How far would you drive and have you driven....

[Seahorse man]

The furthest I've driven is from the Poconos to Atlantic City for a 150 Deep Dimension tank and stand, about 2:45 and 160 miles each way.



That depends if you live in NJ or UT. Some places out West are a tank of gas away from the nearest other "place."

For sure, out west things get pretty spread out, while I was visiting family in Kentucky, I stopped at 3 different lfs and brought some corals back with me. So much closer of a drive out there

 

[Leslie Tabor]

LDFS - Long Distance Fish Store?

I like this! Any "local" fish store for me is at minimum 1 hr 30 min...if I drive fast...

 

[Seahorse man]

Just curious. What state do you guys who have to travel for a lfs live in, I live in idaho

 

[KrisReef]

I will drive until there is no Starbucks within 5 miles of my location. Then I stop and go home

. So I never leave the city

I've reported this post. It needs to be moved to another thread "I love Coffee?"
WE HAVE RULES ON THIS SITE!!

Accidental caps seemed to work, so I left them. Ok, On a serious note I routinely drive around CA and try to stop in at the fish stores that happen to be on my route. I've diverted 20-40 miles to take in some of the good stores or to visit stores where I've known the proprietor. Being in the hobby for a few decades I've watched shops come and go. The last diversion I flew to Sacramento for a meeting and then diverted the rental car out to @YourReef (shameless plug for one of this sites supporters). SO I didn't drive 500 miles since I flew most of the way but I did fly home with some frags that were a great deal!

The sad thing was that @YourReef was at a show back in San Diego that weekend so I didn't get to say hello to John. Oh well, the frags are doing fantastic.

They don't serve Starbucks on the plane either, @Mastiffsrule so I'm wondering if you don't fly?

 

[Devaji]

well I once (in my early days of reefing) drove 5 hours from Colorado to Kansas to pick up a 240 gal tank with stand and live rock. it was not that good of a deal now that I look back on it. not bad just not great. was a glass cage tank. I love it tho.

living in wyoming there's not much out here except animals and sage brush I have to drive a min. of 1.5 hr to a LFS 4.5 if I want to visit Salt lake city area where there are a few stores to check out. 95% I just click and it shows up at my door.

also depending how good the deal is = if i will drive I would drive across the country for a free dream tank. just saying

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I've reported this post. It needs to be moved to another thread "I love Coffee?"
WE HAVE RULES ON THIS SITE!!

Accidental caps seemed to work, so I left them. Ok, On a serious note I routinely drive around CA and try to stop in at the fish stores that happen to be on my route. I've diverted 20-40 miles to take in some of the good stores or to visit stores where I've known the proprietor. Being in the hobby for a few decades I've watched shops come and go. The last diversion I flew to Sacramento for a meeting and then diverted the rental car out to @YourReef (shameless plug for one of this sites supporters). SO I didn't drive 500 miles since I flew most of the way but I did fly home with some frags that were a great deal!

The sad thing was that @YourReef was at a show back in San Diego that weekend so I didn't get to say hello to John. Oh well, the frags are doing fantastic.

They don't serve Starbucks on the plane either, @Mastiffsrule so I'm wondering if you don't fly?

 

[southerntnreefer]

65 miles one way to tear down a 265. the seller eded up dropping the tank, and giving it to me all for free. 300 lbs of live rock, 2 puffers, and some equipment.

 

[ctpeasy]

How far would you drive or have you driven for a "good deal" when it comes to livestock or a tank set up?

Give us the details! What did you buy? Where did you go? How much did it cost?

I saw a post on a dead forum that popped up. About 1 hour+ drive. Roughly 7-10k $ in acros. Tanks shut down due to a move. Got it all for $400. Turned out he had AEFW. Not sure if he was trying to hoe me dirty or not. Either way, I dipped them for 8 weeks and had massive colonies for days afterwards.

 

[All Mixed Up]

I live about 5.5 hours from WWC and have made the drive several times. Get up at 5, make it there by noon, spend an hour or so drooling over the displays, drive home and have my purchases in the tank before dinner.

I'm not crazy, you're crazy.

 

[Cassian]

I drove 16 hour round trip to pick up my dream tank.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

How far would you drive or have you driven for a "good deal" when it comes to livestock or a tank set up?

Give us the details! What did you buy? Where did you go? How much did it cost?

This was recently about a week ago, I was on the road at 2:30 a.m. going to a wholesaler(LAX) because he's about 50 miles away to beat the traffic and beat anyone else going there to buy my corals. So I bought 11 dendronephthya colonies, 2 Sun corals, 4 red chili cactus corals, 4 knuckle bone corals . Also at the same time picked up 10 pounds of mineral mud, 2 oz bottle of super glue gel,hose barb fittings, Reef Roids 120g (3),,Reef Nutrition Phyto-Feast 2 bottles. Price for everything can't say don't want to start a revolution on this forum. Retail over $1200

Some of what I bought

 

[tony'stank]

I lived in rural NW AZ for 8 years and had a reef tank. For 6 of those years there was no LFS. I would routinely drive 100 miles every 1-2 months to Las Vegas to visit their LFS. Once or twice a year I would drive 41/2 hours to Phoenix to visit and outstanding Store, Aquatouch to stock up on livestock.
Now that I live in Detroit MI I will occasionally drive 70 miles to visit Preuss Pets in Lansing, another outstanding LFS

 

[Schnizzle]

I have to drive 1.5 hours for a "decent" place and 3 hours for a good place. Times are one way. 155.6 miles to the good one.

 

[Seahorse man]

Actually, I'm just about to drive 70 miles one way to go buy some clowns, might hit the lfs while I'm there too

 

[Cory]

Going 700 kilometers for a couple of iwaki magnetic drive pumps this weekend! Plus i love the mini vacation.

 

[nautical nonsense]

Got it

 

[Peace River]

It is not uncommon for me to drive an hour or an hour and a half each way to go shopping for fish stuff. The longest drive that I can remember is 3.5 hours each way.

 

[Cayenne1]

I used to drive about a 2,000 miles round trip from Dhahran on the Arabian Gulf to Rabigh on the Red Sea to collect my critters.

Once there, I would camp and dive for a week and collect all the fish and coral I could reasonably take back the 1000 miles across the desert. This was of course years ago before the refineries and other industrial construction littered the Red Sea coastline. (1970s/80s). It was also before the wars and the radicals, sigh.

There were no LFS in Saudi Arabia back then. You had to be an ultimate DIY - build the tanks, learn to dive, learn how to catch fish on a coral reef, learn how to keep them alive, etc. I was eventually able to breed and raise some Arabian Gulf caught clownfish back in the 80's.

It was my favorite time in the hobby, but long gone.

 

[Kodock]

320 round trip for a craigslist ad near Birmingham, AL for a 75g setup. $300 included:

75g starfire tank
Custom stand
Eshopps sump
Reef octo 110-int
100 lbs of live rock
Mated pair of fancy clowns
150 gpd rodi unit with booster pump
New Viraspectras - 2
Maxspect 250 gyre
200 gallons of Reef Crystals
Miscellaneous other stuff

He had a WD and other high end SPS colonies. Giant anenomes and other softy colonies. He gave me few free frags.

When my wife and I arrived, it was in BFE Alabama. It was in a rundown trailer park. When we got there, there was a giant face tatted guy, welding in a shed, with a 44 magnum on the table. He gave us the dirtiest look. I looked at my wife and said, “We are going to die here today, over a fish tank. We’re going to be robbed from a fish tank ad.” She looked at me and said “Oh well, we had a good run.”

The trailer was falling apart. I believe about 8 people lived in it. Two windows were boarded up and there was a tarp duck taped to the wall where a sliding glass door used to be.When I walked in side, the floor was rotten, it smelt like death, 30 empty pizza boxes stacked up and molded food everywhere, 4 malnourished dogs, one of which just urinated on the floor which they just threw newspaper over. There were 2 dirty, screaming babies* in those dinner table child seats, 3 feet from the tv.

When he took us to the aquarium room, the tank area was pristine, the display was gorgeous, completely organized, clean, just immaculate. The corals were like something out of a magazine. No trash, no rot. We assumed that they just spent all of their money on this tank. It was the Cadillac of setups. I wish I still had a picture. I felt bad for the kids. I gave the guy an extra $100, because I felt like he basically was giving it away and they probably needed it.