Vendors, Products, and Diatoms! Oh my!

So, after sickness, work, school and a wedding this post is a little late in coming. Anyways, this a exciting post with a vendor review, two product reviews and my diatoms from last week!

Last weekend dear husband and I decided to take a lovely jaunt (aka 40+ minute drive) to some local fish stores to get an idea of their prices.  We went to a fish store that claimed to have Mandarin Dragonets on prepared food.  If I get a Mandarin, I really want it on prepared foods since my tank is not large enough to hold a self sustaining supply of copepods.  So, this is important.

Mandarin Dragonet/Goby Image from Pinellas Aquariums

We had been to Top of the Reef before but this time we had specific things we were looking for.  Top of the Reef is an LFS with flair.  The interior is themed in a way that is both interesting and practical.  The entire interior of the store is filled with sand.  Not only does it give you a more "reefy" feel but it also avoids any potential hazards caused by wet floors.  The front half is dedicated to supplies with display tanks showcasing some of their pricier fish and coral.  The back half is where the live stock is kept.

One of the really cool things about Top of the Reef's set up is each tank is individually maintained.  No tank is connected to the same water source.  This greatly reduces the chance of sickness like ich.  If one tank gets contaminated, it is limited to that one tank and does not compromise the rest of the stock.

Another cool thing about Top of the Reef is its liverock.  Most liverock comes from either living reefs or, like the rock in my tank, from ancient fossilized reefs.  The rock from Top of the Reef is completely man made and was created by the store's owner, Tony Saprano (I know, awesome name right?).

Tony is also a real hands on kind of dude.  All three times we have been to the store, he was our guide through his products and livestock.  He is extremely knowledgeable and is the type of hobbyist I love.  He is in it for the animals, education, and ability for man to recreate a semi-natural ecosystem.  A lot of people who own home aquariums are in it mainly because the fish are pretty.  Tony is in it because he loves the ocean like I do.

While at Reef Culture buying our live rock, a store associate recommended we put in some good bacteria to help the tank along and establish a good biological filter.  Unfortunately, they were out of stock at that time.  We traveled to three of the closest LFS to Reef Culture looking for this bacteria only to be told multiple times it was a silly thought and doesn't exist.  From our impressions, Reef Culture seemed to be the most top notch LFS in that area so we were fairly confident it did exist and the store associates were not aware.  Our suspicions were confirmed at Top of the Reef.

PRODUCTS

The almighty MicroBacter7

The product is called Microbacter7.  It is amazing!  Microbacter7 is produced by Brightwell Aquatics.  As the story was told by Tony, the founder of Brightwell Aquatics was a co-founder of the earlier established Kent Marine.  However, the founder disagreed with some of Kent Marine's ideas and thought he could do better.  So he left the company and started his own.

Before MicroBacter7, our nitrites were off the charts.  We added 15 mL the first day to the tank and after 12 hours, the nitrites had dropped to .25 ppm (parts per million) by a full 24 hours, the nitrites had dropped to 0 ppm.  I believe that should be enough said about this product.  Husband and I are thoroughly impressed.  Nitrites have been at zero ever since.

Aqueon Pro 100.  Fits nice and snug next to the AC70's in take tube.

The next product review is the Aqueon Pro 100 heater.  From a previous post, you know our tank temperature suddenly dropped and we had to buy a heater.  This heater is fully submersible and be mounted vertically or horizontally.  We decided to stick it out of the way next to the AC70 intake tube.  I've said before we want to keep the main display as clutter free as possible.

What I like about this heater is it actually tells you what temperature you've set it to.   The Neptune 50 watt we had does not.  It only has a more or less heat knob.  I have the heater set to maintain 77 degrees and so far it's done a fine job of doing so.


DIATOM UPDATE
As of last week, the diatoms are having a party in the tank.  The tank is completely covered in the icky brown stuff and these photos taken last weekend, do not do the tank justice by what it looked like at the beginning of this past weekend.  It was definitely time for a clean up crew.

Diatoms as of October 16th.

As of October 23rd.