Another AquaSD experience

[Eric19]

Just wanted to post this here in case it helps anyone. I recently ordered ~13 frags from AquaSD for about $205 plus $30 shipping. I'm in Baltimore, Maryland and the package was shipped 7P EST and arrived 10A EST yesterday. Pretty good. It sat outside for about 20 minutes because it was just left on the porch by FedEx and there's snow on the ground here so I was a bit worried. The frags all arrived alive and seemed in good health. There weren't any warmers in the box, but it was warm inside the box. They threw in a small frag which looks like a chalice as a freebie. I dipped and rinsed the frags, a few worms fell off which surprised me because they tell you they dip their corals, but otherwise nothing else that I could see. I removed the plugs and put them on rubble (for more expensive corals I probably wouldn't do that right away but I'm fairly new to corals and trying different techniques). I learned that the chalices don't like coming off the frag plugs and made a mess of a couple of them.

The corals all opened up in the tank within a few minutes (even the 2 chalices that I completely mutilated while trying to get them off the plugs). The only exception is a 3 head zoa frag, which only has one head open so far (you can see it in the photo). The Duncan is thrilled and the hammer, frogspawn, acan and mushroom seem particularly happy. The rest of the list includes a blastomussa, bubble coral, favia and some chalices. Most of the $10 frags are between the size of a dime and a nickle.

For the money, def worth it. I'm including a few pics here. The hammer and aquacultured frogspawn were $25, one of the chalices were $25, everything else was about $10.

 

[Tahoe61]

Good to know.

I am thinking of ordering from them, they appear to have a great selection at a decent price.

 

[GrimReefer51]

I stay clear of AquaSD with all the horror stories I've seen online about them. Glad to see they still have an ounce of decency left. I hope you dipped everything since they're notorious for selling corals riddled with pests as part of their "flash sale".

 

[exnisstech]

Glad your experience went well. My experience was terrible. They failed to ship the most expensive clam on the order stating it didn't look healthy and they sent me an email stating they're policy was no refunds but they would issue a store credit so I would have to buy more. I informed them that was pretty much theft because they failed to provide an item I paid for. To make a long story short I was refunded the price of the clam not shipped. Now the good part is they didn't ship the most expensive clam because it didn't look healthy but they shipped a gaping maxima that died in less than 24hrs. And I got a free aiptasia with the gaping clam that my peppermint took care of.

The Manager Jacob I think was his name tried to rectify the situation and said they would send a replacement clam free of charge. Ya right, that never happened. I would have an empty tank before I would purchase anything from ASD again.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Just did a recent order with them also, total meh experience. They were a LOT better before blowing up during and post covid.

Ordered 7 frags, 3 deaths just outside of 24 hours. Luckily the bigger, higher end stuff pulled through. I live in CA and they have become a pass for me now.

 

[GrimReefer51]

I've seen them sell coral with aptaisa to new reefers and never say anything about it. The first frag I ever brought from them came riddled with zoanthid eating spiders that were visible through the plastic bag. Every single frag except one came with some sort of pest, and not just one but more than I could count. When I would message Will the owner, he played dumb every time and would answer some generic response. I also bought a torch from them and when I got it, it had no flesh band. It died 2 days later and they refused to even give me store credit saying they had no refunds. Will has no moral compass, Jacob left due to differences with him and when you talk to ex-employees the stories they tell you are very revealing. The owner doesn't care about anybody but himself and has no loyalty to his employees. So what could we expect as customers.

 

[Tamberav]

Glad your experience went well. My experience was terrible. They failed to ship the most expensive clam on the order stating it didn't look healthy and they sent me an email stating they're policy was no refunds but they would issue a store credit so I would have to buy more. I informed them that was pretty much theft because they failed to provide an item I paid for. To make a long story short I was refunded the price of the clam not shipped. Now the good part is they didn't ship the most expensive clam because it didn't look healthy but they shipped a gaping maxima that died in less than 24hrs. And I got a free aiptasia with the gaping clam that my peppermint took care of.

The Manager Jacob I think was his name tried to rectify the situation and said they would send a replacement clam free of charge. Ya right, that never happened. I would have an empty tank before I would purchase anything from ASD again.

oof... I ordered $25 clams on Petco during the big 50% off holiday sales and it came looking fantastic and no pests.

 

[GrimReefer51]

Just did a recent order with them also, total meh experience. They were a LOT better before blowing up during and post covid.

Ordered 7 frags, 3 deaths just outside of 24 hours. Luckily the bigger, higher end stuff pulled through. I live in CA and they have become a pass for me now.

I hope you dipped EVERYTHING.

 

[VintageReefer]

I’ve said my piece on them. I’m glad it worked out for you but that is not the norm.

anyone interested can see my thread in vendor feedback. If I did not have this forum, they wouldn’t have done anything for me. They called me, threatened me, and would not back down or budge on the phone and tried to bully and extort me.

Then I document my experience here and it’s an immediate 180. they step up and act like hero’s wanting to help. Guess they didn’t expect me to be on this forum. It’s the only way you can get any help and it makes me wonder how many people get shafted because they don’t have a public platform to fall them out on

Let’s not forget they next shipped out low grade imposter coral with the wrong colors, wrong head count, aiptasia and algae, I post it here, they refund me (instead of ship me the actual coral I bought) and keep the 45$ sh while I got to keep crap coral that my lfs wouldn’t buy for 5$. My lfs literally told me they can’t buy it because it would sit in their tanks forever and nobody would ever be interested in it

 

[exnisstech]

oof... I ordered $25 clams on Petco during the big 50% off holiday sales and it came looking fantastic and no pests.

I'm not sure about clams but I think Petco online fish orders come from quality marine which is a reputable company.

 

[GrimReefer51]

oof... I ordered $25 clams on Petco during the big 50% off holiday sales and it came looking fantastic and no pests.

I never thought I would say this but youre better off buying from Petco than AquaSD. I can't belive I just typed that out lol

 

[VintageReefer]

Glad your experience went well. My experience was terrible. They failed to ship the most expensive clam on the order stating it didn't look healthy and they sent me an email stating they're policy was no refunds but they would issue a store credit so I would have to buy more. I informed them that was pretty much theft because they failed to provide an item I paid for. To make a long story short I was refunded the price of the clam not shipped. Now the good part is they didn't ship the most expensive clam because it didn't look healthy but they shipped a gaping maxima that died in less than 24hrs. And I got a free aiptasia with the gaping clam that my peppermint took care of.

The Manager Jacob I think was his name tried to rectify the situation and said they would send a replacement clam free of charge. Ya right, that never happened. I would have an empty tank before I would purchase anything from ASD again.

They would rather have customers hold a grudge forever than refund us for things we bought and didn’t get, or ship out the items we actually did buy