Pictures of LFS in Southern California

[Cymaster007]

Here are some pics of the stores I frequent here in Southern Cali, I would like to see what some of the shops look like in Canada, please post up your pics too!

Starting w/ one of my favorite- ReefRaft USA
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[Cymaster007]

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[Cymaster007]

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[rynoe]

They look nothing like that. Very impressive selection.

[Cymaster007]

Coral Island - the shop owner is really nice, its a bit smaller than reef raft and doesnt have the big $$ corals but still fun to visit.
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[Cymaster007]

Next is Sexy Corals, this shop always has nice corals posted online, the shop itself though never seems to be really well maintained... but again a nice shop owner.

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[Cymaster007]

I had a chance to stop by the Aquatica shop while down in San Diego and was pleasantly surprised. The shop is super-clean, the coral is all really healthy and there was a large variety of coral- the sps selection was very good! Prices ranged from 10$ up to 300$ depending on size and type. Dave the owner was really nice and walked me through the equipment they are using and the types of coral they are stocking-
IShop is lit by LED's and I took these pics w/ the camera on my phone.


They make their own water w/ a 1400gpd RO/DI system, all setups are simple, bio pellets, skimmer and UV so the tanks were super clean- I didnt see any pests or bad algae. They also quarantine all of their fish before allowing them to be sold

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[Cymaster007]

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[Cymaster007]

SPS Coral Store- it deff has the high-end SPS without a high-end price tag-
From here I have picked up:
WWC Somewhere over the rainbow milli
Vivids Rainbow Acro
Indigo Amigo
Orange Austrailian Acro-

The 500g display tank has beeaauuutiful colonies that Aaron grew out over the past few years.

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[Cymaster007]

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[Cymaster007]

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[Cymaster007]

They look nothing like that. Very impressive selection.
What are your shops like?
I think there are 2-3 other good shops that I like to go to, I will try to take pics in the next week or so and add to this. The ones I posted pics of are the shops that are nicer and more coral oriented. Almost all of them were within 30-45 minutes of each other (without traffic on the freeway)

[Kryptic4L]

Wow some killer frag racks . I don't personally have any photos of the local shops . I'm sure someone will chime in though. How ever I can hit every shop here in calgary within hour or two, they are pretty condensed in location.

[pinkreef]

WOW! we don't nearly have the selection here and you have many of each type to choose from, we don't. victoria has only 3 stores that sell reef fish & corals.:shocked!:

[windcoast reefs]

Wow nice stuff! I wish we had selection like that here.

[The Grizz]

Thats just wrong showing us Canadians stores like that, there is nothing in Alberta that can even compare to any of those store IMO.

[mohammadali]

beautiful LPS and nice colors and nice pics
thanks for sharing

[lastlight]

lol looks like reef raft has more frags than all of our LFS country-wide COMBINED!

WOW my wallet is happy to be Canadian!

[sphelps]

I seem to recall some pictures showing pretty decent stores in Ontario. I'd also be curious what Bayside Corals in Saskatoon looks like since the latest renos.

The problem with us is the market isn't quite the same, we Canadians don't tend to be willing to spend quite as much as the Americans do and it costs significantly more to get things up here plus general overhead is more, restate I would guess being close to double then comes the higher cost of heating, humidity management, water and so forth. The end result is skinny profits meaning bare bones type of setups.

[reefermadness]

Ya our stores in toronto are not as fancy and less frag oriented...altough you can get some nice corals at a few stores.

[kien]

Ya our stores in toronto are not as fancy and less frag oriented...altough you can get some nice corals at a few stores.

And if you consider the fact that Toronto is the centre of our universe, well, imagine what the market is like for the rest of Canada :cry:

I believe that there was one store in Calgary that was going to become the "Reef Raft" of Calgary and specialize in high end, "Limited Edition", "Designer" / Hard-to-find corals but that doesn't appear to be coming to fruition, sadly.

I think Red Coral with its new space was on its way to becoming something rather significant in the trade but, well, we all know what happened there :cry:

[globaldesigns]

Thats just wrong showing us Canadians stores like that, there is nothing in Alberta that can even compare to any of those store IMO.

I agree 100%, Canadians don't get the same selection. We also don't get the same pricing, and tend to pay so much more for everything to do with marine.

[ScubaSteve]

I agree 100%, Canadians don't get the same selection. We also don't get the same pricing, and tend to pay so much more for everything to do with marine.

Err... I think that applies to just about anything... It sucks.

[reefermadness]

And if you consider the fact that Toronto is the centre of our universe, well, imagine what the market is like for the rest of Canada :cry:

I believe that there was one store in Calgary that was going to become the "Reef Raft" of Calgary and specialize in high end, "Limited Edition", "Designer" / Hard-to-find corals but that doesn't appear to be coming to fruition, sadly.

I think Red Coral with its new space was on its way to becoming something rather significant in the trade but, well, we all know what happened there :cry:i dont think the market here is what you guys think it is though...only a couple stores into nice corals.

I agree 100%, Canadians don't get the same selection. We also don't get the same pricing, and tend to pay so much more for everything to do with marine.
Ask how much some of those frags are and i think you would be shocked at the pricing of the rare stuff....especially chalice....much, much higher.

[ensquire]

I would be broke and homeless if there were stores like that here LOL

[Cymaster007]

A couple of the frags at reef raft are $500 for 1/2" like the wolverine and red diablo acros. The dynamite chalice is over $500 for a single eye. Sexy corals has some acans for $150 a head.

But in a majority of the shops here frags average $20-40. There isn't much over $100 a frag.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[fishoholic]

Thats just wrong showing us Canadians stores like that, there is nothing in Alberta that can even compare to any of those store IMO.

Agreed

lol looks like reef raft has more frags than all of our LFS country-wide COMBINED!

WOW my wallet is happy to be Canadian!

I would be broke and homeless if there were stores like that here LOL

Also agree!