WA98296
Well-known member
Today hubby and I took a trek to check out a shop here in Washington state. What a great day we had! We’re totally new, so finding LFS has been a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to seeing them all. We thought maybe those from other areas might like to hear about what we found here.
We decided to visit The Shark Reef, a short ferry ride away from us. We were totally surprised, actually blown away with its setting. We had no idea that we would find this shop nestled in the stunning landscaped acreage of Clear Creek Nursery. The nursery is not merely a place to buy a few plants, it is a destination! The grounds include a large pond, a waterfall, beautiful boulder landscaping, along with fabulous plants and shrubs. We easily could have spent the entire day just wandering the grounds. Inside the main building we discovered the 500-gallon reef tank. It was amazing! The amount of rock work and caves was awesome. Also in the main building were amazingly strange and wondrous imported items, for instance two full-size replica Sarcophagus (I always wondered where to shop for those). Outside more unique items. Most impressive were actual weather-worn pilings in groups of three -- complete with rusted chain! Several large sets to choose from -- the real deal no replica on these. These will serve as a major focal point for someone’s nautical landscape and were priced much lower than we expected.
The Shark Reef itself is tucked into the hillside, just in the shadow of the water-tower waterfall. Situated in a rustic, cottage-like building it offers its own remarkable ambiance. We were welcomed to the shop by the owner who took plenty of time giving us pointers about lighting, live rock, and setting up our system. He was kind enough not to laugh at our newbie questions and was easy to talk to.
We enjoyed looking at the extraordinary array of fishes. Okay, to be honest I wasn’t that excited about those particular ones that look like HUGE snakes (too scary), but other than that I liked all of it! We easily could have spent hours in there had it not been for our Tahoe load of Boxer dogs.
It was exciting for us to see what can be supported in tanks with Power Compact lights, since that’ s what we’ll have. There were anemones, and species that looked like glowing fiber optic wonders.
We are so lucky to have shops like this within our area, I can hardly wait to have our system up and running -- and, we can hardly wait to visit some more Reef Frontier sponsors! If it wasn’t for this board we would never have discovered just how many resources there are.
Connie
We decided to visit The Shark Reef, a short ferry ride away from us. We were totally surprised, actually blown away with its setting. We had no idea that we would find this shop nestled in the stunning landscaped acreage of Clear Creek Nursery. The nursery is not merely a place to buy a few plants, it is a destination! The grounds include a large pond, a waterfall, beautiful boulder landscaping, along with fabulous plants and shrubs. We easily could have spent the entire day just wandering the grounds. Inside the main building we discovered the 500-gallon reef tank. It was amazing! The amount of rock work and caves was awesome. Also in the main building were amazingly strange and wondrous imported items, for instance two full-size replica Sarcophagus (I always wondered where to shop for those). Outside more unique items. Most impressive were actual weather-worn pilings in groups of three -- complete with rusted chain! Several large sets to choose from -- the real deal no replica on these. These will serve as a major focal point for someone’s nautical landscape and were priced much lower than we expected.
The Shark Reef itself is tucked into the hillside, just in the shadow of the water-tower waterfall. Situated in a rustic, cottage-like building it offers its own remarkable ambiance. We were welcomed to the shop by the owner who took plenty of time giving us pointers about lighting, live rock, and setting up our system. He was kind enough not to laugh at our newbie questions and was easy to talk to.
We enjoyed looking at the extraordinary array of fishes. Okay, to be honest I wasn’t that excited about those particular ones that look like HUGE snakes (too scary), but other than that I liked all of it! We easily could have spent hours in there had it not been for our Tahoe load of Boxer dogs.
It was exciting for us to see what can be supported in tanks with Power Compact lights, since that’ s what we’ll have. There were anemones, and species that looked like glowing fiber optic wonders.
We are so lucky to have shops like this within our area, I can hardly wait to have our system up and running -- and, we can hardly wait to visit some more Reef Frontier sponsors! If it wasn’t for this board we would never have discovered just how many resources there are.
Connie
