The Making of a store: (Picture Intensive Thread)

[crvz]

Any updates recently?

[REEFSTOCK]

Recently? hmm We have a new display tank up and running. Custom 60"X30"X24". Its far from picture ready. But, I am psyched because all the "cottage" tanks are down.

I've planned a bit of time next week to continue the story. If you would like a sneak peek of the end result you can visit our home page at SWEmpire.com. We have a few shots of the completed store there.

[crvz]

Sounds good, look forward to the updates, but I'll go check out the website for now!

[REEFSTOCK]

“If you want to build it up, you first have to take it down.” If this isn’t a Zen chant, it should be. Here a a sea turtle loving nut smashing down the walls. See that look of “Oh, it’s hot and tiring knocking all these office walls down.” Ya, I am not buying it either.


One of the first things was getting some floor drains installed. I don’ t think I need to explain the thoughts behind this decision!


To save money on rent, we chopped up a partially used space. Unfortunately, we couldn't get all of the other spaces' stuff out. That old ugly air vent stayed in... fortunately a day of painting and you can hardly notice it is there.

Here we are at the gutted phaze. Most people looking at our plans still couldn't imagine what we were doing or why we were so excited about the project. I felt like Ren from Ren and Stimpy. "Its a FISH store, MAn. cAn'T you SEE IT. Right over THERE FEEESH I telll you; FEEEESHIES"

[REEFSTOCK]

One of the fun things of the build out was getting to try some fun toy's. This electric lift was something to hoot about. "hoo hoo power tools". In this picture you see a meaningless wire frame go up. Man, I had a hard time explaining this to everyone.
"So, Fritz, you say this is a ceiling for a show room."
"Ya, like Ikea has."
"Nice. So is your office going to be up there."
"Nope, its just a celing."
"Oh, like... you are going to store stuff in there."
"Nope, its just a facade; for looks and all."
"So, you are paying them to close of that space and it has no other function???"
" Er, I guess you could say that..."


We really wanted to go out of our way to inspire people and have a store that represents what we aspire for at home. The high celings are outside the reality of most homes, so we chose to pull them down in this corner... pull them down to home style.
The rest of the store is designed to be... well easy to clean for one Clean and simple. Classy but not snobbish.

[REEFSTOCK]

Here is the office and bathroom.... Seriously Stimpy, stop flossing your Yak.

The build out crew was busy building for about 5 months. We were busy building tanks, sourcing/testing product, and filling up databases... but there were some fun jobs in between. Here we are trying to find away around the ridiculously strict sign laws in our city.

Christmases lights FTW!

[REEFSTOCK]

When the walls went up, others began seeing the dream too! Next thing we knew we couldn't keep our friends and family away to help out if we wanted to.

Here I used my AMAZING Photoshop skills to do color tests for paint choices. Let me abstract... Now that we have been open for nearly a year, one of my favorite perks of being an owner operator is... my closet has gotten much simpler. "Hmm, what shall I wear today. Here I have a black shirt with a Saltwater Empire Logo... There I have a black shirt with a Saltwater Empire logo... and a smudge of super glue... Oh the choices.


You don't want to know how many hours this took me to do....

And now from the other direction. Say Chease!

Drywall never looked so good!

[REEFSTOCK]

OK now here is a funny... or I should say, "funny", story. My buddy, Soren, and I spent lots of day's at the Mall of America... just a few miles from the store. We visited everyone of 500? stores to get an idea what we wanted the store to look like. We had long ago decided black ceilings woulds be best. Just before we started painting I noticed that the stores that looked best had black ceilings, but also had something bright colored half way down... white fans or grids, bright lights, ect. The bright thing took your eyes away from the dirty black ceilings (dust eventually does show.) We had been eating at Chipotle Mexican Grills a lot and noticed they simply did not paint their air ducts. That was enough brightness to keep your eyes from wandering to imperfections in the ceiling.
The next day I asked Chad if we could just clean up the new air ducts instead of the original plan to paint them black. He informed me that I had already paid extra to get printable air ducts and could have saved a grand on plain steel ones...
Ouch!

[REEFSTOCK]

You need skimmers!
Five volcanos... OK just four... one got lost in my basement
We aim for our systems to be as healthy, or healthier than the homes the livestock will be moving to. It is tough being a store and holding out through the cycle. We are at Month 10 on the systems now and all the extra water changes and scrubbing in the beginning were worth it. All of the systems are stabling out and are running just great... No I take it back. The display systems didn't get up till just this summer (6 months after opening). We rushed them and they crashed immediately. We are now hitting the rock with acid and going to set up the tanks just as we would at home. Slow and patient and keep a log of the progress.

[REEFSTOCK]

Transform into a Reef Store!
We tried to do as much as we could ourselves, but by the end of the build out Li and I were focused on computer work and plumbing. The paint crew did a great job 10 times faster than we would have. Here they are doing some final touches.

[REEFSTOCK]

[REEFSTOCK]

One of the most common questions from a new reefer is, "What should I get first; rock, get the plumbing right, sand, skimmer...?"
Our answer is the same every time, "You have to figure out your source of ultra-pure water."
Here is a picture of Frankensteined RO DI Units. We decided to use what we sell. One of the great features of this is customers can come in and check our tds meter's and see we keep up on filter changes and have DI left. That means they are getting super low TDS water. That means they are starting with the best they can against the dreaded algae-monster-first tank. We believe tap water is the single biggest reason for failure and exodus from the hobby.

Four Titan 180g bins hold our RO reserves. They plumb down to mixing tanks. Two tanks are just for Reef Crystals. We believe the cost difference is worth it to help entry level reefers have a head start on their CA/Alk/Mag levels. We keep trying to work out a deal with United to try and match their store prices they have for IO... or something on a similar scale anyhow. Perhaps some one has a better contact with them they could share. Right now Pallet pricing is as low as they will go.
Two 180s are for selling and store use. They are at 1.025. One is for our commercial and maintenance friends who need RO on the fly. The fourth bin is for our weekly shipment of fish. It is set at 1.010 and is dedicated for our QT system (yes we QT all our fish!)

[REEFSTOCK]

HAHA now that I take a closer look at the picture, I notice the RO was set up before the sink was finished... now that is PRIORITY!

[REEFSTOCK]

Just a few finishing touches. The last two months were agonizing. 80% of the work takes 20% of the time. The final stretch.... ahhh.

Hey, the colors came out pretty good didn't they!

PS the flooring is awesome. Not great for a nap, but slick for cleaning up spills.

[aquawolf]

Great store build thread, and history behind your setup.

Thanks for sharing and continuing to update this thread.

Of course, you have me wanting to see the finished product now.