shops in Monterey area

[Keith Hellyar]

I am sorry to intrude on your forum but I'm hoping someone can help me. I will be visiting Monterey in September and I would like to visit any marine shops in the area. I'm particularly interested in purchasing dry goods and specfically metal halide lamps.

Can anyone give me some addresses of local outlets.

Thanks

Keith

 

[Kraylen]

There is no place worth spending your money in the 831 area... best bet is the Bay Area, 1-2 hours away from Monterey. Best place for coral is my garage or a locals house.

 

[wonrib00]

+1. In addition to that, if you plan on visiting the public aquarium, you might want to give them a call. They plan on closing a large portion of it for renovation.

 

[1blackchicken]

They are supposed to be closing the outer bay tank at the aquarium the end of this month.

 

[Keith Hellyar]

I have ben to the Aquarium 3 times before so I am not too bothered. I plan to do a back lot tour this time. How do you guys get on with acquiring livestock? Is it down to occasional trips to San Francisco.

I guess I'll have to look elsewhere. I'll be visiting LA, Phoenix, Las Vegas on my travels. I'm really after some replacement halide lamps. They are much cheaper in USA judging from the websites I have looked at. A BLV 400w single end lamp now costs around 150 dollars each here in the UK.

Keith

 

[klepto]

If you are going down to LA, there will be plenty of options down there. The hobby scene is very limited in Monterey - and yes we are pretty much forced to drive up towards S.F. in order to find livestock. There is one store in Marina that from time to time carries okay livestock... But not much other than that.

You will enjoy the corals in holding behind the scenes at the MBA. (although the tour usually only gets a quick peak at the tanks). There are some maricultured SPS pieces that are displaying really nice colors at the moment..

 

[evoracer]

If you'll be driving south from Monterey to LA, there are two great shops along the way. The first in San Luis Obispo called Tropics, the second in Orcutt (Santa Maria) called Fins and Critters.

 

[evoracer]

There are more than that along that route (obviously) but those are my two local great shops.

 

[Keith Hellyar]

Thanks Evoracer

Thats exactly the route I'm taking. I'll look them up

Keith