Do you really trust the LFS??

[betowess]

Now I don't believe all my lfs says. 8O
They sold me a 65watt Coralife with a 50/50 smart lamp for my 26 gallon Bow. After talking with Rex Grigg, I realized why my plants were struggling. 50% of that light was Actinic blue, which looks great but was not delivering any juice to the plants. Instead of 2.5 watts per gallon, my plants were struggling with a lowly 1.25 watts/gallon.

A few hours after I switched to a 6700k 65 watt PC lamp, my plants started squirted O2 pearls like mexican jumping beans (with the help of a great injected CO2 regulator and mini vortex reactor setup I ordered from the Aquabotanic store).

Goes to show. Now I don't wholly trust my LFS. I'd rather trust the experts at this forum! Many thanks to all of you who have helped... like Rex, and CC, and Beggin (sp), and Jack etc. Best regards, Betowess

 

[Terry]

I am sorry to here about your experiance with your lfs.

Being a store owner myself i am not going to defend your lfs, because if they didn't know what they were talking about and they didn't know what you needed they should have said so.

Not all lfs are like that, and there are some very helpful people out there.

 

[shawmutt]

I wouldn't say I don't trust lfs--I just make sure I have all my research done before going out there. I find that most workers in the lfs in my area will answer questions off the top of their head, right away, without much thought--but with much authority. Granted, sometimes this is a sign of great wisdom, but more often it is a sign of great ignorance.

 

[Allivymar]

Been thru something similar at a lfs I won't spend my money at anymore. Bought some plants; made SURE to ask if there were any snails in the tank or on the plants. "Oh no, no snails" they promised me "not in THAT tank." Hah! That was earlier this year. I STILL have relatives of the original snails living in a QT tank as snacks for the clown loaches.

And just a thought; instead of buying a new light fixture, isn't it possible to replace the bulbs in the Coralife fixture with just PC bulbs? Or is that what you did and I'm just not reading it clearly?

 

[betowess]

Yeah Alli,
I just replaced the lamp. The Coralife is certainly a nice fixture. For the record, this LFS is a very nice store. They just dropped the ball on this fundamental element, even after I had questioned them on it a couple different times. Its no wonder my plants were limping along at 1.25 watts.gallon. Now they're perking up nicely . Betowess

 

[RogerMcAllen]

I trust mine. I base this on the fact that he won't let me buy new fish for a few days, so he can make sure they are disease free. He also questions me about my setup before buying something questionable. When I bought my channel cats he made sure I realized their size and predatory nature. He even warned me about my pleco.

I have seen a woman come in dying to have seahorses, but he wouldn't give her any because it was obvious she had no idea what she was doing.

 

[Madame_X]

I have seen a woman come in dying to have seahorses, but he wouldn't give her any because it was obvious she had no idea what she was doing.

That's the way it should be. He probably lost her as a customer but if the owner really cares about the animals and the hobby, he doesn't need customers like that.

My LFS is great, but they don't know everything. I find its best to ask questions here AND at the LFS, then do some reading on my own.

 

[Guest]

My LFS is great, but they don't know everything. I find its best to ask questions here AND at the LFS, then do some reading on my own.

BINGO!!!!! That is the best way by far. Educate yourself before you buy.

100 Kudos to the good Madame_X!

 

[stresco]

I am still looking for a LFS that i can trust. I have 2 that are within 15 miles of each other and they have both turned me off for various reasons. One, for wanting to sell me a dying Gorg for 35 bucks (that was the last straw with him), and the other for being an A$$hole, and charging me outragious prices like 4bucks a pound for LS and 4.50 for a Turbo Snail 8O . I had a wholessaler online where i could order on line and send them an e-mail asking them not to ship it because i would pick up my stuff on the way to work, and save the shipping. But they wont do that any more becasue the LFS (the 2 I already mentioned plus others) buy from them and were complaining about allowing people do that. I have considered boycotting the wholesaler, and all of the LFS that they do business with, buuuuut, what if i need something in an emergency? I will be SOL, cause i burned all my bridges.

 

[peterp]

One reason I've pretty well settled on BIgAL's, don't trust their "advice" at all.
But you can check their prices on-line and compare with others before going shopping there. So you have an idea on what to expect and how it compares with others.

For fish I self-educate on what I want then go search their tanks.