Love aquarium

[davocean]

I was in the area today so I thought I'd check out the Love aquarium.
I grabbed some RO/DI while I was there since I've been so busy w/ work I didn't make any water and wanted to get in a WC today.
Saw a couple anthias, grabbed those too.

I always test water when I get it from an LFS, it was 8ppm, not over the top high but still I normally expect 0 and no more than 3ppm, oh well.

My anthias didn't survive the freshwater dip I did during acclimation, so I called them to check about an hour after purchase and I guess they have no gaurantee on fish at all, so just be aware of that.

I mentioned their RO/DI TDS reading was high and in need of maintenance, the girl said she knew, they had a flood and were in the process of changing out cartridges, would have been nice to tell me this at purchase.

She said if I come back to the store and buy more stuff she'll give me some kind of discount...

I'll probably stick to my regular stores.
Anyway, that's my first experience, $50 down the drain, not feelin' the love so much.

[CMD2213]

Sorry to hear. But your rodi water was reading 8? Yea especially if they just did a grand opening you would expect everything being monitored and dialed to gain and regain all customers possible. Who knows could be a wrong time type of thing you just happened to go on the wrong day.

[cutterx23]

Next time if you're that deep in esco and happen to need water let me know, I live across the street from there. That sucks about the fish, I think Doug is most likely going thru 1st time business owner growing pains and probably is still trying to figure it all out how to run it best. I keep meaning to get over there and check it out since the change but that walk across the street is so far. Hopefully after they settle into the groove they will sort out a good business plan and be another great LFS in the San Diego area.

[davocean]

That's exactly what I was thinking, new store kinda, and she knew right away when I called that their TDS was calling for maintenance, yet sold it to me w/out mention.

She also said I acclimated my fish too long, I called w/in an hour, it was 20 minute drive...

Edit: Thanks Cutterx23, I normally make my own water but I rent and I'm on a septic, so if I can't babysit and dump that waste water in pond or garden occasionally I'll grab it if I'm going to an LFS anyway.

I understand they are new, but they won't know what's up unless someone says something.

[cutterx23]

Yes that still shouldn't happen, even being new owners, they have been working there (@fish haven) for over a decade, hell I worked there with Doug in 2004, so they should know what they are doing as far as the aquatic side of things, business errors I can understand, but selling stuff they know is off without even a mention is wrong. Hopefully like Mike said, it was just wrong person at the wrong time. They will learn that it may only take that one bad time to lose a customer for life and if they want to stay in business they will make corrections.

[coralliverse]

Whats up Dave? Its Doug, owner of the love aquarium. Sorry to hear about your experience, and thanks for letting us know about your issues, but I'm glad i'm getting a chance to talk to you. I tested our water also and got the same tds reading. I called the guy we used to service the unit, who is actually one of the leading authorities on water purification and he told me anything under 10 ppm is deemed distilled by the us government, but also ro that is stored has a tendency to absorb atmospheric materials because of its chemical nature. Thats why labs that use rodi re-filter their water before they use it . Personally, I cannot say what an acceptable range for tds is (according to science and not opinion), though everyone would assume and expect 0. But despite all that, we weren't aware the tds was that level, though my sister quickly came up with a possible explanation, which i think is a lot better than being clueless and careless. however i doubt leaving the rodi on overnight exhausted our unit.

As for your fish, we know saltwater fish can be sensitive, especially anthias. But we cannot blindly guarantee saltwater fish, because there are many questionable factors, to include your own tank parameters, and the parameters of the fw you used to dip like temp and ph. From your tank description in your signature it sounds like you know what you're doing, but we can't just blanket guarantee everything. We had them for weeks, so im not sure what did them in, or what we could have done to resolve the issue when you called. 50 bucks is a pretty decent amount to drop just being in the area, but our goal is to give people a great experience, which we've been doing, and I'd love the chance to work with you again. There's a lot that goes into running a store, and sometimes things slip through the cracks. Testing our recently serviced rodi system was one of them. I've owned a shop for under 4 months, so i hope you can bear with us, but please feel free to call me at the shop anytime and hopefully we can work something out.

[davocean]

Well, I'm not sure what happened exactly, I understand anthia often travel dirty and vulnerable to parasites and disease, often they do not even survive a FW dip, so as a consumer knowing this I do shop stores for anthia that do offer a gaurantee of some kind.

I do not fault your store for this, this was just a heads up to fellow reefers that may do the same.

I was bummed that when I called to ask about any gaurantee, not knowing your store policy, and just mentioning that I tested your water the TDS was high, that she already knew, that part I am a little bummed about on your behalf.

Now, your TDS was not THAT high, but the overall number is not the be all end all, sure sloppy water can add algae issues which are a minor inconvenience, but the other issue is WHAT EXACTLY ARE THE SOLIDS that the meter is reading.

So here's the deal, I didn't want to come back on and look like I was just bashing your store, but since I'm responding this is what happened after i wrote this comment.

My reef is pristine at this time, so I did not want even a hint of dirty water in it, so what to do w/ the 15g I bought, hmm, my 2 FW tanks could use a WC
I did a WC on both my FW tanks and all fish died w/in 30 minutes, both tanks were over a year running w/out issues, and both tanks every fish died.

I then realized it was your water that I used for the FW dip of my anthias, both of those died.

I'm not sure what happened exactly, my containers are kept in house and marked, no one uses them but me.
I know your girl said you had a flood of some kind that affected your filters, I'm not sure what corrections were made to remedy that, were there any PVC glues or anything of that nature used, I could go on guessing, but that is what happened.

I don't gripe very often, I try my best to support our LFS, but your girl kept talking to me like I was a new reefkeeper, and that it had to be something on my end, and that I did not appreciate.
I understand mistakes happen, maybe I did catch you on a really bad day, it turned out to be a bad day for me that's for sure.
If you guys had a problem w/ your filtration system, you should not sell that water.

Your girl did say if I ever bought anything from your store again i'd get a discount of some kind, but you may understand this has made me a little sour on traveling that direction at this time.
Thanks for your response.

[CMD2213]

Wow lost all your fw fish too? Did you run a parameter check on the rodi water maybe it had some trace of something?

[davocean]

No I didn't, I did a WC on both FW tanks, poured the rest in the garden.
I understand TDS of 8 normally is not a big deal, could something have flushed out of the filtration system or something, I don't know, not sure what the issue was so it's just guesses on my end.
I'm just glad I test all water going in, and I'm pretty anal about what goes in my reef, so I'm bummed my FW fish died, but thankfully I did not add any to my reef, that would have been devistating

[nanoreef1]

Hmm..I've had nothing but great experience in this store. Also bought my Anthias there survived look very healthy. But totally understand about the water having high tds reading also expect to be close to 0ppm especially when paying for it. From my experience usually lfstores don't have any guarantee on salt water fish since they are very delicate creatures. But when you do find a store that has guarantee on fish that's a plus. Sorry to hear about your experience there but I'm sure talking to Doug will make it up or help you any type of way he can.

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[gus6464]

Since it wiped out his FW tank it's definitely not the TDS. I have owned countless of FW tanks and I always did WC straight from the garden hose into the tank with some prime and have never had an issue. We are talking sky high TDS so there must've been some kind of chemical in the water that wiped everything out.

As for the TDS going up after being in storage comment I have tested my RODI water in my ATO tank after a week of being made and it still tests 0. I doubt an LFS would keep RODI in a holding tank that long with all the traffic and maintenance they have to do.

[davocean]

I agree, it was not the high TDS itself but whatever those measured dissolved solids happened to be, I'm not sure what happened to their system and if any repairs were made that caused a contamination issue or what, maybe it was a random thing, can't say for sure.
I understand things happen, I don't fault people for making mistakes, it's how they handle it.
Come to our store and buy more stuff and we'll give you some kind of discount does not encourage me to return.