damsels are not mean
Valuable Member
Sometimes It helps to hear about some happy customers in this forum amid all the negativity.
Made my first online orders in like 5 years last week. Bought a gold coral banded shrimp, some snails, and 2 zoas from KPAquatics and 6 zoas and a hammer from riptide (they threw in a free acan as well!). TL;DR everything from both arrived today in good health, acclimated well, and all the corals were totally open by the end of the day. No pests at all. In fact nothing at all jumped ship in the coral dipping bucket. All this despite temperatures in the teens (fahrenheit) overnight!
More detailed thoughts:
KPAquatics order got here first at ~9am.
-Packaging was solid. Nothing leaked or damaged.
-Temp in the box was not bad. I measured 68 for the shrimp.
-They left a note saying the shrimp lost a claw and that it would regrow next molt. This is true and since these guys molt pretty often it's no big deal.
-They keep their tanks at a nice ~1.025 which was nice because shrimp acclimation was not so stressful as it can be from some vendors who run 1.020 or lower...
-No pests at all on the zoas after a strong iodine bath and turkey baster assault. No visible tissue damage or recession. They really don't stiff you on the polyp counts either. I got 2 with 18 polyps each which was way more than the minimum for the size I purchased.
-Shrimp handled acclimation like a champ. Went in and got straight to snacking on bristleworms and dancing like a cleaner shrimp. It has since found a nice cave to hide in during the day but didn't seem stressed at all.
-Snails were all active by the end of the day except a few ceriths(they are usually dormant at first anyways).
-A couple tiny barnacles came on one of the snail shells, and a completely new pink-orange fluorescent coralline algae came in as well. Always nice to get more coralline algae diversity.
Riptide order came a few hours later ~11am.
-First I want to applaud the price on the hammer. A healthy 2 headed splatter hammer for $60 in 2021? What a deal. Hardly any euphyllias in stock these days and those that are cost bank.
-The freebies in the "buy one get one free" promotion weren't crappy pieces either. The one I picked is a mix of 2 zoa colonies.
-The fedex guy handed me the package sideways, but again the packaging was good here too so no big deal.
-Temp was a little lower, in the low 60s. If I knew about the weather forecast I might not have ordered when I did but it seems fine. Corals are pretty resilient to this IME.
-These corals went to an iodine bath as well. No pests again except a bit of hair algae on one of the zoas. Nothing that isn't already in everyone's tanks. Good thing I got snails today too!
-All tissue was healthy on the zoas and the hammer. No infections and clearly they let their frags heal before shipping them unlike a lot of vendors.
-Found out they threw in a free acan! Most vendors' freebies are usually dollar bin mushrooms and GSP, but it's nice to get something exciting like that. And it had 3 polyps, not just one.
-Acan was totally open and happy within an hour in the tank. You wouldn't even know it got delivered in the freezing cold that morning.
-Hammer was open by mid afternoon and not bad polyp extension either.
-Zoas slowly opened, one polyp at a time, but seemed good by EOD. Tomorrow I will update if any start melting but I saw no signs of that today.
Here's videos of the acan and hammer taken in the afternoon. Out of focus on the left of the acan is an orange zoa that opened up fully pretty early as well as a few polyps on a green one next to it. shooting sharp video through a bowfront tank is tough!
Overall, great service from both these vendors. I had an issue when I checked out the riptide order and the customer support got back to me instantly to fix the issue even on a busy cyber monday! I was especially worried about the shrimp as I've only ever bought corals online. Will probably order from both again in the future. Hope this helps people looking for vendors they can trust.
Made my first online orders in like 5 years last week. Bought a gold coral banded shrimp, some snails, and 2 zoas from KPAquatics and 6 zoas and a hammer from riptide (they threw in a free acan as well!). TL;DR everything from both arrived today in good health, acclimated well, and all the corals were totally open by the end of the day. No pests at all. In fact nothing at all jumped ship in the coral dipping bucket. All this despite temperatures in the teens (fahrenheit) overnight!
More detailed thoughts:
KPAquatics order got here first at ~9am.
-Packaging was solid. Nothing leaked or damaged.
-Temp in the box was not bad. I measured 68 for the shrimp.
-They left a note saying the shrimp lost a claw and that it would regrow next molt. This is true and since these guys molt pretty often it's no big deal.
-They keep their tanks at a nice ~1.025 which was nice because shrimp acclimation was not so stressful as it can be from some vendors who run 1.020 or lower...
-No pests at all on the zoas after a strong iodine bath and turkey baster assault. No visible tissue damage or recession. They really don't stiff you on the polyp counts either. I got 2 with 18 polyps each which was way more than the minimum for the size I purchased.
-Shrimp handled acclimation like a champ. Went in and got straight to snacking on bristleworms and dancing like a cleaner shrimp. It has since found a nice cave to hide in during the day but didn't seem stressed at all.
-Snails were all active by the end of the day except a few ceriths(they are usually dormant at first anyways).
-A couple tiny barnacles came on one of the snail shells, and a completely new pink-orange fluorescent coralline algae came in as well. Always nice to get more coralline algae diversity.
Riptide order came a few hours later ~11am.
-First I want to applaud the price on the hammer. A healthy 2 headed splatter hammer for $60 in 2021? What a deal. Hardly any euphyllias in stock these days and those that are cost bank.
-The freebies in the "buy one get one free" promotion weren't crappy pieces either. The one I picked is a mix of 2 zoa colonies.
-The fedex guy handed me the package sideways, but again the packaging was good here too so no big deal.
-Temp was a little lower, in the low 60s. If I knew about the weather forecast I might not have ordered when I did but it seems fine. Corals are pretty resilient to this IME.
-These corals went to an iodine bath as well. No pests again except a bit of hair algae on one of the zoas. Nothing that isn't already in everyone's tanks. Good thing I got snails today too!
-All tissue was healthy on the zoas and the hammer. No infections and clearly they let their frags heal before shipping them unlike a lot of vendors.
-Found out they threw in a free acan! Most vendors' freebies are usually dollar bin mushrooms and GSP, but it's nice to get something exciting like that. And it had 3 polyps, not just one.
-Acan was totally open and happy within an hour in the tank. You wouldn't even know it got delivered in the freezing cold that morning.
-Hammer was open by mid afternoon and not bad polyp extension either.
-Zoas slowly opened, one polyp at a time, but seemed good by EOD. Tomorrow I will update if any start melting but I saw no signs of that today.
Here's videos of the acan and hammer taken in the afternoon. Out of focus on the left of the acan is an orange zoa that opened up fully pretty early as well as a few polyps on a green one next to it. shooting sharp video through a bowfront tank is tough!
Overall, great service from both these vendors. I had an issue when I checked out the riptide order and the customer support got back to me instantly to fix the issue even on a busy cyber monday! I was especially worried about the shrimp as I've only ever bought corals online. Will probably order from both again in the future. Hope this helps people looking for vendors they can trust.
