x19
Reefing newb
So, I've worked like 10 million hours in the past 3 weeks and haven't been able to visit the forum much but now that things have calmed down I wanted to post about the most amazing fish store I have ever seen...this place was incredible.
Midwest Coral Farms - Welcome
Located in North Chicago, this place was a bit of a drive but we just happened to be in Wisconsin for the day so I was able to convince my wife to let me stop on the way back, and man am I glad I did. The facility itself is in an industrial park, and resembles a bit of a warehouse with a very nondescript door but when you get inside its 3700 square feet of coral and fish. There were 5 large tanks of corals plus a display tank along with plenty of fish and inverts (they were selling a mated pair of Clarki clowns with their hosted anemone, very cool). Corals were clearly the focus and there was a huge space marked "Coral Propagation Area: Employee's Only Sorry"
There were large corrals holding live rock for $3.50 a pound (sale price, normally $6.50) and they also had a ton of Marco Dry Rock for something like $4 a pound. For the most part corals were organized very clearly by rack, with a ton of $10 frags. There were full colonies and rarer stuff that went up to $280 or so. As it was a last second trip I didn't have the largest budget but I'll post pics of what I got over in my tank thread soon (a Sunset Ricordea, Trumpet Coral, and my first SPS - which I've forgotten the name of).
I should mention that they do flow mostly using surge tanks so that its pretty easy to see the corals without too much water movement.
If you're in the area, you absolutely have to check this place out. I've attached pictures, but they aren't the best.
Display Tank - I took this from the back for some reason, the other side showed off some beautifully colored SPS.
The front tanks, all very clearly priced and huge (Some cyano in this first tank, but it was only in that tank and none of the corals seemed to mind):
The back room, to the right is a huge wall of fish and behind me is the live rock vats and water quality testing station. If you look at the right side of the photo you can see one of the clowns from the mated pair and hosted anemone lot:
Midwest Coral Farms - Welcome
Located in North Chicago, this place was a bit of a drive but we just happened to be in Wisconsin for the day so I was able to convince my wife to let me stop on the way back, and man am I glad I did. The facility itself is in an industrial park, and resembles a bit of a warehouse with a very nondescript door but when you get inside its 3700 square feet of coral and fish. There were 5 large tanks of corals plus a display tank along with plenty of fish and inverts (they were selling a mated pair of Clarki clowns with their hosted anemone, very cool). Corals were clearly the focus and there was a huge space marked "Coral Propagation Area: Employee's Only Sorry"
There were large corrals holding live rock for $3.50 a pound (sale price, normally $6.50) and they also had a ton of Marco Dry Rock for something like $4 a pound. For the most part corals were organized very clearly by rack, with a ton of $10 frags. There were full colonies and rarer stuff that went up to $280 or so. As it was a last second trip I didn't have the largest budget but I'll post pics of what I got over in my tank thread soon (a Sunset Ricordea, Trumpet Coral, and my first SPS - which I've forgotten the name of).
I should mention that they do flow mostly using surge tanks so that its pretty easy to see the corals without too much water movement.
If you're in the area, you absolutely have to check this place out. I've attached pictures, but they aren't the best.
Display Tank - I took this from the back for some reason, the other side showed off some beautifully colored SPS.
The front tanks, all very clearly priced and huge (Some cyano in this first tank, but it was only in that tank and none of the corals seemed to mind):
The back room, to the right is a huge wall of fish and behind me is the live rock vats and water quality testing station. If you look at the right side of the photo you can see one of the clowns from the mated pair and hosted anemone lot:
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