Aqua SD. Great corals, lots of pests

[spiraling]

Hi,
After seeing a bunch of recommendations for Aqua SD and chalices, I placed a large (for me) order. In included chalice, favia, and acros. After two weeks the corals all still look great and are starting to grow.
The email communication and shipping were great. Everything arrived very well packaged. I thought I got a lot of coral for the money.
I received several free corals. The free favia is one of my favorites.
Most of the frags were larger than I thought. A couple were a little smaller, but in no way misrepresented on their site.
They take the photos under heavy blues. The colors match almost exactly when my blues are running in the evening (radion with AB+ program)

The only down side were the pests. I cut all corals off the frag plugs, inspect, and do a bayern dip.
The frag plugs had different algae, one in particular had a lot of bubble algae.
Inspection found: vermitied snails, other tube snails, small crustaceans, bristle worm. There was an unknown blob of something alive. After they were remounted and in the tank two had aptaisia.

I would buy from them again, but be warned about the potential pests.

 

[RVA REEF]

if you buy from most of the larger vendors that have high turnover and bring in lots of fresh imports, you will get these things, no way around it, if you look in their systems they have fish and inverts that help keep them in check. The pests will thrive in your system if not managed, its up to you if you want to quarantine for the algae and pests. Their are some vendors who say they quarantine, yet they have rabbitfish, butterflys, tons of snails etc in their coral tanks that are eating the algae and pests, it doesnt mean they dont have them and that they wont appear in your tank a few months later.

 

[spiraling]

if you buy from most of the larger vendors that have high turnover and bring in lots of fresh imports, you will get these things, no way around it, if you look in their systems they have fish and inverts that help keep them in check. The pests will thrive in your system if not managed, its up to you if you want to quarantine for the algae and pests. Their are some vendors who say they quarantine, yet they have rabbitfish, butterflys, tons of snails etc in their coral tanks that are eating the algae and pests, it doesnt mean they dont have them and that they wont appear in your tank a few months later.

I agree. I have also bought from smaller vendors where I got no pests (that I know of).
I didn't see the pests listed on any of the other reviews, so I wanted to point it out to anyone thinking of buying from there. I use the same inspection / dip as I use with corals from my LFS. They are no better or worse.

 

[Coralsdaily]

I had a positive review for AquaSD recently, but I too have noticed a couple of flatworms (not the coral eating kind) popped up recently after their order. Not necessarily saying it is from them but now that you mentioned it, makes me wonder.....