The Making of a store: (Picture Intensive Thread)

REEFSTOCK · 07-31-2008, 03:39 PM

The making of a store:
We decided to switch from online sales to retail for Saltwater Empire’s home base in the Fall of 2006. It took us a few months to secure the funds and another few to find a location. We found a place on the main highway (I35), near the airport (key). Architecture plans began in April 2007. We expected to be open for the fall in 2007, but there were many unseen roadblocks along the way. Fortunately, we had a reefer, Achilles Tang on the boards, for a contractor. Achilles(Chad) kept us steered in the right direction throughout the difficult process of building a unique center for reefing. We opened in Jan. 2008. What an exciting ride it has been.

We were blessed to have many friends and family and especially local reefers excited to see us succeed and participate in the process.

We thought it would be fun for you to share the few moments we were able to capture.

REEFSTOCK · 07-31-2008, 04:19 PM

I found a few pictures from the old "cottage" store.
We hosted the twin cites first frag swap. At that time we were running out of one 75 and 4 2'x4'x8" tanks.

The next year we water proofed the room and upgraded to five 1'x4's
Two 32"X48" displays
7 24x48"x 8"
3 32x48"x12"
2 32X48" QTs
6 huge sumps

Lets just say... the "cottage" was PACKED!

Here is a shot of us cleaning up and re-lamnating the floors moving out:
sigh, where did all the tanks go

REEFSTOCK · 07-31-2008, 04:43 PM

Here it is, top secret, plans for the store!

red are coral and fish QT systems.
Deep blue are the racks for NSW on the bottom and RO storage on the top. One 180g tank is just for Hypo for the qts.
Black tanks and sumps are a mix and match system for easy to care for corals.
Pink is for small fish, inverts and anems.
Purple is mostly fish, but still a reef system.
green is our top-down system, complete with light-rails.
Grey is a DSB system, mostly for jawfish and other sand needing critters.
Blue is a fish system with larger deeper tanks.
Yellow floor with the display is showroom style for that nice reefer feeling

red The two bins in the front left of the store are for Live rock. One bin is for fresh live rock and another is fully cooked live rock.

The rest are shelves, check-out counter, fridge and tanks for sale (only with overflows).

That was the plan! (and the plan did come true).

REEFSTOCK · 07-31-2008, 04:50 PM

here we go. Fritz(me), Nate(chad's brother) and Chad(Contractor) checking out the place we leased. What a mess!

REEFSTOCK · 07-31-2008, 05:00 PM

While Chad Nate and the rest of the two Sons and a dad gang began the demo and rebuild Li came on full time and we began building the tanks at my place.

oh, and my to my neighbor's chagrin we ordered 24 180g sumps:

Jigging the partitions:

The wife wasn't too happy with the movie room ....

We had three 4'X8' gluing tables running at the height of the operation.

The Clownut (Li) Shows us how its done

The wife gets her house back... ya right its all dry-goods storage there now

REEFSTOCK · 07-31-2008, 05:05 PM

How is that for a start?

Part 2 Demo and location build-out, coming soon!

crvz · 07-31-2008, 06:56 PM

That looks like to much fun to be a business. Keep the pics coming!

aquawolf · 07-31-2008, 07:08 PM

That is a really cool looking floor plan and looks like you are making good progress on it as well. Congratulations.

chrischris · 07-31-2008, 07:22 PM

congrats on the new buisness. i wish you the best of luck and im glad to see a store owner who cares enought to qt his fish

Loverotties · 08-02-2008, 11:31 AM

Great Job!

REEFSTOCK · 08-04-2008, 03:10 PM

So, tanks were being built... right The systems.
We have 7 systems running. 4 of them have nice big volcano skimmers. One system is run as a fish only, everything else is reef. All the filtration is done remotely in "cryptic Live rock fuges". We needed to open the doors as soon as possible, so all the live rock was "cooked" before the store opened.

We used 3 100g horse troughs and 4 200g containers. My house came with a hot-tub... its not their now though

Here is a shot of the rock finishing the cure in the store tanks as we did the final touches.

REEFSTOCK · 08-04-2008, 03:17 PM

One of the main things we wanted to set ourselves apart from the competition with was the quality of the shopping experience. You probably noticed from the plans that we have large open hallways. Any part of the store can be seen from any other part. The ceilings are open 24' high. But its the air con we are really proud of. Humidity never goes much over 30%. Durring the day we keep the store a comfortable 75F and at night a toasty 85F. This keeps our large systems at 74-76F.

REEFSTOCK · 08-04-2008, 03:22 PM

coming next "Getting ahead of my self - Location Build-out"

If you are enjoying this thread, pass on the link. I'm sure folks who don't frequent the Sponsor forum would enjoy the story.
Lets see if we can get more than 50 hits

aquawolf · 08-04-2008, 07:41 PM

I am definitely along for the ride and enjoying the show.

crvz · 08-04-2008, 09:17 PM

Reefstock, I don't think there would be any problem if you posted a link to this thread in General Reef Discussion. Drum up some attention!

Looks great, by the way.