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Just now, Ash1176 said:

mainly want to check out the fish they have before I go get some! 

Any ideas on what you're hoping to get?

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1x Black and white clown or regular clown

1x purple firefish or royal gramma 

1x yellow watchman goby, or some other kind of goby or tail spot blennie or 6 line wrasse? 

 

I think, we’ll see hahaha....

there is a big Al’s too here, but kinda Going to stick to just only buying hardware from there haha

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2 minutes ago, Ash1176 said:

there is a big Al’s too here

The Big Al's in Ottawa has amazing freshwater fish but their reef stock was significantly lacking.

 

There was this other place over near St. Laurant called Aqua Valley that had a good stock of fish too I remember, corals were more on the expensive side though (though I remember this stunning hot pink goni I got there). 

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Yes they have great freshwater fish, I got some of mine there! But the saltwater area didn’t seem to well looked after. Maybe it will get better now that they are open more. 
Hahaha I remember reading some spicy reviews on aquarium valley so I kinda put that aside in my head back then, but I should definitely go check out for myself soon and see with my own eyes!
marine scape was a good place but they were so busy with people waiting outside I didn’t want to stay too long as I knew I wasn’t buying anything, but they have most of the fish I’m looking for and will be getting black and white clowns in soon, so it seems promising!  

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andrewjardin

I find that Big Al's is really hit or miss.. The Kitchener location is where I usually go, and it's pretty well maintained with decent prices, but I just went to the Hamilton location the other day, and the prices seem too high, and the marine section is extremely limited livestock wise.  If you're ever in Cambridge there is a nice place called The Living Aquarium.  It's a father and son operation, both quite knowledgable!  Pricing is average, but there is usually a wide variety of stock to choose from all the way from CUC to SPS.

 

Although, GTA and Ottawa probably have way better selections between LFS's 😂

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1 hour ago, andrewjardin said:

 

Although, GTA and Ottawa probably have way better selections between LFS's 😂

GTA we are totally spoiled for choices in comparison to a lot of areas but Ottawa really only has Aqua Valley and Marinescape for salt water. The reef section at Big Als was always terrible, the fish almost always had the little sign saying they were sick and not available for sale, the corals were all dying, I would never buy live stock from the Ottawa Big Als (but to be fair I haven't been in there in 5 years).

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So I rearranged the right hand side rock because I realized from my main viewing angle of sitting on the couch, I wouldn't be able to see a lot of the corals that would get placed over there. I also got a couple little pieces of live rock from the local who also put together the Zoa frag pack for me to help boost the biodiversity and I added some marine pure gems into the bottom media rack.

 

Here is the before:

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And here is the after:

 

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And as you can see, I've been adding a few goodies lol I need to think of placement now. I like that the right side is more of a gentle slope to the sand which will make the coral placement much easier.

 

Now I'm trying to decide on acans on the bottom left shelf and have that whole thing become the acan garden and the Zoas on the far right or the reverse. I wish I had @lizzyann 's ability to draw out the ideas for the reef over the image, her tank has been a huge inspiration for me. If you haven't read the thread, you need to. Her tank was the first time I'd even heard of a mint Pavnova which is a must have for me now (which will be going on the back shelf on the left island I think).

 

I decided that since I can't draw, I'd see if I could play with things on the computer and came up with something like this, the perspective is pretty funky lol. We'll have to see what actually ends up happening lol From playing around, I think the acans will go on the left... but we'll see how many times I go back and forth on that.

 

The spots where I've put suncorals are perfect for them, they are actually these shaded over hangs so sun corals could be very happy there with enough feeding. We'll have to see, I want the tank much more mature before I go anywhere near them.

 

 

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  • mipster changed the title to Back in the game - Fluval Evo 13.5 - HELP EVIL ICH

NOOOOOOO HELP!!! EVIL ICH! It's on all three but mostly on the neon goby. He's still active, out and about, porky eater like normal. I don't have a QT system and being Canadian, we are limited on what we can get for treatment even if I had a QT system...

 

What the heck can I do?!

 

 

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Sorry about the ich, I guess tank transfer method might be the only method, or maybe UV (although it only helps it’s doesn’t get rid of all of it, but brings down the number) 

hope it works out

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The problem is I don't have a QT system nor really anywhere to put one... Trying to figure something out. It's very stressful. All fish are super active, eating like pigs, I don't see much itching movements though I keep seeing the neon goby asking for the clowns to clean it which they really don't do so I'm wondering if I should get a cleaner shrimp.

 

I tried to get a better picture but little guy won't sit still and I can only see a few little specks on the fins of the clowns. I'm pretty sure it's ich though I'm having trouble finding a good photo of what flukes looks like to get a better idea.

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  • mipster changed the title to Back in the game - Fluval Evo 13.5 - Meet Bert

Well I lost all my fish while trying to TTM. I think it was just too much stress with how sick they were. Here in Canada, we can't get the traditional medications. I even talked to a local reefer who runs a business of buying and QTing fish on where he gets his copper and turns out he somehow got the Copper Safe formula and has a chemist make it for him. Not exactly the easiest thing for me to do. With no fish, I'm going to allow the tank to lay fallow, I set up a small QT tank on me dresser. Not exactly ideal but I don't want to go through this again. I'll let the QT mature a bit but I've got an ammonia alert badge on it as well. I have a pair of picasso clowns on hold coming from a QTed system so they should be ok but I'll be able to watch closely. After that, it's a firm TTM, into the observation tank before it goes anywhere near the display. I would love to pre-emptively treat but we really can't get much of anything up here. It's crazy. The government has made it virtually impossible for us to treat our fish if something goes wrong.

 

Any Americans want to smuggle me some copper and general cure across the boarder? You can hollow out a teddy bear or something lol

 

I did finally get around to adding my cleanup crew though! Got a cleaner shrimp cause they may be assholes who steal food out of coral mouths, they are so cute when they do it. Got a few dwarf hermits, nassarius and trochus snails. only a few of each. I'd rather add just a few to start and have to get more then get too many and they starve.

 

Also the star of the clean up crew is Bert, my strawberry conch. I LOVE conches but I know certain types get quite large. The guy at the LFS said strawberry conches are smaller in general but I can't seem much definitive confirmation on if my EVO is going to be too small. I have nori on hand to supplement his food though just in case. Worst case, I have a friend's tank he can go to. But I just love watching him go. He's been very industrious. I've got hair algae growing on my frag plugs and he's being a very good boy going from plug to plug.

 

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I'm going to a cottage on Tuesday till Saturday. I hope it's going to be ok while I'm gone. Anyone else get anxious when they leave their tanks? I filled up the ATO reservoir which will last me a month so no worries there considering I'm not even gone a whole week lol

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Ahh no... sorry about the fish, it always a sad time when our fish pass

bert does look pretty cool though, just got to play the waiting game with the tank now, but good on you for getting a QT for observation, will you TTM from the start or just observe for a few weeks until you see ich or something else? 
now rookie question, can you let the tank fallow but still add corals? 

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3 hours ago, Ash1176 said:

can you let the tank fallow but still add corals? 

sort of but the thing is, Ich can come in on anything that's wet so it can come in on Frags and reinfect the tank. They say you should QT corals too but I don't know of a lot of people who actually do that. I'm still going to add corals but from a local who has a frag system that has no fish in it so it should be clear.

 

The clowns I have on hold were QTed with copper so they are going to go right into the observation tank. The fish I choose after that, probably TTM then into observation. 

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Sounds like solid plans! Glad your getting back on track, it’s go to be hard after a blow like that! 
i think getting some coral here and there will keep you busy, and you will have cool stuff to stare at hahaha... 

i still need to figure out my coral plan, and see where I want to put everything

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Photo dump!

 

I was playing around with the polyp lab coral view macro lens. Still have alot to learn and it doesn't help that my cell camera is not good at all lol

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  • mipster changed the title to Back in the game - Fluval Evo 13.5 - photo dump!

Nice shots! Did you get the lens from fragbox? They seem to have the cheapest deal around for it. I’m just holding off on an order right now to see what else I need before paying the extra 30 bucks for shipping, will also probably get a RFG from them! You have one of those? 
Can you take auto focus on your phone and manually focus? That might help you out a little! 

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I got it from Candy Coral here. They are another great option. One thing to know though, neither of these companies will ship dry goods with livestock so if you are ordering, make sure you plan for that. 

 

Another coral seller you can check out here in Ontario that will ship is GTA Reef. He's actually just a local reefer who started having so many frags off his system that he started selling. I got to go check out his set up over the weekend and it's pretty cool. He has I think 5 huge frag tanks plus a display in the basement of his house, it was like Candyland! Super nice guy and awesome selection for great prices.

 

I will have to see what the functions on the cell camera actually are. I've never tried playing around with the settings in the camera app lol

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16 minutes ago, mipster said:

I got it from Candy Coral here. They are another great option. One thing to know though, neither of these companies will ship dry goods with livestock so if you are ordering, make sure you plan for that. 

 

Another coral seller you can check out here in Ontario that will ship is GTA Reef. He's actually just a local reefer who started having so many frags off his system that he started selling. I got to go check out his set up over the weekend and it's pretty cool. He has I think 5 huge frag tanks plus a display in the basement of his house, it was like Candyland! Super nice guy and awesome selection for great prices.

 

I will have to see what the functions on the cell camera actually are. I've never tried playing around with the settings in the camera app lol

Awesome thank you! 
Oh yah dry good order only, I need the phosphate test kit (they didn’t have it at the Lfs) and want the Vca random flow generator, and the phone lenses! will just have to bite the bullet with the $30 shipping 

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2 minutes ago, Ash1176 said:

Awesome thank you! 
Oh yah dry good order only, I need the phosphate test kit (they didn’t have it at the Lfs) and want the Vca random flow generator, and the phone lenses! will just have to bite the bullet with the $30 shipping 

I'm pretty sure dry goods is only $15 from what I remember with my orders.

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12 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

love the visual plan you have there 🙂.  also nice selection of corals to meet that plan as well 👍.

Thank you! Only a few crucial buys left I think before it is time to just let things grow. Or at least that is the plan.... how well I stick to it will depend on how strong my will is lol

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27 minutes ago, mipster said:

I'm pretty sure dry goods is only $15 from what I remember with my orders.

Yep you’re right, once you get to check out you can specify dry goods only! 
Order placed! 

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3 minutes ago, Ash1176 said:

Yep you’re right, once you get to check out you can specify dry goods only! 
Order placed! 

YAY REEF GOODIES!

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That stringy algae on my acan are dinos aren't they... There isn't much, it's on some of the rocks too but from everything I've read, brown and stringy = Dinos... 

 

 

*sign* ok, I need to get out ahead. I know my nutrients are too low. They bottomed out a couple weeks ago. I've been trying to feed to get them back up but still haven't gotten them there yet. What other measures should I be taking?

 

Time to get researching...

 

:tears:

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  • mipster changed the title to The not an Evo anymore Redemption Reef - Meet Hector

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