherings such as this an amazing experience. Next year we will be looking at bringing the show up to yet another level and I hope that all of you will be there again.
 

Salty Cracker

Administrator
Staff member
Website Admin
Joined
Mar 10, 2012
Location
Rocky Mountains BC
For my part, it was great to see the show in such capable hands. I didn't expect him to take the ball and score 8 touchdowns in one play. Bravo and most excellent show. Raffles were amazing (you could tell by the piles of tickets in some of those bags!), and everyone seemed to be in a great mood. I even liked the mobile station outside (he had some awesome stuff in there). It was very interesting to see it from purely a consumer's point of view, and I enjoyed it a LOT more that way, so THANK YOU to Torx and all for stepping up and keeping it going for everyone. Oh and extra thanks to Lindsey for putting up with my "aiptasia" comments every 5 minutes. Top notch all around.
 

NewFishGuy

New Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2017
Location
Brantford Ontario
As this is my first year being involved with saltwater, and so my first chance to check out an event like this, I was somewhat overwhelmed with the amount of selection, the amount of foot traffic, and the amount of knowledge to be had. Thank you so much for taking on the responsibility of organizing an amazing event Torx, and thank you to all the volunteers, vendors, companies who helped out! A special thanks to Lindsey, who took the time to explain to a complete noobie, what the corals in the tft donation tank were, and steer me in the right direction. I bought the majority of my corals from that tank, along with a beautiful torch from bigshow, and a nuclear green paly. One last thing, thanks to apex for providing me with my new apex Jr system! I'll have to print more clearly on my raffle tickets next time lol!
 
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TORX

Administrator
Staff member
Website Admin
Joined
Nov 27, 2010
Location
Blenheim, Ontario
Website
www.thefragtank.ca
As this is my first year being involved with saltwater, and so my first chance to check out an event like this, I was somewhat overwhelmed with the amount of selection, the amount of foot traffic, and the amount of knowledge to be had. Thank you so much for taking on the responsibility of organizing an amazing event Torx, and thank you to all the volunteers, vendors, companies who helped out! A special thanks to Lindsey, who took the time to explain to a complete boobie, what the corals in the tft donation tank were, and steer me in the right direction. I bought the majority of my corals from that tank, along with a beautiful torch from bigshow, and a nuclear green paly. One last thing, thanks to apex for providing me with my new apex Jr system! I'll have to print more clearly on my raffle tickets next time lol!
What about Lindsey teaching you about boobies?

Great talking to you today. I have now heard from the winners that were not at the show. All of the items should be shipped out the end of this week.

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk
 

Poseidon

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Location
SW Ontario
was amazing experience, i covered all aspects of the show, was first in line and snagged some beautiful pieces at premium prices, but also stayed til the end to get some more common pieces for good deals.
Happily 'donated' some money to the frag tank donation tank as well. Some great people giving corals like that :)

Give me a year or two to grow all this stuff and ill be setting up my own booth soon enough again :D
 

scubasteve

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 4, 2014
Location
Cambridge, Ontario
Another great show and man those prizes were something else. Everyone loved seeing the seahorse's and I wish I had more time to gander at all the goodies around. Sure was a big turnout and lots of happy reefers with hands and coolers full! Big thanks to @TORX for hosting the event this year and dealing with all the headaches so we could all have such an awesome day!
 
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