LFS in the New River Valley area

[CaptainDave]

Hello everyone,
I just moved to Blacksburg, VA (grad school) from Knoxville, TN, and am leaving behind my two favorite LFS. Where do you guys shop around here? Or do you mail order mostly? I'm converting my FOWLR to a reef setup, and need to find a reliable, reputable store. Thanks for the help!

[mbort]

Something's Fishy in Roanoke (Brambleton Ave.)
Zooquatic (Blacksburg)
C&P Pets (Christiansburg)

C&P mostly has fish only with just a few corals. Somethings Fishy and Zooquatic have both corals and fish (Somethings Fishy is exclusively saltwater). Either can order most anything you need.

I have personally had my best experience with Jeremy at Somethings Fishy, but it is quite a distance away, and I do frequent the other 2 stores.

[CaptainDave]

I can't say I was too impressed with Zooquatics. I did find Something's Fishy just the other day, and I talked to Jeremy, who was quite nice. Their stock was a little low, but Jeremy said that day's shipment hadn't come. I was a little disappointed with their selection of corals - only one tank that I saw. Other thanthat, the store looked nice. Anyone had any experience at PetLand or Pet City in Roanoke? Those were the other two that my searches had turned up, but I haven't been able to get over there to check them out. Thanks for all the info guys.

mbort , you're a homebrewer huh? I'm going to move all my brewing up here in the next month or so, although I doubt I'll have much time once school starts, and I think I'm about to sink most of my extra cash into my tank! I'm almost out of my raspberry wheat, though, and I'm sure gonna miss it once it's gone.

[mbort]

Capn,

Yeah, I homebrew. I am actually keeping my buddy's system right now. We once had 45 lbs of grain in it to do ~18 gallons of a 7.5% IPA. It was really packed full though. Generally, I do extract brews myself, but since brewing on his system, I will never go back. He recently brewed a Belgian brown that is ready to keg .. let me know if you want to come over, it would be an excuse to keg it and start drinking it.

As far as LFS, Jeremy is in the process of changing some things around in his store. I think he is planning a frag tank, a coral system, and then a main fish system. It will help him get a lot more in stock. I know that if you want something in particular, he is more than happy to order it for you.

As far as Pet City, they generally have relatively high prices. I cannot attest to the robustness of their livestock, as I have never bought anything there. Petland has a similar problem with prices, and every time I've been there (well, all of 3 times) the tanks looked extremely overgrown and most everything was dead or dying.

[CaptainDave]

Yes, i wasn't too impressed with Petland, I probably won't go back. I was/am going to call Jeremy about this, but do you know a place here in Blacksburg/Christiansburg/Roanoke where I can get my tank drilled? The more I read, the more leary I become of those overflows and flooding my apartment.

I'd love to come over and help with the kegging, I don't have a whole lot to do right now and I've never kegged a homebrew, so it would be good experience. I want to start learning to mash, but right now I don't have the room, time, or cash flow. Someday. Let me know if you guys decide to keg anytime soon.

[manderx]

i've drilled a few tanks with my dremel/diamond bits. i'm actually helping someone drill their tank this evening (6-7) at my place. give me a call at either 951-8870 (before 5) or 552-4439 (after 5) if you want to join in on the fun. i live out just off harding- 3 miles from downtown blacksburg.

-matt

[mbort]

Matt drilled out a 40 breeder for my new fuge this weekend. We picked up some bits that work like magic.
He does a great job, and these new bits make it easy.

As far as kegging, give me a call. I'll pm my # to you.

If you use the right overflows, they really do work pretty well. I have two that I was using, and I never had any problem with them whatsoever. one is Lifereef, other is Amiracle. Let me know if you change your mind, I can give you a good deal on either one.

[CaptainDave]

sorry i missed the fun guys, i had a work thing i couldn't miss. matt, i may get in touch with you anyway for some pointers about drilling my tank. one thing i was thinking about the other day, and this may be a stupid question....do they sell the overflow walls separately, or do most people make their own?

mike, i'm still considering just using a hang-on overflow, so if i do i'll probably pick one up from you if they're still available.

guys, let me know when the next reefclub meeting is and i'll try to make it, or is there a post in here about meetings? i'm subscribed to this forum.

thanks for all of your help.

[manderx]

brad (nvert) bought a overflow wall off the net somewhere that he glued into a tank himself. looked nice, but seemed expensive ($45 i think).

i'm about to drill my 30 cube and put in some sort of pretty overflow without taking up too much tank space. i'll probably use a small box that is just big enough to clamp against the side of the tank around the bulkhead hole. but i still want to put a bunch more thought into it before i go ahead and drill. it was pretty pricey ($130) so i don't want to do anything i'll regret.

[manderx]

i'll be free again on friday evening to do some drilling, or if you want to just borrow the bits and dremel and do it yourself, i can bring them into work (main street) and you can pick them up whenever. it's *really* easy to do, you just need to do it outside so you can keep a constant spray of water on it. the only thing to really watch for is if you accidentally skitter the bit across the glass it'll scuff it up good. i'll probably start masking around the hole with duct tape to protect against it on any future drilling i do. it's only happened once for me, luckily it was on the inside of the hole, not the outside so it didn't hurt anything.

[CaptainDave]

I'll probably look around and see how much overflows are. i'll be out of town this weekend, and i haven't yet convinced myself that I want to drill my tank. Mike has me thinking about using an overflow box.

[mbort]

Overflows are not real expensive (especially used). New Amiracles are about $40, new Lifereefs are $99 (expensive but nice). The Lifereef seems to be able to handle a bit more flow than the Amiracle (it has a larger radius U-tube and slightly different design).

I would encourage drilling the tank, as long as you KNOW that you want the hole in your tank at the location you choose. If you have any doubts, or plan on using the tank for something else in the future, then overflow boxes are nice.

[CaptainDave]

i suppose i should have been more specific when i said i wanted to price overflows....i was talking about the walls you use inside your tank when you drill it, and i'm not exactly sure what they're called.....can anyone point me in the direction of some on the 'net? i can't recall ever seeing them for sale on any of the sites i've used.

[manderx]

found it:
http://www.wetdryfilter.com/internal_overflow_boxes.htm

-they seem rediculousy expensive to me. and if you have a tank less than 75 gallons, they take up way too much space in my opinion.

/edit: just noticed that it's free shipping.

[CaptainDave]

thanks matt, that does seem kind of expensive, shipping or no, for a piece of acrylic. i'm now leaning towards an overflow box, although that's gonna take up more space on the back of my tank that could be used for a refugium (i'm gonna have to do a hang-on due to space), although i suppose there will be extra room in my tank - you're right matt, those things are huge! mike, i might be interested in one of those overflows after all. thanks for all your help guys, you've been invaluable.

as long as we're changing subjects in this thread, do you guys have pre-fabricated sumps or did you make one? they're so crazy expensive, i've been thinking about just making myself one out of acrylic, especially since i won't be using bio-balls and what-have-you. i believe i just need space for a skimmer, and water volume. i'm planning on letting my live rock and refugium do the bio-filtration.

the only difficult part that i can foresee is perhaps building a pre-filter? is that even needed if there's a pre-filter on the overflow box? maybe one of these days i'll get all my questions answered and quit bugging you guys.

i'm beginning to think maybe i should just have a plan-Dave's-reef meeting at my apartment.

[manderx]

i use a 40 breeder. it holds my heater, skimmer, and some macro-algae. i think mike has a few store-bought ones that he's been trying to sell.

[CaptainDave]

well, it mike keeps trying to sell me stuff, i'm not going to need to find a LFS. i need lighting too, mike got any of that? haha

in all seriousness, i think i would be interested in some of your used stuff, mike. i'll give you a call sometime next week and we can talk about equipment and kegging.

[mbort]

why yes, I do have some lighting for sale. In fact, I am considering ditching my two 175 watt halides. and I got a bunch of VHO bulbs. Also got a chiller. Maybe I should start an LFS :rollface:

In all seriousness, I have a lot of stuff that I have collected over time, much of which is not being used. If anyone needs something, please feel free to pm me, I just might have it lying around. manderx also seems to have a lot of extra stuff sitting around, but it kills him to have extra equipment without extra tanks, so he now has .. well, how many tanks are you up to now Matt? :D