Just starting out in denver - need help/advice!!

[bestroobie]

Hey everyone!

This is my first post and I'm happy to be joining this great community!

About 15 years ago I moved across the country from Chicago to Arizona. I moved in with a good friend of mine who owned a salt water aquarium company. Needless to say, I fell in love with them.

Fast forward 15 years and I now live in denver. I finally have the money to be able to start a tank of my own. I'm planning on buying/setting up a 125-150 gallon tank. My hope is to set it up and grow the tank so it eventually has live rock, and coral and of course fish. A classic reef tank!

My issue is that I don't really know what I am doing. I learned a little when I lived with my friend, but I am not comfortable setting it up and maintaining it by myself.

My hope is to find someone in denver who operates sort of like my friend did. Someone I can pay to help me set it up, and come maintenance the tank for me, and help teach me while they are maintaining the tank, so that over time I need less help taking care of it.

The companies I've found seem much larger and less personal than I was hoping for. And I've stopped into a few fish stores to ask for recommendations and they didn't have any. So I am ready to buy a tank and set up, but I'm kind of at a stand still.

So I am here to ask for help/advice. I would be super grateful if anyone has any recommendations or can point me in the right direction on how to find someone I can trust to help me along this adventure.

Thank you in advance!!!

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

What you are looking for may be difficult. The biggest complaint I hear from service techs is, "Do you want me to do this or not? Cause if I am doing it I want to do it my way".

Quality service techs are generally very proud of their work and to keep their tanks looking good they want total control. They don't want to clean and consult while the client buys livestock from somewhere else that could bring in diseases, adds equipment they are not familiar with or that doesn't work with the way they keep tanks, etc.

If you are wanting to have someone teach you I think you will be better off at a store. I have had good experiences with some of the Denver area stores but most are not in central Denver. Liquid Kingdom, Elite Reef, Neptune's Tropical Fish, and Aquatic Art. have all been great experiences for me.

 

[Cell]

You will have better luck finding a mentor here on R2R. They may or may not be local though.

 

[NkSde]

A small lfs may be your best bet for that kinda service
.

i know the springs used to have a nice shop that taught me everything I started with with my initial setup. But that was about ten years ago and I don’t live round those parts no more

 

[bestroobie]

Thanks for the replies! I appreciate the advice