The Shop - Pilot/Characters

Main Characters

Leo- The Shop centers around Leo, a pretty average gamer, who is a new hire trying to fit in and join into the already established groups at the shop.  He only knows Lincoln, which is his cousin, so at least he knows someone.  He is eager to fit in with his coworkers, but at the same time he is kinda timid about opening up to strangers. Leo doesn't have very many friends, but he makes up the lacking friendship with his pet fishes that he so frequently mentions.  He often finds himself in awkward situations with his sense of dry humor which at times can lead to some ridiculous shenanigans, and sometimes even helping him escape trouble. He is very sarcastic which plays well with his sense of humor, but at times many of his coworkers can't tell the difference between a sarcastic remark or a real compliment.  Leo is oldest of the main characters at 27. We will mainly follow Leo and his journey to try to meld his way into the shop crew.

Doyle - The recently promoted assistant manager of The Shop.  Doyle quickly becomes friends with Leo as their dry sense of humor and sarcasm mirror one another.  As so often with newly promoted managers straight out of corporate training, Doyle is eager to show off  the corporate way of doing things. He has a uncanny ability of complementing someone while at the same time shunning them; this particularly gets to Kerrelyn as they both often butt heads. At times his and Leo's pranks push the boundaries of the rest of the shop members, and sometimes even crossing the line. Doyle is the second oldest of the main characters at 23.

Kerrelyn- The flirt of the shop. Kerrelyn likes to boast about her social life.  She flaunts her "rockstar" lifestyle of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. She is constantly a "one upper" and always has a better and more entertaining story. Kerrelyn is a compulsive foul mouth and often has to restrain herself from cursing.  She often hangs out at the shop even when she's not working, when asked about why she isn't hanging out with her much older "rockstar" friends she simply replies with some outrageous story of why they are out of town. The rest of main characters often suspect that Kerrylyn is living a fantasy life to fit in or seem cooler. Nobody at the Shop has ever met any of her friends. Although her fierce and sometimes raunchy flirting may lead to believe she is a sex machine, she is often self-conscious and awkward around men she finds attractive.

Clara- The Dramatic. She comes off as ditsy, scatter brained, and eccentric with occasional bursts of insight.  Clara tends to make herself laugh uncontrollably. The laughter of others often fuels her own laugh and at times she passes out from oxygen deprivation. Shes a crier, often her coworkers are baffled by her tears.  She is the youngest of the group at 18, but she is the most sociable as well. She is best friends with Kerrelyn.  She often surprises the main characters with the weird things she says, this later leads the main group finds out she lives a secret life of a dominatrix, coming from such a character its very surprising.


Supporting Cast.

Wayne- The boss. Wayne is your typical "try-to-be-cool" boss.  He is much older than his employees and often tries to fit in with them.  He takes a liking to Leo because of their age.  He is often seen trying too hard to fit in and sometimes butting into conversations with "cool" talk to make himself seem younger and relevant. While no one at the shop dislikes, no one really takes him serious.

Billy John- The redneck.  Hunting, camo, guns, fishing, beer, country music, 'MURICA! Basically sums up Billy. He he the oldest at the shop, and has been at the shop for 10 years and before that 7 years at the competitors shop, all in all 17 years in the craft. He is the most respected at the shop, and literally knows everything there is to know about it.

Kevin- The hipster hippy.  Kevin who likes to be called Kev is all about being non-conformist, he's vegan, wears only all nature shoes and pants. Kev is a liberal arts major with a minor photography and creative writing.  He tends to speak like Yoda but without the fucked up backwards phrasing. He is always seen making his all natural foods and drinks at the shop which no one ever dares and tries.

Jake- Young spoiled know-it-all. Jake is the youngest at the shop and the most naive as well.  He tends to think he knows it all and at times interrupts people to correct them. He lives with his rich mom and dad and often complains how hard his life is for him He's in the first serious relationship of his life and like everything else, he thinks he knows the secret to relationships.  He tends to get on his co workers nerves with the fact checking on everyone.

Lincoln- The Mysterious. Lincoln is one of the assistant mangers at the shop. Not much is known about him, he often tends to keep to himself and refrains from talking about things outside of work. one thing is known about him though, he's Leos cousin.

Complete Run Through on Aquarium

Everyone knows that I'm into aquariums and my last blog was an update on my 60g cube, so I figured I'd do a complete in and outs of what I've got going on.  We'll start on hardware and then move onto the live goods.

Tank: 60 Gallon Marineland Rimless cube with corner overflow also purchased the matching stand. Marineland 60g Cube

Glass Top: The tank did not come with a glass top so I had to purchase it separately, The glass top helps with evaporation but also hinders the lighting a small amount.

Lights: Euphotica Lite 16" dimmable full color spectrum programmable lights. They put out 120watts of light power.  After a lot of research I found out these are best alternative Euphotica Lite

lights for the Radions which can run more than twice the amount of these lights.  I have mine programmed to mimic sunrise and sunset, with a couple hours of moonlight at night, they are fully automated and come with a remote which is really nice.  I highly recommend these lights if you can't afford or justify purchasing the Radions.  

Power Heads: Jebao WP10 and WP25.  Currently I have 2 WP10's and 1 WP25.  Like the lights I went for a cheaper alternative to the Ecotech line of powerheads.  These powerheads work great, they each have a controller so you can control the flow and the wave making option. I currently have mine set up for random reef mode. They are pretty quiet not as quiet as the ecotech but at a 10th of the price its hard to beat.  Jebao WP10/WP25

You can see the 3 power heads on the left side of the tank.

Return Pump:  Jebao DC-3000. This return pump is awesome, and for the price it can't be beat.  It even comes with a controller to adjust the flow rate which you only find on the high end pumps that easily run more than 3 times the price. Jebao DC-3000

Sump Tank: Currently I'm running a 20 gallon sump that I made, its a 3 compartment system with a small refugeium.  In in it I have 10 pounds of live rock, a skimmer which I'll talk about next and the return pump that I mentioned above, its works great, in total  it cost me about $15 dollars for the used tank and $20 for the additional glass and silicon to make the compartments.

Under the tank in the cabinets where the Sump and Skimmer are located.

Filter Media/Protein Skimmers:  Reef Dynamics INS80.  This was a game changer for my tank, I recommend this skimmer for anyone.  The first couple days it was pulling out almost 2 cups of gunk out of my tank. It makes my water crystal clear, and everything in my tanks just looks healthier.  Its the loudest thing in my tank, but compared to other protein skimmers its relatively quiet.  The only draw back to using this was whenever I fed my tank would over flow, so I had to shut off my skimmer during feeding, which was annoying so I ended up buy a reef controller which I'll talk about next. The only filter media I run in my tank is Chemi-Pure Elite. Chemi-Pure Elite  Reef Dynamics INS80

Reef Controller:  ReefKeeper Lite System. This is one of my newest additions to my tank, its one of those items that aren't a necessity, but more of a luxury. It controllers everything in my tank from my heater, pumps, powerheads and skimmer.  I currently have mine set up for a 27 minute feed mode. During this feed mode it shuts off power heads, pump and skimmer, and then turn them back on after the timer is done. It also controllers my heater, and monitors my water temperature. The last feature I have set is for a night mode in which it turn off my WP25 wave maker during the night for a calmer night mode in the tank.  ReefKeeper Lite

Automatic Top Off System: JBJ ATO.  I don't currently have this yet but it will be nice once I do. It should help out with stable parameters by replenishing water lost due to evaporation. JBJ ATO

Random Other Things: Flipper Algae cleaner, I personally like the flipper more than the other brands, this one comes with a blade and you can flip it around while its in tank for just a normal scrubber, and at a fraction of the competitors price, its hard to beat.  Flipper   The only additives I use in the tank is Fuel by Aquavitro. Fuel 

Foods: I use a slurry of LRS Reef Frenzy, PE Mysis Shrimp, Brine shrimp and Reef Nutrition R.O.E Real Oceanic Eggs.  I usually prepare it once a week in a bottle and store it in the fridge for easy access and prep time. Reef Frenzy PE Mysis Reef Nutrition R.O.E

Below are picture and a video of all the live goods that are in the tank.