Reefapoolza for a first time - and good fortune

AquaDaddy · Oct 28, 2018

So, a little story. My wife and I decided we'd go to our first Reefapalooza in Anaheim. So, as to not make the trip totally about marine life, we thought we'd mix it up with Disney as well. We booked our flights and before you know it, were on our way. We flew down on Thursday night so we could have all day Friday at Disney. We got to the hotel, checked in and just walked around Thursday night, woke up early the next morning and spent the entire day at Disney, was quite fun. It was very halloween themed and in fact, there was a huge halloween party that Friday night which had been sold out for a couple months already, but hey, good to know for the future. The next day was all about RAP, well, and Disney.

AquaDaddy · Oct 28, 2018

Enjoyed the show during the day, but honestly would have expected a larger turn-out. Lots of great corals and some decent vendors. Great prices at the raffle, to which, we didn't win anything! Anyways, off to Disney for the night and had a blast watching the fireworks and enjoying Disney. The next day we planned to get up, but @WWC was doing a great raffle at noon, so we had to stay and see if we won. Shoot, it was a small crowd who had followed instruction and we had a good shot. But it wasn't to be. Some very excited folks though! Anyway, we figured since it was noon, we'd go back up to the room, get checked out, grab a bite and stay for the R2R giveaway which was at 2:00. We figured we'd have just enough time to stay for that, and then have a nice drive up to LAX for the flight back. Well, we didn't win any of the prices that I was hopeful for, but on the very last prize we won! Well, we won a Red Sea Nano Max. It was very exciting. We were super excited and then I realize they meant I won "That" tank.... so I had to take it with me. The box from the stand had been thrown away, but at least they had the box for the tank.

AquaDaddy · Oct 28, 2018

So, after winning the tank, we wanted to box it up, but didn't even have tools to disassemble the tank! So, (I don't remember his name darnit) very nice man from @MarineDepot loaned us a screwdriver and helped us box it up along with @mdbannister and his friend, who were all just awesome and helpful. Loaded the tank and the assembled stand in the back of our rental and immediately drove to Target to buy some bubble-wrap, tape and some tools. Guess what? Yep, Target had no screwdrivers anywhere in the store! We figured we needed to start heading to LAX so just drive up to LA and then to our return our rental car. Then, we borrowed another screwdriver, this time from Avis, and disassembled the tank right there in the rental return line!

AquaDaddy · Oct 28, 2018

Well, we were able to get the stand back to basically flat again and we wrapped all the pieces together with the bubble wrap and tape we had grabbed at Target. Got it on the shuttle and then rented a cart at the airport, the folks at the counter were super nice to me and gave me a break for bringing two oversized and overweight boxes and only charged me $50.00 in fees for the two, well, I had also paid $22.00 a piece earlier to check bags. So, all told, basically $100 to get it home, plus the experience.

We got on our flight and got home as planned. We flew into a small airport that didn't even have carts so get got our luggage and my wife went to get our car. So, yep, you guessed it, the car didn't start, so while we got that worked out, the packages stayed on the curb awaiting arrival to the car.

AquaDaddy · Oct 28, 2018

Finally got everything home and the next weekend, I thought I'd go ahead and get it set up.

AquaDaddy · Oct 28, 2018

It replaced a IM 14 and I do like this tank much better. It is very nice looking. I did use my own ATO tank and ATO as the one that comes with the tank holds a very small amount and I don't like to do any work during the week if possible. Thanks so much to @redseasteve and Reef2reef, we love our new tank!