Water World provides one-stop aquarium shopping

GLOCESTER - As hobbyists in reef aquariums, Ron DuBois and Tim Byrne struck up a friendship two years ago at CVS Corporate headquarters in Woonsocket where they are employed.

They exchanged information about their shared interest and exchanged fish, too. And each was available when the other needed some help with his tropical tank.

So when a longtime business in the hobby shut its doors, Byrne asked DuBois if he wanted to go into business, while keeping their day jobs.

"We said that most people don't take the plunge when they have an idea to make their hobby a business, so why not, let's go for it," Byrne told The Valley Breeze & Observer on May 4.

The pair opened Water World, at 401 Putnam Pike in Harmony, on Jan. 15 with the philosophy that it takes a hobbyist to serve hobbyists well.

The business sells reef supplies, live fish, corals, invertebrates, RO/DI water, live rock, tanks, stands and accessories.

The store is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 6 to 9 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Their day jobs? Byrne is an IT engineer at CVS and DuBois is a network engineer for the company.

"When we went into this we decided that we wanted to give the customers a clean and healthy (environment). A lot of stores are not," Byrne said. "We want to offer the best equipment, purified water for our animals and healthy environment for our animals. We don't want dead fish in the tanks like you find at some stores."

Underlying their ambition is to "open a store that we as hobbyists would like to visit; to provide one-stop shopping."

With many of the goods in their store available from other businesses online, Byrne and DuBois emphasize service and knowledge that is not available on the Internet.

"We will try to beat their price, if possible, although we can't always, but we have excellent connections for live rock, corals and invertebrates. We got that from the business that closed."

Unlike buying fish or other animals online, "When you come here you get to look at it, pay a cheaper price and you get the one that you want. It is not hit or miss, here."

Customers from the surrounding towns of Smithfield and Scituate are finding the business, as well as others from North Providence, Woonsocket and Burrillville.

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