Bad store: Brookhurst and Yorktown Tropical Fish store next to the Ebisu market.
Decent-Thus-Far store: Tong's Tropical Fish on Magnolia and Warner
Next store I am trying: One off of Indianapolis and Beach Blvd next to Rite-Aid.
Next time I'm in orange I'll make sure to check that one out! I have some friends from work that live there. I work at Disneyland so I'm up at katella at least 4 days a week. I'll try to go sometime after Christmas. Thanks for the recommendation!
So tomorrow at 2 I'm meeting the guy to pick up the 28 gal for $60. I probably won't have time to set anything up tomorrow or the next day due to Christmas activities but once I do I'm going to use my ten gallon to grow some corals in.
I'm with yote on the gradual sand adding, and I'd also agree with trying a good t5 setup for lights. Try socaltropicalfish on chapman in fullerton (just west of the 57 a couple blocks), Tom has really good prices usually on equipment.
What do you do at DL? I worked westside attractions for 3.5 years, from 99-03.