Cali Kid Corals

Aqua plus is for sale

Anyone know what Ken from aquatic concepts is up to now?

I know Ming got in to hydroponics and is out all together, so whoever got anything ATL got some relics in their tanks.

Jess is now coaching his son's baseball team last I heard, sucks what happened to his shop. Good dude.
 
CaseyP said:
While we're going down memory lane, anyone go to The Fish Tank and Aquatic Gallery in Milpitas? Those were the LFS that got me started from tetras, discus, cichlids, to reefs. My friend and I would ride our bikes there just to browse in awe of the selection. The owners knew us well enough that we'd get IOUs if we were short on cash.

Then @robert4025 came in a ruled the south bay scene :p
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I loved Aquatic Gallery! I drove all the way from Stockton every weekend just to visit it for months. The owner Dr. Bao Lee was a good guy but the 2008 downturn hit him really hard and it was really difficult for him to adapt to the changing market of fragging stuff. His shop just wasn’t set up for it. On top of it, I was driving to LA to hand pick my corals every other week so it was really hard for him to keep up with that although I invited him to do it with me. He did it once and said “Nope, this is not going to work for me” and that’s when I knew he’s out.

There was also Atlantis Aquarium. That was another amazing shop. Always pack full of fires. Ming always has the nicest SPS in town, hands down. He was one of the first one in the Bay Area to start offering frags so much of that craze was owed to him.
 
Patio said:
A couple or few years later- @robert4025 offering economical frags really helped out my tight budgeted reefing. I appreciated having both economical and fancy in his shop.
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BEST DANG COMPLIMENT I’VE EVER HEARD! THANK YOU, PAT!

Yes, I know I am not the cheapest. But, I do make tremendous effort in making quality corals affordable everyday. That takes a whole lot of work!
 
robert4025 said:
I loved Aquatic Gallery! I drove all the way from Stockton every weekend just to visit it for months. The owner Dr. Bao Lee was a good guy but the 2008 downturn hit him really hard and it was really difficult for him to adapt to the changing market of fragging stuff. His shop just wasn’t set up for it. On top of it, I was driving to LA to hand pick my corals every other week so it was really hard for him to keep up with that although I invited him to do it with me. He did it once and said “Nope, this is not going to work for me” and that’s when I knew he’s out.

There was also Atlantis Aquarium. That was another amazing shop. Always pack full of fires. Ming always has the nicest SPS in town, hands down. He was one of the first one in the Bay Area to start offering frags so much of that craze was owed to him.
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I think he got into the frag game after Tropical Paradise. Eddie was a big supporter pf AC, still is. He hosted BARE meetings and contributed a lot to the raffles, along with me when I was at Cortez (Pre RN days)
 
Milpitas or Fremont not sure of the name maybe Pet Emporium or something like that?
Was one huge aquarium shop that also sold parrots and supplies. They also had a mezzanine 2nd floor with stair access..Front of place was all glass. Most of their saltwater tanks had wet dry sumps with the old swing arm bars that spun around like sprinklers over bio balls lol..Think I may still have one of those spray arms.. Used to go their late 80’s early 90’s always had good healthy fish. Just remembered I self donated a pair of western painted turtles in the Embassy Suites lagoon around then which I know were well alive and great shape 10 years later shshsh! Maybe still in there since their koi were always well fed lol ..Back then had a 95 gallon hexagon with a puffer, clown trigger, large coral skeletons/rocks for decor and running two canisters .The puffer would pop up like 6 inches out of the water and gently grab a whole prawn was cool only drew blood once fun stuff..
 
PjFish said:
Milpitas or Fremont not sure of the name maybe Pet Emporium or something like that?
Was one huge aquarium shop that also sold parrots and supplies. They also had a mezzanine 2nd floor with stair access..Front of place was all glass. Most of their saltwater tanks had wet dry sumps with the old swing arm bars that spun around like sprinklers over bio balls lol..Think I may still have one of those spray arms.. Used to go their late 80’s early 90’s always had good healthy fish. Just remembered I self donated a pair of western painted turtles in the Embassy Suites lagoon around then which I know were well alive and great shape 10 years later shshsh! Maybe still in there since their koi were always well fed lol ..Back then had a 95 gallon hexagon with a puffer, clown trigger, large coral skeletons/rocks for decor and running two canisters .The puffer would pop up like 6 inches out of the water and gently grab a whole prawn was cool only drew blood once fun stuff..
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Sounds like McClouds pet emporium! That was the place to be in the late 80's for SW. Everytime my dad would bring me there it was like i was going to Disneyland.

We ran a FW tank and I begged and pleaded for a tank with a domino damsel. Finally caved and started my journey with SW.
 
Oh pretty sure now that was the name! Thanks
I had just bought my first car around 1988 off auto trader for 1200 bucks a two door 68 Dodge Dart GTS and drove every week from Livermore down to that shop until a cow jumped out in front of me twisting the frame.. Found a 68 dart slant six hoping toss the gts motor into it but didn’t get it done.. I garrentee you that slant six is probably still running to this day put over 150k on it driving to Florida and back numerous times with zero issues well just one freeze plug blew but super easy fix…okay enough rambling
 
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