Thanks for the great introduction, Rob. Becoming a sponsor of the finest forum I've ever had the pleasure of being a member of has been on my mind for some time. Meeting you, and other TR members, at
MACNA, helped me come to the conclusion that TR is my home and where I want to advertise. I'm registered on 17 different forums, although I rarely visit some of them. Why go anywhere else when TR is the best?
As we all know reef keeping has many methods, employed by a diverse group of people. It can get a bit hairy giving advice to such a broad range of reefers. What works for one may not work for another. Many times it's a slight variance in technique from one to the other that is the difference. When I chime in on a post, my words come from 60 plus years in the hobby, the last 40 years strictly in marine aquariums. Most of my words come from this vast practical experience but, I also speak from my heart. I love the marine aquarium hobby and the advent of reef keeping, about 20 years ago, set my soul on fire again.
All of my advice comes from an extensive library and self taught, hands on experience. I couldn't go to school for marine biology because I was raised believing we couldn't afford higher education. I occasionally tell people,
"I'm an Aquariologist. I went through the School of Hard Knocks". But, that about sums up where I came from. I wasn't interested in formal school, I just wanted to prowl the lakes, rivers, creeks and ponds of my WI home. Now, retired in FL, I'm looking forward to prowling the reefs. I just got SCUBA certified at age 69. My wife, bless her soul, would add, he's going on 19. She never had children. I'm making up for that in her life.
"The
Cultured Reef" is actually a spin-off of a business we started in 1987, Nautilus Aquarium Supply, a wholesale aquarium supply biz. We closed it down in 1996 because of lack of funds. I got tired of working 6/7 days a week and not drawing a wage. Anyway, I couldn't stay out of the business so began programming and developed
The Cultured Reef. This evolved into plans to move to FL (accomplished in 2005) and setting up a coral fragging/grow-out business. We are in that process now.
What you can expect from
The Cultured Reef is a line of reef related products that we use ourselves. No one has to tell TR members that reefing is expensive. It is our goal to do our best to save reefers money with our "Internet Direct" pricing. Also, on expensive items such as chillers, get your best price and then check with us via e-mail or toll free call (888 745-0449) and we'll try to get the exact item at a lesser price. We can't stock everything but, we can drop ship most anything.
Our specialty? Reef ready acrylic aquariums and
sumps, any size up to about 1000 gals. Our preferred manufacturer, IPI of MI, has been our provider of choice since 1987.
We will never be a Premium Aquatics, Marine Depot or Drs Foster and Smith, all fine establishments. In fact, if we can't get you what you want, those are the businesses that we recommend.
Please, TR members, log on to our site, check us out and post questions on our forum here on TR in the sponsors section. I'm around most every day, remember, I'm retired. I'm here for you.
Dick
