The thing is if there are products that you really NEED at prices that you can't find elsewhere cheaper then people would drop by just to get things they need and end up shopping around. If you need a box of salt and you have a choice to drive to Salty Critter (1 hr each way for me) to buy it for $40 and you can get the Sedra impeller you need and a really cool coral or fish that is in the tanks there OR you drive to Tropical Aquarium (45 minutes for me) for a bag of salt (don't know his price on salt) and you are pretty much guaranteed that there will not be anything coral wise that you want and the fish are priced within 5-10% of what Dan or Greg charges then why wouldn't you go to the one-stop place? I have to drive past Aquatic Tech to get to Tropical Aquarium and I have done it before but there is nothing spectacular to find other than fish at Hector's.
I like Hector as a person, as a businessman he is nice, friendly and WILL order you whatever want or tell you he can't beat that price and just get it there. I appreciate his store being there but the ONLY thing I have seen that I wanted there was low-priced saltwater fish. The dry goods are things that nobody with experience in the hobby will really purchase.
There are no T5 bulbs but he has VHO There are wet/dry sumps and Coralife skimmers. I personally have never owned a VHO bulb. I don't know if Hector has any MH bulbs available. I know it isn't cheap to stock up on some of the items but it also isn't cheap to just drive out and look around.
When I am ready to buy a couple fish at a time I would definitely call Hector to see if he wants to get them for me. I really wish him the best with his business but I can't bring myself to spend more and get less just to hope a guy will improve the store.
It is a great looking setup and if the shelves were stocked with things like Mag pumps, Sequence pumps, Maxi-Jet pumps, Salifert test kits, IceCap ballasts, Tunze pumps, T5 bulbs, MH bulbs, decent skimmers and media reactors then maybe it would get more serious reefers in there more often.
Just my 2 cents take it for what it's worth.
