New to the area...fish wise

[T----]

Hey guys just stumbled on to you site, and now im all excited!

 

Anyway i grew up here in oregon, lived in colorado the last 4 years, and now im back. However while in colorado i became addicted to this whole salt water fish tank craze...dont know if any of you have ever really heard of it, but when i left colorado i sold my tank, and now that im here i want one again. So i have a few questions about the area, and i guess i can tell you all a bit about me too.

 

First off im 22, i live in HUbbard, and go to school at Western Oregon. While in colorado there was the coolest greatest fish store ever, and after going numberous times to look at all their stuff i decided to take the plunge. I started with a 22 gallon hex tank, and after a month i moved to a 55 gallon, then another 3 months later i went to a 90, and when i left i had a 120. It was a lot of moving and shuffling but so so worth it. Now im looking to start again. When i left i sold my tank(s) and inhabatents, but kept my lights, 3 400w electronic balast MH, with 20k lights, and my Euroreef CS6. As well as my pump a baracuda, and a ton of other power heads and tubing ect. So i have a lot of the more expensive stuff but that puts me in a bit of a bind now. Im looking to make anotehr tank, but not sure what size, ive already decided that anything larger then a 65 is too big. And after moving to a tank thats 18 inches deep (front to back not top to bottom) i dont think i could go back to a 12 in tank.

 

So i guess the first thing im wondering is what stores are there out here? and what stores are good? No matter what thread on what web site i look at it always seems that there is a sub par fish store around. My main goal at this point is to find a place i can go in and get som fish or corals thats local, rather then getting gouged/not satisfied with internet purchases.

 

Also im wondering about the area itself. In Co i had a lot of issues with evaporation, mostly due to the intense lighting but also , im sure, to the dry climate. So any other regonal issues that there may be around.

 

Third im having a rough time decideing what kind of tank i want. I know i want live sand and rock, and some sort of corals, but thinking a "fish only" type of tank may be somthing i would like, but then not sure how i would adapt to not having a predominate SPS/coral tank. If so i may want to trade some equptment around.

 

Last if anyone has a cool or more exotic syyle tank that isnt outrageous i may be interested. I know with xmas comming up finds are tight all around so if you have something smaller sitting around maybe a trade for some good lighting ect. Anyway thanks in advance guys hope to talk to you all a lot in the near future. Glad i stumbled on to this.

 

Tim

[nu2reef-n]

Welcome to the site, Tim.

[Michael7979]

You can find directions to all the stores by looking into their forum. All of them have a info thread that has been 'stickied'. this should get you going and help you find out where they are. And living in hubbard you are dang near right in the middle a few to the south and a few to the north of you.

 

Glad you found the site and welcome aboard!

[CCR]

Welcome to the site!!!! I't hard to figure what you want to do. Take some time and figure where you want to end up at. It sounds like you did a lot of growing, from tank to tank. You already have the lighting to go whatever way you want to. I agree, it's hard to to have anything less than 18 f to b. I am upgrading from 18 to 24, and thats not a cheep move. Same foot print, just 24 instead of 18. So, get the tank you want. Upscales and Wave's are 2 shops that are very close to you. And it's definetly worth the drive to Salem to.

[impur]

Welcome to the site Tim!!!!

[reefgeek84]

My recommendations, you should at least check out waves and upscales...but really we are very lucky with the amount of stores we have and how decent they all seem to be for the most part.