hey folks. so im gonna be moving out to the salad bowl in jan. to be closer to my girl. so today i took the weekend to visit the lfs. i hit up oceans above. and Pic Perf. in the marina. I just wanted your guys input on these places. and maybe so info on where to get my DI water.
Haha, you might as well get a RODI unit, I dont trust water made at LFS.
Oceans Above is a terrible place for a reef keeper to shop. Given they have a wide selection of dry goods, their livestock is usually nothing interesting. The lack of frags and unique corals makes me not visit too often.
Picture Perfect is a little better is some sense, they don't have a big store so dry goods are hit and miss. They have a lot of frags and sometimes a lot of fish but the water quality and tank conditions tend to make me not so excited. Brown SPS makes me cry. Just my opinion, I am cool with both store owners and respect both.
Not much around the 831 as far as LFS, we usually carpool up to the Bay Area and hit the stores up there. Since there is more comp, reefers and stores in the bay area... they tend to have nicer stuff, more stuff weekly will bend on prices more. There is usually 8-10 events a year in the Bay as opposed to none a year down here. I'm working on getting a "big" 831 Reef Keeper meet going on so at least everyone knows everyone. The only problem is getting the times to match up so everyone can attend. Group buys are also another option. Get X people together, each dropping X amount of cash, ship to one spot and split shipping. Works out great!
PM me if you need anything.