Hi all, great idea on the new club, maybe some new ideas will stir things up around here a bit.
My name is Matt, I've been in Vegas about 6 years now but grew up about 100 miles north of here. I started in the fishkeeping hobby about 15 years ago, not counting goldfish as a child. It all started with a 20L set up on the kitchen counter, when freshwater lost its appeal I switched it to saltwater, that was it! 11 tanks later in a 1 bedroom apartment I decided to do it for a living.
I opened and operated a LFS in southern Utah, ran it for almost 7 years. Expanded it into quite a large commercial maintenance business and had several 1000+ gallon installations in clubhouses, casinos and even a 1500 gallon "L" shaped tank in the town hall of a small town in southern Utah. Needless to say, I had no life to speak of aside from work, something had to change so I sold the business and have shunned the aquatics industry ever since.
Until about 3 months ago that is............I took my son to a LFS to kill some time, saw a little 12 gallon bowfront on sale, put a retrofit PC light system in it, and the rest is history. I was a reformed reefkeeper but I fell off the wagon. Its now been less than 90 days and I have about $3k worth of equipment sitting in my living room ready for me to start plumbing, sad isnt it
When I first started this hobby I was addicted to visiting every LFS in Salt Lake City and surrounding areas (this is where I lived when I was infected with the fishkeeping bug). I learned when and what time each store in a 60 mile radius got their new shipments in and I was there usually within an hour or two of its arrival. Unfortunatly Las Vegas does not have even one LFS I would consider worth visiting, I hold LFS's to a much higher standard now and there are none here even mediocre. I have taken to driving to CA once in a while to get my "fix". I have found a little shop, only about 3 months old, that has excellent livestock, great prices, and knowledgable staff! Yes I know its hard to believe, really its true! Anyway, I bring this up just to let you all know that if you need or want anything from a decent shop i'll probably head down there at least monthly to spend a day LFS browsing, I go through withdrawals if I dont do this at least monthly.
OK OK I ADMIT it, I hit the local stores at least weekly as well, I cant fight the urge. Every once in a while I get there while they are unpacking shipments and I have purchased most of my stuff still in the bag (this from ATM, better in 24 hour old bag water than 1 min in their systems).
Whoa, strayed off subject a bit, sorry. I'll post my life story later
Amy: Im a photography n00b, but seeing your photos I can tell I'm going to have a million questions for you. I really want to document my newest system from its birthday until it becomes a sump for my next one, but I have problems with photography, scares me.
Jeff: You and Amy have your work cut out for you. Valiant effort though, and I will definatly try to be an active part of it.
Mike: Been following your thread since I found this board, well done, you got skills man, I'm jealous. Gratz on the new youngster, I'm quite fond of them myself, I have 3 and 1 in the oven. Well, my wife has one in the oven, 5 months along
Drew: Nice job, I also thing that space is perfect for a 120g, perhaps 180 if you knock out some drywall. You can borrow my tools if i can help you design the new 240g your gonna put in that spot. Did I say 300g? I meant 450. See how easy it is to upgrade
