interesting trip to *****

[jstdv8]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///forum/thread/386266/interesting-trip-to-petco#post_3391881
I have to agree. I have seen fish in the LFS in the coral tanks and it makes me shiver with the thought of possibly the corals being infected or holding in water that is contaminated. I wish they wouldn' do that. place fish in one area and coral in a seperate area.
On that note, My fish guy does not have fish in his live rock tanks, amen to that, and typically the rock sits there for a great deal of time so QTg the rock is in my opinion pointless.
There is a third part to that though, You don't know where the rock came from and if its a good fish store with lots of turnover every time he brings in new rocks and adds them to the tank the 4 week timer just started over. He probably gets rocks more often than once a month if it's a high traffic store. If those rocks were in a holding tank by themselves for 4 weeks with no fish and no new additions then yes it could be ich free, but how many people at your LFS dip their hands in a fish tank to adjust a coral or grab a shrimp for a customer and then go right over to the LR holding tank with their wet hands and pick up a piece of LR? Unlikely form of transport but possible.
Same thing goes for a small invert except they are more likely to have the ich in it's cyst for actually attached to their shells rather than in free swimming form.
It' so easy to introduce it into your tank I decided to make the extra investment and just QT everything. This hobby isn't about hurrying, so what's the difference if my LR or shrimp or coral or fish have to wait another 4 weeks before they make it to their final home? It's all good

 

[flower]

I think your method is awesome. We do spend a small fortune on this hobby....there is nothing worse than ich in a reef tank.

 

[jstdv8]

October 2009 so far so good

 

[raptor72]

Last month I stopped by a ***** and overheard an employee discussing saltwater preparation with a customer. The associate was telling the customer the different types of salt used to make salt water. Then he said " you can even get away with using table salt". The first chance I got I told the customer to run and never look back.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Raptor72 http:///forum/thread/386266/interesting-trip-to-petco/20#post_3391914
Last month I stopped by a ***** and overheard an employee discussing saltwater preparation with a customer. The associate was telling the customer the different types of salt used to make salt water. Then he said " you can even get away with using table salt". The first chance I got I told the customer to run and never look back.
Actually the guy was right...you can use table salt, I don't remember who on the site does but they do....I WOULD NOT.
It all comes down to who a store hires. The petland by my house was hiring and announced out to the crowd of possible employees if ANYONE, anyone at all, knew anything about keeping SW fish..not a single taker came forward. So they hired the first person who knew how to mix saltwater.
Pet shops are all over, and the big chain stores make sure the mom and pop stores fold up and they are left. ***** has a small area of people who will travel for the price they are willing to pay thier employees. Someone who knows plenty but doesn't recognize their worth will take the job and do awesome...the rest of the Petcos are stuck with whoever is willing to try.
So the rule is to look at where you purchase from, look at the displays...make sure the fish are doing good and make a purchase based on that instead of the store name. There are good Petcos and very bad Petcos..the one by my house doesn't do saltwater critters at all... period. They did 12 years ago when my mother first moved to the area..

 

[jstdv8]

going back to my original post. It was only the employee who seemed at least a little knowlegeable. The fish and other anemones were mostly in rough shape. They had three RBT's that were looking really bad. I know the rule is to not buy from them because it only encourages more death of the new stuff they order with my money. Got caught up in the moment I guess

 

[al&burke]

Hey Justin, been away for a bit haven't heard from you for a while. How is the ATS going for you?
Al

 

[kiefers]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jstdv8 http:///forum/thread/386266/interesting-trip-to-petco/20#post_3391969
going back to my original post. It was only the employee who seemed at least a little knowlegeable. The fish and other anemones were mostly in rough shape. They had three RBT's that were looking really bad. I know the rule is to not buy from them because it only encourages more death of the new stuff they order with my money. Got caught up in the moment I guess
We have a pet store here in town very similar to this. Some times it's hard not to buy fish from this store because we feel as if we have to save them from this hell. We bought a neon dottyback from them a year and a half ago and the employee DROPPED it on the floor. The employees there are all high school kids that know diddly on SWF. There tanks look awefull and smell very rotten, so we don't go in there anymore. AT ALL!!

 

[jstdv8]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Al&Burke http:///forum/thread/386266/interesting-trip-to-petco/20#post_3391970
Hey Justin, been away for a bit haven't heard from you for a while. How is the ATS going for you?
Al
Hey AL,
Still going strong.
I actually had a return pump failure on my sump return so I had to switch the pump out from the scrubber to the return and back and forth for a couple weeks until I could get a new pump up here. The screen started growing some different types of algae on it when it was getting baked sometimes by the lights that are on a timer with no water flowing over the screen. Got some algae growing on there that I've never seen in a tank before, hard and almost bubbly sort of like an elongated small bubble algae. Anyways, even through all that on and off for two weeks it's still keeping my baddies at 0.
How's yours? you had it on the goldfish tank right?

 

[djsreefer]

Hi Jstdv8,
Glad to hear that you had a great experience. I work for ***** and wanted to let you know that Reef Crystals will be coming to the stores early July.

 

[tanuki]

***** in Utah stopped selling Saltwater fish a few years ago. I don't know what happened, but I am guessing it is more related to the fact that there are so many cheapskates out here and they are not willing to buy more than a goldfish!

 

[jstdv8]

Quote:
Originally Posted by djsreefer http:///forum/thread/386266/interesting-trip-to-petco/20#post_3392015
Hi Jstdv8,
Glad to hear that you had a great experience. I work for ***** and wanted to let you know that Reef Crystals will be coming to the stores early July.
That's great news, I hope that carries over to the Anchorage stores. I'm paying 80.00 a bucket right now and it's a little steep

 

[al&burke]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jstdv8 http:///forum/thread/386266/interesting-trip-to-petco/20#post_3392008
Hey AL,
Still going strong.
I actually had a return pump failure on my sump return so I had to switch the pump out from the scrubber to the return and back and forth for a couple weeks until I could get a new pump up here. The screen started growing some different types of algae on it when it was getting baked sometimes by the lights that are on a timer with no water flowing over the screen. Got some algae growing on there that I've never seen in a tank before, hard and almost bubbly sort of like an elongated small bubble algae. Anyways, even through all that on and off for two weeks it's still keeping my baddies at 0.
How's yours? you had it on the goldfish tank right?
Good to hear back from you my friend. The Goldfish ATS is off - they are in their summer home now outside. I built one for my 65 upgrade, the numbers have been excellent, zero although I have a real good skimmer now - I have some real funky stuff growing on mine too.

 

[jstdv8]

Do you have much issue with growth on the screen running the skimmer at the same time?
I ran my skimmer for a while with the screen but never got real good growth (Good enough to get rid of the hair algae though) I turned the skimmer off and the growth got significantly better so and the numbers stayed at 0 so I sold the skimmer. Kinda wish I would have kept the skimmer for emergencies like the pump failure on my return thing, would have been nice to have a backup in case the screen failed, but it didn't and its all good

 

[al&burke]

Well I got back last week from a 3 week business trip - I shut my skimmer off. I turned it on last week and it is still taking out some real dark skimate. The screen looks thick in some areas and thin in others. I am going to run both for now and see what happens. But my numbers have never been better since the upgrade. I need to clean the screen as well.

 

[jstdv8]

Sounds great
I'll bet that skimmer was working overtime after it was off for a bit.
The two systems pull out completely different things so there was probably ALOT of stuff for the skimmer to pull out once it was turned back on.

 

[al&burke]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jstdv8 http:///forum/thread/386266/interesting-trip-to-petco/20#post_3392066
Sounds great
I'll bet that skimmer was working overtime after it was off for a bit.
The two systems pull out completely different things so there was probably ALOT of stuff for the skimmer to pull out once it was turned back on.
I just cleaned the cup - it had a real hydrogen sulphide smell to it - really thick, I didn't notice that smell before and believe me I know what H2S smells like.