That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

Ok, so the makeover isn’t all that extreme, but it was much needed in the case of our outdoor pond display located at the corner of the store on the field end of the parking lot.  As you may know, we periodically re-vamp our displays inside the store, and in this case it was time for this old pond to get dressed up.  If you’ve visited our retail store you’ve probably seen this pond, the body of which is constructed of landscaping blocks with a cascade of natural stone on the back end. It’s been there for years, and though the structure has remained much the same, the plants really make the pond come to life. Read More »

Hello, Jason here. Working in the fishroom at That Fish Place, I have a great opportunity to learn and discover new things about the fish and inverts so many people love to keep in their aquariums. My co-workers (being science majors and marine bio graduates) are able to work closely with these animals, observing captive behaviors and sometimes having the time to experiment with how they can keep the fish happier while they are held at our facility. Recently, we’ve been experimenting in our holding tanks –  I thought might share one of our recent tests, if for no other reason than to explain what you might see if you visit.  Read More »

Hey readers, Dave here. It has been a busy couple of weeks here at TFP leading up to the holiday season.  It has been especially busy for me, as the top of my to-do list suddenly changed to repairing the touch tank.  Originally installed in 2002 (as somewhat of an experiment), the Marineland Touch Tank was in dire need of a makeover.

After many patches and repairs over the years, the old tank liner finally had so many holes in it that it could no longer hold water.  The liner needed to be replaced!  For anyone who has ever replaced the liner in their pond, you know what an ordeal that can be.  We found a temporary home for our touch tank celebrities, and jumped into the physical mess of getting the old liner out, including removing the hundreds of pounds of rock and substrate. Luckily, we are out of pond season here in Lancaster, so we had the advantage of being able to convert one of our Koi holding systems to saltwater, as a temporary house for our touch tank buddies,  while their home is being renovated. Next we’ll be getting the newer, more flexible liner installed and getting all the animals back home! It’s a whole lot going on, in a short amount of time.

Many, many people (both local and distant) visit the store, in part to see the stingrays and other creatures in the display.  There has been a parade of sad faces come around the corner, expecting to see their touch tank friends, but finding destruction in stead.  Never fear, the rebuild will only take a few more days, and the touch tank will be better than ever!  Along with the new liner, there are also some filter upgrades taking place behind the scenes.  We are truly sorry about the down time for the touch tank, this is the first time we have closed it since it opened seven years ago.

Stop in soon and see the stingrays in their newly renovated home.

Thanks,

Dave

Living in the Edge is actually more like it, with Hagen’s new aquarium the Fluval Edge.  Unlike many of the other new nano or desktop aquariums that have come out in the last few years, the Edge is something different.  Difficult to describe, and easy on the eyes, this cool little 6 gallon aquarium gives the small aquarium a twist in design.

The tank is made of glass, and is filtered by Hagen’s proven Aquaclear filter technology.  The unique design of the aquarium has it “hanging”out in space around its base and top.  The top conceals an access opening for cleaning, feeding, and filter access.  It looks like it jumped out of a sketch book of Frank Lloyd Wright designs.  The Edge comes in 3 colors so that you can fit it in with whatever your décor or taste may be.  Check it out, I think you will find it really interesting.

We couldn’t resist setting one of these little wonders up on display, if you visit the store find the display on the info desk on the sales floor.

Thanks, Until the next blog,

Dave

Dave here.

Back in January, I posted a blog about some of the changes and upgrades to the fish room here in our retail store.  Over the past few weeks we have gotten back to working on our upgrades, and I wanted to start a series of blogs to let folks know what is going on.

Behind the scenes we have been completely revamping our coral holding systems, at the center of which is a whole new coral propagation system.  We have had some coral holding systems in or warehouse for several years, primarily used for holding extra stock, and for some small scale coral propagation.  Some of  these holding systems are being converted into a dedicated coral propagation system. This is a project that we are very excited about.

Along with the new coral propagation system, we are also working on some upgrades to the coral holding systems in the retail store.  The first upgrade is the lighting on the main coral tray.  For those of you that have never visited our retail location, the main coral tray is a pretty cool, and quite unique, aquarium.  The tray is a 20 foot long, 4 foot wide, acrylic aquarium that can be viewed from both the top and sides.  It is one of the largest tanks of this style in the world; I have never seen another like it.

The Coral Tray has been refitted with new Sunlight Supply ballasts and fixtures.  The reflectors are the large Lumenmax models, and they are powered by Sunlight Supply’s Galaxy electronic metal halide ballasts.  There are 4 of these fixtures on the tank, running 400watt 20K XM metal halide bulbs.  The 4 fixtures are mounted to a moving rail system, which allows each fixture to travel over a 4 foot area.  Along with looking good, and satisfying the gadget geek inside of me, the system is also very energy efficient due to the electronic ballasts and moving rail system.  The huge tray is now being lit by only four 400watt halides (Plus a stationary Aquatic Life HID fixture mounted to one end).

In this first blog about the coral propagation system, I can only give you a sneak peak of the system; it is still a couple weeks away from completion.  The plan is to get this initial system online, then over time add additional systems as we acquire and establish our brood stock and grow out protocols.

The coral propagation system will consist of four 120 gallon raceways that are connected to a main sump that will contain the protein skimmer.  There will also be a brood stock tank that will recirculate on the main sump as well.  As you can see in the pictures, we are well into the plumbing and electrical systems of the prop room. Next will be the lighting systems, then we will fill and test the water flow in the system.  More blog entries will follow as the system gets closer to operation.  Hope  you enjoy the pictures of the progress so far.

Thanks,

Dave