Marine Dreams

Both questions are common from people thinking about keeping salt water tanks for the first time.  Part of the fears people have about keeping saltwater tanks are rooted from the hobby's early days, when very little was known and understood about what it takes to keep a healthy saltwater system.  These early systems had artificial decorations with little or no live rock.  Today, as the hobby has progressed, more natural systems are generally the norm.  Marine Dreams focuses on the success of the new aquarist, so you might be surprised how easy this hobby is.  With our guidance, you will find the work you were first worried about is more of a labor of love.  Keeping reef tanks is like keeping a garden: attention is required, but with the right conditions, you can have a so much beauty.

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Water changes are usually the most labor intensive part of the hobby.  The key, especially if you have a large system, is to make these tasks as easy as possible.  Many unique systems have been invented to make this easier.  The easier you can make water changes on your self, the more frequently you will do water changes.  Depending on the system, changes may occur from 20% changes every 2 weeks to once every few months.  The general rule is the more frequently you can do water changes, the better!

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The answer is yes and no.  The physical hard part that makes up the rock is not alive, but it did grow.  Live rock grows over geological time frames of hundreds of years.  As reef building corals grow and die, there becomes an accumulation of calcified skeletons.  This accumulation becomes the basic building blocks for live rock, and as it compresses over time it becomes what we commonly see as live rock.  Today, in the hobby, the term "live" in live rock really refers to all the live critters and bacteria that hitchhike on the rock.  The Fiji Premium live we sell is a great example of this.  All kinds of plants, copepods, and bacteria come loaded on this rock, which in turn seeds the new aquarium with many of the microbes and tiny bacteria needed for success.  Today? reef aquarium typically will have 1-1.5 pounds per gallon, with up to 2 lbs be very common.  Live rock is probably the most important factor for success.  There are many types of live rock, all have the same purpose and within a year, they all look very similar, so be careful of spending a fortune on premium rock to start your tank.  Spending 8-12 dollars a pound for rock that is covered with coralline algae does not do anything extra for the tank biologically.  Although this rock might look better at first, within a few months, any rock can look the same.

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Yes.  Marine dreams has several service technicians servicing tanks from large to small.  It is important when selecting a maintenance service to understand that having a service to help with cleaning and water changes does not allow you to escape from some of the everyday duties such as feeding and cleaning the glass.  Always try to use a store's service rather than an independent person.  Stores have more resources and generally tend to stick around longer than the independent service technicians you see come and go in this industry.  For more information on service, please see our link.

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Today, you see more and more people migrating towards keeping natural reef tanks.  These tanks can be some of the most rewarding tanks to keep, not only because of the looks, but also because of the personal satisfaction that comes from building and keeping such a unique system.  Keeping reef tanks is very similar to gardening.  Generally it takes time before your garden is bloomed, as does it take time to build a coral reef tanks, but as long as you make sure it includes some of the key elements such as live rock and proper lighting, keeping reef tanks can be quite easy.  Today there are several plug and play type reef tanks designed with the budget in mind.  Quite often, this is the best way to "get you feet wet" (no pun intended) with very little investment.

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Yes, we most certainly ship out live goods.  We have several customers who have found the store while on vacation, and continue to have us ship live goods.  In fact, we have some that refuse to use their local stores anymore because we have better quality, more selection, and better prices, even after shipping.  We even supply some northern stores with hard to find corals.  The online store is in construction, but customers are always welcome to call for a walkthrough until then.  Because we import directly, you will find our prices comparable with the best online retailers, with equal or greater selection.  Eventually when we do go online, you will find our format new and refreshing, focused on personal attention and customer satisfaction.

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All of our new arriving fish go through a mandatory quarantine for a minimum of two weeks.  Fish have highly complicated systems when compared to corals, and because they are more complicated, they generally are more of a challenge when it comes to diseases and parasites.  The use of a 1000 gallon QT systems allows to make sure the fish are doing OK and ready for an aquarium before we sell them.  This means that we absorb the loses here at the store if there is problems, and we avoid problems in our customers tanks.  Unfortunately, most stores use local wholesalers for their supply.  We know from working in the wholesale side of the business that fish come and then go out as quickly as possible.  Fish that die are money lost, and the mentality becomes a vicious cycle of trying to move the fish before losses occur.  We call it fish flipping, and sadly most stores operate on this mentality.  When we started Marine Dreams, we decided to take a different approach.  We do not use local wholesalers, we import directly, then we give the fish a good two weeks to recover, begin eating, and get proper medical treatment before we put them up for sale.  This means we do have losses, but they occur here in the store, not in your tank, and this assures the customers success, which is most important.

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