ZippyBoy
06/11/2001, 08:18 AM
I just visited Mike at Paragon Aquatics this weekend (6/10) to pick up 125#'s of LR and live sand. We finally connected after a few days. Mike said he is moving the operation out of his garage to a new facility and is busy setting things up. I can see why after visiting.
I was impressed with Paragon's existing facilities to handle LR and the assorted corals available for sale. LR is rotated among 3 very large tubs (I estimate atleast a few hundred gals each) as it cures. Two more tubs are used for live sand. All of the holding tubs have huge skimmers and MH/natural lighting to preserve the life. Hundreds of hermits, snails, etc are present in the holding facilities to do what nature intended.
The rock I bought (premium Fiji) has numerous macro algaes, coralline algaes, hard/soft corals and anenomes (sp?) - the good kind not aptasia. Mike let me pick through his tanks and he was very helpful in pointed out which rock had the most life, where the corals were and how to best display. After picking through the bins, Mike carefully wrapped each piece of rock that had visible live corals with wet paper napkins (to keep them alive and so I could later find the corals), placed in insulated styrofoam boxes, then covered the whole thing again with wet paper towels (to make sure nothing dried out on my 2.5 hour drive back home to NYC). The boxes had styrofoam lids and everything was taped shut...no spills in the blazer.
So far, I have seen 2 fungia corals, 6-10 anenomes, 3 differant types of SPC, 6 porites, 6 small brains, neon blue and neon yellow sponges, and more macro/micro algaes than I can count.
My digital camera is in the shop for repairs, I'll post pics when I get it back.
The rock was not cheap ($550 for the rock and sand), but I think it was well worth the price for the quality of the product, Mike's insights and the ability to pick my own pieces.
Thumbs up for Paragon Aquatics. Go if you have a chance.
I was impressed with Paragon's existing facilities to handle LR and the assorted corals available for sale. LR is rotated among 3 very large tubs (I estimate atleast a few hundred gals each) as it cures. Two more tubs are used for live sand. All of the holding tubs have huge skimmers and MH/natural lighting to preserve the life. Hundreds of hermits, snails, etc are present in the holding facilities to do what nature intended.
The rock I bought (premium Fiji) has numerous macro algaes, coralline algaes, hard/soft corals and anenomes (sp?) - the good kind not aptasia. Mike let me pick through his tanks and he was very helpful in pointed out which rock had the most life, where the corals were and how to best display. After picking through the bins, Mike carefully wrapped each piece of rock that had visible live corals with wet paper napkins (to keep them alive and so I could later find the corals), placed in insulated styrofoam boxes, then covered the whole thing again with wet paper towels (to make sure nothing dried out on my 2.5 hour drive back home to NYC). The boxes had styrofoam lids and everything was taped shut...no spills in the blazer.
So far, I have seen 2 fungia corals, 6-10 anenomes, 3 differant types of SPC, 6 porites, 6 small brains, neon blue and neon yellow sponges, and more macro/micro algaes than I can count.
My digital camera is in the shop for repairs, I'll post pics when I get it back.
The rock was not cheap ($550 for the rock and sand), but I think it was well worth the price for the quality of the product, Mike's insights and the ability to pick my own pieces.
Thumbs up for Paragon Aquatics. Go if you have a chance.