jnarowe
Beer-a-holic
So there was some action in another forum and things got out-of-hand. I am posting in this forum because it matters to me what local PSAS members took away from that other thread.
To clarify some issues about myself:
I am in the aquarium business, although not at a very active level yet. Many of you know that I had a stroke and cannot work in my retail store. I have turned to helping other aquarium keepers as a means to stay productive and do something I really am passionate about. I have never told any supplier that I have an aquarium store. There's just no need for that. What I tell themis exaclty what I wrote above.
I do consult on aquarium projects. I do sell marine animals, rock, and corals at discounted prices. I am on a personal crusade to change the way rock is sold to consumers because the industry has convinced consumers that they are selling live rock when, IMO, they are selling rock that has had all life killed off of it with the exception of very hardy bacteria because it is kept in tanks with inadequate flow and light. The whole "cured" rock idea makes my head spin. Rock doesn't need to be "cured" and why pay top dollar for dead (cured) rock? Of course, when you buy what I call real live rock, you also can get bad hitch-hikers like predatory shrimp and crabs. I believe that those can be managed while still getting tons of great life on the rock. It's more work to deal with, but the rewards are great.
To me, real live rock has all kinds of life on it including multiple colors of coraline algae, macroa algae, pods, sponges, clams, oysters, corals, and more. Here is a picture of what it looks like:
This rock came in with yellow, green, orange, red, blue, and purple coraline algae. It also had various corals, thorny oysters, macro algae, sponges and some animals like stomatella.
Rock wholesales between $1.49 and $2.85/lb. and sells for roughly $5 - $12 depending on the retailer. When I buy rock I stipulate that the boxes not be opened and I encourage others to do the same. Selling "cherry picked" rock has become popular and a way for the retailer to upcharge but what you are really getting is rock boxes that have been opened, your order filled, and all the good stuff kept to be sold in the store.
I also am on a crusade to change the way inverts are sold in the hobby as the majority are either not reef safe or incompatible with captive tanks. I do this as a registered desirable invertebrate breeder through the DIBS program. Curently my DIBS animals are being purchased and sent to start-up breeders around the country but once we have established a breeder network, I will have more freedom to sell them locally. My first shipment was roughly 300 snails including stomatella, DIBS Turbo sp., columbellids, and nerites, all captive bred in my system. I started with just a dozen of these snails and now have thousands.
These snails have certain advantages over what is moslty sold in the hobby:
1. They are true warm water inverts.
2. They can get up if they fall down.
3. They breed in captivity.
4. They stay relatively small.
5. They have longer life spans.
Anyone who wants to see them can come by and visit.
I also try to innovate equipment and am the first person I know of that has built a multi-media reactor. Here is a pic of it:
This is a pic of the prototype unit and does not have the baskets installed to let people see where stuff goes. The unit shown is much larger than what a typical reef would need and that's a key issue. This reactor can be sized to fit under an aquarium and combine 3 or 4 reactors into one slim footprint, saving money and valuable space. AND it works really well.
The input is from a manifold driven by a return pump, but it can also be fed with and overflow or sump pump. The first chamber is 4" of reusable floss and 5 lbs. of carbon. Most of the flow is bled off with just a little going into the next chambers. That is an Eheim recirc pump on top that constantly draws from the top and returns through the bottom making both Ca chambers upflow and maximizing CO2 use. Then the flow goes into a Rowa chamber and the effluent comes out into a filter sock and into the sump. The effluent is flowing very slowly. This unit keeps my 1,200g tank at the proper Ca levels and I matched it to a nice kalk stirrer top-off from Barr Aquatic.
One other person got caught up in that other thread and I want to make sure that PSAS members understand that Sherman is a straight talking reefing wiz. He builds and buys skimmers like there's no tomorrow and the ones he buys he modifies to make them work better. He has built impressive intake mufflers too. Anyone would be lucky to have a skimmer Sherman built, but that is a tough business with all the import skimmers on the market now.
He does sell a lot of aquarium related products, and mostly on E-Bay. I buy stuff from him because he has really good prices. Much better than online retailers. He sells beckett parts, lots of filter socks, and he has totally kick butt super glue gel in large tubes that can be sealed and reused many times. Yay! Sherman is a really good guy, has a fabulous reef, and is a real go-to guy when it comes to good advice on equipment, water chemistry, and husbandry. And he gives advice without being long-winded or condescending.
Anyone with any question about that other thread, or anything I have written here, please feel free to post or PM. I don't like the way that turned out, but I cannot let defamatory stuff go unanswered.
To clarify some issues about myself:
I am in the aquarium business, although not at a very active level yet. Many of you know that I had a stroke and cannot work in my retail store. I have turned to helping other aquarium keepers as a means to stay productive and do something I really am passionate about. I have never told any supplier that I have an aquarium store. There's just no need for that. What I tell themis exaclty what I wrote above.
I do consult on aquarium projects. I do sell marine animals, rock, and corals at discounted prices. I am on a personal crusade to change the way rock is sold to consumers because the industry has convinced consumers that they are selling live rock when, IMO, they are selling rock that has had all life killed off of it with the exception of very hardy bacteria because it is kept in tanks with inadequate flow and light. The whole "cured" rock idea makes my head spin. Rock doesn't need to be "cured" and why pay top dollar for dead (cured) rock? Of course, when you buy what I call real live rock, you also can get bad hitch-hikers like predatory shrimp and crabs. I believe that those can be managed while still getting tons of great life on the rock. It's more work to deal with, but the rewards are great.
To me, real live rock has all kinds of life on it including multiple colors of coraline algae, macroa algae, pods, sponges, clams, oysters, corals, and more. Here is a picture of what it looks like:
This rock came in with yellow, green, orange, red, blue, and purple coraline algae. It also had various corals, thorny oysters, macro algae, sponges and some animals like stomatella.
Rock wholesales between $1.49 and $2.85/lb. and sells for roughly $5 - $12 depending on the retailer. When I buy rock I stipulate that the boxes not be opened and I encourage others to do the same. Selling "cherry picked" rock has become popular and a way for the retailer to upcharge but what you are really getting is rock boxes that have been opened, your order filled, and all the good stuff kept to be sold in the store.
I also am on a crusade to change the way inverts are sold in the hobby as the majority are either not reef safe or incompatible with captive tanks. I do this as a registered desirable invertebrate breeder through the DIBS program. Curently my DIBS animals are being purchased and sent to start-up breeders around the country but once we have established a breeder network, I will have more freedom to sell them locally. My first shipment was roughly 300 snails including stomatella, DIBS Turbo sp., columbellids, and nerites, all captive bred in my system. I started with just a dozen of these snails and now have thousands.
These snails have certain advantages over what is moslty sold in the hobby:
1. They are true warm water inverts.
2. They can get up if they fall down.
3. They breed in captivity.
4. They stay relatively small.
5. They have longer life spans.
Anyone who wants to see them can come by and visit.
I also try to innovate equipment and am the first person I know of that has built a multi-media reactor. Here is a pic of it:
This is a pic of the prototype unit and does not have the baskets installed to let people see where stuff goes. The unit shown is much larger than what a typical reef would need and that's a key issue. This reactor can be sized to fit under an aquarium and combine 3 or 4 reactors into one slim footprint, saving money and valuable space. AND it works really well.
The input is from a manifold driven by a return pump, but it can also be fed with and overflow or sump pump. The first chamber is 4" of reusable floss and 5 lbs. of carbon. Most of the flow is bled off with just a little going into the next chambers. That is an Eheim recirc pump on top that constantly draws from the top and returns through the bottom making both Ca chambers upflow and maximizing CO2 use. Then the flow goes into a Rowa chamber and the effluent comes out into a filter sock and into the sump. The effluent is flowing very slowly. This unit keeps my 1,200g tank at the proper Ca levels and I matched it to a nice kalk stirrer top-off from Barr Aquatic.
One other person got caught up in that other thread and I want to make sure that PSAS members understand that Sherman is a straight talking reefing wiz. He builds and buys skimmers like there's no tomorrow and the ones he buys he modifies to make them work better. He has built impressive intake mufflers too. Anyone would be lucky to have a skimmer Sherman built, but that is a tough business with all the import skimmers on the market now.
He does sell a lot of aquarium related products, and mostly on E-Bay. I buy stuff from him because he has really good prices. Much better than online retailers. He sells beckett parts, lots of filter socks, and he has totally kick butt super glue gel in large tubes that can be sealed and reused many times. Yay! Sherman is a really good guy, has a fabulous reef, and is a real go-to guy when it comes to good advice on equipment, water chemistry, and husbandry. And he gives advice without being long-winded or condescending.
Anyone with any question about that other thread, or anything I have written here, please feel free to post or PM. I don't like the way that turned out, but I cannot let defamatory stuff go unanswered.
And we have a killer watering hole nearby for sure, but my tank room is heavily stocked with top-notch import brews that I sell in my store. In fact I could run a nice after-hours club in there!! It's the hum of equipment that makes the beer go down so easy. 
