A hearty hello from upstate new york

[mayday610]

My name is Michael and i have been pretending to know what i'm doing with marine tanks for 12 years. I have had fresh water tanks most of my life and took the salt plunge when i was a sophmore in college. ( Great time to start a costly hobby..) I talked a roommate of mine into going halves on a 55 gallon set up and the addiction began! Currently i am running a few linked tanks. I have a 150 display with a 10 and a 30 next to it all built into the wall. I am also running a 55 gallon sump. My Stock is down due to my job. Life on the road can make it hard to keep a reef when you can't monitor whats going on all week. The tanks have been set up for roughly 3 years now. My main display holds a large maroon clown, yellow tang, flame angel, young koran angel, 3 green chromis, 3 firefish, a yellow tail damsel, and an array of snails, hermit crabs, and serpant star fish. Corals consist of just a few colonies of large button polyps, a hammer coral, a kenya tree, and two xenia i recently picked up. The 30 gallon holds a single pair of small clowns that my 4 year old picked out. Kids love their Nemos! The 10 gallon is used for macro algae only at this time. I also use a DSB of 6 inches minimum in the two stocked tanks. I have been a forum browser here and there from time to time. Reading some of the posts here made me want to join! Great to see encouragement from fellow enthusiasts rather than the noobish slander i have seen on other forums! I look forward to chatting with some of you in the future!

 

[ritter6788]

Welcome to R2R. We would like to extend a laurel, and hardy handshake.


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[Rmorales13]

Welcome to R2R!!

 

[mrs sexycorals]

Welcome!!!

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[Justin_92_92]

Hey mayday, where abouts upstate ny? I'm upstate ny but probably further up than yourself. I'm 3 hours north of Syracuse.

 

[AsphaltPays]

Hello and Welcome to R2R!! Always good to see a fellow New Yorker !!



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[mayday610]

Yes Justin, you are more northernly than i am, lol I live about 40 minutes north of syracuse. I live in Williamstown which is centered between Camden and Pulaski. I've been here for about 5 years. Before that i lived further east around the snow ridge ski resort. Either way, i'm still in the Tug Hill snow belt so i guess i'll never get away from the massive snow falls lol Where abouts are you located? The furthest i usually go is the watertown area.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Welcome to R2R!

We appreciate your membership!

Thanks for joining and please make sure to post often!

 

[Elysium]

Welcome to some more Upstaters!

 

[mayday610]

Awesome to meet some people from upstate! Sometimes it seems i'm all alone with all my favorite LFS out of business these days. Sometimes i think everyone up and quit the hobby around here! lol

Elysium, you must have a sweet spot for a LFS in syracuse. Any good places you suggest? I prefer shopping at Personally owned businesses rather than chain stores, but currently the best place for me that i know of is petland in cicero that has a decent salt setup. Corals seem very pricey there though.

 

[Elysium]

Awesome to meet some people from upstate! Sometimes it seems i'm all alone with all my favorite LFS out of business these days. Sometimes i think everyone up and quit the hobby around here! lol

Elysium, you must have a sweet spot for a LFS in syracuse. Any good places you suggest? I prefer shopping at Personally owned businesses rather than chain stores, but currently the best place for me that i know of is petland in cicero that has a decent salt setup. Corals seem very pricey there though.

Honestly, there isn't much for good stores in Syracuse. There's the usual Petland, Petco, and Petsmart, and a rather dirty (do not buy from) shop.

I do highly recommend the guys at ABC Reefs (Fairmount) and ABC Reefs 2 (Liverpool). Awesome selection, knowlege base, and not too bad on the prices. They run silent sales on the weekend most times, so keep an eye on the ABC Reefs 2 facebook page for details.

If you are willing to go a bit farther afield there's two good home based outfits in Cortland (Great Abyss Aquatics - Corals) and Rome (The Reef Room - Fish and Corals). Both have Facebook pages, so check them out.

 

[revsgirl]

Hi Michael!! Welcome to R2R!! Great to have ya!

 

[mayday610]

Thanks for the info Elysium! Rome was once my fav place to buy from. Glad you pointed out The Reef Room, i never would have known otherwise. Sounds like a great place to check out. I may even call and make an appointment this week. ABC Reefs is well within range for a leisurely drive as well.

 

[mayday610]

Just looked up The Reef Room on the map. My route to work every week takes me with a mile of them! LOL, close enough to smell to the frags! You may have just made an awesome new find for me, thank you Elysium!

 

[Elysium]

Just looked up The Reef Room on the map. My route to work every week takes me with a mile of them! LOL, close enough to smell to the frags! You may have just made an awesome new find for me, thank you Elysium!

You're welcome! Chris is a great guy, and considering his setup is a side hobby for him his prices are only slightly more than wholesale.

 

[Justin_92_92]

Im about 2 hours north of water town. Near Malone Ny. I travel to watertown for SW supplies and corals. That or i head to VT in Burlington.

I Have a buddy that lives in adams and has a rental property in sandy creek and Ive been down there to help him a few times this winter and your right about the snow I lived in syracuse for a little while as well (baldwinsville).

I really want to go and check out the places you guys are talking about.

Anyone want a blue damsel, Free just come get it lol

 

[skinz78]

Hello and Welcome to Reef2Reef!

If you haven't already done so you should enter in this months Membership Drive contest sponsored by Alpha Aquaculture! There will be two winners this month and each will receive an awesome Chalice frag shipped for free to your door! Just follow the directions here: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/me...-february-2013-membership-drive-give-way.html

 

[mayday610]

I know a few people from Adams. I also go there from time to time to ride dirtbike on a couple private motocross tracks. Whats the name of the place you go in watertown for supplies? I don't know of any places for SW there. I usually only go to that area for a shopping trick or for an occasional dinner. I know there was a store right close off from route 81 in a plaza behind the dunkin donuts, but i believe they shut down or moved.

 

[Justin_92_92]

Yes I think that's the place I go to now. They moved to the other end of town by a Chinese restaurant. It's at an intersection. I think it's called animal kingdom. They don't have a ton but they do have some nice stuff. The guy that runs the sw seems pretty good and was very helpful to me. He has a great personal display there too.

There is also petco but I rather not go there if at all possible. It's nice and clean but I like to support the smaller names.

And we have to eat at 5 guys when we go too

 

[mayday610]

Ah yes! 5 guys! lol Great food but make sure your wallet is full, lol I like it there too but i always am blown away at what it costs compared to other places,, but i guess you get what you pay for! Animal kingdom does sound farmiliar so i think you are right, they just moved. They always had an awesome selection of freshwater fish and plants there. They always seemed to carry the ones that are unique and you just don't see at other places. I think i do remember there being a tank or two with sw back in the day. I'm sure they have uped their stock after the move. I also feel the same way about going to chain stores like petco. I would rather pay a little more and support other "mom and pop" stores that truely enjoy the hobby and care enough that they chose to venture into the trade. I have lost many great small stores over the past 5 years that just couldn't compete with the chain stores. One man i dealt with back about 8 years ago often would say that I alone was the one keeping him in business, lol I miss that guy for sure! I always ordered everything from him. Whatever i wanted he got. Sometimes i think his prices were too low. I know, whether he would ever admit it or not, that many things i bought from him were at cost. He is the one that i ordered my current 150 gal tank from and he sold it to me for 400 dollars. Not bad for a brand new tank. I could be wrong, but i just don't see where he made a dime on me there, lol After some time though he grabbed a business partner and moved to a more populated area hoping that he would do more business. Much more of a drive than i wanted to make and one day i went to visit and the shop was closed, the lights were on over the tanks, and they were all cloudy and empty... never heard from him again! It was a sad day for me and my wallet. Once and a lifetime LFS gone.