Palm Beach County, Introduce Yourself

CraftDaddy · Sep 21, 2018

mikee002 said:
I will be... but not yet. Rock coming from kp aquatics in a few days, so I have some time. Thanks!!

Cool, it's about 3-4 inches right now.

RomoFL · Aug 8, 2019

Hello, all. Fairly new reefer here.. been reading a lot so I’m trying to put that into practice. I have a 20g AIO peninsula that I love because it was a gift from my fiancé but I also get frustrated with it due to it having a tiny sump area. I now also have a Reefer 350 which is 73g DT that has just finished the nitrogen cycle.

Looking through this forum, it doesn’t seem like there are many reefers in the Palm Beach area?

Eggs · Aug 8, 2019

RomoFL said:
Hello, all. Fairly new reefer here.. been reading a lot so I’m trying to put that into practice. I have a 20g AIO peninsula that I love because it was a gift from my fiancé but I also get frustrated with it due to it having a tiny sump area. I now also have a Reefer 350 which is 73g DT that has just finished the nitrogen cycle.

Looking through this forum, it doesn’t seem like there are many reefers in the Palm Beach area?

Welcome.
I moved from Ohio about 3 years ago, apparently there was a local club but it dissolved before I came onto the scene. Not sure what the numbers are locally who are reefers, but there’s a handful of us around that are on R2R.

RomoFL · Aug 8, 2019

Eggs said:
Welcome.
I moved from Ohio about 3 years ago, apparently there was a local club but it dissolved before I came onto the scene. Not sure what the numbers are locally who are reefers, but there’s a handful of us around that are on R2R.

I’m interested in knowing of local reefers in case anyone needs help or to share experiences of even share livestock like harlequins.

nautical_nathaniel · Aug 9, 2019

I'm in Palm Beach Gardens

Eggs · Aug 9, 2019

nautical_nathaniel said:
I'm in Palm Beach Gardens

Same here

Spathodus · Oct 17, 2019

Eggs said:
In Palm Beach Gardens and have been in the hobby about 16 years.
Relocated to the area from Ohio a year ago.

Nice. I moved here from central Ohio a few years ago. What part of Ohio do you hail from?

Spathodus · Oct 17, 2019

I'm currently in Palm Beach Gardens too.

Have had several tanks over the past 10-12 years, off and on. Just set up a 20 gallon, with livestock from my 3 year old nano. Currently battling a hair algae outbreak;Bored

Eggs · Oct 18, 2019

Spathodus said:
Nice. I moved here from central Ohio a few years ago. What part of Ohio do you hail from?

I moved from the Youngstown area in northeast Ohio, but ironically from the Columbus area.
Small world.

Eggs · Oct 18, 2019

Spathodus said:
I'm currently in Palm Beach Gardens too.

Have had several tanks over the past 10-12 years, off and on. Just set up a 20 gallon, with livestock from my 3 year old nano. Currently battling a hair algae outbreak;Bored

Same here with different size tanks over the last 15 years.
When I moved down from Ohio a couple years back Inset up a 20g right away and started buying frags to grow out. Went to a 75g and bought a house.
Working on a 300g start now.

Too small for your tank, but I’ve had Rabbitfish that helps with hair algae. My 75 went threw it when I upsized, hang in there

Spathodus · Oct 20, 2019

Eggs said:
Same here with different size tanks over the last 15 years.
When I moved down from Ohio a couple years back Inset up a 20g right away and started buying frags to grow out. Went to a 75g and bought a house.
Working on a 300g start now.

Too small for your tank, but I’ve had Rabbitfish that helps with hair algae. My 75 went threw it when I upsized, hang in there

One thing I love about being down here is the cheaper prices on livestock/live rock since moving closer to the ocean.

Haha, it's a never ending cylce of setting up a tank and planning on the new one. Do you have any pictures of your current set up?

I'm just trying to control the nutrients and lower the lights at the moment, it's not to worrisome at the moment. But, I can almost see it growing more each day.

mijan · Dec 17, 2019

Moved here to Boynton Beach in April. After getting settled in I'm ready to restart my reef. Being a long time lurker here on Reef2Reef I thought it was about time to register.

IndianReefGuy · Jan 3, 2020

Hey reefers! I live in the Acreage and building a 50 gallon cube -sumpless....

I was into freshwater for 30 years, and then got the reef bug about 2 years ago. Started with a hand-me-down biocube 14 (I took off the lid and rim) Ive got a small mix of lps,sps, and softies....My question is how do I join this group? Are there "meetings"...and are there any local reef events ? Also, do you have a favorite LFS...I love Blue Earth and Tanks Alot.

Eggs · Jan 3, 2020

A.Hamilton said:
Hey reefers! I live in the Acreage and building a 50 gallon cube -sumpless.... I was into freshwater for 30 years, and then got the reef bug about 2 years ago. Started with a hand-me-down biocube 14 (I took off the lid and rim) Ive got a small mix of lps,sps, and softies....My question is how do I join this group? Are there "meetings"...and are there any local reef events ? Also, do you have a favorite LFS...I love Blue Earth and Tanks Alot.

I’m newer to the area myself, there used to be a club here but it dwindled away.
A few of us around the area and on here, In
I would be open to organizing something.
FMAS around Ft Lauderdale is having a swap, I believe in March.
There’s a lfs around PGA and Highway 1 (Palm Beach Gardens) that is good. Newer but owner had a Jupiter shop years ago. He’s nice, knowledgeable and has good prices. Can’t think of name off hand.

Krzykat · Sep 2, 2020

Hi reefers, I'm in PB Gardens and used to have a tank about 15 years ago, but kids and family took too much time. Now I've gotten the itch again and plan on doing a setup to teach the kids and enjoy the hobby. I just bought a used 220 setup that I plan to setup in the next couple of weeks. So excited. So am I to understand there is no club around here?

The LFS someone mentioned above is hard to find - called Atlantic Blue Aquariums - think owner is Andy - and its the same guy that I used to buy things from years ago when I had a reef setup.

Eggs · Sep 2, 2020

Krzykat said:
Hi reefers, I'm in PB Gardens and used to have a tank about 15 years ago, but kids and family took too much time. Now I've gotten the itch again and plan on doing a setup to teach the kids and enjoy the hobby. I just bought a used 220 setup that I plan to setup in the next couple of weeks. So excited. So am I to understand there is no club around here?

The LFS someone mentioned above is hard to find - called Atlantic Blue Aquariums - think owner is Andy - and its the same guy that I used to buy things from years ago when I had a reef setup.

There’s a newer LFS called “Aquarium Shop” and the owners name is Andy.
He did previously own another lfs and it could very well have been Atlantic Blue.
When I moved to the area Atlantic Blue had different owners, then moved the shop from Northlake to an area behind Target. Personally I don’t think it’s a good lfs, very little livestock and dry goods.

Aquarium Shop is on Bomar Drive, very close to the intersection of PGA and Highway 1. Good prices and decent selection.

nautical_nathaniel · Sep 3, 2020

Krzykat said:
Hi reefers, I'm in PB Gardens and used to have a tank about 15 years ago, but kids and family took too much time. Now I've gotten the itch again and plan on doing a setup to teach the kids and enjoy the hobby. I just bought a used 220 setup that I plan to setup in the next couple of weeks. So excited. So am I to understand there is no club around here?

The LFS someone mentioned above is hard to find - called Atlantic Blue Aquariums - think owner is Andy - and its the same guy that I used to buy things from years ago when I had a reef setup.

Welcome!

As @Eggs mentioned, Aquarium Shop is ran by Andy and is near the NW corner of US 1 and PGA on Bromar St.. I bring him all sorts of Zoa and Misc frags to sell from time to time. Pretty honest guy and will order just about anything you want. I'm not sure how, but he has pretty much single-handedly fostered a well connected reefing community out of his store. For instance, I'm tank sitting for someone who is out of the country for a while that I met at Aquarium Shop through Andy.

Atlantic Blue Aquariums (ABA) is more of a service outfit with a small retail operation. They don't carry much in terms of dry goods but their coral selection is getting better. They usually have a respectable selection of fish, but they can be a bit pricey on some things. Every now and then they have a good weekend sale and they have been getting in new LPS coral morphs I haven't seen before. They're also a good place to buy colonies.

If you want to save some money, Fintastic Reefs in Jensen Beach is pretty great, but they're a small shop with limited selection again. I've never felt like I was overpaying for anything there though. The store is always packed it seems and they have some very knowledgeable folks working there.

There's another store in Stuart, Aquatic and Exotic, but I've never been all too impressed with their fish section and they only have one medium sized coral run that's usually full of anemones.

If you've got money to burn, head to Blue Earth Corals in Lantana. They usually have a really good selection of corals but you're going to pay for them. I've managed to get them to budge on a few things but only after I already had them bag well over $150 in corals. Fish selection is usually pretty minimal and I don't think they get shipments as often as other stores.

There are a bunch of good stores in Broward and Miami-Dade counties as well.

For fun I will sometimes drive up to Orlando to visit Top Shelf Aquatics, Reefer's Direct, and WWC.

I'd also check out OfferUp, other reefer's and myself are able to post frags we have for sale on there without too many bleeding hearts flagging our posts and getting them taken down.

Krzykat · Sep 22, 2020

Awesome replies ... Yes - Andy used to have his shop next to Dan's Fans on US1, and is off Bomar. He still remembered me all these years later and is hooking me up on some things. I told him I loved my Hammer that I used to have, and does everything need to be a frag to grow? He said - No - give me a few days let me find something for you. Great guy.

For fish, there used to be a place down in Ft. Lauderdale that did wholesale and on Saturday's they'd allow public in that had incredible fish at great prices, but I can't find my old notes and can't find them.

I'll of course look at other places, but Andy's "Aquarium Shop" will be my go to default and I'd recommend him to anyone.