Dr. Mac Trip: Saturday, July 14

[MikeNapoli]

Yeah the place was really clean.
The special prices were good, though 40% off regular would have been better, except for the $25 clams(great price). I didn't get to see the rock, most of it was gone cause we got there a little late.
I thought the place would be bigger when they said there was a tour, but Dr. Mac does well with the space he has. There was about 10 really large Coral Tanks packed to the gills with coral. One huge tank for Rock. And a couple of fish tanks. My favorite thing about the place was how clean it was and Dr. Mac was really nice. The worst thing about the place (besides the distance) was that the way the water shimmered it was hard to see the corals from the top down, but if you cuped your hands over the water you could see ok.

The trip for us was 3.5 hours from woodbridge, not the best time, but I got to see Carlo's tank which was really nice, got alot of info from Carlo, and I got to meet some club members face to face which made the trip worth it. Now I won't feel akward going to the next meeting.

 

[Edwardw771]

I think I need to sell alot of frags to make the money back that I spent. Got alot of nice new zoas. Worth the trip. Will be back. I wish I could open a place like that one day.

 

[JohnS_323]

Oh, I just thought of one other thing that I found interesting and is really important to note: ALL of the corals at Dr. Macs are kept under VHO lighting. Each fixture has 4 VHO bulbs in them (2 day light, 2 actinic). The reason this is important is that you should keep this in mind when acclimating anything you get from them. In the past, we've assumed his stuff was kept under some sort of MH lighting and we'd just throw them in under our 400w lights. We wound up bleaching and losing our share of corals. Now that I now the types of lights they are used to I know I need to light acclimate as I introduce them into my system.

 

[mikem]

The Sps colonies I picked up were under 400 watt 20K MH's. The drive was longer for us since we were trying to ask locals directions. They had some nice corals and Dr Mac was very helpful.

 

[JohnS_323]

The Sps colonies I picked up were under 400 watt 20K MH's. The drive was longer for us since we were trying to ask locals directions. They had some nice corals and Dr Mac was very helpful.

Really?!? I stand corrected! I didn't see any MH fixtures. All I saw were the VHO's.

Thanks for the clarification Mike.

 

[mikem]

I think all the softie andLPS tanks were VHO's

 

[mott768]

The SPS frags I got were also under 400w xm 20k's

 

[RichT]

I think 3 of the inside tubs and the one tub in the greenhouse that was under the canopy, all had MH. All the rest, with the exception of the solar tubes and natural lit tanks in the greenhouse, had VHO.

 

[RichT]

Hear's my bounty! (sorry for the crappy pic's)

How about the rest of you?!?!?

 

[Phyl]

Here are John's pictures from the trip:

Here are John's pictures from the trip:

 

[Phyl]

We still need to snap some pictures of the ones we brought home. Some truly beautiful stuff.

 

[Treadingwater]

Well, we just got home from out long weekend. We had a pretty nice time. We left Friday morning and drove to Assatigua(sp?)Island, MD and saw the wild horses and then from there spent a few hours in Ocean City, MD. Ocean City was a little disappointing. The beaches were clean and beautiful and free, but there weren't near as many amusements on the broadwalk as we had expected. Both Wildwood and Seaside have much more to do. We stayed over night in Seaford, DE which was about an hour away from OC and about half an hour away from Dr. Mac's.

Dr. Mac's was nice, but much smaller then I had expected. He had some really nice corals in there. Like John, I had to wonder why the 40% off didn't extend to the special priced corals. I understand they were already marked down, but I even offered to pay the regular price and then have the 40% taken off (which still would have worked out cheaper then the special price). Anyway, I did get a few nice pieces and left there pretty happy. No pictures yet as Mike was kind enough to take them home for me so we didn't have to worry about them on our extended weekend. Thank you very much Mike

We stayed over night again in Seaford on Sat. and then left Sunday morning to head to Baltimore and see the National Aquarium. The aquarium was nice, but also kind of disappointing. It wasn't near as big as we thought it would be. We spent about 3 hours in there and left feeling like we didn't miss anything. They had 2 small tanks with live corals and tropical fish, but other then that not many tropicals at all. The dolphin show was nice and overall it was decent, but I don't know that I would take a special trip just to see it again.

However, the Inner Harbor of Baltimore was cool. Lots of things to see and do right around the area. The only problem was that most of the musems and things seemed to close by 6pm, give or take. The hotel we stayed in was pretty pricey, but we stayed right in the Inner Harbor. If we had traveled about 10 miles I'm sure we could have gotten a room by BWI airport for half the price we payed.

Anyway, all in all, it was a nice long weekend. I'm glad to be home and see that my older son took good care of my tank and out puppy while we were away. (I don't know what he did, but my tank is almost completely clear of hair algae now. I may have to take some more longer weekends, LOL). Looking forward to getting my new corals in when I pick them up from Mike. I'll take some pics and post them up when I do.

 

[Hawkeye]

Well, we just got home from out long weekend. We had a pretty nice time. We left Friday morning and drove to Assatigua(sp?)Island, MD and saw the wild horses and then from there spent a few hours in Ocean City, MD. Ocean City was a little disappointing. The beaches were clean and beautiful and free, but there weren't near as many amusements on the broadwalk as we had expected. Both Wildwood and Seaside have much more to do. We stayed over night in Seaford, DE which was about an hour away from OC and about half an hour away from Dr. Mac's.

Off topic I know, while it's rare for a hurricane of any strength to head up this way, I recall one that totally obliterated OC, MD. There was definitely a "heyday" to the place- but just dunno how it's been since then. Sounds like not much has happened. Did you have any crabs? That was the best thing...love that blue crab. We caught a bushel of large ones with a pair of traps.

Anyways - thanks for the pics and comments! Dr. Mac's seems like a great place. This may sound crazy but if we could get our local places to stock similar items (and promise them a group buy from our club) - we'd not only be supporting our local businesses, but also possibly reduce travel time (which means more money for corals). =)