Tank Tours

Ocean Floor

Posted on by Marty Mendez

Phoenix, AZ. Few would have guessed that nestled in the heart of a city in the middle of the desert lies, “the Ocean Floor”. A place in size that easily overwhelms those who enter in awe.

Upon entering your are greeted by vastly large systems holding large colonies of corals, and even tanks holding equally as large of fish.

The corals looked big, colorful, and very nice indeed, had I come better prepared I would have sent back several to Wisconsin, everything was laid out to price easily without needing to ask many questions like you typically would in a reef shop.

The Ocean Floor even has excellent freshwater game, they are fully prepared for several species, along with prepared RO/DI, rock, substrate, lights, even the whole atmosphere of the store made you feel comfortable while shopping.

If given the opportunity to stop in again, I definitely will be stopping by them again better prepared next time, be sure to check out their website! https://oceanfloorstore.com/

Tank Tours

Kona Reef

Posted on by Marty Mendez

Surprise, AZ . Tucked away behind some industrial buildings is nestled this hidden gem. Upon walking in, is a pleasantly laid out shop, immediately showing their full skill of aqua-scaping techniques across both Saltwater and Freshwater systems.

Along with a well organized shop for easy to find specimens of both waters, whether it be freshwater of the South American waters, Lake Malawi African’s, even those of the Rio Xingu river specimens, all very well laid out.

Saltwater frags and fish? You may want to really take your time looking through as some of the rare collections were here, grand master kraks, bounce mushrooms, even rainbow pectinia’s!

With this being Kona’s 2nd shop in the Phoenix area, with a 3rd new shop in the works, they definitely have gotten something done right that the area consumers are liking and I can see why. Even those who aren’t braving the heat to visit, can do so from the comfort of their own smart device by checking out: https://www.konareefaz.com/.

Tank Tours

GingerBread Fish & Corals

Posted on by Marty Mendez
06
Jun

Nestled in the heart of Naperville, Illinois is an impressive store full of corals, fish and hardware galore.Few shops actually stock a line of Apex systems, the fact you could get a complete package in one stop was a nice change of pace.

You’ll find a clean organized layout upon entering the shop, from large colony corals to your aqua-cultured frags at very very reasonable prices as online prices continue to rise, it was pleasant to see plenty of $20-40 frags in the systems.

A key note is their prevention of disease measures taken, the most impressive UV sterilization setup that I have come across in many years of touring shops and systems, they took the prevention game to a whole new level.

If you have the opportunity to stop by GingerBread, whether it be freshwater or saltwater, they’ll definitely have something that will peak your interest!

Tank Tours

Tour of Sanctuary Aquatics

Posted on by Marty Mendez
22
May

When one thinks of a high-tech aquaculture facility, few, if any would think of one to be located in Oshkosh, WI, where the winters can take up to nearly half of the year. Sanctuary Aquatics sports state of the art monitoring and automation systems that few have taken advantage of with the advancements in technology over the years. Being in the field of IT myself, it greatly pleases me to see the blend of such tech integrated with the reef keeping operations.

While they are not open to the public yet, they will be significant asset to the reefing community when that time comes and not just to locals but to every part of the United States with the plan to ship corals directly to your door.

A 10,000 gallon Reef Lagoon, tidal-surge tanks, home-grown Phytoplankton and Rotifer’s daily dosing, even in-house tank bred designer clownfish, Sanctuary may be a newer name to the game, but they are setting the bar for the future of aqua-culturing.