NJ LFS Tour [Oct 18] *Pics added

[acitydweller]

ok tossing out specific dates a few weeks ahead to see if these work for anyone:

Oct 17 Wed / 18 Thurs
Oct 24 Wed / 25 Thurs
Nov 02 Fri
Nov 08 Thu

[DeLaFe]

I went to Ridgewood today. Small place with very few fish, but boy do they have a nice selection of plants! The owner I met was a real nice guy as well... Definitely worth a trip, especially if you are looking for hard to get plants or any ADA stuff.

I picked up three plants for my tank:

Hydrocotyle
Red Ludwigia
Nesaea Golden

Alfred

[aznrice247]

Originally Posted by DeLaFe

I went to Ridgewood today. Small place with very few fish, but boy do they have a nice selection of plants! The owner I met was a real nice guy as well... Definitely worth a trip, especially if you are looking for hard to get plants or any ADA stuff.

I picked up three plants for my tank:

Hydrocotyle
Red Ludwigia
Nesaea Golden

Alfred

Do they even sell aqua soil there?

[DeLaFe]

They carry the full line of ADA stuff. I don't know, I am pretty new to planted tanks. ;-) (I have been a reef aquaria guy for the past 20 years) They had an area with different size bags of ADA substrate.

Alfred

[aznrice247]

awesome! NO MORE 20 DOLLAR SHIPPING BS!

[DeLaFe]

Spent some time talking to one of the owners. They are trying to grow and plan on adding more fish. The more we support them, the better they will get. They obviously know their stuff. He also mentioned that if this store is successful they would like to open a store in NYC.

I think that this place has the potential of being the best planted tank place in the NY tri-state area without much improvement. (I have been to just about every fish store in NYC and Long Island) If they rearranged a few things they could easily add another 10 tanks.

The biggest con of this place is that they have very few fish and inverts.

Alfred

[acitydweller]

they did have the compulsory cherries, neons and harlequins in their show tanks which looked pretty good. They have racks of soil bags stacked. i was in such awe staring at the tanks, sieryu stones and driftwood for sale i didnt even pay attention to the bags of dirt :P but they are all ADA branded soils there.

i'd say there's something for everyone at all price points there. i should mention they threw in a red bamboo after i commented how lovely it grew in their show tank with little ferts. very pretty guppies and their plant section was segmented with low medium and high light sections.

[Nreyes112]

Originally Posted by acitydweller

Hiya all,
The NJ trip is more difficult to coordinate between so many people so it's best to gauge interest and availability for both weekday and Saturday (many stores are closed on Sundays).

If there's just four people or so, plans can be arranged between ourselves.

The list of LFS (6 in total):

• Ridgewood aquarium imports (Ada and do aqua! Specialty shop)
• Fishtown USA (nj) on rt 17s
• Pet goods rt 17s
• Rt4 aquarium
• Absolutely fish
• Fish hut (114 U.S. 46 Saddle Brook, NJ 07663)

All of these shops are within reasonable driving distance.

UPDATE:
added these dates as a proposal.
Oct 17 Wed / 18 Thurs
Oct 24 Wed / 25 Thurs
Nov 02 Fri
Nov 08 Thu

Ok please chime in

That sure is a lot of driving! You're looking at a whole days worth especially if your planning on spending more than 20 mins in each store. I live/work around these places they're all very nice. This sounds like a very fun road trip though! Have fun 😁

[aznrice247]

wait do they have the ADA books for free?

[sunyang730]

I really want to go but I don't drive. If someone drive and don't mind a TPT member to be in their car. Let me know! Any date will be cool with me. LOL I will just take a day off that time! HA

[DeLaFe]

Sunyang- Where in NYC are you located? I don't know when we are going back, but I don't see a problem giving someone a ride.

They are also right by the train station. It is possible to get there by train, give them a call and ask which trains go there. (The train station was about 2-3 blocks from the store- when getting there by car I was struck by how "Old World" European the area looked. Reminded me of visiting Germany and Holland. VERY nice area.

Alfred

[acitydweller]

Originally Posted by Nreyes112

That sure is a lot of driving! You're looking at a whole days worth especially if your planning on spending more than 20 mins in each store. I live/work around these places they're all very nice. This sounds like a very fun road trip though! Have fun

Its a first trip of this kind and want this to be as much fun as possible. I'd rather have a long list and scale back as we progress.

Originally Posted by DeLaFe

Spent some time talking to one of the owners. They are trying to grow and plan on adding more fish. The more we support them, the better they will get. They obviously know their stuff. He also mentioned that if this store is successful they would like to open a store in NYC.

I think that this place has the potential of being the best planted tank place in the NY tri-state area without much improvement. (I have been to just about every fish store in NYC and Long Island) If they rearranged a few things they could easily add another 10 tanks.

The biggest con of this place is that they have very few fish and inverts.

Alfred

I think part of their charm is having few very nicely scaped tanks as opposed to the rows and rows of tanks normally found in a LFS. I prefer the minimalistic and purposeful layout of the store. It is an undenyably small store yet you never get a sense of it as the displays are laid forth, just like how our tanks are scaled to seem larger than they actually are, like Magic

Originally Posted by aznrice247

awesome! NO MORE 20 DOLLAR SHIPPING BS!

spend your money on more aquatic tools or lunch in town.

Originally Posted by aznrice247

wait do they have the ADA books for free?

There's an ADA catalog given out for free.

Originally Posted by sunyang730

I really want to go but I don't drive. If someone drive and don't mind a TPT member to be in their car. Let me know! Any date will be cool with me. LOL I will just take a day off that time! HA

The whole point of this thread is to have people check in, arrange a date and carpool over. If individuals dont have a car, just point out whereabouts you are and someone close to you can likely give you a lift. Please mention where in NY you are and we can hopefully get a ride for you around there. A fall back would be a pickup location in manhattan as well.

Originally Posted by DeLaFe

They are also right by the train station. It is possible to get there by train, give them a call and ask which trains go there. (The train station was about 2-3 blocks from the store- when getting there by car I was struck by how "Old World" European the area looked. Reminded me of visiting Germany and Holland. VERY nice area.

Alfred

I think NJT trains normally run down to jersey city so some folks who want to trek themselves to ridgewood can take the path train into NJ then switch to amtrak. Quite a haul for just one shop.

[sunyang730]

Originally Posted by DeLaFe

Sunyang- Where in NYC are you located? I don't know when we are going back, but I don't see a problem giving someone a ride.

They are also right by the train station. It is possible to get there by train, give them a call and ask which trains go there. (The train station was about 2-3 blocks from the store- when getting there by car I was struck by how "Old World" European the area looked. Reminded me of visiting Germany and Holland. VERY nice area.

Alfred

I thought we are going to few places aren't we? The one I really want to go is the ADA one. Yes it does have train station there but it will take me very long time to get there and $18 back and forth. LOL Not sure if I want to spend $18 and 2 hours to just go to one place. :/ I live in Brooklyn.

[DeLaFe]

I agree that I prefer "less", high quality tanks. But they have VERY FEW fish available... I would love to see them carry more of the harder to find stuff. Several types of Rasbora, two of the three types of pygmy corydoras, etc.

Obviously, they need to make money. So they need to carry the bread and butter stuff like tetras...

We have the NJ Commuter EZ-Pass, so it costs us like $3 to cross the bridge. Let me see if I can work on my wife to take me or I will talk to a buddy that is big on planted tanks.

Best,

Alfred

Originally Posted by acitydweller

Its a first trip of this kind and want this to be as much fun as possible. I'd rather have a long list and scale back as we progress.

I think part of their charm is having few very nicely scaped tanks as opposed to the rows and rows of tanks normally found in a LFS. I prefer the minimalistic and purposeful layout of the store. It is an undenyably small store yet you never get a sense of it as the displays are laid forth, just like how our tanks are scaled to seem larger than they actually are, like Magic

The whole point of this thread is to have people check in, arrange a date and carpool over. If individuals dont have a car, just point out whereabouts you are and someone close to you can likely give you a lift. Merely going by NY or NYC as a location doesn't really help in a situation like this.

[furnfins]

Just a suggestion for another trip to NJ is the Pet Shanty. They have SW and a good amount of FW tanks. Also beautiful plants and shrimp. They also had pygmy cory's.
If you guys get to go to Absolutely Fish enjoy, it is verrry nice, lots of beautiful and different fish, at least when I last went.