By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Who knew that Zeeland—a small town close to Lake Michigan but nowhere near any ocean—has what might be West Michigan’s only saltwater aquarium store? The store’s loyal customers who come from as far away as Traverse City and Niles, that's who.
Eco Reef, owned by brothers Adam and Nick Fernandez since 2006, recently underwent an interior renovation to spruce up the store’s displays of live fish and corals. The inventory includes clown fish (Nemo), blue hippo tang (Dory), lion fish, stingrays, sea horses, and even shark eggs customers can hatch in their home aquariums.
“Saltwater aquariums are a good allergy-free alternative to pets, but a lot of people see it as a hobby,” says Adam, 29. “Others see it as living art, an interior decorating design statement.”
The brothers make and install custom aquariums and offer maintenance services. The store sells aquarium lighting, fish food and supplements, and deionized saltwater.
In addition to the new interior, the owners have reduced their operating costs by some 40 percent by taking some simple conservation measures. Placing acrylic covers on the aquariums when the store is closed reduced water evaporation from 30 gallons a day to two gallons a day. That alone saves the store about $700 a month in water and deionization costs.
A new ultraviolet sterilizer zaps parasites, saving anywhere from $600 to $900 a month by keeping the inventory alive and healthy.
“The biggest retail opportunity for us is having the lighting and everything else here,” Adam says. “It’s almost like having a second store besides the fish and coral. There aren’t a lot of places around that deal with saltwater. It’s all we deal with and we want to be known as the experts.”
Source: Adam Fernandez, Eco Reef
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.