From left, Kole Tang Aquatics technician Josh Moss, owner Kole Elkin and store manager Jay Holcomb. (Jack Jacobs photos)
A local company that installs and maintains aquariums now has a retail store on West Broad Street.
Kole Tang Aquatics opened its new shop last week at 7250 W. Broad St.
The store sells saltwater and freshwater fish as well as coral, aquariums, lights and filters. And while the retail location provides a new revenue stream, it is primarily a venue to get face time with customers and build the company’s bread-and-butter work servicing aquariums at homes and offices.
“In order to have a successful aquarium maintenance business, you have to have a storefront for people to come to and chat with people and decide what they want to do for their aquarium,” owner Kole Elkin said.
Kole Tang regularly maintains aquariums for more than 70 clients. The company currently operates with one van but plans to soon add a second one, with eventual plans to build a fleet of seven to 10 vans.
“We are reaching our maximum we currently can do in our one van right now. We’re averaging eight to 12 jobs every single day of the week,” said Elkin, who has two employees and plans to expand his team.
The company primarily deals with saltwater aquariums. Service visits cost $165 for a tank of between 220 and 325 gallons, and $125 for tanks under that size range. Kole Tang also sells the saltwater to fill the tanks at $1.50 a gallon.
Kole Tang Aquatics sells saltwater and freshwater fish and coral in addition to aquariums and associated equipment like lights and filters.
Kole Tang launched in 2024 as a van-based operation, and maintains and installs aquariums for residential and commercial customers. It focuses its service area within a 60-mile radius of the western Henrico store, but will go farther out for the right job or an emergency call. The company’s quick-response service is intended to provide a fix when things go awry with aquarium tanks, endangering the fish inside.
Elkin described himself and his team as passionate hobbyists who think it is important to educate customers about keeping aquariums, and the store also provides a space to do that.
“They’re getting an individual, tailored, one-on-one experience that they’re not going to get anywhere else,” he said. “We want to teach you how to care for your aquariums because these fish can’t speak, these corals can’t speak.”
The recently opened store adds a brick-and-mortar retail arm to the company, which primarily maintains aquariums for residential and commercial customers.
Kole Tang’s retail location has been in the works for a little over a year. The 1,600-square-foot building on West Broad had most recently been a car dealership and prior to that a Subway restaurant.
Elkin declined to comment on the investment made in the buildout, but said it was an “expensive,” self-funded project that involved “ground up reconstruction.” The company leases the building from an LLC tied to Elkin’s parents.
Tennessee-based Glass Cages made the store’s fish tanks, and also manufactures the custom aquariums sold by Kole Tang. The prices of the customized tanks vary. Its custom aquariums have cost up to $180,000, and it has sold more than 70 custom tanks this year.
The business is named for its owner and the Yellow Eye Kole Tang, a fish native to Hawaiian waters.
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