About MACNA

The Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA) is the oldest marine aquarium conference in North America.

MACNA is managed by the Marine Aquarium Societies of North America (MASNA), supporting the goals and programs of the MASNA charter.

MACNA is a combination of several events. It is an educational symposium where people can attend lectures from industry leaders, conservationists, authors, and scientists. It is also a trade show where hobbyists can buy the hottest new corals and see new cutting edge equipment. Attendees can also give their feedback to manufacturers so they can continue to bring us the innovations we are looking for. And lastly it is a social event. Many speakers, vendors, and hobbyists come to socialize with each other. It gives people an opportunity to put faces with names they might see on a message board or email.

Official MACNA Links

• MACNA Website.
• MACNA Facebook page.
• MACNA Twitter profile.
• Previous MACNA Speaker Recordings

The Early MACNA’s

Tom McCarthy of the Cleveland Saltwater Enthusiasts’ Association (C-SEA) made a phone call to Scott Dyer of the Marine Aquarium Society of Toronto (MAST). The idea presented was to organize a joint event featuring a prominent speaker to be attended by both societies’ memberships. Scott replied to Tom that he had been thinking along the same lines and it was from this simple start that the idea of a weekend conference was born. MAST agreed to host the first Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA) and C-SEA agreed to reciprocate the following year.

MACNA I (1989)

The first MACNA was held in Toronto on April 22nd and 23rd of 1989. Attendance totaled over 190 aquarists from the U.S. and Canada. Speakers and topics presented at the first Conference included:

• Martin Moe (Breeding)
• Tom Frakes (Water Quality Considerations)
• Forrest Young (The Florida Scene)
• Albert Thiel (Marine Algae)
• Dr. Peter Rubec (Sodium cyanide)
• George Smit (Live Rock/Mini Reefs) and
• Helmut Debelius (Red Sea Fish and Invertebrates).

The Conference was held in the main lecture hall of the Royal Ontario Museum and featured several new products on display for the benefit of attendees and participants. Saturday night featured cocktails and a banquet (establishing the MAC NA tradition of carrying on well into the night hours). The MACNA I Committee, in alphabetical order, consisted of:  Ken Burrows, Sheila Byers, Charles Delbeek, Roger Driessen, Scott Dyer, Bob Harris, Russell Jardine, Paula and Goran Jovanevic, Bev and Chris Knight, Ian Shapiro, Ron Tuur, and many more who helped on the day of the Conference.

MACNA II (1990)

MACNA II was planned and organized by C-SEA’s Dave Egloff, Ron and Iris Garsteck, Tim Hemsoth, Joe Keyon, Dominic Madonia, Tom McCarthy, Kent Seward, and Roger Seward.

Held in Aurora, Ohio, April 21-22, 1990, at the Aurora Woodlands Inn near Sea World, the Conference was attended during its two days by over 150 professional and amateur aquarists. Speakers and topics at the second MACNA included:

• Forrest Young (Rearing Tropical Marines)
• Don Johnson (Natural History and Habits of Reef Fish/Invertebrates)
• John Tullock (Reef Conservation/Live Rock)
• George Blasiola (Fish Disease and Nutrition)
• Paul Specie (“What’s in a Name?”- Latin and Greek roots for scientific names of species)
• Julian Sprung (Care of Marine Organisms)
• Tom Frakes (Water Quality)
• Neville Coleman (“The Sea Life of the South Pacific”) and
• Frank Murru (Sea World and Maintenance of Public Aquaria).

Neville Coleman (Brisbane, Australia) was also the featured speaker at the Saturday night buffet held on the grounds of Sea World. Toronto and Cleveland had made a great contribution to the aquarium hobby by taking on the organization and planning of these first two conferences. Excitement ran high at each event – so high that the idea of an annual conference kept surfacing. If there were to be a third MACNA, who would host it? Fortunately, in attendance at MACNA II, were members of Windows to the Sea Marine Aquarium Society (NJ). They returned from Ohio and presented the idea of hosting a conference to their club (Windows). In October of 1990, Windows agreed to “take the plunge” and commit itself to hosting MACNA Ill.

MACNA III (1991)

MACNA III was held on April 20-21, 1991 at the Radisson Hotel, Newark International Airport, New Jersey. Windows organized seven committees: Publicity (Bob Denton), Program (Bob Denton), Fund Raising (Allan Starace), Banquet (May Markoff), Audio-Visual (Jerry Riedler), Journal – i.e. Advertising, Layout and Design (Mehul Sheth), and Finance (Jack Snyder).

Speakers and topics at MACNA III were:

• Albert Thiel (Mini-Reef and Delicate Fish Systems Filtration)
• Dr. Louis Garibaldi (Conservation and the Marine Aquarist)
• Dr. Dennis Thoney (Contemporary Cures for Marine Tropicals)
• Martin Moe (Applying Commercial Breeding Techniques to Hobbyists’ Systems)
• John Tullock (The Truth About Marine Water Chemistry)
• Joe Randazzo (What Hobbyists Need to Know About the Capture, Shipment and Wholesale of Marine Animals)
• Julian Sprung (The Economical and Environmentally Balanced Mini-Reef)
• John O’Malley (A Review of the Angelfish)
• Helmut Debelius (Fish Candidates for the Mini-Reef)

The Saturday night banquet was a sit-down affair with a fixed menu. Following the banquet, aquarists adjourned to another room where Helmut Debelius delivered a breathtaking slide presentation entitled “Discovering a New Angelfish” . Attendance at the third conference ran well over 300 – MACNA had become a known and awaited event in the aquarium world. Florida had been approached through Beth Hayden to possibly host MACNA IV. Florida Marine Aquarium Society (FMAS) members, like their New Jersey counterparts, were in attendance at MACNA III, and returned home to present the possibility to their Club of hosting a Conference in Miami.

MACNA IV (1992)

MACNA IV was supposed to have been held September 19-20, 1992 at the Sonesta Beach Hotel on Key Biscayne. In August of 1992, Hurricane Andrew devastated south Florida leaving residents without phones, power, water, food, housing and gas. The Sonesta Beach Hotel was unusable. Once phone communications were restored, the FMAS Board was able to meet to decide whether to try and continue with MACNA. It was decided that if an alternate hotel with adequate space and facilities could be found, MACNA IV would take place as scheduled. FMAS was successful in relocating the Conference to Dania, Florida (north of Miami) and a phone committee was set up to call every registrant to confirm the Conference was on and explain the shift in locale. Hotel, banquet and ancillary service negotiations, completed months ago, were speedily renegotiated. A Friday night “get-acquainted” reception and “mini-program” was provided for attendees and speakers.

Program speakers and topics included:

• Peter Wilkens (1. Corals and Other Invertebrates of Southeast Asia and 2. European Reef Tanks and Invertebrate Propagation)
• Scott Michael (Fishes for the Spineless Aquarium Owner)
• Dr. Michael Stoskopf (Healthy Fish, Everyone’s Goal: The Medical Care of Marine Tropical Fishes)
• Dr. Bruce Carlson (Mini-reefs and Coral Reefs: A Case of Symbiosis or Predator-Prey?)
• Panel Discussion: The Future of the Marine Aquarium Hobby in North America: Is There One?
• Julian Sprung (Building the Modern Reef Aquarium)
• Charles Delbeek (Stingers, Suckers, Munchers and Maulers: An Introduction to Reef Aquarium Parasites and Pests).

Two repeating workshops, offered twice each day, were given by Godfrey Waugh and Jill Hambrook-Broz (The A-B-C’s of Marine Fish Nutrition) and Martin Moe (How to Raise 100 Clownfish and Still Keep a Job and Your Spouse).

Approximately 400 attendees came to Dania from the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, Europe and throughout the U.S. Co-Chairs for MACNA IV were Beth Hayden and Richie Strassberg. Committee members included: Michele Arena, Cindy Bickford, Danny Garcia, Debbie Garcia, Nancy Lempicki, Bruce Moreland, Michael Robert, Roseanne Strassberg and Tom Cavanaugh. Toronto (MAST) had already indicated its willingness to host MACNA V – for the first time, it was possible to announce at the close of MACNA IV, that not only would a MACNA V take place, but when and where it would be held and what club would host it.

MACNA V (1993)

The fifth Marine Aquarium Conference of North America was held, once again, in Toronto at the elegant Crowne Plaza Hotel, September 11-12, 1993. MACNA V opened with a Friday night reception and opportunity for attendees to meet the speakers. The Conference theme was “Bringing the Hobbyist and Scientist Together in Celebration of Marine Life”. Speakers and topics presented were:

• Charles Delbeek {Tridacnid Clams Ain’t No Sushi)
• Dr. Robert Richmond (Reproduction and Recruitment of Reef Corals)
• Julian Sprung (More Than One Way to Scrub a Tank)
• Scott Michael (Cartilaginous Companions in the Home Aquarium)
• Mike Paletta {Techniques for Successfully Propagating Marine Invertebrates)
• Dr. Daphne Fautin {The Anemonefish Symbiosis: A Three-Way Partnership)
• Rudie Kuiter (Wild Aquarium II)
• Mini-Reef Forum (panel discussion).

On Saturday evening attendees were bussed to the Ontario Palace for a gourmet dinner and spectacular presentation of slides entitled “Wild Aquarium I” presented by Rudi Kuiter in the Cinesphere’s IMAX theater. The two upcoming conferences were already scheduled: MACNA VI would return to Cleveland/C-SEA and MACNA VII would be hosted by the Louisville Marine Aquarium Society (LMAS) in Louisville, Kentucky in 1995.

MACNA VI (1994)

October 14-16, 1994, returned MACNA to C-SEA and Ohio. Held in Cleveland, the Conference theme “Propagation for a Self Sustaining Hobby” was well-reflected in the choice of speakers and topics:

• Frank Greco (CITES and Relevant Regulations)
• Joe Yaiullo (Tubastrea Spawning)
• Dr. John Lauth (Coral Damage and Recovery)
• Dick Perrin (Coral Attachment Workshop)
• Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek (Mystery Workshop)
• Svein Fosså (Care and Biology of Stony Coral)
• Cecilia Riley (Laboratory Studies of Mariculture)
• Dr. Robert Buddemeier (Environmental Factors Affecting Coral)
• Martin Moe (Atlantic Angelfish Spawning)
• Gerald Heslinga (Micronesian Mariculture Demonstration Center – Mariculture Efforts).

A cash bar preceded the Saturday night banquet after which Richard Pyle presented a slide show of rare and exotic deep-dwelling marines. During the course of the Conference, Stuart Keefer gave a brief, unscheduled presentation on his “Eco-Labeling Project”.

MACNA VI drew the largest attendance to date with well over 400 aquarists, professional and amateur. With Conference planning well coordinated in advance, Louisville was able to distribute brochures for its upcoming MACNA VII at the Cleveland Conference.

MACNA VII (1995)

Louisville MAS hosted MACNA 7 at the Executive West Hotel in Louisville, KY on the 14 -16 of September 1995. The Hotel was an excellent choice both for the meeting facilities and the number of rooms available. The year earlier the attendance was a record of 400 plus attendees, but the attendance for MACNA 7 distanced that number by and additional 200. This was truly an astounding record of 630 attendees! Speakers that made presentations at Louisville were:

• Dr. Jean Jaubert Director of Scientifique at Monaco
• Dr. John Randell distinguished Senior Ichthyologist at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Hawaii
• Dr. Gerald R. Allen Curator of Fishes at the Western Australian Museum in Perth, Australia
• Dr. Joan Holt
• Dr. Phil Lobel
• Dr. Vaughn Pratt
• Steve Tyree
• John F. Kuhns
• Dick Perrin
• Godfrey Waugh
• Martin Moe
• Richard Londeree
• John Tullock
• Stanley Brown
• Bill Addison
• Henry Feddern
• Elwin Seagrest and
• Joe Lichtenbert

Vendor participation increased as well at Louisville. There were over twenty two well known vendors displaying. The Saturday night Banquet was well presented and Dr. Gerald Allen thrilled us with a nine position multimedia production shown on a back projected screen. The First MASNA “Outstanding Hobbyist” award was presented to Martin Moe.

Notable products showcased at MACNA

• MACNA 2005: Ecotech Marine VorTech prototype
• MACNA 2008: Ecotech Marine VorTech MP40
• MACNA 2011: Ecotech Marine VorTech MP60
• MACNA 2012: BuildMyLED
• MACNA 2013: Ecotech Reef Link
• MACNA 2013: Apex Fusion
• MACNA 2014: MaxSpect Gyre Pump
• MACNA 2015: Ecotech Vectra M1 D.C. pump
• MACNA 2015: Smart ATO Micro
• MACNA 2015: MindStream
• MACNA 2016: Alkalinity Monitor

External Links

Third Party Reviews

• Reef Builders: 11 Reasons to go to a MACNA conference
• Melev’s Reef: What is MACNA? Why should you attend?
• MACNA 1989: MAST’S History
• MACNA 1992: Dave Sheehy’s MACNA 1992 Review
• MACNA 1993: MAST’s History
• MACNA 1994: Announcement of MACNA VI
• MACNA 2000: Terry Siegel’s review of MACNA XII 2000
• MACNA 2000: Petcha.com’s review of MACNA XII 2000
• MACNA 2002: Kevin Kuykendall’s MACNA Mania
• MACNA 2003: Melev’s Review
• MACNA 2005: Fishfreek’s aquariumadvice Review
• MACNA 2005: Melev’s photos / review of speakers
• MACNA 2010: MACNA XXII – Matt Pedersen’s Story
• MACNA 2010: Gary Parr’s MACNA 2010 review
• MACNA 2015: Melev’s MACNA 2015 recap

Third Party Pictures

• MACNA 1989: Poster of the first MACNA
• MACNA 1998: Aquarium Design’s photos.
• MACNA 1999: Tim O’Dear’s photos
• MACNA 2003: Melev’s photos
• MACNA 2004: Ewan’s Reef Central photos
• MACNA 2005: Melev’s photos
• MACNA 2006: Rendos’ Reef Central photos
• MACNA 2006: MASNA Booth
• MACNA 2007: Melev’s photos.
• MACNA 2007: Walt’s MACNA 2007 Banquet Video.
• MACNA 2008: Victor90’s ReefCentral photos.
• MACNA 2012: Melev’s photos.
• MACNA 2014: Matt Rogers’ 3Reef photos.