New LFS - Great Barrier Reef

[rmougey]

After the recent adventures with the RMRC forum on RC, I was thinking that I shouldn't go out of town anymore! Then, to my surprise, I discovered that a new store opened near me.

Great Barrier Reef is at the corner of Yosemite and Maximus Dr in Lone Tree, two lights south of the C-470 overpass, on the west side of Yosemite. It's run by Chad Bailey, who some of you may remember from the Santa Fe store that he and Ki managed (which is now Key's Island).

Parking is a bit challenging as it sits between a post office and some small service oriented shops, facing Yosemite. Definitely way too small for the foot traffic that the area gets. He's been open for 6 weeks, and when I visited, the store was quite busy with two of them running around. Water sales seemed to be quite popular!

The store is small and the display tanks are clean. The critters appeared healthy and a wide variety of interesting beasties were swimming about. I noticed a Helfrichi Firefish, Mystery Wrasse, True Percs, various fairy wrasses, tangs, dwarf angels and the requisite juvenile Emperor angel.

There are two coral tanks, with a third planned. A good selection of mushrooms, lps, soft corals and some other non-sps types. Chad is not planning on stocking SPS, so if that is your hot button, GBR is not your place.

They have a large maintenance business running, so the store is open late in the day starting at 3:00 pm during the week. Weekends are more typical for hours. Pricing seems to be good on both fish and dry goods, for the few items I checked. This is a salt water only store, but there is a small freshwater display tank.

All of the tanks in the shop are made by them. Nice acrylic display tanks, stands and canopies. I also noticed several used tanks ranging from 75 - 200 gallons in size. They also had an interesting 1/2 circle acrylic tank for sale.

If you decide to visit, they are holding a drawing for a new 90 gallon acrylic tank with stand and canopy. I think the entries are due by the end of April.

Good initial 1st impressions.... nicely stocked for being 6 weeks old. Definitely a place to visit once in a while if you like unique fish.

-Rob

 

[zombiedust]

Dude ! Big thanks for the heads up ! Good write up too !

 

[reefkoi]

Yeah nice review, too bad he's not doing SPS but I guess Ki pretty much dominates that area, so thats good he is doing other things, thats smart. I wanted to go on saturday after the swap but i couldnt remember where everyone said the new store was. I'll look for it next time were up there.
Chris

 

[The Grim Reefer]

They offer us a 10% discount too

 

[spleify]

I don't know about this place yet, I went in today. He was kind of short with me and not very informative. Though the store did look nice and it was clean. I was kind of turned off by Chad's attitude. We'll see if I go back. Everyone can draw there own conclusions. Just wanted to put in my 2 cents.

 

[spleify]

Well I went back in to see how Chad would be, and I have to say he was MUCH better. Maybe he was having a bad day. It is a very nice clean store.

 

[racer69]

Thanks for the heads up. Another lfs on the south end of Denver is always good for me. Man those guys up north cry about driving to south Denver, and I am tickled to see one there...lol

 

[adova]

These guys are very busy from what i understand, trying to manage the LFS and a service business (and a wife recovering from surgery).

I bought 2 leathers, a goby and a star - everthing is great, but the star is DEAD - my fault I am sure.... (I found one leg alive and still crawling around today).

I like to test LFS's with questions Randy Holmes has answered to see where people sit before I trust advice on other things. I would give them a 6.5 out of 10 for their answers.

All in all, their prices are pretty good for an LFS, and I would shop there again. They also can be helpful to service our tanks while out of town. They even said that if there is something I need, they can deliver it while servicing someone else in my area....

Shawn