Headed to Columbus

[carb850]

My wife and I will be celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary in the next few days. Back on our Honeymoon, we went to an amazing all-inclusive resort in Playa-Del-Carmen Mexico. This is unlike anything I had ever seen or done before and I knew I was pretty lucky getting to experience something like that at least once in my life. At some point during the vacation, I recall my wife saying one night "you know, we should come back here for our 5 year anniversary."

Well, we were (still are to some degree) effected by the economic downturn earlier this year and also are expecting our first child later this summer. With all of this going on, our Mexico trip didn't quite pan out but at least we are getting away for the weekend. I told her at this rate we might be able to swing a trip to Bell or Marmet for our 10 year.

We plan on hitting the Zoo on Saturday and taking our time to return on Sunday. I already told her that a trip by Phishybusiness is in order. Anything else a must see in the area? Can the zoo be done in a day? Is the aquarium in the same location as the zoo?

 

[coralreefer]

Re: Headed to Columbus

Heck our honeymoon was in Columbus at Quarter Horse Congress.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15238688#post15238688 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by carb850
I told her at this rate we might be able to swing a trip to Bell or Marmet for our 10 year.

:lol:

 

[Kung]

The reef part of the zoo is worth admission. It is amazing!

 

[LtPiper]

Last time I was up there, if your into that sorta thing, the COSI center is pretty cool. http://www.cosi.org/

 

[spinnerbayt]

You should be able to do the Zoo and Aquarium in one day. I could spend all day in the aquarium though. Get there early and see the zoo before it gets hot. The Aquarium has AC so you can spend the hotter part of the day in there.

On my next trip I want to check out Cosi. We didn't have time on my last trip.

I have picked up great frags everytime I've been into Phishy.

 

[rnhrtfan]

try San Diego for your 10th. That's where my wife and I went last year kind of a 10th and a business trip in one.... free honey moon in other words....

 

[carb850]

Ah, I will surely hit the reef exhibit then! Good suggestion about the zoo first too. With my wife being 7 months pregnant any cool air at all will be appreciated. She already said if she finds a Penguin exhibit she may not leave. The COSI Center does sound really interesting but I don't think we will have time to hit it this go around. That might be a reason to go back though and just have to make another trip to Phishy.

Scott, San Diego sounds fine to me! I'd love to see the west coast and the rockies.

Amy, I will take raincheck on the Quarter Horse Congress

 

[carb850]

Anyone visited ReefSystems in Columbus? I'm now thinking about visiting them instead.

 

[carb850]

I found a cool video on ReefSystems if anyone is interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DnIJtw-fbU&feature=related

 

[Kung]

Congrats on the anniversary. Ours was yesterday.

The penguins are quite near the reef, I think just across the path. The alligators are pretty sweet, and so are the manatees, so you have to see them, too.

It's a great zoo.

 

[radone]

Reef systems is not that far from Phishy and well worth the trip.

A little easier on the wallet too, but don't expect to see stuff with the intense colors like we see in the aquarium because it is more of a greenhouse type design

 

[carb850]

I found this thread about Phishy interesting.
http://www.corareef.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7254

So I might make it to both, but if only one I think I will swing my ReefSystems. Having the coral not colored up does have me a bit curious. I'm hoping my crystal ball starts working this weekend so I will know which ones have the potential to really color up. I guess the unfortunate-fortunate thing is that I won't be spending much money to start with.

 

[carb850]

So I just returned from Columbus. I will get some photo's of the zoo up later if any turned out nice. Anyhow, I was able to make it to both ReefSystems and Phishy Business.

Phishy
I was really amazed at the equipment selection this place had and the equipment they had running on the shop tanks too. Talk about monster skimmers. I thought all of the tanks were clean and all the corals I noticed were healthy. The fish selection was sort of limited but I was told they were expecting in 300 tomorrow, so just bad timing there. They had some nice Ric's and nice LPS. They had a little bit of SPS but not much that really caught my eye. Overall, I thought it was a nice shop and I will drop in again if I have the chance. I only purchased a Bullseye Pistol Shrimp and a 40lbs bag of SeaFlor Reef Grade Sand for my 30G cube.

ReefSystems
Reef Systems was a really nice outfit. I didn't know what to expect from corals grown under natural light but many still had nice colors. They had 3 large show tanks running in the shop which can give you an idea what the corals would look like once grown out. They were also selling frags from a couple of these tanks. He also showed me all of the live rock vats. I want to say he was charging $4 a lbs which I didn't think was bad at all since you get to hand select. Also, much of hit had really nice shapes. I didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted, but I was really impressed with his SPS selection. I didn't see too much in the way of LPS or Softies that caught my eye but I could have just looked over those. Overall, I was really impressed and hope to go back with a few dollars more in my pocket next time.

Oh, the only thing that followed me home was a Pink Stylo frag. (finally got one!)

 

[spinnerbayt]

Good to see you had a nice time. I still hope to make a trip up to Columbus at some point this summer. I'll have to checkout reefsystems.
That is a monster skimmer that Phishy has isn't it.

 

[carb850]

Phishy had 2 or more big ol skimmers at work. I also thought it was cool seeing a BubbleKing skimmer sitting on a shelf. Don't see that everyday

 

[solareclisped]

I hope to go to Columbus next week. I hope to get to check these places out. Anywhere else I should go. I have never been to Columbus before.

 

[carb850]

I could kill a day easily between the two shops

 

[solareclisped]

I went to Columbus on Monday and Tuesday. Monday we went to the zoo and tuesday we went coral shopping. Phishy was closed on mon and tues so I didnt get to go there. the other place is only opened on the weekend so I didnt get to go there either. I went to a few other places and found some zoas at I think Aquarium Adventure was the name of it. Nice store.

 

[carb850]

What did you think of the Zoo? I was pleasantly surprised by it, but I will admit I haven't been to another one for 20 years so I don't have much for comparison.

Seems like I heard of Aquarium Adventure but I don't know anything about it. I hope to make a trip back to ReefSystems this fall and pick up a few more SPS at that time.