Moving to Binghamton Area---

dougwilliams

dougwilliams

New member
Hi Everyone -

Just thought I'd say hi. I'm moving to Vestal in a a few weeks temporarily until I finish my house sale and purchases) - and wanted to get any tips on stores, people to trade with, etc etc. I'm currently a member of LIRA (Long Island Reef Association) - and I guess am currently lucky because we have a lot of stores and people in close proximity to buy/trade with.
Anyway, I used to live up there, but dont recall any good fish stores in the area - so if you have any advice let me know.

Also - where and how often are your clubs meetings held? Do you gusy do trades or auctions or anything at them? Whats the usual agenda?

PS- once I move I should have a some interesting frags to trade - I know every area tends to be able to get different things spread around -


Doug
 
Welcome.

Silk Chaos, Fedukeford, Dr Bronx, Suzlucky, Rick Maley are some of our southern tier members of the top of my head. They'd be better at telling you about local stores.

Our next meeting is actually in Buffalo, Ny on May 23rd I believe.
 
Hi Doug and welcome to URS! There are quite a few people from Binghamton who are members of URS, including me. Sad to say but our fish stores leave much to be desired. Trading with people is usually the best/only way to get new corals around here. Are you planning an upgrade with the new move? Good luck and let us know once you are in town!

Nate
 
welcome, where in vestal are you moving to? (i think im the only one from vestal here) the local fish stores are : creature conforts, natures best fish, and livingstons animal kingdom (natures is my fav. , but none of them are really anything to talk about)
 
Thanks and hello ...

How could you move and NOT upgrade? We have a contract on a house now, but we still have to sell our house here first. Right now I'm preliminarily planning on building in a 225 reef and maybe a 180 FOWLR (predator). Hard to say exactly what I want before I live there - but we have a lot of space that needs to be slightly rearranged anyway. I like to DIY a lot of stuff - guess it gives me something to do - so the tanks and sump will probably be plywood coated in sanitred with glass fronts/sides etc. I already built a skimmer and some of the other accesories I'll need, and have been acquring lighting and stuff piece wise. Same goes for livestock - I have some good connections here - so I'm aquiring as much variety as possible now and just housing it in a raw setup I have now.
 
Hello and Welcome. We are starting to hear of a few more LFS in the Western part of the Binghamton area towards Elmira. Rumor has that they also have some interesting stuff in them. Do a search for details.
 
Hey Doug: Welcome to the So. Tier. Nice to have another local reefer. We've got a great bunch of local reefers who are knowledgeable and always eager to help. We are starting to grow in numbers. The local LFS's however do leave something to be desired. Creature Comforts situated on Upper Front Street in the town of Chenango Bridge is essentially an Ich farm but if you are in the practice of quarantining all new fish they do on occasion get some nice fish and a few corals/inverts. Natures Best on So. Rt. 26 in Vestal Center is owned by a very nice fellow (Rick) but whose inventory of livestock is usually quite barren (unless I've just sold him a bunch of stuff:)). Local reefers often trade frags with each other and we have occasional local frag swaps. I know of a few who are contemplating frag swaps this spring/summer. My own interests are primarily in sps's and xenias. Hope to see you around the 'hood.
 
I did QB for a while - but you know - I figure where better to retire after a superbowl than the souther tier?

As for the lack of variety - I'm hoping to be able to help you all with that - my first few weeks up there I'll be making a lot of trips back and I think a bunch of the LIRA people will be willing to trade or sell stuff and I can carry it - its a quick ride, I;ve done it many times. But more on that later...
 
Oh, those Long Islanders got nothing on us Upstater's... ;) It's the Cali-folks that got us all beat. :(
Welcome Doug, you'll like it here.

- Mac
 
Welcome

Welcome

Welcome to the area. I'm up in Tully about 1/2 hour from Binghamton. I have a few nice sps, give me a idea what you are looking for. Also Steve L Has a whole bunch of nice corals. RickM
 
Ok - I know where the stairs are - if all goes well I'm over a bit towards 26. I found a house thats pretty close to the parkway, not too rural - not too crowded.

Talking around here (LIRA) we have some poeple who will trade/sell RBTAs as well as some other carpet anemones, a few varieties of toadstool/leathers. Also - a few friends there also are willing to set up some group buys direct to here once I'm up - we get some great prices on livestock direct from a Hawaiin diver as well as direct from some wholesale outlets. We've done some before with incredible success - incredible quality and even better pricing. Just have to meet some min quantities etc...
 
Yeah, we had looked into doing stuff like that.. it's worked a few times, but I think this group is across such a large geography, it's hard sometimes? It's also something "The club" as a whole has been stand-offish about. We're excruciatingly informal: there are no officers, nor formal structure. Just a bunch of fish geeks that get together. Folks have taken the onus upon themselves to do this sort of thing. For example, I make my own fish food, and have offered bags of it for sale at cost in the past. I've also been stuck holding extra bags of loaf because people never picked them up before, too. ;) many times. There's a short-list of people I let know when I'm making my batches now. Seems to work. {shrug}
We've also worked on inter-club trades... difficult to pull off, but it's happened before. Sometimes I think the size/diversity of the group makes it hard. Nonetheless, one of the benefits of all this informality, is if you want to do something like that, simply step up to the plate. Nobody here is going to stop you. :D

- Mac
 
Welcome to the "greater binghamton area"... Leave before its to late! seriously, welcome. I am afraid my little tank doesn't have much in the way of trading yet, just a bunch of little frags. I have to chime in with the rest though, or fish stores are... um.. lacking.

But welcome anyway!
 
Hey gang,

:) I'm Doug's sister and will be one of his contacts here on LI to organize the group buys (and probably a driver too...). I've been doing a little bit of reef-related travel lately (was at the Western Marine Conference in Sacramento last weekend) and I am amazed at how what is common and easy to get in some places is decidedly not in others. things like $5 Xenia here or in CA are ridiculously expensive elsewhere. Even with the many good stores available to us here on LI the quality of the stuff we've been able to get from Hawaii and elsewhere through these buys. I don't think any of the local club members buy much retail anymore to be honest.

So, that said...start making your wish lists now and all of us will benefit. The more people in the hobby and active, the more things will be available for import or aquacultured (even better).

Christine
 
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