[BeachBum843]

Yep. The only other dealer that I know of in town that carries some decent SW fish/invert stock is Coastline pet supply. They're located down at the back gate of the former AFB in that first shopping complex off of 707 (where Ben Franklyn's used to be). Steve is the guy to see down there. They keep a steady supply of reef janitors, fish and some corals. He's got a bunch of SPS frags and heads, some of which are nice. They've been working on setting up a few new rack shelves, which looks like they purchased/inherited from maybe Wal-mart since all wal-marts are going out of the fish stock business. They also carry the basics when it comes to supplies. 2/3'rds of the stock is freshwater, 1/3 salt.

David at Pet Center on the frontage road in Surfside isn't carrying that much salt these days. They're selling off what remaining liverock they still have at $3 a lb. at this time. He still has a rack of saltwater fish tanks but there's hardly any stock in them. I think they're going out of saltwater stock altogether. I did manage to pick up some Caulerpa prolifera (bladed caulerpa) in there about two weeks ago.

There was a shop up here on the north end in NMB that went out of business, called Exotic Aquarium something-or-other. They lasted about five or six months. From what I hear, they had too much overhead and had to shut down and sell off everything. They tried to carry some nice tanks and (I guess) make it on tank maintenance, but just couldn't cut the mustard. They didn't have much in stock or supplies and the shop was in a crap location with no visibility.

The one LFS I wouldn't set foot in is Animal Supply House in NMB, across from the Wal-mart shopping center. Those people are scary. They do a lot of exotic pets (herps) and dog/cat supplies, but i've gone in there and had to avoid stepping in dog crap on the floors to look at floaters un-scooped in their tanks. The fish i've bought there i'd consider rescues rather than purchases. They even had a monkey for sale in there at one point. Their markup is outrageous, so I just avoid it.

Only other game in town is Petsmart, who has no saltwater livestock and a very limited selection of dry goods.

Charleston has some nice shops. Tideline aquatics in Hannahan is a dream shop and worth the drive. Excellent selection of both freshwater and saltwater fish, inverts and supplies. They also carry high end equipment such as good quality skimmers, R/O equipment, CO2 equipment and calcium reactors. If Bruce had full time to dedicate to his shop instead of maintaining tanks all day, it'd look like Tideline.

Age of Aquariums on 17 and Savannah highway is also a decent shop. They don't carry as many supplies as Tideline but they do have a nice selection of SW fish, corals and inverts. When I drive down there, I usually go to Tideline first, then swing by AOE on the way home.

There's also supposedly a good new shop in Mt. Pleasant, but I don't know the name of it or where it's located. The next time I swing down that way, i'll ask the guys in the Charleston reef club where that shop is.