Reef nutrition

new town, new tank.. new to bar!

bareefers

bareefers

BOD
BOD
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Hello all.. I moved to Tiburon last year and finally got settled enough to get a tank going again.. whew.. I didn't know who to buy from, so I got a hold of a pet store who recommended Ceasar's Tropical - who I bought the tank from.. but I have been getting everything else online at marine depot, vividaquariums.com, and saltwaterfish.com.

Here's some info on my tank and stuff:
I started new this time around.. only had a 36" wall space to play with so went for something tall.. 36Wx18Dx30H to be exact. Thank goodness for the 5 inch sand bed or I wouldn't be able to reach the bottom. lol. I do have some aqua-tongs also, just in case. I have a 25 gallon sump, EuroReef skimmer, and a Rio 2100 return pump.. in tank circulation done by two Seio M820s and a Rio Hyper4. I have an outer orbit lighting system, the 150W HQI-MH + 2x 96W dual actinic PC.. but I am going to sell it for a more powerfull system soon.. something with 2x HQI MH and T5 actinics. I love the compact all in one design of the Current fixture tho.. really nice! For water, I got a Kent HI-S RO/DI system and am currently mixing my own salt.. which I am happy about. Much nicer than shlepping those 7 gallon jugs around in the car. whew..


Anyways.. my tank is cycled, my sand bed is priming... I recently added a little more LR to bring my total to 150lbs! I cured LR in my tank to cycle it this time.. 88lbs of Walt Smith (Fiji) and 35lbs of Tonga Kaelini.. this was a bit of a process to cure, then put the sand bed in afterwards.. the LR is suspended by acrylic stands, to maximize sand bed coverage and LR stability.. the sand bed is between 10cm and 15cm deep.

I have a cleaning crew in the tank now.. got this "reef package"
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/product_info.php?products_id=375&parent_category=4&category_search=5&root_parent_id=4
they've been at it for a couple of weeks now.. they got a LOT of extra "grunge" off my rock.. and are keeping the algea at bay.. I put extra shells in for the hermits also.. I also added 4 large nassarius snails and one tonga fighting conch to keep the top of the sand bed nice and turned over.. so far they're busy working on it.. I might need more help.. later.. I put in a fire shrimp also.. who promptly hid in the back only to be seen if I put food in the tank. yay.


Soooo.. What's a good store near Tiburon (Corte Madera area) I can go to which has a good salt selection?? Fish and dry goods? Pet Club is close by, and they have a salt section, but fairly limited inventory of "good" supplies.. Is the Octopus' Garden good? that shop is 20 miles from me.. but closer than Ceasar's still.. I hear Ceasar's is nice, but it's a friggin hour+ away from me. Anyways.. I am about ready to start stocking my tank.. so wanted to figure out what the best places are to go.


Sorry so long. doh!
 
If we are talking about Pet Central in San Francisco, then I have no idea how inexpensive they are. An aquaintance was quoted $65 for a 200g bucket of Kent Salt (normally around mid to low range in the fourtish dollar range).

You may also wish to check out Lucky Ocean in Richmond District of San Francisco. Corals and fish are fair in pricing and variety, but good none the less.

Welcome to BAR - hope you are able to come to our Saturday meeting (Aug 12) in Hayward.
 
Hi - I meant the one in Corte Madera..

EDIT: it's Pet Club.. sorry!
http://petclubstores.com/

I get my cat supplies there.. they have a few fish there... not much in the way of corals though.. I'll have to check out Lucky Ocean! thanks for the tip.

I'd love to get to the meeting.. I have a sick diabetic cat to tend after.. he's on a new insulin after 2 months of failure to regulate is blood glucose with another type of insulin.. He's in a bad way right now.. so I need to do a BG Curve on Saturday so I can give him the max safe dose of this new stuff... if I can get my wife to test his blood I should be able to make it.. no promises on this one though.. I should be able to make the next one though for sure. :)
 
Hey Tiburon-

I live just north of you in Larkspur and I always go to the east bay to get my coral and fish. Octopuses Graden is good for fish but I haven't seen much decent coral there. I like New Alameda Aquiatics, Atlantis Aquaium as well as Aquatic Gallery and Dolphin Pet Village when I feel up for traveling all the way to the south bay. Send me a pm sometime and I'll tell you more about my setup or if you need some frags.
 
Hi there - yeah, I saw your pics, very nice BTW, and noticed Larkspur.. very near my neck of the woods.. er, hills.. or something like that.. anyways, thanks for the tips! So east bay it is.. I figured there had to be /some/ good shops relatively near by. whew. I think I am only a couple water changes away (doing them weekly while the rock is just on the tail end of curing) from starting to go fish/coral shopping. :) yay for that.. I have been watching rocks for a long while now.. and snails and hermit.. fun in it's own way, but that's not what I set this thing up for. :)
 
Yeah unfortunately I have found that anything up near us is not even worth looking. Let me know if you want to stop by and check out my tank and pic up a few hardy frags to start you off.
 
Welcome to BAR and to the hood.

Your best local bet in Marin is Pet Club in Corte Madera. It's good for dry goods and has a decent selection of fish. Steve is the manager of the fish department.

Other than that, you have to road trip. Your best bet for inverts are the swaps that MARS and BAR put on. Or, getting things from local reefers.

What are you looking for?

Best of luck,

Roy
 
Hi - yeah, I have been to pet club and gotten some things there.. I got my blue tang and six line there actually.. they're doing great also.. I guess I am ok on corals for now.. I have four coming in from reefscience tomorrow.. some zoos, rics, and mushrooms.. once those are in and things have settled I am looking at geting a torch coral and a hammer.. my new lights come in in a week (2x 150W HQI-MH with 4x 39W T5 actinics), so I might be able to get a clam at come point.. I'll have 6W/gal... that's about the min for sps, eh? maybe I could experiment with a small frag of sps and see how it does.. but for now, I think I am ok.. for a month at least. :D but I would love to see other members tanks and/or have some people see mine.. whatever.. once my tank is more mature I can start fragging out some of my zoos and other corals I reckon.

Sorry such a delay on this response.. been busy and I forget to check here.. I need to enable email notification! :)
 
Just got back from a couple of weeks in Akumal, Mexico. Great area to snorkel and see critters.

Fortunately, my main tank made it through much better than our December trip when the au pair had a party, the tank had a semi crash, and I lost a lot of my favorite SPS corals. I think someone tossed something into the tank - major bummer.

Other than the trip, I've been working like crazy. Thus, the tank is not in the best shape. On a positive note, I recently bought my own digital camera so I don't have to beg the wife to take a picture for me. In a couple of weeks, I'll have the tank looking more presentable.

If MARS is going to have a swap in October, you should plan on going. Swaps are great ways to pick up corals at low cost. Plus, you meet a lot of great people.

I used to have lots of zoos; but, I think my coral beauty (or something else) has developed a taste for them.

In preparation for the MARS swap, I'll have to go through the tanks and make some frags. When I figure out what I have to share or trade, I can let you know. I have a torch, and hammer; but, I'm not sure if I can frag them this time. My frogspawn is a great color and grows really well. I think I'll have at least one frag of it by October.

Best of luck,

Roy
 
Nice! I'd love to check that out.. I got my new lights and they're kick ass. I have a nice plateau at the top with great flow right under one of the MH's so that would be a good spot for an sps frag.. I think by october my tank will be stable enough.. I think my sand bed just kicked in recently also.. my nitrates suddenly went to ZERO- they had been hovering around 20ppm or so.. yay for that. Anyways.. I think I need to catch my emerald crabs.. they're little green pains in the ass. eating my coraline algea and disturbing my star polyps every day.. it's really annoying.. how can I catch them? I tried with aqua-tongs with the moon lights on only.. I can get it in the prongs, but they hold on too tight to the rocks.. uugh! anyways.. I'd like to get them out! any suggestions??
 
Re crabs - try putting a scrap of raw shrimp in the bottom of a tall glass and set the whole thing down in your tank against some rocks. The crabs will fall in and the glass will be too slippery for them to climb back out.
 
hehe... "re crabs" I almost expected to read "you see, there's this salve..." heh.. anyways, that's a capitol idea.. I'll try it within the next couple days.. Thanks for the reply. :)
 
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