FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions


Why is the CFM doing its first two day event ?

In the past the CFM has always limited our events to one day, because were we primarily concerned with allowing attendees to purchase healthy captive grown corals. Early on we just did not see multi-day events as being able to promote healthy coral sales. In the past few years however, the science of frag tanks and show display systems has increased dramatically. We now feel that the holding systems are adequate to support and hold coral fragments for two days.


Why is this event located in San Fernando Valley ?

Back in the early 2000's, some of the very first large scale coral frag swaps were held right in the San Fernando Valley. Some of these early large scale events were held at Dave Botwin's house, at least until the police started complaining about the parking problems. Most of those early coral farming sellers were just hobbyist harvesting captive grown sections from their stony corals. These San Fernando events were probably some of the first events were farmers topped $1,000 in total sales. The city of Sylmar is also near the home base for our new business partner for this event, Reefapple®. They are also hoping to encourage the Los Angeles Mission College to start a new Marine or Ocean related program within the University.


Who is Reefapple® and why are they helping to promote a coral show in Sylmar ?

Reefapple® is a small company based out of the San Fernando Valley. They have their own line of acrylic tanks, sumps, rack, stands, filtration, feeders, designer lighting and specialty gadgets. The Reefapple® team is made up of Theme park, Television, Specialty Water Features, Motion pictures, Trade shows, Events, Engineers and Designer folks/reefers who have been in these industries for over 12+ years. They think outside the box or the tank. They have no intention of producing a cookie-cutter type product/business. Their products are designed with upgrade ability in mind. They feel the reefer should pick and choose how he or she wants to build their system based on design or budget. Reefapple® was recently asked to join the Sylmar City Council as consultant to bring in new business venues into Sylmar. They feel that the San Fernando Valley has always been lacking in large scale events do to locations and or permit costs.


Is the San Fernando Valley Coral Farmers MarketSM competing with the MACNA conference or RAP ?

Definitly not. One of the factors in choosing the date of our event was that the date could not interfer with other major events within the reef industry. Our schedule currently places the event 4 months following RAP and 5 months following Macna. We are also offering hobbyist clubs free booths to promote their clubs, promote their events and to sell club corals to raise funds.


Why have you opened this event up to the entire reef industry ?

When we first started the Coral Farmers MarketSM coral shows back in 2006, our growth rate back then was phenomenal. About 20-30 % per year. Unfortunately the economy then experienced a major down turn in 2008. And it has remained soft for 4 years and some of our original coral farming vendors are no longer still in business. We have picked up quite a few new coral farming vendors since then, but some of our original coral shows have been suspended, (NW-CFM and BA-CFM), and a couple of shows were downsized (SW-CFM and IE-CFM). We were approached by the new company Reefapple® about the possibility of bringing a coral show to the San Fernando Valley area of Southern California. The owners of Reefapple® actually have experience working with some of the very largest trade shows as well as upscale award ceremonies within the US. They wanted a two day event that could grow and become quite large. The CFM realized that to reach those goals, we needed to open the event up to the entire reef industry. So we decided to be one of the organizers of this event, but that it would not be sanctioned by the CFM. The sanctioning is only done to events that restrict corals sales to captive grown or aquacultured. If US legislation in the future curtails importing coral colonies, we will then switch this event into a CFM sanctioned captive grown or cultured only event.


What is the coral used in the background of this web site ?

The image used in the background of this web site is copyrighted by Reeffarmers and is an image of the Purple Monster Chalice from Hugo of Ghost Corals. Unfortunately we do not know if any fragments of this exotic chalice ever survived long term in captivity. Obviously Hugo called it the Purple Monster Chalice due to its coloration.


What is the coral used on the top web logo and on the event web adverts ?

That coral is the Purple Monster Limited Edition Acropora. The fragment in the image was harvested and grown by Steve Garrett of Garrett's Acropolis. Image taken by Reeffarmers. The Purple Monster coral was probably the very first exotic sps coral that broke the price or value of $50 per fragment. Steve Tyree acquired the coral way back in 1995 and it was imported via tranship through Aquatic Depot located in Inglewood. They were the main sps coral importer back in the 1994-1995 time frame. The employees at Aquatic Depot were all excited about that box of corals which was ordered on tranship from the Solomon Islands. They stated those corals were the most beautiful corals they had ever seen at that time. The box was transhipped for Steve Tyree and two other associates. It contained five Purple Monster colonies. Steve still remembers driving down the 405 through the south bay curve. The sky was blue. The temperature was perfect. And in the back seat was a box with five of the most beautiful corals ever to be seen within the US at that time. Back in those days there was probably just a couple of hundred people within the entire US who would even think of paying for living SPS stony corals. And unfortunately, of those five Purple Monster colonies, only one survived long term, but fragments from that one colony are still being grown within the US 17 years later (as of 2012). And what makes that accomplishment even more incredible is the fact that this is a difficult to keep Acropora. It is very sensitive to sudden KH changes. Believe it or not, the world renown coral expert, JEN Veron, actually saw the colony within Steve Tyree's facility. Charlie had a multi-hour layover in LAX while flying to speak at the Western Marine Conference (WMC) being held in San Francisco. The club hosting the WMC wanted Steve to entertain Veron during the layover. So Steve took him to Sea Dwelling Creatures in Los Angeles, which by that time had become the main sps coral importer. After signing a book or two, he was taken to Steve's facility. Steve wanted Veron to properly identify the Purple Monster Acropora species if possible. The first thing Charlie said was, you guys change these corals and make them look very different in captivity. It was explained to Veron, that the colony he was observing, looked exactly as it did when it arrived from the Solomon Islands. At that time, it was just starting to grow. So when pressed, he stated that he had seen some Acropora valida that looked similar to the Purple Monster.


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