ArtC July 9, 2007 July 9, 2007 I stopped by The Hidden Reef's new location on my way back from NY. www.thehiddenreef.com From what I'd read, they were a well-regarded LFS at their old location, but had been put out of business by a fire(?) in their old strip mall location well over a year ago. Their new location is in Levitton, PA just north of Philly and maybe a mile off I-95. The place is pretty big. They now do saltwater, freshwater, and ponds, so you don't really get 6000 feet of marine life. Their new building has a basement, so all the plumbing runs down. The setup is that each row of tanks has a common water supply, so there are about seven independent systems on the marine side. They now have all the tanks up and running, and populated. Right now, they are only getting one fish delivery per week (stock goes out on Monday evening), but more frequent deliveries will start soon. The fish seemed to be in good health. One dead bar goby, but at least it was still fresh. Also, they are starting to order some more expensive fish now that the tanks are stabilized. They said I could see them if I waited six hours... I got a small flame hawk (as in 'smaller than my shrimp') for $39. I was a bit surprised that they don't pack with oxygen. As anybody who knows me can attest, I'm no coral expert. The coral tanks are stocked, but I don't think they have a lot of exotics there yet either. But things looked healthy. The dry goods section is pretty well stocked. They aren't That Fish Place, but who is? The shelves are full, but I wouldn't be surprised if they squeezed the shelves closer together some day - the store was probably an old, small grocery store and there is plenty of room for two carts to pass. They don't have a big selection on skimmers and such - somebody should tell them that's the high profit gear. Live rock selection was still limited. Base rock for 3.99 and premium (which was decent rock, light rock and large pieces) for $6.99. Four big horse troughs were plumbed for LR, and three were in use. They said they will be getting more kinds in. I got some Selcon for $10.49 and TLF red algae $5.79. DT's oyster eggs were 54, and cyclopeze bars were 9.99. I looked for filter sock prices, but they only had 7" polypropelene in stock, and we didn't get those in the group buy The cheapest carbon was a cardboard box of Kent that came out to $4/lb. Prices on fish seemed to be around average. They had some good prices on ornamental shrimp. They also had some odd prices. I bought a couple of buckets of IO for $29, but they had Reef Crystals priced at $49. There's another fish-only store on the same side of the street, between The Hidden Reef and I-95. It's called The Fish Factory. I was in there at least a year ago. I remember they sold used gear, and but not too much else about it. But if you are going to drive right past it anyway... http://www.phillyfishfactory.com/ Anyway, I figure I'll stop by again next time I'm up that way to see if they've added some of the more exotic critters you'd expect in a store that size.
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