The Fish Store - ATL

[justdeb1107]

Has anyone taken a "field trip" to The Fish Store in Atlanta? If so, was it worth the drive? I just got back in the hobby, and am sad to see we only have one saltwater store in Bham anymore. Michael at Reef Life has been super helpful, but I would love to have more selection. Hate to buy online without seeing stuff in person. Even WYSIWYG it's hard to tell how big or how nice something is.

 

[CrimsonTide]

I haven't made the trip yet but I had someone who lives in ATL make me a list and there's about 6 or so stores I'm going to go see sometime in the next month. I can send you the list the sent me if you want.

 

[justdeb1107]

I haven't made the trip yet but I had someone who lives in ATL make me a list and there's about 6 or so stores I'm going to go see sometime in the next month. I can send you the list the sent me if you want.

Sure, thanks! I hate Atlanta traffic, so if I'm going it might as well be worth my while.

 

[CrimsonTide]

Oh also welcome to R2R!

 

[justdeb1107]

Oh also welcome to R2R!

Thank you! I had to laugh at the acronym for the Bham group (BARF). Love it!

 

[CrimsonTide]

Thank you! I had to laugh at the acronym for the Bham group (BARF). Love it!

We are BARF!!!!!!

 

[justdeb1107]

We are BARF!!!!!!

lolol

 

[CrimsonTide]

This is the exact post he sent me these are his recommendations.

"Reefshac is the one I keep going back to - very much an sps / lps kinda of a place that has some fish but that’s not focus, softies are an after thought.

Premier aquatics is ok - a bit of everything, I’m guessing much of their business is servicing tanks - prices and variety better at reef Shac. Fish better here

Nemo’s aquarium is large, good variety and larger pieces too. Prices not bad either. Fish and coral in equal measure. Have clams too.

Southern aquatics - once a reef store and now they seem to have left over tanks with some left over frags. Shame it’s the closest to me.

The fish store - I can never go back. It’s like a Hong Kong wet market only not clean. That said I bet the fish are hardy to survive that place. Again I think this place services tanks and this is maybe their storage yard.

Pure reef - by far the most polished. Smaller more curated collection, large and small frags and the best display tanks, almost unreal. Have a lot of equipment - a lot. And they really know their stuff.

Reefshac is where I’m at in the hobby at the moment - they have a pretty decent wysiwyg site as well."


Looks like there's 6 to check out. So thats a great place to start. Being its a 2hr drive I wouldn't just go for one store. I would make a day of it. A fun day at the fish shops.

 

[CrimsonTide]

Also next month there will be a reef show in Birmingham where you can buy coral that you see in person.

Not sure if you knew about it or not.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

I did a trip to Atlanta a couple years ago and hit up 4 stores. For such a huge metro I was pretty disappointed with my day there. Like obviously Birmingham doesn't hold a candle to it, but I thought it was going to be closer to visiting stores when I'm back home in Tampa.

Reef Shac - Best mix of corals & fish. Smallest shop but everyone was helpful and you can get some solid deals.
Atlanta Aquarium - Store is super huge and I ended up buying a ton of stuff here. Would say this has more generic corals but thought everything was well priced.
The Fish Store - Pretty sketchy store, as others have mentioned. Took me like an hour to get someone to help me buy one coral.
Pure Reef - Really nice store but the prices were so out of control I ended up not buying anything, and felt it wasn't worth driving so far out of the way

 

[mayham72]

Has anyone taken a "field trip" to The Fish Store in Atlanta? If so, was it worth the drive? I just got back in the hobby, and am sad to see we only have one saltwater store in Bham anymore. Michael at Reef Life has been super helpful, but I would love to have more selection. Hate to buy online without seeing stuff in person. Even WYSIWYG it's hard to tell how big or how nice something is.

I would check out pure reef in Alpharetta one of the cleanest stores you will find..Great staff too