New Plankton In the Market?

[Fishfreak]

Just to share to everyone my experience in Harlequin Marine shop. Overheard a conversation between them and customer asking them how long for them to set up a reef tank. They replied, " Very fast! once tank is ready, will delivered to your place together with sand, live-rock , corals and fishes. will dump everything in at one go cause they hav no time to come back the 2nd time. THIS ARE THE SO CALL EXPERIENCE HOBBYIST. In my mind i think those people want u to came back fast to replace your dead corals and fishes. They make sure that they rip u not only 1 time but 2nd or 3rd. Fxxx up shop. Won't be going there anymore cause its a Black Shop.

Actually, don't you think ALL LFS have this at the back of their minds? They set up shop to make money for a living. When times are bad, businesses don't give two hoots about ethics. And they are not hobbyists (hobbyists are not in it for the money, you see) - they are basically business people out to make a living - just like those of us here in this forum who may be employees ... also making a living ...

Just remember - its always "buyers beware" whatever you buy and whichever shop you buy from ....

[Sinn]

well said

[TanGo]

But now we only buying livestock from them.. Not asking them to do setups..

If Singapore dunn have LFS, or LFS cannot survive based on their income, then where can we get our livestock from?

But for what I know HMS will advise their customer on the maintainence part too.. What to do so on and so for..

And I know of one LFS, they will go to your house to maintain your marine tank for you.. For $400 a mth..

Those are the ppl who like marine fish but dunn like the maintainece part..

Well there are all kinds of ppl.. Afterall, we still need LFS to bring in our beautiful corals and fishes..

2cts

[sduu]

After reading the posts from fishfreak and tango, i do agreed with your views. But put it this way, if u go to a restaurant and hav your dinner, food is prepared poorly, bad service, and overprice, would u go back again? would u recommend your friends to them? Naturally u won't right? Not unless they revamp their service again or there is a change in new management. There are many more restaurant around to go to that offers better food and services. Some us might hav get it from them and some not and this is just a discussion. This HMS has a good setup, but guess they don't hav the right kind of people running it. Try it at your own risk.

[backlash]

Ermm... Well... Actually if I'm not wrong, if you request fish shops to set up aquariums for you, they'd most probably have to come only once and are able to dump everything in at one go BECAUSE they use aged coral sand and sea water which have been cycled already. So to them it's alright to dump everything at one go since their sand and water has already been cycled. What I said was just based on my guess, though, because I think it'd be really really #*^@ed up if they really just dumped everything w/o proper cycling.

And with regards to plankton food, I just like to ask if using liquid food is enough for corals? I don't have to buy other forms of plankton diet, right? I use the coralife one. Been using it for some time already.

And what do plankton tablets do? Do they add floating plankton to your tank as well after they 'dissolve' or 'break down'?

[TanGo]

Ermm... Well... Actually if I'm not wrong, if you request fish shops to set up aquariums for you, they'd most probably have to come only once and are able to dump everything in at one go BECAUSE they use aged coral sand and sea water which have been cycled already. So to them it's alright to dump everything at one go since their sand and water has already been cycled. What I said was just based on my guess, though, because I think it'd be really really #*^@ed up if they really just dumped everything w/o proper cycling.

And with regards to plankton food, I just like to ask if using liquid food is enough for corals? I don't have to buy other forms of plankton diet, right? I use the coralife one. Been using it for some time already.

And what do plankton tablets do? Do they add floating plankton to your tank as well after they 'dissolve' or 'break down'?

Normally I will cycle my collection of food.. See which one works best.. Let them have a different meal each time.. Imagine yourself eating from the cookhouse for 2.5 yrs..

Plankton tablets, you can soak them in a small cup of water first.. Then after it dissolve then you pour the contents into your tank.. Works better this way.. Rather than dropping the whole tablet into the tank and it is gonna get trapped somewhere..

Back to HMS, they have their sand and seawater cycled.. They normally tell the owners of the new tank what to do.. I think it's the new owner's responsiblilty to read up on marine tank keeping before attempting to start one.. And most of them should have some basic knowledge of marine tank. The guy at HMS is quite nice if you ask properly.. If you are willing to learn, he will be willing to teach.. And if I am not wrong, he is gonna have his own quarrantine area and will soon get his license to import.. We'll wait and see..

2cts

[Phang]

Most of the stuff from HMS actually come from the same source... in fact most LFS supplies come from a few main source..... so eventually prices are marked up ..... and would definitely cost more than buying from main source.......

And the items retailed are mostly the same...

However if HMS would to bring in their own quality stock .... hmmm...maybe SPS...... think the prices would be justifiable....

[Creetin]

so what kind of food is best for corals? the frozen one from belgium in mi opinion is too ex. the bio plankton looks cheaper!

[EbiTank]

read from RC that some users find no significant improvement after using Bio-plankton..?

and is there a shelf life for the product ? may end up more expensive if it expires before you cna finish it..

I'm currently crushing my dried pellet marine food and soaking into water for feeding my gorgonian, and it's doing well so far..but keen to supplement with some "green" food to balance their diet too .. so thinking of trying the belgium frozen stuff..

[Creetin]

anybody know about bio-plankton this product, does it have expiry date? someone mentioned it lasts only 3 months?

[dodo]

personally i haven't tried bio-plankton yet but i understand that it has a shelf life of 6mths(unopened) and can last only 3mths once it's opened...must put on the fridge somemore