Hi guys and gals of MAAST -

This summer my travels have taken me to Kansas (Ft. Riley, KS) and as always when I am travelling, I try to check out the LFS for comparison (and truthfully, to get my "reef fix" while I'm away from my own tanks.)

Yesterday I went into the ONLY LFS in Kansas that has any saltwater to speak of, called Paradise Aquatics. Who ever would have thought that the midwest would have the most amazing store I've seen to date? This place had SEVEN reef display tanks that were full of beautiful corals and fish that were not for sale (but fragging available for many / most of the corals on request, with waiting lists). The biggest of these tanks was 1200 gallons, with another almost that big, and then some smaller down to a 29g cube.

They had corals unlike any I've ever seen. Meat corals and donut corals about as big as your head and some of the most amazingly colored orange and red variagated mushrooms. Next weekend I will try to get some photos to include here, because the photos in this link (although very beautiful) actually do not do it justice. They need to get someone with the skills of hobogato or princer7 up here to do some great reef photography. One of the things I loved about their tanks was that they used common corals (softies like xenia or clove or kenya trees) grown to such huge and amazing proportions to be incredibly impressive. These were of course alongside more exotic and expensive corals.

http://www.paradiseaquatics.us/service.html

Be sure to click on the "tanks" section of the link to check out the display tanks I mentioned. I'll try to inlcude a few photos of my favorites when I go back next weekend. Hope you enjoy!