That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

Our in-house pond expert, Mike Lehman, will be giving informative demonstrations on Saturday April 12 from noon until 4pm at our Lancaster, PA retail store.

Join us for these informative demonstrations, including information on do-it-yourself container ponds, how to control algae in your backyard pond, information on pond fish and plants and more! Whether you’re a beginner in the backyard pond hobby or a seasoned professional, you’ll be sure to take home some valuable information!

Stay for the demonstrations for your chance to win a prize for your pond, plus we’ve got a coupon in our April flyer for an additional 10% off your pond supply purchase of $49.99 or more, so stock up for the season ahead! If you don’t recieve our mailers, be sure to sign up for email specials and check the box labeled “Retail store coupons”.

We hope to see your smiling faces on April 12 – bring your questions, problems or concerns and have an informal chat with Mike, stay for the demonstrations, prizes and SAVE big on your spring pond maintenance supplies.

Saturday January 25, 2014 That Fish Place – That Pet Place will be hosting our 6^th annual Winter Frag Swap with the fabulous folks from the Reef Conservation Society (formerly known as NCPARS).  Come out and meet some of the best coral farmers on the east coast, and check out the huge selection of coral frags that they have harvested from their private collections.  If you have a reef aquarium, or are thinking about starting one, these frags swaps really are an event that you should attend.  Corals for everyone, from beginner to expert, from common species to rare collectibles.   Along with all the coral available inside the swap, is the wide selection that is always available here at That Fish Place.  All aquarium livestock at TFP is on sale the entire weekend at 25%, which includes an excellent selection of coral frags from many suppliers including Jason Fox, ORA, ACI Aquaculture and many more.

Education is a common bond between the club and TFP, and this event is full of great folks to meet and talk to.  TFP will have our Marine Biologists on hand, and of course the many expert level hobbyists and professionals that are club members are always available to talk shop inside the swap.  Also on hand during the swap will be Manufacturer representatives from United Pet Group (Manufacturers of Marineland, Tetra, Instant Ocean and other great brands of aquatic and pet products) Seachem, Hagen, Hydor, Mars and Acurel to answer any questions you may have about their products.

The swap is located inside the fish room of our Lancaster, PA retail store, and is open from 11:00-5:00. The swap is open for anyone to attend, registration for the event is $5 for RCS members and $10 for non-members.  All money raised at the event goes to the club, which is a registered non-profit group.  For more information visit the club website www.reefconservationsociety.org .

You can pre-register for the event, and browse some of the corals available, or list corals that you have to offer, at www.fragswapper.com .  Free Pizza lunch is included with your admission, and there will also be some great raffle prizes that you can purchase tickets for a chance to win, the grand prize is a 60 gallon Marineland rimless reef-ready cube tank and stand.

Come out and join us for a day of great deals, great conversation and great fun.  Hope to see you here!

Dave

That Fish Place – That Pet Place has earned the Google Trusted Store badge for demonstrating a track record of on-time shipping and excellence in customer service. The badge is displayed across the site to remind you, as our consumers, that you can shop from thatpetplace.com with confidence and with Google’s free purchase protection. If there is an eligible issue that comes up with your order and you cannot resolve it with the merchant to your satisfaction, Google will work with you and the merchant for a resolution. You can read more about this award here.

That Fish Place – That Pet Place is proud to introduce a new premium salt brand to our line of quality salt water products:  H2Ocean Pro+ Natural Reef Salt from D-D the Aquarium Solution.

Similar to brands like Red Sea Coral Pro, D-D H2Ocean Pro+  is harvested from sea water naturally evaporated with solar energy. What could be more natural than real salt water? After harvesting the salt, the natural product is tweaked a little to provide better results for use in our aquariums. For instance, the calcium and magnesium levels are slightly elevated above natural salt water levels. Why? Well, these two elements are quickly used up in reef aquariums, and because our reef tanks aren’t naturally replenished like the oceans, our inverts rely on us to keep these key elements in check. By slightly elevating the levels of calcium and magnesium, D-D H2Ocean Pro+ allows you to dose less, without getting too far out of sync chemically with their natural salt product. Furthermore, the chloride content is slightly reduced from what we see in natural saltwater. By slightly reducing the chloride content in the bucket, D-D H2Ocean has accounted for the extra chloride that usually comes along with dosing in reef tanks where most supplements utilize calcium and magnesium chloride. This helps make sure the chloride content doesn’t elevate too far beyond natural salt water levels in your reef tank. Just one other fine detail addressed by the chemists at D-D H2Ocean.

When this salt  is mixed to a S.G: of 1.025 @ 25°C = 35.5 ppt, your aquarium water parameters should look like this:

pH  level 8.3, range 8.2-8.4 
dKH level 9.3, range 8.7-9.8 
Calcium (Ca2+) level 440, range 430-460 mg/l
Magnesium (Mg2+) level 1340, range 1300-1380 mg/l
Chloride (Cl-) level 19550, range 19960-20130 mg/l
Potassium (K+) level 410, range 380-420 mg/l

So what makes this salt so good? Well, one thing we know about the ocean is that its parameters are pretty consistent. You’re not going to have one day on the reef where the calcium is 500ppm, and a week later be 400ppm. Its important that in our reef tanks we offer the same type of consistency. And, being that corals are from the ocean, doesn’t it make sense to stay as close to natural saltwater conditions as possible? D-D H2Ocean Pro+ mixes quickly, helping hobbyists get consistent results without having to wait 2-3 days for the salt to thoroughly dissolve. Those of us with sensitive stoney corals can attest to how finicky our corals can be over slight changes in parameters. Even hobbyists running Ultra Low Nutrient Systems have benefited from using D-D H2Ocean Pro+ because of its close-to-natural-saltwater levels. Regardless of what corals you keep, its vital to our reef systems to only deal with manufacturers with great quality control. 

Beyond the parameters, this salt is usually less clumpy, less dusty (not much worse than a salt cloud going right up your nose), and mixes up rather clear.  All and all, its this bloggers opinion that D-D H2Ocean Pro+ is one of the best salts offered at That Fish Place – That Pet Place. We currently offer the salt in the retail store, and it will soon be making it’s online debut.

I can’t believe it is mid-September already, and we are just a few weeks away from our Fall TFP/NCPARS frag swap. The Swap is on Saturday October 6th, during our weekend long Customer Appreciation Sale here at TFP.  The Fall Frag Swap, one of the biannual swaps we host with NCPARS, is shaping up to be a great event.  Our joint swaps have been growing and growing with each coming event, and have become one of the largest swap events on the east coast.  Our Winter Frag Swap this past January had over 400 attendees.  With the additional crowd that comes for our Customer Appreciation Sale event, this swap should be a very busy.

The Customer Appreciation Sale weekend includes all the deals we offer in October throughout the store, Plus some great deals that are for the Frag Swap and Sale weekend.  Weekend deals include 25% off all TFP livestock, Buy three get one free select salt bucket deals.  There will also be some sweet coupon deals on our October sale flyer for the sale weekend.  If you are not already on our retail flyer mailing list, you can still sign up for our email notifications from our TFP home page (just make sure you select notifications for our retail store in your preferences)

For the frag swappers, there will be eye candy galore, from some of the best coral hobbyist on the east coast, including NCPARS own Dan Rigle who was recently featured in Coral Magazine.  Jason Fox, will be on hand, showing off some of his rare beauties.  TFP will have a nice stock of our own frags on hand, including a nice selection of ORA and ACI aquaculture coral.  For more information visit NCPARS Website to register for the event, or visit Fragswapper to see or list items for trade or sale.

Our Vendors have donated some nice items for the NCPARS raffle, including a 60 gallon reef ready cube tank, stand and Reef Capable LED light from Marineland and many other great items.

Aquatic Manufacturer Representatives will be on hand from; United Pet Group (Tetra, Marineland, Instant Ocean, Perfecto…….), Two Little Fishies, Seachem, Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Reed Mariculture, Hagen, Ruby Reef

Pet Product Manufacturer Representatives will be on hand from; Merrick, Nature’s Variety, Blue Buffalo, Nutro, Nutrisource, Answers, Earthborn, Dogswell, Zukes, Marchioro, Pawganics, Multipet, A&E Cages.

There will be a little something for everyone, so bring the family, and join the fun.

Hope to see you here!

Dave