Let's see the best LFS's around.

i have to go check them out thats about a 70 min drive
these guys have been great to me not a verry large shop but verry helpfull
Home @ petconnectionmi.com

also one of my better lfs
Tropicorium Specializing in Live Coral Live Rock Mini Reefs

 

Elite Reef outside of Denver isn't too shabby. Elite Reef | Denver Colorado | Marine Aquarium Store | Coral Frags | Salt Water Fish | Nano Cubes I don't have any pics but I also know that a few of their employees are on this forum.

 

Great, then bust out the camera/phone and take some pics! I don't want to see what the store wants me to see. I want to see what I will see when I'm there. It doesn't take some fancy camera. I took the pics and added them to my photobucket account right from my phone. Keep in mind that those pics are from a 2.0 MP camera in my 3 year old iphone 3g. We in this hobby are visually stimulated and we all would like to see some cool pics.

 

I will update this post when I take some pictures. What I saw in gcarrols post that we do not have in the SF Bay Area is a sweet ambiance, leather sofas in front of tanks? You can barely get by a person looking at a tank, it's a tight fit, and I'm not a round guy. In this area a lot of places have closed down, some have downsized. The best ones are
Milpitas: Neptunes for coral and ever expanding dry goods. One store you can buy everything you need for a reef, and have an impressive list of equipment.

Union City: Atlantis Aquarium: has seen a drop in business, and for awhile, I thought he would shut down. He has been updating his site weekly, so maybe there is a new fire being lit.

Hayward: Aquatic Collections: Very cool guys run this shop, mainly wild/maricultured corals. A lot of their business is online, and they have a special room for shipping. A great place to have ship corals. Great deal, that can't be beat. They carry more dry goods, but with a Hydroponic shop next door, at least for ballasts, you can get most items in that strip mall.


SF: Aquatic Central, has the most aquacultured coral of all these places. Lots of chalices and acros. Good dry good selection too.

All the above stores can get anything we want, all we have to do is ask, and they will match most online retailers, if not beat them. The other thing is there are a few guys who run places in their homes...One in particular, makes you feel like you are about to make some illicit deal, when you walk in, it opens up into the most humid room imaginable...great prices on quality fish. Never lost a single fish from there. Examples, Flame Wrasses 50.00 Lineatus: 130.00 Emperor Angel juv: 20.00

 

Thanks a lot guys/gals. Now that my kids are no longer in a stroller we plan to do much more traveling around the US. Since my kids like fish too it's a good idea to make an extra stop while i'm in town as well!

 

I am bumping this. I hope others chime in. For someone new to this hobby, it would be nice to see what's around the area you live in.