gmubeach January 16, 2008 January 16, 2008 Yep I am putting in my application tomorow! I hope everything goes well I really need a job;)
HowardofNOVA January 16, 2008 January 16, 2008 I shop at both Superpets and Wally's at times, especially for LIVE BRINE shrimp which they both carry. When MD, was working to get discounts at both locations and names excape me now, but the lady at SP was willing to talk but always ask that I stop in AGAIN later to setup a WAMAS Discount. After a while, I stop asking. Great FW setup, SW fish could be better. Stopped in Wallys Monday and met the new owners and mind going BLANK again, but an Asian Couple now own it as about a month ago and will try to ATTEND the Feb meeting and become SUPPORTERS!! SOOOoooooo, I would completely PUT IN THE PAST any feeling about this place now that Mike I believe his name was has finally moved on!! First of all, they PAINTED the walls and working on improvement the visual side of the house now! Looking better but still a way to go. Fish tanks are about the same when Thomas was there, but they have plans to do more with every facet of the store. More supplies, products and inventory. Recommendations, stop in and remind them your with WAMAS! They are listening! signed Howard ... I think?
gmubeach January 16, 2008 January 16, 2008 Yep he gave me 10% on my clownfish and asked me about my backgroud in fish. Anyway I hope I get the job I really need it!
gmubeach January 17, 2008 January 17, 2008 I applied to the new owner he asked me if I was in highschool:( I am 23 years old a college grad and just because I shaved.... anyway hope all is well with you guys I havn't made my mind up about the new wally's yet, but we shall see.
martin January 17, 2008 Author January 17, 2008 I applied to the new owner he asked me if I was in highschool:( I am 23 years old a college grad and just because I shaved.... anyway hope all is well with you guys I havn't made my mind up about the new wally's yet, but we shall see. If that job doesn't work out I know a dept. that is hiring. Free gun.
chefthomasr January 24, 2008 January 24, 2008 If that job doesn't work out I know a dept. that is hiring. Free gun. LOL!
tygger January 25, 2008 January 25, 2008 Thanks for the update. Hopefully they can keep their prices competitive.
Tee January 25, 2008 January 25, 2008 (edited) When the bank compete, we won. When the LFS compete, we broke. Tee Edited January 25, 2008 by Tee
extreme_tooth_decay January 27, 2008 January 27, 2008 I stopped by Wally's today to check it out. I have been going there off and on for over 10 years. They are definitely changing things around. They have reorganized the floor, and opened it up some. They were building a stand towards the back, and had 4 freshly drilled 180s near the stand-in-progress. I assume they're going to set up those 4 big tanks, that will be nice. As an aside, the stand looked a little lot weak to me, but I tend to over-engineer things. Maybe they just aren't done. Their SW fish looked decent, and not outrageously priced. Yellow tangs were $34 or $39, I cant recall. Some were big, some small. They had a tank full of "captive raised" seahorses that were $49. I don't know how to tell a healthy one from a sick one, but they looked good to me, and that seemed cheap. They also had a sign on another tank for yellow captive raised juvenile seahorses for $39, but I didn't see any. Their salt prices were terrible. $55 for a bucket of IO. Their coral selection was much worse than the last time I was there. The 2 tanks near the register were almost empty, and covered with nasty algae. Also the large coral tank was pretty empty. All in all, an interesting trip. Definitely change is in the air. Hopefully they are still gearing up and things will get better in the coral department. tim
martin January 27, 2008 Author January 27, 2008 The owner and manager said they will be upgrading their coral dept. and taking frags.
extreme_tooth_decay March 23, 2008 March 23, 2008 Well, it's been 2 months since my last report...I went there yesterday to check it out. Another sweet and sour visit. On the 1 hand, they do have over 100 new tanks on racks, drilled, getting ready to be set up. Impressive. They must be trying to compete with Roozen's. I hope that stuff will be SW. I think it will. On the other hand, just like my last visit, they basically have no corals...still. They had a few dead ones, and just a couple live ones. I was disappointed that the 4 big tanks I saw them setting up 2 months ago still had nothing in them (except 3.5 dead corals in 1). Slow progress, but at least it's progress. tim
rrubberbandman March 24, 2008 March 24, 2008 Well, it's been 2 months since my last report...I went there yesterday to check it out. Another sweet and sour visit. On the 1 hand, they do have over 100 new tanks on racks, drilled, getting ready to be set up. Impressive. They must be trying to compete with Roozen's. I hope that stuff will be SW. I think it will. On the other hand, just like my last visit, they basically have no corals...still. They had a few dead ones, and just a couple live ones. I was disappointed that the 4 big tanks I saw them setting up 2 months ago still had nothing in them (except 3.5 dead corals in 1). Slow progress, but at least it's progress. tim uhhhhh ohhhhhh not another roozens
Krewlor March 24, 2008 March 24, 2008 On the 1 hand, they do have over 100 new tanks on racks, drilled, getting ready to be set up. I live right by Wally's and too am hoping for great improvements. I feel I must comment on the quality of the large rack of tanks they have built. Being a non-engineer type, I believe the large rack is serously underbuilt. It is about 40-50 10 gallon aquariums stacked on top of each other. It is basically a bunch of crossed 2x4's with no support bracing. Each row of 8 tanks us supported by about 12 drywall screws. They did not even use and exterior grade screw. The rack is also very tall, I am 6'2" and the racks are taller then me. I mentioned my questions to one of the employees and he stated lots of people were saying the rack is not supported correctly but the owner had done some calculations and said each brace was supporting X amount of weight and would be fine. As I stated before, I am not a general contractor or any type of construction expert. I could be totally wrong, but from what I researched before I built my first stand is you do not use screws to support your load. If there is a general contractor or structural engineer type who would like to stop by take a look, that would be great. I would hate to see a new LFS owner who seems to be headed in the right direction with this store have some type of tragic accident happen.
quazi March 24, 2008 March 24, 2008 (edited) Did they use any mortising of the joints? This will substantially increase the joint strength. If they are just using butt joints, then the way the wood is laid out will make a big difference. If the main load bearing piece is on top, there is a good chance it will hold a lot more than you think. There are lots of ways to make very solid wood stands. I need to get over there soon anyway. So, I will ook at what they have (not that I am any kind of a wood expert, but I have built wood aquarium stands.) Edited March 24, 2008 by quazi
martin March 24, 2008 Author March 24, 2008 (edited) Thats true about the load bearing surface, but lateral strength is also important-ie cleaning the tank and moving the water back and forth. With that said, IMO Wally's is looking good these days. They are waiting until the tanks are ready before adding corals. Its a work in progress. Fish look healthy and the customer service is good also. I just got two tanks from them, a 75g and a 20g tall. Great prices on them, and the owner gave me a WAMAS discount on non-glass items as well. Edited March 24, 2008 by martin
Brian Ward April 1, 2008 April 1, 2008 i stopped in last night and they have a very large coral tank in the process of setup. 2 72" coralife MH/actinic pendants over the tanks. dry goods and fish are still overpriced - $120 for a juv french angel about 1" (not a viable size in most aquaria). Looks like the owner is trying.
Hilary April 1, 2008 April 1, 2008 I've had mixed results as far as pricing goes. I bought my lights from them about a month back and paid a competitive price for them with a lot of help from the owner. I also, however, paid about $20 more for a copperband than what BRK is currently charging. Good news, though, is that it's a very healthy fish and it began eating as soon as it hit my tank.
Brian April 1, 2008 April 1, 2008 Went there this past weekend and had a good/bad experience. The staff looked busy doing upgrades and setup the new tanks to pay anyone any attention. So after walking around for 20mins with my daughter saying she wanted to buy everything in the salt water area I had to find someone to help out. I got what I needed and headed to the front counter. Not sure what his name was but the item I had was labeled as $16 on the tank. For some reason no one at the counter knew what the price was so the guy at the counter only charged me $8 for a $16 item. OH well. I like it and the store does show some progress I just think they need to do their upgrading before or after store hours. That way they can concentrate on the people in the store and not upgrading the store.
NAGA May 31, 2008 May 31, 2008 Went through Wally's today and it was quite grim. There were hardly any salt fish and the ones they had some were very sick with a complete white fungus covering their eyes. Red slime algae with rocks having aptasia on them. A lot of rust in that place in particular with regards to the shelves that hold the fish tanks................there is more rust on them than my 20yr old Honda. They did have two tanks side by side that held some corals with some 6ft. triple halide/t-5 fixtures. Corals looked healthy but, very avg. generic corals.
martin June 3, 2008 Author June 3, 2008 Yea, they aren't moving ahead like I thought they would. I guess they are after the entry level market. Make sense, they can't complete with BRK and The Aquarium company in Va for high end reef snob stuff.
st9z June 11, 2008 June 11, 2008 Went by Wally's yesterday it starting to look like a really nice fish store. Everyone there was very helpful. They have some very nice tanks up for sale some with 10% discounts. Plus they gave me 10% off livestock and dry good as long as you show your membership card!
yauger June 17, 2008 June 17, 2008 well I ran out to Wallys yesterday after work and let me tell you... nothing has changed... the coral tanks still have over priced with no color corals, some were bleached and they still were at full price (the guy there told me thats normal when shipping corals and that they will "bounce back") the fish selection was slim but maybe I caught them on a off day without their shipment coming in. the new layout is nice however, seems they have managed to squeezed in more tanks without cluttering things to where you can't walk around. I think the biggest minus are the staff. well one guy in particular, he is one of those "Genius" I know everything kinda guy that loves to hear his own voice. I really don't like it when people "think" they know everything when in reality they know nothing. example: "live rock is basically worthless when coraline growns on it, your better off not having it in your system because it will loose its ability to break down ammonia within a couple of month" I may not know a lot about keeping 99% of things coming out of the ocean but my 8 years of reefing tells me this guy needs to go to school. Don't mean to bash but seriously where does Wallys get these people?
rrubberbandman June 18, 2008 June 18, 2008 Don't mean to bash but seriously where does Wallys get these people? I would venture to say they come from the rt 236 annandale area
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