Gateway Aquatics

05/15/2024

Long time coming! 👍👍

05/01/2024

Hard to believe it’s been just over 1 year since the store fire. The last year has been a roller coaster to say the least. I’m still doing some STL maintenance but mainly down south in Farmington and doing more things in that area now days.

Very happy to report that STL Aquatics is doing great and as most of you already know they were my former employees for many years. Watching them succeed, learn, grow and adapt to what is needed to carry on and start their new journey has really been very cool to see. They will be moving back to the original location in the coming weeks where I spent 18 years of my life. In the early days it WAS my life for better or worse that’s just building a business from scratch to succeed.

I sure do appreciate all the years from all the great customers along with seeing them follow Matt, Harrison and Shane to their new adventure.

Still not sure how deep I will dive back into this aquatics industry but if your down south I’m still doing things and running equipment. I know the majority of my work in St. Louis is done with limited time spent up there and referrals to the STL Aquatics guys for most of that stuff.

Spent the last few months building what’s in the video so figured I’d share a little of what I’ve been up to in my “free” time. 🤠

I’ll continue to post and carry on but the posts are just a little more spread out these days. Big thanks for all the support and even after the fire I’ve talked with a lot of people and had tons of checking in.

Life’s short and things happen so just try to enjoy the ride where you can. Or at least enjoy my video of months of hard work! 😂✅👍

Thank You! Chad - Owner

03/27/2024

💥Tank Maintenance Tuesday!💥

Started the day at The Magic House!👍✅👍

🐟🐠🐟🐠🐟🐠

03/16/2024

Great deal if your thinking about a good sized in wall setup. Save thousands and still all brand new!👍✅👍

03/12/2024

💥Planet Aquarium Custom 300gallon💥

We set this up a couple years ago or so and has really turned out spectacular! This has been a weekly service account since day 1 and very proud of this one!👍✅👍

02/23/2024

Great setup for Saltwater OR Freshwater!

01/31/2024

Anyone looking for a BIG skimmer we just removed this beast. Current pump is about 2 years old roughly. $800 and pickup would be in Farmington Mo. no shipping.

Lots of other items either from the old store or from service work. Likely we will be putting the majority up on EBay at some point.

12/14/2023

👍✅👍

12/07/2023

Current state of the old building and just had to make a post. This was my business of 18 years so it’s pretty horrible to see and hasn’t looked good since April 28th. Hard to look at and even harder to ever imagine this is how things would end.

Enjoy life, make time for family, make friends & support small business like STL aquatics and thousands of other that pour their soul and so much time into a passion project that IS their business. This was just a hobby that went crazy for me in 2005 and turned into a fantastic career. I’m still doing some of what we do, mainly maintenance and working a bit with my friends/old employees.

I appreciate everyone that helped us succeed and even the few that didn’t, well that became fuel to push harder. This path isn’t for everyone but it’s a pretty dang cool thing to work for yourself and succeed. Hard work pays off and when horrible things happen like a fire, life still goes on so switch it up and keep moving forward.

Harrison one of the owners of STL Aquatics took these pics and todays his birthday so Happy Birthday my friend we will keep pushing forward and I love to see you, Matt and Shane continue what we started in these 4 walls. Now a convertible I suppose
😂🥲

STL Aquatics for all your Retail store needs
Aquariums & Ponds.

Gateway Aquatics for 18 years of roller coaster emotions and a lot of amazing people along the way!! 👍✅👍

Thanks for all the years! Chad - Owner

11/28/2023

💥Maintenance Day! 💥

💥Some of the amazing aquariums we get see and maintain every week. ✅👍✅

11/18/2023

💥Reminder💥

Big Grand Opening this weekend for STL Aquatics!✅

10/28/2023

09/20/2023

🐠Quick video from the 850 gallon! This tank has really grown in and come along way in a few years.
👍✅👍

09/12/2023

🐠Feeding frenzy in the 1000 this morning! ✅

09/09/2023

Reminder they are in the same plaza just a few doors down! ✅✅

08/23/2023

STL Aquatics is getting their new store loaded up! Be sure to like their page for updates and located in the same plaza just further down.
✅👍✅

08/04/2023

Ok the time has to come to let everyone know our plan moving forward. The last few months has been a whirlwind of unknowns.

As most everyone knows we had a very bad fire on 4/29/23 and it seemed like maybe it wasn’t as bad as it looked at least at first. Well it was and the building has been completely gutted with an estimated rebuild date of January 2024 just for the structure.

After 18 years in this location I have decided to not reopen a retail store but in some ways do something even better! So here’s the big news for those that have not already found or figured it out.

Matt & Harrison that have been employees for many many years are starting their own store STL Aquatics in the same plaza just down the way. 4584 Telegraph rd is their address with hopes of being back in the original building after its rebuilt. STL Aquatics page.

These guys are extremely talented at what we do and worked by my side for a long time to build some of the biggest and best Aquarium installations, ponds & waterfalls all over the area.

They will succeed with or without me I have no doubt but I will still be around them and hope to carry on some work together in the future. Along with Shane that has been with me a while as well will be working with them moving forward also.

These guys are not just employees, they are my friends and I will support them anyway I can and hope everyone can do the same. When you start a new business the fire is strong inside you but only continues to burn with everyone’s help and support. So please stop in and see my friends new business, shop local and support small businesses when you can.

I will still be doing some work in St. Louis weekly and mainly keeping up with maintenance accounts I have kept moving forward and looking forward to what life can show me a path to next!

I just want to also say THANK YOU for 18 years of business and support. I’ve made so many friends and awesome people over the years with lots of connections, it’s almost unbelievable what owning a business can lead to and all the people you meet. It’s not for everyone for sure but I’m 43 and self employed for 22 years. Being a business owner can be so challenging but so rewarding and I’m very excited to watch Matt and Harrison take this step into their future!

Thank you, Chad Smith.
Owner - Gateway Aquatics

07/11/2023

Few maintenance photos from the route today including the re**er 625 Peninsula!

07/05/2023

💥This 300 Planet we installed about 10 months ago and maintain weekly is really growing into a spectacular Reef Aquarium! ✅👍✅

06/23/2023

Another dream setup plumbed by the dream team!!!

●Custom 285 Gallon Planet with steel stand ✅️

●Custom colored plumbing ✅️

●Silent syphon drains ✅️

●Dual Red Sea Reefmats ✅️

We can't wait to fire it up when the customer moves in the house!!

05/26/2023

💥We built this in 2 days with the 4 of us!

💧Turned out awesome with water flowing everywhere! ✅👍✅

05/24/2023

Man we love this Re**er 850! it is really coming to life! Gotta love the top system and new eurobraces seem phenomenal

05/19/2023

Another one bites the dust!

Fancy plumbing ✅️
Traditional Mahogany stand ✅
Top of the line install ✅️

05/18/2023

Gateway Aquatics first pond build from over 10 years ago got some updates and a cleaning!

Got rid of the old biofalls box and replaced with a new modern fastballs box on the waterfall along with a brand new Pondmax UV pressure filter!!

Already crystal clear and will only get better!

05/16/2023

💥 Tank maintenance Tuesday! And a pond 🤠

05/08/2023

Well it's not a grand reopening but it's a solid update. It's definitely looking like we are making a dent in this mess. It's still looking like quite sometime before reopening is discussed but we are on the way!

Busy day of outdoor maintenance with 20ish stops tomorrow for the team... keep pushin!

05/02/2023

There’s work to be done still! ✅

We are still doing our outside service/Maintenance while figuring out everything with the store, so lots of shuffling. It seems the store may be down for longer than originally anticipated.

For now with the huge help from Seascape we will be using them as a hub for service needs and just cannot thank them enough for everything Joe and his team have done to make us feel at home and welcome with an open shop.

Being very honest our insurance will help with majority of losses “contents coverage” we are told so far. That said we will have to do a lot of the work to dismantle and rebuild so as usual we will push through and get it done. ✅

04/29/2023

So today was a day that you hope never happens. We had an electrical fire of some sort overnight and the guys opened the door to the remainder of its fury this morning.

Best guess is we will be closed at least 3 weeks and will update as things progress it it’s really hard to say especially when EVERYTHING is covered in black soot.

After 18 years I do believe there is still plenty of life left in this location and we do plan on pushing forward. So for now stay tuned for what’s to come!

Also wanted to give a HUGE thank you to everyone that called, texted, messaged and stopped by the store to see if they could help.
Good things make the bad days much better.

A big THANK YOU to joe at seascape and some of their crew making multiple trips to help us out with what could be helped.

Also Damon at Marine Solutions for offering to come help asap as well.

Along with a few others and one of our favorite customers Neil for pitching in to help.

It’s one of those things you look around in disbelief and you really just don’t know what to do other than save anything living that we could.

So we wait for insurance and powers that be to help us move in a positive direction. Then back up we go to rebuild this 18 year location for us and for our fantastic customers to stop and see us back in action soon!

We will still be doing our outside service work and maintenance as usual just shuffling around the store till we get everything sorted.

and a huge THANK YOU to the guys that really helped get this sorted out and get out anything we could save - Matt, Harrison and Shane whos help is always very much appreciated!

Thank you, Chad - owner

04/29/2023

❗️We will be closed today 4/29

Most likely the next few days/ week as well. Eveyone is ok at the store, potentially a fire. Will keep eveyone updated.

UPDATE we will definitely be closed likely a few weeks minimum. Will keep things posted and up to date where we can. The store had a bad fire and there will be A LOT of work to get open again.