Drysdale Aquarium, Inc

11/01/2024

HEADS UP:

We are closing at three on Saturday, November 2. Make sure to come in early. The shop is packed to the gills.

10/17/2024

Shout out! Many thanks to Pierre at Coral Corral. He had a secret hoard of old power supplies to help get one of my service clients back online after his fish room got flooded. His Euphyllia tank looks sweet!
All the corals look like they’re going to be fine. Even the Ritteri anemone who had given up grabbed a rock and started climbing within a minute!
Also thanks to Joe at AI / Apeture for helping. with diagnostics on shop lights and getting parts shipped out overnight. That’s the next project. Half the fans on older Hydras fried with power surges.

10/11/2024

We got power back! I will be open normal hours tomorrow. The entrance to the shop may still be flooded, but I will put some pavers out so there is a high and dry pathway. There is a river flowing around both sides of it….

Edit: waters receded an inch or two overnight. There is high-end dry access to the shop. No need to walk the cinderblock tight rope!

10/11/2024

How’s everyone holding up? We are still flooded and running on a generator but all the animals are doing well.

10/10/2024

Big edit - ice and temp issues resolved. We lost power at seven last night. Got flow restored in coral farm. Flooding is eminent, I fear. we have much worse flooding than post Irma and it will likely rise

We are OK. Property is 90% underwater and a river is flowing under the house. Two more inches and the shop floods.

***** If anybody could come up with peak flood levels for us, both when, and how much more water to anticipate it would be very helpful  we are on the same floodplain as Lake Padgett. They discharge into our lake. Limited internet and charging options right now.

10/08/2024

I want to wish everybody good luck during the storm. I hope you maintain power and your trees stay in the ground.

A couple thoughts in preparation for your Aquarium: stop feeding the fish till the storm passes. You don’t need any more p**p in the water before a possible power outage.

In the event that you lose power, your first concern is oxygen. If you don’t have a bubbler, you can use a pitcher and scoop water out and pour it back in a few times an hour. If you do have a bubbler, stick the air stone inside a piece of pipe that goes almost to the bottom of the tank. The air stone doesn’t have to go down far and it’ll work just like an old-school under gravel filter, dragging water up the pipe and discharging at the top. This, provides much more flow for the same energy.

Second concern is going to be temperature once the storm clears out. 80° should be a maximum but your Corals will tell you. Frozen water bottles will help especially if there is circulation and ice in a bag as well. You may have to monitor this manually so , your fingers are pretty accurate within a few degree

I have stacks of Styrofoam coolers if you want to start making ice in preparation and need additional space. You still have time.

If you do suffer Fish or Coral loss, remove them as soon as possible. The decay will consume what oxygen remains. It’s not a pretty job, but it might save a few lives. 

To get technical on power supply during power outage, generators are fine for your old school AC pumps. Many DC pumps do not take kindly working with generators due to the fluctuating power supply. DC pumps will work far better on battery back up or inverted power from a car battery. If you were relying on battery power to run pumps, always go for the lowest consuming pumps and almost always DC is more efficient. Also remember that you don’t need everything powered up. Just keep the tank water moving and focus on temperature. 

10/06/2024

Picked this one up at ACI a few weeks ago. Note the yellow tips on the edge. I’ll make frags after the storm. They’re gonna be wild once they make a growth ring.

10/06/2024

10/01/2024

I will be watching these settle in with great anticipation. They've been here 3 weeks. Not sure if there are 2 or 3 distinct types on this disc. Best match I've found is FCA Heartbreaker bounce. The baby on the left shows the beginning of a purple bounce. The big mama seems to have yellow bubbles forming.

09/27/2024

I hope you all were as fortunate as we were. We have power and barely got any rain. Store will be open normal hours.

09/26/2024

Just made an extra barrel of salt water in case anybody wants to play it safe and have it on hand. And if you’re truly optimistic, I’m available all afternoon if you would like to stop by.
I expect to be business as usual tomorrow as long as we maintain power. Best of luck to all of you in that regard

09/20/2024

This guy never had a reef tank…

09/19/2024

Captive spawned and grown! First time ever.

I am ecstatic to have these in the shop as a monument to sustainable reef keeping. These Aussie Goniopora were spawned in captivity from wild collected parents. They were subsequently settled and grown at Inter-fish and imported by ACI Aquaculture.

The best part for you all is they are priced right in line with similar quality pieces

I am available today by appointment. Open Friday and Saturday and then again by appointment on Sunday and Monday. Hope to see you soon.

09/18/2024

As a bit of a geek, I’m really excited about these. Everybody has seen green elephant ears. I picked up orange on purple base and gold today.

09/18/2024

Stopped by ACI this afternoon to reload on spawned Gonis. The super top secret tank is crazy with all the chimeras. I did not pick any chimeras up, but if anybody would like to discuss me getting you one, reach out. Pricing is variable, but they start at a few Benjamins. You won’t likely see this again.

The regular blue and reds are very reasonably priced.

Also picked up some really nice purple, long te****le anemones, and three different colored elephant, ear mushrooms. One like the one in my display tank and another colony that I have never seen before.

The boat is still in the shop for another couple weeks so I will be around Thursday by appointment

09/13/2024

Yellow stem yellow splatter hammers? Oh yes please!

09/12/2024

Got an absolutely spectacular little order in today and another coming tomorrow. Really excited to bring in the world‘s first captive spawned settled and grown Goniopora from ACI and Inter-Fish. We also received some gorgeous new mushrooms , zoas, yellow splatter hammers, Duncan’s and chalice.

Open Fridays 12-5 and Saturdays 10-5
Sundays and Mondays by appointment
2260 Knight Rd Land O Lakes
813-295-3474

09/11/2024

Got a nice little order coming in tomorrow. A ridiculous Goniopora, lots of nice mushrooms, including Saint Thomas and a few high-end Zoa. Ihave a bunch of others that I will have fragged up by the weekend too.

09/11/2024

Central pets drivers revolted and will not back down my road anymore. Salt is going to be special order only moving forward. I need to stock up on Tropic Marin next week so PM for orders of sacks or buckets.

08/31/2024

Somebody tried making fun of me recently for using a hydrometer while I’m out on the road doing my service work. After analyzing 13 ICP samples that I just had run, my trusty old hydrometer is the closest to the lab results. Second place was our Hannah digital meter which needs to be calibrated since it seems to be off by about 1.2 points per thousand. A distant third and fourth were the refractometers - both the ocular and Milwaukee digital.
Sometimes the old ways are the best ways still. If you are using an old-school hydrometer, just make sure you calibrate it against something with a known value, and don’t let them give you any crap for it…

08/30/2024

Let's get hammered! I've got about a dozen jumbo gold hammer colonies available at reasonable prices. Bring a bucket.

08/30/2024

Someone recently bought a Cyphastrea that was the last one I had. Purple base with meteor shower pink polyps.

I’ll buy half back at full price or offer a good trade to get it back in the vault.

08/28/2024

For a city with crumbling water mains, S Tampa sure has some water pressure.

08/21/2024

This post might come as a surprise to some of you, but I’ve come to see that Sue and I do very different things with our stores. Insurance hikes are no joke this year. My own commercial auto went up 80%. I can’t wait to see what the general liability does… While you’re out here, consider popping in to grab some frozen food or see what supplies are available. I’m told she generally has pretty good pricing on Fish as well.
The industry has changed dramatically in recent years. If you don’t support your local Fish stores today, they’re not gonna be there tomorrow and we all lose out.

08/16/2024

Gonis are hot right now and we've got a great selection of aquacultured specimens! Come get your flow on!

Open Fridays 12-5 and Saturdays 10-5
Sunday, Monday by appointment
2260 Knight Rd, Land O Lakes
813-295-3474