Jestersix

got a tank, became a full member, any LFS suggestions by SF?

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pbh-reef

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Hi everyone!
After being away for the summer I found a great deal on a 10 gallon nuvo with basically everything you could want on craigslist the weekend I returned and so now I have a tank again after almost 20 years (since high school!). The set up came up rock, sand, 6 corals, a cleaner shrimp and some CUC. It has been running really well in my home for a month now and I think this weekend I will be going with husband from SF (I live in the city) to Aquatic Collection in Hayward to get our first fish and maybe some frags/a couple snails. Does anyone have another suggestion of a LFS that is an hour away from the city (or closer?)

Excited to be part of BAR, looking forward to the community! I have a build thread on r2r, don't really know the etiquette of posting it here too?

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Welcome! Aquatic collection is your best bet for quality fairly priced fish and coral. We have a frag swap coming up soon that you can attend to get to know people in the club and pick up some cool corals
 
Hello and welcome. Fish Doc is a great guy and will steer you in the right direction. Aquatic Collection here is Hayward is awesome for fish and have completely redone their coral tanks. Neptunes in SJ has always been great for corals and the usual suspects for fish.
 
Welcome. What kind of light do you have over the tank? I liked the way the natural light made my tank look. It would only hit it for about 1/2 an hour in the morning at a certain time of year.
 
Welcome to the San Francisco chapter of the Bay Area Reefers! :D

In all seriousness though there's not a lot of option as far as San Francisco and near by for a range of corals and fish, 6th Avenue aquarium on Clement needs to be avoided at all costs, Lucky Ocean on Balboa is a small hole in the wall type of store and I have had decent luck with fish there as long as you get fish that are somewhat common, depending upon where you live in San Francisco a trip across the bay to Aquatic Collection might take about the same amount of time to drive, from where I live in San Francisco it takes just over 30 minutes to get there in most cases and if I'm not lucky with parking tack on another 10 minutes. There's a few other stores near by, there's on in South San Francisco just off El Camino that I never knew about and went into for the first time a couple years back, not a lot to choose from but if you need that snail or hermit crab or whatever in a hurry it's not bad. There's also a place in San Mateo but if you've gone that far you might as well go a little bit further and hit up Hayward :D I've only been to Neptune a few times, because it's kind of in South San Jose (I think) and it is a serious trek to make from SF, but if you want variety that definitely is the place to go, their little $10+ frag tanks alone can allow you to get a nice diversity of corals on the cheap ... that said it's been a long time since I've been so their $10 frag tank might be more expensive now :D Just wherever you go make sure you quarantine corals, or at the very least aggressively dip them before plunking them into your tank.

So to recap, for variety Neptune or Aquatic Collection, for common stuff... ehh maybe near by. San Francisco and this area is really lacking for a quality store, the ones that have existed have gone out of business.
 
pbh-reef said:
Thanks so much Mike! what you write is basically what I thought, 6th ave aquarium is not a happy place. have you ever had experience with Bay Bridge Aquarium in Oakland? They seem new...
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Ive been to Bay Bridge Aquarium a little while back. It looks like it will be a nice store
 
pbh-reef said:
Thanks so much Mike! what you write is basically what I thought, 6th ave aquarium is not a happy place. have you ever had experience with Bay Bridge Aquarium in Oakland? They seem new...
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Never been there, they had a booth at the Bay Area : Coral Farmer's Market I went to a couple years back, and they were in the process of getting stuff but the honest answer is I'm not driving over to Oakland just to go to a store, Aquatic Collection was after BAR meetings because it was so close, and Neptune is the once in a blue moon visit when I NEED stuff, if I want a bunch of frags for a new tank I'll go there but it really is too far just go window shopping. As a result I feel the LFS side of the hobby is effectively dead for me since there's the 'L' is absent.
 
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! I went to Aquatic Collection last Sunday and picked up a geometric Pygmy hawkfish and a frag of birdsnest. The hawkfish is doing really well so far! In terms of new additions I’m doing some thjinkkng about where I will get them (AC was pretty far)!

I would like to go to the frag swap in October but I don’t really have 3 frags to put into the swap, we’ll see if that changes. In the mean time if anyone in SF itself wants to sell some of their frags I’d be interested!

Also I think my tank is too small for my cleaner shrimp, who keeps growing and is kind of a pig! If anyone wants a free shrimp let me know, I’d be happy to trade for a coral frag too.
 
Flagg37 said:
Welcome. What kind of light do you have over the tank? I liked the way the natural light made my tank look. It would only hit it for about 1/2 an hour in the morning at a certain time of year.
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It is a Kessil a80.
And I agree the morning light on the tank is really nice. I am putting a curtain around the tank when I leave for the day so it doesn’t get too much natural light.
 
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