Reef life opened it's doors in November to great delight of many people as the project started some six months ago. However Steven Bell (the owner) wanted to create something different, a shop unlike others, and this unfortunatly took time. Please scroll down to see how it all started......

Steve first got the keys at the end of July, and as you can see it was a blank canvas.Previously it was a car sales garage with two huge shutter doors.

The project starts! Studwork for the supporting walls between the marine and tropical bays are erected. By this time Steve had all the design plans completed. All of the work at Reef Life work was carried out by Steve and Jim without any help!

This is the marine section of studwork complete! However they are only half way there as the trop section needs doing as well!

Here you can see the marine section of plumbing coming along. Only three thousand more fittings!

Jim stands next to the Aquamedic skimmer (took four to lift it!)

A very proud Steve stands next to his new marine fish only system, it's about 2am!

This is the enterance to the shop and the till area, notice the chalk lines on the floor?, the guys are always planning ahead!

After the trops and the marines were complete, work on the bagging station started. This is where all your marines will be transfered from 'catching buckets' to poly bags then filled with pure oxygen. This process makes it a lot less stressful for your fish. Next the filter room.....!

After delivery of our aquamedic protein skimmer the 120 gal sumps were positioned in the wall, with food grade plastic covering top to bottom. The tanks were drilled to accomodate the 4" drains coming from the systems. All pipe work is PVC grade one. Next was the connection of the P8 U.V sterilisers (two of them) to the main pumps, two AG16 TT marlows (17,000 litres an hour!) which power the systems. Next trickle towers and sand filters....!

Here is a partial shot of the filter room from our side car park, not shown are the invert filters with two aquamedic turboflotor 5000's running! The room is almost complete, just connect the skimmer and it's there!

The main shop is coming along now. All the plastic going on the fronts to finish.

The till area complete, and plinth for the display tanks, plus Steve's latest Toy, his aquamedic Tank, which i'm sure will look stunning by the till area.

Carpet tiles down, freezer in, some stock up, plants in..... are they almost there??

Some of the tanks Steve stocks, more in the dry goods area and the coffee room..... Yes that's right the shop's not complete until the guys finish the coffee room where you can sit down, enjoy your complementary cuppa, read a few mags/books and yes enjoy the fish!

And here is the start of the conversion into the coffee area with glass panel so you can enjoy the sights of the fish house!

Steve takes delivery of the 2000 gallons a day R.O unit. This piece of equipment is state of the art. Steve doesn't have to store water which can potentially become contaminated if left for too long as this unit will fill up a salt bucket in approx 30-40 secs with pure fresh R.O. Oh yes that is the top of a door next to it just to show how big it is!

So here's the shop view from the coffee room. In front is the 2 meter stand for the invert tank which Steve is currently installing...... keep updated for more

First ton of salt arrives, and the Giesmann Infinity 250w twin metal halides for the invert system arrive.