I agree his fish room is very dark, not sure if it is for the effect of just tank lights on or electricity use. What you are sadly mistaken on is his stock and cleanliness. I am sure you took the time to seek out the owner that is there everyday and ask him these questions, if not I guess I have spent more effort seeking the answers then you. No offense, but his tanks are pretty clean, I would say way more clean then most stores I have visited with the exceptions of maybe Garretts. His stock was low because he doesn't seem to have the hook ups for good corals that he wanted yet and he was having issues with the halide system above his two 300+ gallon coral tanks. He is slowly getting stocked up, in fact today he got a good shipment of corals he wanted and a ton of new fish, lionfish, clowns, wrasses, etc. Inverts he said he sold so fast he is going to increase his order. I would say he has a pretty decent stock size now and really only needs to keep it constant with the addition of new types of fish to keep me coming back
I would also like to mention that is dry goods stock is awesome, very complete.
Long story short, I am sad you dismiss this shop because of one person's very subjective opinion. I don't mean to be rude, just opposing what you said from what I have seen and asked the owner about. I got two corals there today, beautiful purple plate coral!! 12 bucks. His prices are pretty fair.
Is it worth the drive from portland? Its ok, I visit him and Garretts from my location.