SEASL Folks, how was the Inland Aquatics Tour?

[Nanook]

I would have loved to gone there with everyone. How was the facility? What made the trip worthwhile? How does it compare to a LFS? Thanks for the opinions!!


Nanook

[big red]

From the outside, the building itself looks like a big metal farm shed. The retail store is of average size (compared to the larger stores here in STL). However, the best part was clearly the "back room". The rest of the building (behind the retail store) is what makes the place special.
I think they have 4 separate systems (algae scrubbers and no water changes). Many tanks are dedicated to fish brood stock and wild caught fish. The 'tank' that makes you say WOW is a large lookdown fiberglass tub that holds many corals used as mother colonies. They have another large holding tub for grow-out of frags and yet another for softies (may have even been one more for misc.).
The people were great. Although we (I think there were 15 SEASL people) were there on the busiest day of the week, we were given extra attention.
Many people bought fish and/or mounted frags. However the fun part was standing at the side of the SPS tub (small pool) and pointing to mother colonies and asking for a frag. Our guide would then tap or snap a piece of the colony with surgeon like touch.
Comparing to a local LFS is not fair because they are very large. However, if you are looking for something specific, I think we in STL are very fortunate to have the stores/selection in the area.


Thanks Jim C. for setting up a great road trip (and please remember me when those frags get big enough to tap a piece my way;)!

[TooFar2Sea]

The trip was great. The "back room" itself was worth the trip. I am surprised that Scott didn't mention the lab, with its hundreds of baby clownfish and containers of green water the size of phone booths. Imagine the "test tubes" that the Joker and Riddler used to store Batman and Robin in and you have some idea of the scale of these things.
The main facility was row after row after row of grow out tanks punctuated by tubs (the word does not do them justice) the size of small swimming pools. The air was full of the smell of saltwater and the sounds of dozens of large algae turf scrubbers and surge buckets emptying into the various tubs. Although my examination of the plumbing mainly involved trying not to trip on the PVC that ran everywhere, I don't recall seeing any protein skimmers. They rely on the ATS for filtration along with sandbeds and live rock. They supplement the water movement of the ATS with surges from barrels as high as 20 feet in the air (do not try this at home). One of the systems uses an Archimedes screw to lift water. This is also super sized and at least 20 feet long. Animals in the room include a pair of batfish the size of real bats and leather corals as big as the 55 gallon barrels used to surge water on them.
I would recommend a trip to Inland Aquatics to anyone in the reef keeping hobby, especially those interested in propagation.

[Nanook]

Thanks for the comments!

Nanook