Kavo11's Red Sea Reefer 250 - My FIRST tank ever!

[Kavo11]

Has anyone else noticed a downturn recently with @Bulk Reef Supply? I've been hearing numerous negative customer experiences over the past month or two in various groups and didn't believe it until now. I ordered a nori clip and some Hanna dKH reagent last Monday from them. I opted to pay extra for shipping instead of the free option as my order was over $20 to ensure it arrived by last Thursday via UPS. Needless to say, no order came. I checked tracking on Friday and it still showed as "order processed: ready for UPS". So I reached out to BRS customer service via email that morning as the live chat was unavailable. After getting no response through this morning, I decided to go back on and live chat with Chad. He "generously" said he'd get out a new order for me today without so much as an apology for BRS dropping the ball. He said it might still arrive but he'd send a new one. I highly doubt that as UPS was at my house with other items both Thursday and Friday as well as the tracking still showing "ready for UPS". I had to proactively suggest some good customer service offerings: either refund the shipping fee I optionally paid as I could've taken the free shipping route and/or give me BRS credit for my order amount as a sign of customer goodwill to keep me coming back in the future. Ideally both to keep me a well-satisfied customer. He agreed to refund my shipping fee, something he should've done without my asking and what's honestly the bare minimum expectation when your company drops the ball. After the thousands of dollars I've spent at BRS and plan to spend in the future, I'd expect a bit more from them than what I got today. Between others' negative experiences recently, my own experience now as well as their recent elimination of free shipping under $20 (not like I use that often but still nice to have when you just need something small), I'm starting to think I may have to look elsewhere for my reefing purchases. I'd hate to do so as BRS has always treated me well in the past, but this is not the kind of service I've grown accustomed to with them. In this day and age with customer service being the prime differentiator due to such close price competition, that's really where you have to shine to stay on top of the competition. Anything to say in your defense @Bulk Reef Supply? I feel pretty let down.

Sincerely,
A disappointed customer : (

 

[Kavo11]

On a more positive note, its been a month or so since my last update. Everything's been going great! If I recall correctly, the Vrolik's wrasse was my most recent fish I shared. Since that update, I've added a coral beauty angelfish, a randall's shrimp goby paired with a candy cane pistol shrimp and a yellow eye kole tang! All amazing additions displaying beautiful coloration, I couldn't be happier! Shoutout to my LFS for always providing me with the best specimens. I just wish my pistol shrimp and goby would find each other and take advantage of their symbiotic relationship. I haven't seen the tiny pistol shrimp since I added it as it went right into the rock work. Hopefully its still alive in there! I'm getting fairly close I think to being maxed out on livestock. The only additions I still plan to do 100% are a green mandarin or maybe even a pair of green mandarins. My pod population seems to be growing since I dosed the "5280 pods" from algae barn but I still need more. I'm hoping my go to lfs will successfully train a green mandarin pair to eat frozen food so I can take them home sooner than waiting more months for the pod population to be sufficient. Other than mandarins, I may add a long nose hawkfish and another wrasse. Not sure on the wrasse though as I don't want too many fish that eat pods to outcompete each other. Maybe a sand sifting goby although I'm on the fence with that as well since I don't want to blow sand off my coral on a daily basis, the vrolik's wrasse already does that enough when it burrows in the sand lol. The chaeto in my fuge has been growing quite well, I'll likely be harvesting some out this week as the tank is pretty much jam packed with it.

What else....I don't believe I shared with you yet that I added a beautiful RBTA within the past month. I guess I placed it in a great spot as it only moved an inch maybe before rooting its foot in the pukani right at the front of my tank! It has a great crevice its housed it. Perfect location! If only I could get my clowns to be hosted by it! Time will tell. I also added a pretty torch coral to give the tank some more movement. Very very pleased with everything. The coralline algae is gorgeous, its growing everywhere, even in the fuge. I may have to scrub that down in the near future as I don't want it getting out of hand in there. I was having some algae growth on the fuge walls but some trochus snails quickly got that in check. I think that's about all for now folks. I'll see if I can get some pics up today as I know that's what you really want!

 

[shred5]

Has anyone else noticed a downturn recently with @Bulk Reef Supply? I've been hearing numerous negative customer experiences over the past month or two in various groups and didn't believe it until now. I ordered a nori clip and some Hanna dKH reagent last Monday from them. I opted to pay extra for shipping instead of the free option as my order was over $20 to ensure it arrived by last Thursday via UPS. Needless to say, no order came. I checked tracking on Friday and it still showed as "order processed: ready for UPS". So I reached out to BRS customer service via email that morning as the live chat was unavailable. After getting no response through this morning, I decided to go back on and live chat with Chad. He "generously" said he'd get out a new order for me today without so much as an apology for BRS dropping the ball. He said it might still arrive but he'd send a new one. I highly doubt that as UPS was at my house with other items both Thursday and Friday as well as the tracking still showing "ready for UPS". I had to proactively suggest some good customer service offerings: either refund the shipping fee I optionally paid as I could've taken the free shipping route and/or give me BRS credit for my order amount as a sign of customer goodwill to keep me coming back in the future. Ideally both to keep me a well-satisfied customer. He agreed to refund my shipping fee, something he should've done without my asking and what's honestly the bare minimum expectation when your company drops the ball. After the thousands of dollars I've spent at BRS and plan to spend in the future, I'd expect a bit more from them than what I got today. Between others' negative experiences recently, my own experience now as well as their recent elimination of free shipping under $20 (not like I use that often but still nice to have when you just need something small), I'm starting to think I may have to look elsewhere for my reefing purchases. I'd hate to do so as BRS has always treated me well in the past, but this is not the kind of service I've grown accustomed to with them. In this day and age with customer service being the prime differentiator due to such close price competition, that's really where you have to shine to stay on top of the competition. Anything to say in your defense @Bulk Reef Supply? I feel pretty let down.

Sincerely,
A disappointed customer : (

I think it is growing pains.

 

[Kavo11]

I think it is growing pains.

All I know is it's extremely disappointing considering the amount of business I've given them. I just checked the replacement order, Chad at @Bulk Reef Supply sent the replacement order via UPS Ground. Wow man, salt in the wound. Can't even speed up shipping a bit to ease the customer's frustration a bit? At least match the $1.99 shipping option to get it to me by Thursday? Wish I knew how to tag Ryan at @Bulk Reef Supply , somehow I don't think he'd be cool with the way my situation has been handled.

 

[powers2001]

Sorry to hear about your recent negative experience with BRS. My biggest complaint with BRS is they are out of stock on a lot of items when I'm ready to order. So I go to Aquacave occasionally and now recently saltwateraquarium.com when BRS is out of stock. Those two other sites have a few items not found at BRS which is also really nice.

 

[powers2001]

I like your Top Lid. Can't decide whether to go with one of those or ClearView.

 

[Kavo11]

I like your Top Lid. Can't decide whether to go with one of those or ClearView.

I highly recommend Top Lids. Just be prepared for a bit of a wait although the end product is well worth it @powers2001

 

[powers2001]

Well whoever I go with for the lid there will be several cutouts and I'm planning, measuring, etc. right now. We haven't got a full tank shot from you @Kavo11 for quite some time, could we get a recent one?

 

[powers2001]

Update? it's been about 4 months.

 

[Kavo11]

Update? it's been about 4 months.

@powers2001 sorry for the much overdue update. No good excuse really, just didn't pay as much attention to the forums for awhile. Let's get back to it!

Well, last July/August, I had a disease outbreak in the tank which resulted in a loss of the majority of my fish. My Vrolik's Wrasse and Randall's Shrimp Goby were the only survivors. I chalk it up to simply overstocking the tank. I got away from conventional wisdom and added too many fish too soon. The Kole Tang and Coral Beauty were starting to fight and I believe that stressed the over occupied tank and resulted in ich manifesting. After going through the boring fallow period, I decided to fight future impulses to restock the tank back to 10 fish or so, deciding that I'd limit myself to 5 or 6 fish tops. I had to add another Foxface as their one of my favorite marine fish.

I waited until right before Christmas to add more livestock (likely the final addition to this tank save for perhaps a mandarin). Of course, I had to get myself a new pair of clowns as I believe them to be a staple in any reef tank. My lovely girlfriend decided to buy me the clown pair as my gift. I got super lucky and found the most gorgeous gold lightning maroon clown I've ever seen at House of Tropics in Glen Burnie, MD! Not to take anything away from the other lightning clown I got, but the soon-to-be-female clown is just something to behold with how unique its markings are. I was even more excited when the female decided to jump in my RBTA within an hour of introducing it to the tank! Mission accomplished! I know the maroons are known to be mean, but man is it worth it! (By the way, the female I got definitely lives up to their reputation! She attacks my hand as SOON as it goes in the tank!). Now I just need to wait for her to pair up with the shy male and live happily ever after together in the nem.

Not sure if I mentioned this in prior updates, but my pistol shrimp finally paired up with my Randall's Shrimp Goby as well! I'm a complete sucker for symbiotic relationships. I find myself staring at the reef everyday just watching them do their thing together. So neat to behold in person. Just like with my nem, I got super lucky with the pair deciding they want to live and build a cave right in the front of the tank where its easy to watch!

But Kavo11, we just wanna know about the coral! Yea, yea, yea, I hear you! Sooooo, I saw John at Blue Ribbon Koi (VA) was holding a BOGO 50% sale from the 26th-30th on all frags $50 and under so of course I had to take a drive! Well, many frags later I can say I'm REALLY getting happy with my tank. Since my last update, I've added the following coral: another green w/purple tip hammer, frogspawn, torch, acan, green goniopora, couple paly heads I forgot the name of, GSP to hopefully grow on the back wall overflow, duncan, cabbage, sunset monti. I wanted to add more movement to the tank so the majority of the new coral definitely help out with that.

Anyways, let me see if I can get some quality iPhone pics with the aquarium cam and get the posted up for everyone to see. Happy reefing!

 

[powers2001]

@Kavo11 so you're in Glen Burnie? Ever been to Vienna, VA? I lived there 5 years back in the 70's when I was a kid. They have very mild winters compared to where I'm now at in Montana !!!

 

[Kavo11]

@Kavo11 so you're in Glen Burnie? Ever been to Vienna, VA? I lived there 5 years back in the 70's when I was a kid. They have very mild winters compared to where I'm now at in Montana !!!

I’m about an hour south of Glen Burnie. Been to Vienna plenty of times throughout my life, small world. I’m super jelly you’re in Montana! My spirit animal must be a snow leopard or something because I absolutely love snow and the cold. I’m an avid snowboarder!

 

[powers2001]

I’m about an hour south of Glen Burnie. Been to Vienna plenty of times throughout my life, small world. I’m super jelly you’re in Montana! My spirit animal must be a snow leopard or something because I absolutely love snow and the cold. I’m an avid snowboarder!

I forgot I lived in Rockville, MD before Vienna for about a year although I was too young to remember it. My dad was stationed at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Small world indeed !!!