How has the pandemic affected your tank?

[Dearth]

So here is a question for the masses. Has the pandemic affected your tank in a good way or a bad way?

In my case it has been a mixture of both it has affected it negatively in that I have been unable to replenish lost livestock that helped keep my tank clean of algaes like hair and diatom blooms. I lost all my sea cucumbers(also the death of one led to a partial tank crash) most of my snails and crabs have died off due to age, the tank crash and other factors.

Add to that living an 8 hr drive from the lower mainland and scaled back flights everywhere has added to the misery. J&L is looking to possibly start shipments again hopefully in July but I also know there will be many people scrambling to get livestock orders in as well so I will be in the rush of first come first served.

On the positive side my tank has recovered nicely from the crash just dealing with an outbreak of hair algae. I was fortunate in that my industry was classified as an essential service (Pulp mill) so I still had an income and was able to maintain my tank. I was also able to score some new equipment at discounted prices from some trusted vendors and do some equipment upgrading with powerheads, led lighting and submersible heater.

With the die off from my partial crash I now have room to add some coral I have been eying up for sometime now and this might be the perfect opportunity to spend some money on some nice softie corals. We will see what the next month or two brings.

[Ken]

Hi there greeting from Campbell River BC
Pandemic gave me lots of time, time that I now have to do a lot of maintenance to equipment that normally has no time or letting things slide, the aquariums are getting lots of attention now. More time means skimmer is taken apart, pumps disassemble & clean, water test are being done regularly now & more time to spend enjoying them, hope all is well in Prince George & you can get your aquarium back to normal and that's including our lives regards ken

[Ryan]

I was building a new system during the pandemic, at that time the only thing that affected me was shipping times increased by about 50% which is no big deal.

However, now I am at the point of looking for livestock and I am having a very tough time finding what I want. Looking at lists from wholesalers, their selection has dropped 50-75% and flights are a little hard to line up. I am also not sure what is going on in the private side of this hobby, but I have noticed a significant drop in people selling coral. Perhaps I am looking in the wrong area.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I am finally ready to add fish to my system but same as above, can't really find any.

I found one fish at a local store that I wanted but I needed to set up my QT so I couldn't buy it the day I first saw it. A few weeks went by and I did not have the time to go back, until yesterday. I called ahead and was excited to find out that they still had the fish! It was a $400 fish so I guess it's not shocking that it was still there. After waiting in line for a while, I found out that the same fish, not same species but EXACT SAME fish is now $600!

Long story short, they claim that since it would cost too much to 'replace' it, that is 'doesn't make sense' to sell it any cheaper. Just a BS excuse... so much for customer service. I just realized I have shopped there for 14 years and I would hate to think of how many thousands I have spent. I'll never go back knowing this is how they do business.

Until this experience I would say that the pandemic was not effecting my tank and I think it made me slow down a little and not overstock. Now I would just say it's frustrating but... first world problems lol.

(I also left without buying some equipment that I had planned to pick up, which I will just buy online now. I have always avoided buying online unless this shop did not have what I needed.)

[lastlight]

I had been using ATI Essentials Pro for the last 2 years and Reef Supplies didn't have any ready to ship and I was in a bind. I assumed the shortage was pandemic related. I reached out to my friend who still had all of my old 5g buckets (mostly unopened) of BRS chemicals. Sat in his garage almost a decade lol. After using these again I am really liking it and I don't know why but my tank looks better. I ran the numbers and BRS with the crazy shipping is still way cheaper than ATI. I hope BRS has those 5g pails in stock when I'll need more but that will prob be a couple years from now so I should be good!

Thankfully I don't need livestock... terrible time to need or want new critters.

[Dash]

Originally Posted by lastlight

I had been using ATI Essentials Pro for the last 2 years and Reef Supplies didn't have any ready to ship and I was in a bind. I assumed the shortage was pandemic related. I reached out to my friend who still had all of my old 5g buckets (mostly unopened) of BRS chemicals. Sat in his garage almost a decade lol. After using these again I am really liking it and I don't know why but my tank looks better. I ran the numbers and BRS with the crazy shipping is still way cheaper than ATI. I hope BRS has those 5g pails in stock when I'll need more but that will prob be a couple years from now so I should be good!

Thankfully I don't need livestock... terrible time to need or want new critters.

I’m glad to hear you say that since I’m also using BRS. It’s a nice easy system for someone like me who likes to keeps things simple. I used to drive down to bring it over the border; not sure what I’ll do when I run out.

Well, for the first time in my 4.5 yrs of reefing, I was dealing this spring with algae. Vibrant got rid of bryopsis but brought me cyano. So spending my Covid time slowly bringing the tank back to the way it was before with manual cleaning/maintenance.