Pros and Cons of Reefing in San Diego County

[vikinglord13]

My thoughts are for local reefers to share their pros and cons of heing a reefer in SD County.

Pro: Great mild weather, if you're west of the 15 this generally seems to be the case.
Pro: lots of LFSes. I say this in comparison to my experience living in the panhandle of Florida, there were really only two LFSes nearby. There seem to be more options here.
Pro: chill community. You guys are awesome!

Con: Super expensive. Let's face it, CA is pricy. One could probably have a tank twice the size somewhere in the Midwest.

I can't really think of anything else. What are your guys' thoughts?

 

[Instigate]

Pro: Access to sea water from Scripps. Never used it myself but would be tempting if I was a bit closer.

Pro: Besides the LFS in our county, the many LA and OC LFS are close enough to drive to. Been meaning to make a day of checking those stores out.

Con: High TDS water. My house is around 350tds usually.

 

[Trickman2]

Cost is a big one - Options of places to buy fish are fewer. Forum community seems to be smaller and less active.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Pro. New reef club.
Sdreefs website is still going strong for fish and local coral n gear trades, and a really great bunch of folks there. Ok, really really great people.
I’ve gotten more free , cheap and amazing corals than I can mention. Like stupid you can’t belive it, “why did you just drop of all these corals at my house cuz now I have to dip and Qt at 8:45” Lol.
That’s not even touching on equipment and used gear. That’s savings in the thousands at my house. Ok. Many thousands.
I’ve Moved tanks , asked for help and gotten it.
Seen folks tanks break and house fish and coral all over San Diego. So really , prob the most generous group of reefers ever. I really wouldn’t be Reefing if it weren’t for that I think. It def would not have been as fun.

I have five places oops six places to get fish and coral with under a 20 min drive. 8 if its a 35 min , 10 if i go 45-60 min. Pretty much always gotten freebies and rescue corals to try out at all of them.
One Mother’s Day we did an all day fish store crawl.

Free seawater. Last crash I drove 20 min and picked up 60 gallons in under an hour. I’ve had to do that a couple times.

I save money on frag plugs by using sand dollars from coranado. Lol.

Cons.
High cost of living, water , electricity, gasoline etc.

Weather , to perfect all the time.

And the tapnwater is so bad it kills goldfish and burns the Rodi pretty fast.
Good thing my Six stage BRS uint was $40.

 

[nshepler]

I recently started reefing again, moved to the SD county area from Atlanta. Could you guys tell me where the best LFS is? I've been to a few in the area and haven't been totally impressed with any. I'm mostly looking for LPS and Trying to start a decent SPS collection.

 

[Livinlocal]

Pro. New reef club.
Sdreefs website is still going strong for fish and local coral n gear trades, and a really great bunch of folks there. Ok, really really great people.
I’ve gotten more free , cheap and amazing corals than I can mention. Like stupid you can’t belive it, “why did you just drop of all these corals at my house cuz now I have to dip and Qt at 8:45” Lol.
That’s not even touching on equipment and used gear. That’s savings in the thousands at my house. Ok. Many thousands.
I’ve Moved tanks , asked for help and gotten it.
Seen folks tanks break and house fish and coral all over San Diego. So really , prob the most generous group of reefers ever. I really wouldn’t be Reefing if it weren’t for that I think. It def would not have been as fun.

I have five places oops six places to get fish and coral with under a 20 min drive. 8 if its a 35 min , 10 if i go 45-60 min. Pretty much always gotten freebies and rescue corals to try out at all of them.
One Mother’s Day we did an all day fish store crawl.

Free seawater. Last crash I drove 20 min and picked up 60 gallons in under an hour. I’ve had to do that a couple times.

I save money on frag plugs by using sand dollars from coranado. Lol.

Cons.
High cost of living, water , electricity, gasoline etc.

Weather , to perfect all the time.

And the tapnwater is so bad it kills goldfish and burns the Rodi pretty fast.
Good thing my Six stage BRS uint was $40.

Do you have the same screen name? I’m also on Sdr

 

[Instigate]

I recently started reefing again, moved to the SD county area from Atlanta. Could you guys tell me where the best LFS is? I've been to a few in the area and haven't been totally impressed with any. I'm mostly looking for LPS and Trying to start a decent SPS collection.

I think AquaSD has the largest selection. Check their website and ebay auctions. SDCorals is also an excellent shop very friendly staff and a well kept store every time I've been. If you're in north county there is Reefer's Garage. I've heard good things about Shipwreck Cove in Encinitas but I haven't checked it out yet.

 

[Livinlocal]

Pros:
1. We are spoiled when it comes to the amount of coral and fish in San Diego.
2. Free filtered salt water courtesy of the Birch aquarium and scripps institute of oceanography. I exclusively used scripps for years.
3. Everybody is very kind. I can’t tell you how many people have come through to help me when it comes to either moving my tank, or just needing a extra hand. I have also put my hand out for other people and helped them as well. I am actually holding all of fellow reefers coral while he does a tank upgrade.
4. There’s more too...


Cons.
1. San Diego is drowned out with coral, which makes for lowballers when trying to sell.
2. TDS is super high
3. Our electricity is expensive and you get placed into tiers, so if you use too much you get charged extra. I’m in the Double charged club lol
4. It’s illegal to wash your vehicle in your own driveway if the water isn’t contained.

 

[vikinglord13]

Good point with the electricity. Does San Diego City really say it's illegal to wash cars in the driveway?!? Man, kids will never learn stuff these days.

 

[vikinglord13]

I recently started reefing again, moved to the SD county area from Atlanta. Could you guys tell me where the best LFS is? I've been to a few in the area and haven't been totally impressed with any. I'm mostly looking for LPS and Trying to start a decent SPS collection.

Whereabouts in SD County do you live? A couple stores that weren't mentioned are The Love Aquarium in Escondido, and Custom Aquatica in San Marcos.

 

[Livinlocal]

Good point with the electricity. Does San Diego City really say it's illegal to wash cars in the driveway?!? Man, kids will never learn stuff these days.

Yes, as dumb as it sounds, if you do not have a containment underneath your car, you could get fined

 

[Travv]

Hi all! Just found the SoCal sections of Reef 2 Reef. Nice to meet you all.

Onto the topic... PROS are definitely the sources for great coral and fish from LA.

CONS: The heatwave this summer! [emoji23] Seriously, though. Cali homes where I am don't have A/C so it's terrible for tanks and humans.

Also, as everyone has said Cost of Living!

 

[Travv]

Whereabouts in SD County do you live? A couple stores that weren't mentioned are The Love Aquarium in Escondido, and Custom Aquatica in San Marcos.

Plus 1 on Aquatica.

Reefers garage in vista also has some cool coral!

 

[Instigate]

Hi all! Just found the SoCal sections of Reef 2 Reef. Nice to meet you all.

Onto the topic... PROS are definitely the sources for great coral and fish from LA.

CONS: The heatwave this summer! [emoji23] Seriously, though. Cali homes where I am don't have A/C so it's terrible for tanks and humans.

Also, as everyone has said Cost of Living!

Welcome! I can't imagine, my DT is up to 81F WITH the AC at 77F. I started cycling the tank last summer so this summer is the first one I'm worrying about temperature. I normally don't just run the AC constantly, just when it's unbearable. Not looking forward to seeing what the SDGE bill will be after running the AC all month...

You have a chiller or just trying to keep the temperature down with fans/ice?

 

[Travv]

Seriously, SDGE bills are already ridiculous [emoji107]. Honestly, I'm just trying to keep the temps down with any diy method I have. Thankfully, I have mainly hardy corals and fish.

Looking forward to whenever the weather ends up cooling down...

 

[Instigate]

Seriously, SDGE bills are already ridiculous [emoji107]. Honestly, I'm just trying to keep the temps down with any diy method I have. Thankfully, I have mainly hardy corals and fish.
Looking forward to whenever it ends up cooling down...

I hear that. We've probably got another month or so of it to go unfortunately.

 

[Travv]

I hear that. We've probably got another month or so of it to go unfortunately.

Yeah, not to mention October fire season.

 

[Livinlocal]

I got a notification in the mail from SDGE saying that I am using four times the amount of my neighbors, and I am going to be placed into the highest tier bracket based on California law saying they must tax me based on the California energy law.

So stupid.

I’ll take a picture when I get home. I just got it, and haven’t received my bill yet.

 

[Travv]

Wow, I saw they changed the tiers and rates recently. Crazy laws for sure.

 

[garcia64]

I recently started reefing again, moved to the SD county area from Atlanta. Could you guys tell me where the best LFS is? I've been to a few in the area and haven't been totally impressed with any. I'm mostly looking for LPS and Trying to start a decent SPS collection.

Sorry to bring this thread back up. I just got to SD from Augusta. Its such a small world man!