Amazed by local / online saltwater folk.

[LittleDabOSalt]

Over the past weeks the hubby and I have been hard at work setting up our 125, going through all cycling stuff, checking params daily and going to our LFS weekly. More live rock purchases, food, the CUC etc...

During our visits to the LFS we've not only been made to feel right at home with the owner taking how ever long we need to answer our questions and discuss things but, we've also met many other saltwater "folk" there who have been just as friendly and have been delighted. I know that not everyone has this same thing at their LFS and just had to share. We've had hours long conversations with the LFS owner and other customers, exchanged phone numbers and just really enjoyed our visits.

In the past week we've met more members of our local club as well and between the two ( club members & LFS customers ) have run across some really genuine / kind people. We've been given many super nice corals as well as fish to get us started. I've had some really friendly folks here on R2R as well and just had to post how awesome its all been. My husband and I have been members of a few different groups both locally as well as online over the years while showing / rescue work with our dogs and some others but never have we been as impressed with the overall feeling of being welcome and treated so well as we have by those involved in saltwater. You guys are really something! :bigsmile:

 

[Zoanthkid]

My dad, (Steve&mari) and I have had the same experience, to the point where the lfs owners have become good friends of our family without hesitation. Same for the online community, its amazing how quickly fellow reefers seem to jump to help with anything, reefing related or not. Awesome to see this kind of community still exists in ways like this in this crazy world!

 

[Troylee]

Agreed myself a native to sincity was blown away by the reefing community and how it all works and clicks.... definatly a positive thing that I'm proud to be a part of...

 

[Raggamuffin]

to true!, BTW Troylee put 5 on red for me and let it rid until I can buy a frag from ya

 

[returnofsid]

Once you find a GOOD LFS, hold on to them for dear life! I'm fortunately enough to have 2, in my home town, that are just incredible! Then, there are the LFS who just want to sell you stuff. We have our share of those, as well, which I don't step foot in. Creating a good relationship, with a GOOD LFS, is one of the most valuable commodities, in this hobby! The owner of one of our favorites has gone out of her way to help us, numerous times, from showing up at my home to help, when I had a tank split a seam, to topping off our tanks when we're on vacation. On the other hand, when she's needed help, I'm there, every time, from helping her set up a customer's tank, to fixing emergencies for her customers, to even minding her store for her, when emergencies or travel has kept her from being able to.

Online friendships and support, through forums, such as Reef2Reef, are also just as invaluable!! I've met SO MANY people, through forums and my local club. This community is very tied into the internet. That can be such a great benefit and is truly a way to make some amazing friendships!

 

[revhtree]

It is great and I appreciate all my SW buds! Please tell everyone about R2R!

 

[steamer51]

As you can see from the other comments the great attitude of the reefing community is common everywhere. I can attest that the people I have met in Kentucky and at Frag Swaps in Indiana and Ohio are just as helpful and caring as those mentioned here. There are some bad people on line and in person but they are a small minority who want to sell you something overpriced or put you down by showing you how rich they are or how much they think they know about the hobby. We are blessed with several very good LFS and I have met quite a few on line vendors (big and small) at frag swaps that are great people as well. Both the regular and commercial people are hobbyists first and the vendors just happened to have figured out how they can make a living doing what they love. This is the best large on line site to find positive people. Some other sites have some jerks on them but they don't hang out here because it doesn't do them any good. There is no one to argue with about how smart they think they are or who is right or wrong.