Bad experience with Top Shelf Aquatics

[rhino777]

I want to start by saying that I'm not trying to post a hit piece about Top Shelf or am I saying that no one ever needs to buy their corals again.......I'm just frustrated.
So i went online a couple of months ago and I was looking for some palys. I saw the lemon twist palys from Top Shelf and thought those would look amazing in my tank and it was just what I was looking for. So I bought them and some others that my kids picked out. They came in and when I put the frags in my tank, I was highly disappointed. They didn't look anything like what I bought online and thought that maybe they just needed to get adjusted to my tank but sadly I was wrong. I know that the coral stores are gonna post the best looking pictures to represent their products but these were wysiwyg and were way far off from what I received. So I went on their website to leave a review of their lemon twist palys because those were the ones that I was most disappointed with. I don't hardly ever leave bad reviews unless it's actually worth my time and I just wanted others to be aware before they decided to purchase them too. So I left the review and before they posted it they sent me back an email asking for pictures to see what they looked like. I sent them the picture and they sent back with, they were right on par with what they advertised and thanked me for the review. I just blew it off and said oh well. I went to check to see if they posted my review and they never did. This is what i didn't like the most about the entire debacle. Sorry for such a long post but has anyone else ever experienced this or is it just me? My pictures are very close to what the corals in my tank actually look like in real life and they're up against what they advertise. The Golden Gods look the closest to what was advertised and I'm actually fine with those. The rest are very far from what is advertised.

 

[Tonycass12]

I mean its not hard to tell from the TSA photos that they are just getting blasted with blues and nearly no white light.... or is that just me.

 

[NanoSteam]

After buying corals from multiple online retailers you quickly realize just how much Photoshop happens on these photos. I've only dealt with maybe two that were very honest and true to life.

 

[rhino777]

I mean its not hard to tell from the TSA photos that they are just getting blasted with blues and nearly no white light.... or is that just me.

Yes they are but I actually did the same thing with my blue lights and they still didnt look anything like them. It's just been the worst that I've seen so far when buying from an online store.

 

[rhino777]

After buying corals from multiple online retailers you quickly realize just how much Photoshop happens on these photos. I've only dealt with maybe two that were very honest and true to life.

It's a shame. I know they have to make money to pay their bills but it needs to be more honest than what it is. What stores have you bought from that are good? Are they online?

 

[matt0]

Top shelf blows, they sent me a completely rotten monti cap and a bunch of of dead snails. Not even worth complaining imo I’ll just never shop with them again.

 

[rhino777]

Top shelf blows, they sent me a completely rotten monti cap and a bunch of of dead snails. Not even worth complaining imo I’ll just never shop with them again.

I'm definitely not buying anything else from them. They're the most expensive site out there. Tidal Gardens is a site that's very reputable imo. You should look into them if you haven't already

 

[matt0]

Top shelf blows, they sent me a completely rotten monti cap and a bunch of of dead snails. Not even worth complaining imo I’ll just never shop with them again.

I'm definitely not buying anything else from them. They're the most expensive site out there. Tidal Gardens is a site that's very reputable imo. You should look into them if you haven't already

I will definitely consider them! They have some great YouTube videos.

 

[rhino777]

Update: I just received an AI generated email from Top Shelf wanting me to review them. I just sent them a link to this thread. Hopefully they actually read this. If they allow me to post my honest review on their website, then I'm willing to update this thread and give them full credit for them making things right.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Hey, first off we appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. We’re not here to dismiss your frustration. And sorry for the late reply we don't check this forum as often as we should.


That said, there are a couple important things worth clarifying so expectations are set correctly for anyone reading this.


The photos on our site are taken with professional camera equipment under controlled lighting, primarily heavy actinic spectrum. That lighting is designed to bring out fluorescence in corals, which is standard across the industry. The photos are not enhanced or edited to change their coloration, but they are captured in ideal conditions with ideal hardware/software in a way to bring out their natural coloration.


Comparing those images to a phone photo taken through aquarium glass, from a distance, under different lighting conditions will almost always look different. Glass, water depth, camera sensors, and especially lighting spectrum all significantly impact how corals appear.


Regarding reviews, we do not hide reviews. Our system displays reviews in specific areas of the site rather than across every product page. We also sometimes try to make the situation right before publishing reviews. But we use Reviews.io which has strict policies on hiding reviews and not publishing them.

Honestly looking at your photos the corals look just like the pictures, you just need to turn down the white light a bit and get in the tank with a mirrorless/dslr camera and you would get the same exact pictures.

 

[rhino777]

Honestly, i wish you hadn't even responded to this thread cuz that was such a garbage answer.
First,
You should probably get a different way for people to review your products if it's not going to show up for the product that theu reviewed.
Second,
I didn't take the pictures far away, unless you consider 8 inches far away. I turned my lights to where they would best represent what they look like in real life. It didn't get it exactly but pretty close. Cameras on phones now days are very good and i dont think that I need a $1k camera to capture what a coral looks like. The consumer isn't wanting to buy a coral because of how a camera is making it look, we want to buy a coral for how we're actually going to see it and that's through aquarium glass, under real lights, being 8 inches away from them. If that's the industry standard then the industry needs to change. Show me what it's really going to look like when i put it in my tank under real life conditions.
Lastly,
I'll take some more pictures of them blasted with blue lights and show you that they still won't look like your pictures on your website. The lemon twist palys look more like baby poop twist with no blue around the edges at all.
Start taking pictures like Tidal Gardens does with the actinic and then the real light filter. It would make people like me, and there's a lot of us, feel more like you're being honest and not trying to rip us off.

 

[rhino777]

Here's a new picture with the white light turned way down. Still doesn't look like whats on TSA website.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

I hear you, and I appreciate you taking the time to explain your experience in more detail. You’re right about one thing. Most hobbyists are viewing corals exactly how you described, through glass, under their own lighting, and at close range.


Where the disconnect happens is lighting and capture. Our photos are taken under actinic-heavy spectrum because that’s the standard most collectors and vendors use to show fluorescence and detail clearly. But that doesn’t always translate 1:1 to how a coral will look in every home setup, even when you’re close to it and using a good phone camera. That said, your feedback on showing both spectrums is valid. But most hobbyist do run heavy actinic lights, at least part of the day.


We’re not trying to mislead anyone or create unrealistic expectations. Our goal is to show the coral as clearly and consistently as possible under our systems, but we understand that clarity doesn’t always equal relatability for every setup.

Regarding reviews, we don’t suppress them, but we do apply thresholds before displaying them on individual products. For niche or low sale volume items, a single review isn’t always representative enough to provide meaningful guidance.

 

[rhino777]

I don't think that we're going to agree on this subject but I'll leave it with this.
Thank you for at least replying to me and having a discussion about it. I honestly thought that y'all would never reply to me to discuss anything, so thank you for at least doing that.
There's a lot of us out there that get very disappointed when we buy a frag and then when it comes in and we put it in our tank, it looks nothing like what was advertised. Please consider at least providing a more realistic shot of the frag alongside the other ones.