Recent visit to Lebanon

[MalHavoc]

I had the opportunity to spend a few months in the Middle East and during that time I was fortunate enough to visit Lebanon and hang out with the RC members who live in Beirut. maroun.c here on RC was my chauffeur for the day, and we drove around visiting other members who lived in the area. Epic day. Insanely great hospitality by everyone and their families.

I have to say, it's rare to meet a group of people so enthusiastic about reef aquariums. These guys, and their families, really love to reef. I was incredibly impressed with the quality of their tanks, the health of the live stock they've kept, and their determination to learn more and do more. It was really inspiring.

I wasn't really prepared to do a lot of tank photography, but I'm posting this because maybe Maroun wants to get in and add photos of the tanks in the area. He's got a great one under construction, and there are some other really impressive ones too.

Great job, guys. And Maroun, thanks for making the day most excellent!

[maroun.c]

Was a pleasure to meet with you Jason, was an excellent day for us too.
For all who are not familiar with our country its a very small country in the middle east with till recently very limited access to quality equipment and livestock. Most of our tanks were filled by corals I brought when on travel, people on my old 150 G build thread always wondered how we could keep our tanks with so limited resources. Luckily things are changing for the best.
The country houses a few succesful tanks.
From them the ones you've seen:
Youssefs tank a 1.5 year old very promising tank.
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm185/mcaqua150g/Youssef/DSC_8520.jpg
Pierres Tank: a 2 years old meticulously yrun tank.
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm185/mcaqua150g/Pierre/DSC_8536.jpg
Excuse the colours as i struggled with WB on the last photoshoot...
My old 150 G tank before it was taken down for the ongoing 390G upgrade:
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm185/mcaqua150g/Tank%20Views/DSC_2769.jpg

And my 390G in build
http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z414/mcaqua390g/Wall%20Unit/DSC_7415.jpg

Build thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2015174

Another tank that you missed as the owner was on travel:
Lebreef550G tank in build a very promising tank build as well.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3262/5743134069_338224e271.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2011377

Thanks for all your kind words Jason and for your interest in our country and Tanks. Looking forward to meet with you again sometime somewhere!!!
Take care.


Pierres Tank:

[Lordhelmet]

Very cool, I always like to see tanks from dedicated reefers.

[ludiNano]

Great to here you had a good trip Jason, you had to of taken a few pics your self...no.

Maroun.c I've seen pics of your past tanks and they're incredible, and your friends tanks are too.

I can only hope I will get to see other members tanks on my travels.

[MalHavoc]

Josh, I took photos in Lebanon, but I didn't really try to take tank photos. When I was visiting with Maroun my tripod was at my hotel and I had not packed my macro lens for that trip. His photos are better than anything I could have taken at the time. :)

[maroun.c]

Thanks Josh.
Keep us posted if you ever travel to the region and we'll be happy to show you our tanks.
I'm a frequent traveller as well and so far have met with many reefers abroad to the point that I now have friends in most of the countries I travel to.

[snorvich]

Wonderful tanks!!! If I ever get my butt over there, I hope to see some in person. Pictures, while good, are never as good as real life.

[Buzz1329]

Wow. Great tanks! So where do you get your livestock/equipment? Are there LFS in Lebanon that offer reef critters?

And what's going on with that photo, ludiNano? Is Bettendorf Iowa on the wild side?

[maroun.c]

Wonderful tanks!!! If I ever get my butt over there, I hope to see some in person. Pictures, while good, are never as good as real life.

Do you travel to this region? + 1 on tanks being much better in real life.

[maroun.c]

Wow. Great tanks! So where do you get your livestock/equipment? Are there LFS in Lebanon that offer reef critters?


Thanks.
Till recently hardware was limited to some chinese brands here and there, and outrageously overpriced quality equipment. Shipping wasnt a viable option as things cost double with the added shipping and customs added...
Livestock was limited to fish and softies and basic LPS as there was no interest in high end LPS SPS... it was basically small shops selling the whole shipment on arrival so you had to race for unquarantined livestock and stressed corals. Luckily we now have 2-3 decent LFS that try to get frequent shipments and better quality equipment. There is high interest in the country as emerging market as we're seeing people more active in becoming distributor for many decent brands. So it is much easier now. One thing wee struggle with a bit is the quality of corals we get, being a small market I think suppliers keep the high end corals to countries or LFS with higher demand so we don't really get the A+ quality around here, and if we do its overpriced. Still that is OK as long as you can get a few show stoppers for the tank, I also travel very frequently and have gotten corals or frags, from USA, Germany, Holland, Spain, Austria, UAE....

[pierre777]

thanks for the kind words jason , i'm glad you had a good time in lebanon,it's nice to meet people who understand and apreciate what we're doing ,hope to see you again in lebanon only next time let us know your coming so we can arrange to do a nice meeting and spend more time together, pleasure to meet you take care and see you soon .
p.s.thank you all for the comments and to all reefers reading this thread you are all welcome to come to lebanon and experience what we did with jason.

[pierre777]

maroun thanx for the pics and for all the help and support you give us:lmao:

[pierre777]

:fish1:

[Buzz1329]

Thanks.
Till recently hardware was limited to some chinese brands here and there, and outrageously overpriced quality equipment. Shipping wasnt a viable option as things cost double with the added shipping and customs added...
Livestock was limited to fish and softies and basic LPS as there was no interest in high end LPS SPS... it was basically small shops selling the whole shipment on arrival so you had to race for unquarantined livestock and stressed corals. Luckily we now have 2-3 decent LFS that try to get frequent shipments and better quality equipment. There is high interest in the country as emerging market as we're seeing people more active in becoming distributor for many decent brands. So it is much easier now. One thing wee struggle with a bit is the quality of corals we get, being a small market I think suppliers keep the high end corals to countries or LFS with higher demand so we don't really get the A+ quality around here, and if we do its overpriced. Still that is OK as long as you can get a few show stoppers for the tank, I also travel very frequently and have gotten corals or frags, from USA, Germany, Holland, Spain, Austria, UAE....

If the corals in your tank are low end, I am feeling very inadequate. :rollface:

[Misled]

Beautiful stuff. Thanks for taking care or Jason folks!!!! :thumbsup:

[maroun.c]

maroun thanx for the pics and for all the help and support you give us:lmao:

Always a pleasure to share the addiction :beer:

[maroun.c]

Thanks.
If the corals in your tank are low end, I am feeling very inadequate. :rollface:

Thanks Buzz, most corals in my tank I aquired from my travel so they don't really reflect the quality we get int he country. Still as I said things did improve and we're getting some good quality stuff recently still just have to rush to LFS when a shipment arrive as its usually small shipments and quality suff sells instantly.

[maroun.c]

Beautiful stuff. Thanks for taking care or Jason folks!!!! :thumbsup:


Thanks Misled. Was a fun day indeed.

[youssef]

thanks jason for the nice words, you're always welcomed in Lebanon