BRK guy ticking me off

[L8 2 RISE]

I've been to BRK 3 times, it was the first LFS I found out about around here and it's about a 30 minute drive. It's a really great store, and most of the staff are VERY helpfull, especially the new guy that started working thre maybe 3-4 weeks ago. But one of them, I don't know his name, he has long hair in lochs and is african-american. I've had to deal with him twice out of three times and he pays no attention to me, treats me like a kid (which i guess I am.... im 14, but not that stupid ) that isn't going to understand anything he says so he doesn't fully explain anything to me. And my mom who usually comes with me pretty much doesn't understand anything about aquarium keeping so she tends to ask a lot of questions which I don't mind her doing necessarily, but this guy completely blows her off and is really abrupt.

 

I know it is "partially" my fault for not doing enough research, but I got my pistol shrimp and watchman goby pair from BRK and he was the one "helping" me, I clearly (or so I thought) explained to him that I didn't think my nitrates and pH would be alright for an invertebrate (pH-7.8 and Nitrate-80-160) and he very distractedly just kept on just nodding and saying it was fine. So I got them, this was about 5 weeks ago, and the pH and nitrates haven't changed much since then but it didn't bother me because he told me it was fine. then my shrimp died about 2 weeks ago for "unexplained" reasons, but after more research, I now know why... go figure.... I have now started to get the pH and nitrates under control though.

 

Now I shop at marine scene which is closer but more expensive however I am willing to spend the extra money because they are very helpfull and at the very least do a good job of pretending to listen to a "stupid, low attention span, ignorant kid"

 

sorry for ranting, but this guy has really ticked me off and ruined any possible good experience I could have had at this place.

[Brian Ward]

Sorry about your bad experience there. He's not one of my favorite guys in the store - and I've had a similar experience with him, so don't think it's because of your age. 143gadgets is the "new guy". Like all businesses, some employees are better than others. If you don't like dealing with him, then when you go there just wait for someone you like to be available to help. Introduce yourself and try to stick with the same salesman for advice when you find one you trust.

[NAGA]

I'd go back to them.............just make it a point to not have him help you and if he does tell him you want someone else to help you. I would also tell Johnny your experiences. Perhaps not your difficulties mentioned will have an effect but, if others are having the same problem then that may cause there to be a change made.

[Larry Grenier]

I've been there several times and got good service from the guy with the "hair". I was once young, a long, long time ago and often felt disrespected due to my age. It passes with time, you'll see.

[Integral9]

If TMS is close by and you want BRK prices, you might want to check out The Aquarium Company. It's just 2 miles down sunset (east) from TMS. Check the vendor forums for address info.

 

btw.

IMO, If your nitrates are over 10, it's serious water change time. I'd do em like every 2-3 days until it gets under control. The last time that happened, I did like 3 10% changes over a week period and things were back under control. Also, your PH should coincide with your alkalinity. If one is off, the other will be off. But that's just a general rule. Other things can cause your PH to get out of whack (like high nitrates) and still have good alkalinity.

[L8 2 RISE]

If TMS is close by and you want BRK prices, you might want to check out The Aquarium Company. It's just 2 miles down sunset (east) from TMS. Check the vendor forums for address info.

 

btw.

IMO, If your nitrates are over 10, it's serious water change time. I'd do em like every 2-3 days until it gets under control. The last time that happened, I did like 3 10% changes over a week period and things were back under control. Also, your PH should coincide with your alkalinity. If one is off, the other will be off. But that's just a general rule. Other things can cause your PH to get out of whack (like high nitrates) and still have good alkalinity.

 

I've been doing 1-2 gallon water changes in a twelve gallon tank daily and it's not making a lot of a difference. they are now at 40ppm so I'm going to start doing 3-4 gallon water changes daily until they sort themselves out.

[Integral9]

You may want to look for dead snails around your tank. They can really funk things fast and in a bad way. I use the smell test method (but I don't mind getting dirty). Pull out the snail, if it smells bad, it's dead. Toss it. You can also boil them, pull out what's left and put the shells back in your tank for any hermits you might have.

[Gatortailale]

1) Sorry to hear about your thoughts on your experience. As posted above, you can always talk to John B. - the owner about the service you got.

 

2) Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, critters in our tanks die. Hopefully you were learn a few things from this forum to help you improve the care you give your tank.

 

3) Not to go down the road of defending the shop, but I did see this in one of your other posts

 

I got a valentini puffer and a serpent star last week, but the valentine puffer did something unheard of by everyone I've talked to, at all of the legs off the serpent star in about two days, and when I realized, literaly only had stumps left, so I put it in a net breeder and hand fed it, but it died 2 days later. My pH is currently 7.9, Nitrates are 40 down from 80-160 over the last week (i know i know, I should have never have lit them get that high and that's prob what killed the serpent star and pistol shrimp) Nitrites are 0 and ammonia 0. I've been doing daily 1gallon water changes and feeding only 3 mysis a day per fish to help bring the nitrates down.

 

My understanding is that a Valenti puffer is very agressive toward inverts. Here is a quote from a puffer on liveaquaria

A 50 gallon or larger, fish-only aquarium is suitable. It may be aggressive at times, nipping the fins of tank mates, leaving a circular hole as its mark. It will eat invertebrates found in a reef tank. Its teeth are actually a fused beak-like structure which it uses to crush its prey.

 

And - my reading is that you only have a 12 gallon tank. The 8 puffers listed on liveaquaria all required a 30 gall to 100 gallon size tank, depending on fish. So just my guess, but it is also possible that the puffer killed your shrimp.

 

Again, don't mean to pick on you - we all were new to this at one point and have a learning curve to get over. However, it appears that your fish selection -puffer- in a 12 gallon, may not be the best plan since they will kill inverts - especially if puffer only getting 3 mysis a day to eat.

 

Good luck in the future.

[Rascal]

First - my experience with "the hair guy" (I think his name is Oz but I am terrible with names) has been completely different. I think he does a great job. I have always found him to be very nice, helpful, knowledgeable, and concerned about the well-being of the livestock both before and after it leaves their store.

 

Second - it is not just "partially" your fault for not doing enough research before putting livestock in a tank with those parameters, it is all your fault. Not trying to pick on you, but the lesson learned here is that it is ulitmately your responsibility, and yours alone, to educate yourself about the care requirements before accepting responsibility for any living thing. You should never rely on a single source for information. Read a couple of good books, research as much as you can on the internet, and use this forum to help you. If, before you made that purchase, you had posted a question such as "Hey, my Ph is 7.8 and my nitrates are 80-160, should I add _______?" you could have avoided wasting your money and killing the shrimp. You would have received plenty of answers, maybe even sparked a little debate, and then you could have made an informed decision.

[L8 2 RISE]

Sorry to confuse you, and I dont feel like i've been picked on, but heres a time line.

 

3 months ago I started the aquarium

 

4 weeks ago I got the watchman goby and shrimp

 

I've been feeding about a cube of frozen mysis a night since which is obviously way too much

 

2 weeks ago my shrimp died

 

a week and a little over a half ago I got the puffer and serpent star

 

2 days later the star died and I found out why both the star and shrimp died-high nitrates, and the valentini probably saw that the star was vulnerable so picked at it.

 

since then i've been doing 1-2 gallon water changes

 

the valentini is only an inch long which is a fourth of the size of it's full grown self, most websites and stores say minimum 20-30 gallons for this specific full grown fish, and only a few say anything more than that. I intend to have a larger tank up and running before this fish is any larger than 2-2.5 inches so I can move it over. I am part of another fish forum in which I was told by people that have kept and are keeping a valentini puffer that they did great in a community/reef tank and didn't have any problems. Only one said anything bad about the fish as far as picking on other animals and that was that it always ate the hermit crabs. two of them had also kept either the valentini or stars and stripes puffer in a tank under 20 gallons and from my understanding the stars and stripes puffer is very similar to the valentini. The people on the forum actually recomended this fish to me because I wanted a fish that would be a good reef fish, have a personality, that would be out a lot, and would be cool looking. So I guess I just have a baaaaaaad valentini :wink:

 

and as for what Integral9 said, I did find a dead turbo snail in the tank about 4 days ago, but I dont know why that would STILL be causing havok if I took it out.

[djcerna]

Nitrates are at the end of the biological decay pathway, first things die then they start to decay. The process does take some time and is not instant, other wise we could all cycle our tanks in a day.

 

 

and as for what Integral9 said, I did find a dead turbo snail in the tank about 4 days ago, but I dont know why that would STILL be causing havok if I took it out.

[Gadgets]

Sorry for your bad experience. I was there the day you bought the pistol shrimp. I'm the new guy. The other guy that was helping you was OZ. He's very knowledgeable and I'm sure he would of advised against the shrimp if he had known about your nitrates. Maybe he got side-tracked or didn't hear you. I didn't know your nitrates were that high either. When u get your nitrates down. I would love to help you stock your tank. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to PM me.

 

Sorry for your loss.

[dtfleming]

Pretty much sounds like you didnt do any research. your nitrates are too high to be adding any livestock. Get your tank straight out first.

 

Just because the puffer is small now doesnt mean thats its ok to put him in a twelve gal tank.

 

Research what u want to stock first and get your water parameters in check, What kind of water are u using.

[HowardofNOVA]

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with one of our better if not best LFS in the area!

 

BTW, Could someone edit his title a bit? Family oriented website please!

[Origami]

L8_2_rise, unless you actually observed the puffer ripping the arms off of the star, it could be that it wasn't properly acclimated when released into your tank. Stars are VERY sensitive to changes in salinity and require a much more gradual and drawn out acclimation process. Too rapid a change can cause osmotic shock and it could lose arms. Also, your high nitrates again could be figuring into the arm loss, too.

 

Sounds like you need to get to the source of your high nitrates. What kind of system do you have? Are you running bioballs somewhere? I suspect that, because your tank is relatively young (only 3 months old), that your biological filtration has not yet matured. You need to get that under control first.

[bprinehart]

I've got to put in a vote of confidence for Oz as well. He's actually quite knowledgeable and friendly.. (Did I really just say that?!?!) But seriously, he's always taken the time to answer all of my questions, and he and I have a great customer service relationship. I'm sure if you'd just say "Hey, I'm new at all this, and would like someone to spend a few minutes answering some questions I have" you'd have a different experience.

 

The staff at BRK are good, real good. So good in fact, that I frequently drive 1.5 hours one way to check them out. Except fot that new guy Chris....

 

All that aside, nobody here is trying to pick on you, but you really need to decide what you want to keep in the 12 gallon. Do some more research on appropriate species for nanos, there is a wealth of things you could keep in that tank that would be just as satisfying as a 180. But there is a limit, and you have to keep in mind that whatever nutrients you put into that tank, don't disappear into a "nutrient black hole". They're going to stay there until you export them either through some type of filter (Carbon, etc), vegetative export with alga of some kind, or water changes.

 

Take your time dude, mistakes are simply opportunities to learn a different way of doing things. We all made them too, and are probably bound to make many, many, many more.

[YBeNormal]

That guy Oz and I get into it every time I visit BRK. Of course, I always start the show by loudly stating how difficult it is to find good help in the store, asking where they keep the fancy goldfish or guppies and demanding a lifetime guarantee for any livestock I buy from the store.

 

In Oz' defense, I agree with others that he is very knowledgeable and helpful. I've noticed that he earns his pay though by staying very busy in the store maintaining the tanks and doing general upkeep. He gives customers plenty of time and space so they can browse without feeling pressured. Some may feel that they are being ignored but I don't think that is the case, at least not that I have observed in my many visits to the store.

 

As far as puffers go, don't go by the minimum recommendations you see on vendors websites and only trust recommendations from people that are experienced with their care and that you trust. Minimum means just that, minimum--not optimum. You can live in a very small room with very few calories per day. That does not mean that you will maintain your sanity or that the calories will be sufficient to provide for a long and healthy life. Puffers are generally aggressive creatures, messy eaters and nitrate factories. I cannot think of any puffer other than FW dwarfs puffers that I would recommend for a 12 gallon tank. I'd wager a bet that the puffer, the size of the tank and your feeding habits will make it all but impossible to keep nitrates to a reasonable level no matter how large or frequent your water changes may be. I say this as a former owner of two Green spotted puffers that were housed in a 150 gallon+ system.

[johnnybv]

WOW, I go away for a few days and the place goes to H-E-double hocky sticks in a handbasket! Just kidding, first off thanks to everyone that had spoke about about their good experiences at BRK! I am sorry that you feel they way you do, and I can assure you Ozzie will be very upset to hear how you feel, he is very conciencious of all of our clients, especially the ones that may require some extra attention. As far as nitrates, you have a small tank and little changes have large effects in small bodies of water, so I would increase water changes to weekly 20 - 30% and get them down. I would also look at upgrading your skimmer, by removing the disolved organics before they break down you will avoid many of your nitrates. Hope that helps, and again I apoligize for the way you feel you were treated, but I can assure you we are here to help and want to remain your favorite LFS.

 

John

[yauger]

just want to drop my $.02

OZ is the man.... he has always been very nice to me and has always helped me spend my money...

BRK is the SPOT, can't imagine a better place for a hobbyist to spend their cash... I have very strong feelings about shopping in a store where the owner is a reef tank owner.

 

thats it... thanks...

[Larry Grenier]

OK, now that I know his name, one more Ozzie comment.

 

If there is a difficult customer, it's me, and Ozzie has always been helpful & friendly so Ozzie, if you're reading this... you're OK in my book.

 

Johnny, if you get rough with Ozzie, you'll be hearing from me!

 

Also, I enjoy seeing what his hair is doing different'y each visit

[zoozilla]

Never had issues with Oz. Always cheery, informative ===> A+++++ customer service. Keep up the good work

[vaironman]

new comer and learning to have patience in this hobby. It'll come with time if sticking with the hobby. Oz isn't at fault here. We all need to learn and fix our own mistake and not to blame others.

 

A beautiful morning to everyone.

[bamainva]

Sorry for the bad experience...I am sure your next visit will be better.

 

I have found Oz and everyone for that matter (for those I have spoken with) to be very helpful and knowledgeable.

 

Oz was actually the first person I dealt with at BRK and he was extremely helpful in answering all my questions. I can't speak for what happened but I do not think that Oz would do anything that would jeopardize BRKs name or intentionally have you buy something you shouldn't.

 

I have been to other stores in the area that have told it would be fine in your tank, I go home and do some research and find out I would have just been causing its slow demise.

 

I have made my share of mistakes and will probably make a few more... :-(

 

It is always a hard lesson to learn when you aren't talking about a $.99 neon tetra.

 

Anyway, BRK and Oz keep up the good work...

 

Thanks

Mike

[L8 2 RISE]

I kind of feel like I started hear on the wrong foot and want to make that better, I feel that some people have gotten the wrong impression of me and I don't want it to be that way, I can assure you (at least I think ) that I am in no way an arogant, disrespectful, impatiant and unlistening person. I really want advice and help with this hobby, and I think I really need it. I just found this sight otherwise, you would've heard from me about the nitrates, shrimp and puffer way before this. In support of BRK, I probably will go back there every once in a while, but I have found several LFS's that are closer and more convenient for me, so it may not be untill later this summer. I thought I clearly explained to Oz that my nitrates were high, and thought the reply he had given me of just a distracted nod was just the way he was which I didn't mind, it may well have been that he didn't hear me or I didn't make myself clear and I did see him help another older cusomer whos tank had just been infected with ick while I was there and he was being veryfriendly and helpful to the man, so I dont know what it was . As for the prior research part (in my defence ) I went to BRK planning on getting a firefish or some other very simple first time starter fish. When I explained to Chris and Oz what I wanted, they both suggested I get the watchman goby/shrimp pair, so I spent a little more time looking around and "spoke" to Oz about my nitrates and "thought" he said it was fine so decided to go with it. I probably should have done more research on these fish once I got home, but I didn't and I will agree with you that that was my faust entirely, but I went to BRK with an idea of what I wanted that I knew at least a little about, as well as wanting a little advice. I ended leaving with a completely different set of animals then I expected (which Im not saying is a bad thing) that I thought I had good advice about. As for the puffer fish, I in no way want to cause it any harm or pain and am the last person ever to consciously do that, I did learn from other people in this, because as I said, this fish was recomended to me by multiple people on another forum. I will defineltly double think the puffer. As far as the star goes, I did actually see it take the arms off of the star, and I have seen it eating several of the small (little bit under dime size) stars around my tank(i forgot what they're called )

 

I'm sorry for any wrong impressions I've made and hope to be a productive member of this community .

 

Sam

 

 

BTW: my nitrates are down to 15

[bprinehart]

 

I'm sorry for any wrong impressions I've made and hope to be a productive member of this community .

 

Sam

BTW: my nitrates are down to 15

 

You are well on your way then. We all want you to succeed, and to indeed become a productive member!! Just remember that nothing good happens fast in a saltwater tank. Good job on getting the 'trates down as well!

 

-Brian