Thoughts on Dr. Reef

[Crabby48]

Its very easy to come to socal media and say whatever you want to say, but do you have any proof of anything that was promised and not fulfilled?

I never said you didn’t make good or orders that didn’t get canceled or credited back. I listed what I seen a lot as this is about opinions. I said you’re a great guy and very knowledgeable and stated how things might be better now. Everyone can have a rough patch.
I listed places o have and friends with great success and also friends with. I can vouch for them.
Sorry if you got upset but yes emails of months of promises is proof. I’m not here to prove bad just my opinion. Funny part is I would have still used you when needed but after your reply I’m good. Sorry to offend you but not really. I’ll mail you a box of tissues to make it right

 

[Crabby48]

People should be thankful we dont just ship the fish to make a quick buck. We do final inspection and if it doesnt pass we dont ship. At that point you have a choice to get refund or wait for it to be better or wait for a different batch. In any case we DO NOT charge you additional shipping. we pay out of pocket, why do you think we do that? we like to lose money on shipping and packing materials? No, because we love doing whats best for fish and your money.

Let me be clear. DOA’s with a place like Dr. Reef that qt’s fish and holds them are out of his hands most cases and is shippers fault. Sorry as that was bad for me to list.

 

[Yang’s Blue Paradise]

Been looking to get QT fish for a while!! A shame I didn’t catch this earlier

 

[littlefoxx]

Everyone gets 20% off (if you commented prior to this post.)

Would you do that for a current order you are working on???

 

[Dr. Reef]

Would you do that for a current order you are working on??

Yes PM me your order#

 

[Dr. Reef]

Code "Reef2Reef" will give you 20% off. Sale will end Sunday. April 7th

 

[littlefoxx]

Yes PM me your order#

I already have it in the PMs!

 

[LiquidSpace]

I usually QT my fish myself but I’m upgrading to a 200 and my wife would kill me if I got something big enough to QT 4 tangs at once, so I’m very thankful for a business like yours.

 

[HiggsUSA]

Code "Reef2Reef" will give you 20% off. Sale will end Sunday. April 7th

Your generosity and customer service is killing me. I was planning on actually getting my first order from you before placing my second so they could settle in but this is making it real hard not to pull the trigger. If I place the order now is there a way to offset delivery by a few weeks in between orders since they'll probably be close together in terms of time to ship? I don't care about shipping costs... I'll pay them.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Your generosity and customer service is killing me. I was planning on actually getting my first order from you before placing my second so they could settle in but this is making it real hard not to pull the trigger. If I place the order now is there a way to offset delivery by a few weeks in between orders since they'll probably be close together in terms of time to ship? I don't care about shipping costs... I'll pay them.

Yes as always you can place order now and take delivery upto 90 days from now.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Yes as always you can place order now and take delivery upto 90 days from now.

Do you deliver cured bacon and can we apply the 20%
Asking for a friend.

 

[litsoh]

Personally I can't recommend Dr. Reef enough. All the fish in my tank are from them. Full disclosure there were a few issues with my recent order in regards to some DOA snails and the Exquisite Wrasse not initially shipping well, and then the replacements not making it either with one of the replacement exquisite wrasses having a couple of flukes on it. As a result I also ended up losing my Flame Angel and Yellow Longnose Butterfly.

I don't place any blame on Dr. Reef as I understand the magnitude of his business and the fact that it is virtually impossible to prevent disease going through on each and every single fish, especially when you factor in the stress of shipping. He was also in contact with me through every step of the way in treating my display tank with Prazi as I was late in catching the flukes and even promised to replace any fish lost at no cost, even if they were not purchased from him. He's taking a huge hit on this order to ensure that a healthy, thriving fish is received. You really can't beat that kind of customer service and it speaks magnitudes to the pride and trust that he has in what he does.

Other than that hiccup, all of my other fish have come in perfectly healthy and eating pretty much immediately. Actually my replacements are currently on the way and I'll be picking them up tomorrow morning. I wouldn't hesitate to do business with him again.

 

[dennis romano]

I placed an order with them this past weekend. This thread erased any worries that I had.

 

[michealprater]

@ Dr Reef. I will be ordering a batch of fish once I get the money saved up. I will be introducing a couple centropyge (flame and flameback) with my potters. I have a lot of experience doing this over the years and had great success in my older tanks. I use acclimation boxes, mirrors and movement on the aquascape to allow this to be done successfully. One thing that is important is that the new additions are small as possible. Is it possible to request this, even if I have to wait a bit?

 

[Suarez_Leslie]

We qt for 30 days, not sure where you got 14 days.
First 14 days in copper and then additional 14 days in prazi and metro etc. so a total of 28 days.

Regarding humblefish, Look up our old posts prior to covid, we were supposed to start a business togther and he was to move to Kansas 1.5 hrs away from me and he never did and we had a political fall out. Thus you will never see anything positive there. Try posting anything positive at his website and see for yourself.

1 quick question: who made anyone including humblefish an authority of declaring someone a good qt business or not? There is not a single person department or authirity on this planet that can issue someone or a business a certificate of qtying business. its a simple protocol that every hobbyist practices in their own home difference is other businesses like ours do it on broad scale.

In 5 years of us doing this commercially we had only 16 cases reported for ich or velvet related issues and in most all cases people added non qted corals frags cuc or something in and only 1 case was unsolved but he had fallowed his tank prior to purchase and maybe it failed.
Over 9000 orders sold with average of 5 fish each, about 45k fish qted and only 1 unsolved incident is nearly 100% in this very uncertain business of qtying fish.

If ich or velvet was to come from our fish, knowing the parasite, tons of customers will has issues not 1 or 2 as all fish share same water. so likely the truth is somewhere in between.

We guarantee our fish without really putting in writing for obvious reasons but in every case mentioned above we replaced every fish to them including fish they didnt buy from us. That speaks for itself when it comes to customer service.

And regarding our doa policy nothing has never changed. Its either refund or store credit or replacement at no cost to customer on all livestock that arrived dead or was never shipped or missed. Credit and replacement on one's that die later on in guarantee period.

I have ordered about 3 large fish orders for Mike. At first I thought I was taking a gamble ordering some expensive fish. A Gem, Black Tang, Leopard Wrasses. All that I kept for over 3 years, until I had a crash when moving tanks across multiple states and that’s not his fault. I once had an issue where fed ex delayed the package and Mike took care of it. Even though felt horrible because it was an expensive order. Always clear communication.

 

[Dr. Reef]

@ Dr Reef. I will be ordering a batch of fish once I get the money saved up. I will be introducing a couple centropyge (flame and flameback) with my potters. I have a lot of experience doing this over the years and had great success in my older tanks. I use acclimation boxes, mirrors and movement on the aquascape to allow this to be done successfully. One thing that is important is that the new additions are small as possible. Is it possible to request this, even if I have to wait a bit?

Yee Sir, there is a note section on checkout and also a very direct question at checkout that asks for size to expect.

 

[MnFish1]

While I have not directly ordered from them, from what I have read on these forums from those that have.....

Most receive the wrong fish, which then your stuck with. DOA policy has recently changed which is not very customer friendly. Many, many shipping issues, and many dead fish. It also seems to take a very long time to source the fish sometimes.

I do not think 'most people receive the wrong fish'? Based on my reading here, and basically, I have not read anything about Dr. Reef that I haven't read about multiple online sellers (QT or not). However, compared to many other sites, his customer service is outstanding he does QT fish over a 4-6 week period of treatment and observation. I assume if the fish have problems after the first 2 weeks, copper etc is continued longer. I personally am not in favor of using the multiple drugs being used in very short time periods, but that is his protocol.

 

[MnFish1]

Let the record reflect in all fairness, I'm too lazy to prep marine fish myself, it's not worth the hassle for me. The time invested, the detailed aseptic handling steps just shy of level 4 ppe

Nope

Good thing I don't keep them, I think fish are kind of boring only corals are fun. That lucky mode gives me nobody to pin failures on

I never in a million years would think purchasing from Fishotel or Dr Reef means I can skip preps if I wanted fish

I would buy from one of them *so that my home qt and prep systems* get the best possible healthy disease free entrants

The final responsibility is on me, never ever ever ever ever someone else. My own qt and lengthy evaluation periods would catch the get- throughs, if i liked fish enough to bother with all that

For the 'general public' - I would not routinely re-quarantine fish. IMHO, the way to 'do it' is if you want to quarantine your own fish - just buy regular fish and quarantine them. If you want pre-quarantined fish, buy from a store (like @Dr. Reef) etc that does a proper quarantine. Were I to purchase a fish from a pre-quarantined vendor, I would do an observation QT (outside the display) - and only subject the fish to medication if a disease shows up. Though I'm not a big fan of the concept that copper kills the immune system, or Prazipro is dangerous etc. I think it is a valid point to suggest that whenever treating with a medication - use the lowest possible time and lowest effective dose. The more days the fish are in medication, the more likely that potential side effects/problems would occur.

 

[Dr. Reef]

For the 'general public' - I would not routinely re-quarantine fish. IMHO, the way to 'do it' is if you want to quarantine your own fish - just buy regular fish and quarantine them. If you want pre-quarantined fish, buy from a store (like @Dr. Reef) etc that does a proper quarantine. Were I to purchase a fish from a pre-quarantined vendor, I would do an observation QT (outside the display) - and only subject the fish to medication if a disease shows up. Though I'm not a big fan of the concept that copper kills the immune system, or Prazipro is dangerous etc. I think it is a valid point to suggest that whenever treating with a medication - use the lowest possible time and lowest effective dose. The more days the fish are in medication, the more likely that potential side effects/problems would occur.

You raised a very good point. Unfortunately from the moment fish is caught by divers, its in some sort of medication or copper. then it arrives at wholesaler and it goes into copper and other meds.
Then it arrives to us and it goes through multiple meds and copper in short 14-28 days.
Poor fish never has a chance to recover, Copper and prazi 2 main meds kill their appetite.
But thats what everyone wants. qted fish in copper or cp and hit with prazi.
I discuss this here:

Skinny fish info

Hello Everyone Happy Holidays. This subject has been brought up a few times and I would like to clarify few things regarding "sometimes received skinny fish" issue. As you know we quarantine fish and then sell them in 30 days. During these 30 days they are with us, these fish are subjected to...

www.reef2reef.com

These protocols and harshness and constantly living in medicalted water or copper causes these fish internal organ failures which are sometimes not visible with naked eye. Once it gets shipped and goes through huge shipping stress and ends up in customers tank, it starts to fade.
This is the harsh reality of this business.

 

[MnFish1]

You raised a very good point. Unfortunately from the moment fish is caught by divers, its in some sort of medication or copper. then it arrives at wholesaler and it goes into copper and other meds.
Then it arrives to us and it goes through multiple meds and copper in short 14-28 days.
Poor fish never has a chance to recover, Copper and prazi 2 main meds kill their appetite.
But thats what everyone wants. qted fish in copper or cp and hit with prazi.
I discuss this here:

Skinny fish info

Hello Everyone Happy Holidays. This subject has been brought up a few times and I would like to clarify few things regarding "sometimes received skinny fish" issue. As you know we quarantine fish and then sell them in 30 days. During these 30 days they are with us, these fish are subjected to...

www.reef2reef.com

These protocols and harshmess and constantly living in medicalted water or copper causes these fish internal organ failures which are sometimes not visible with nake eye. Once it gets shipped and goes through huge shipping stress and ends up in customers tank, it starts to fade.
This is the harsh reality of this business.

Right - that was what I was trying to say. Double dosing medication (i.e. at your facility and then again at home which is what was suggested by another poster) IMHO is a mistake.