Looks like HYDROS did it again!

[JeffB418]

Why would anybody pay $330 for a single peristaltic pump when Neptune gives you TWO of them for only $20 more.

Not necessarily comparing apples to apples here. The SOLE is a continuous duty rated pump up to 300ML/MIN. The DOS QD is only continuous duty up to 25ML/MIN. That's one reason for the difference. Plus the DOS requires another device to use it, the SOLE can be used standalone.

 

[chapter7]

It does feel a little like they’re trending that way, and I haven’t even set up my system yet! And all the extra cables I bought adds up. But I do hope they can find a middle ground on pricing cause I think they have great products and I sincerely hope they succeed, not because I’m heavily invested, but because we need more options than Neptune and GHL.

 

[chapter7]

By the way, with a little savvy online searching, you can still find stuff at their previous pricing (WITH additional discount codes and free shipping.) I won’t mention any site names … Connor might be reading this!

 

[Connor At CoralVue]

Their stuff is way overpriced for what it is now. They raised their prices again. An XP8 is now 20% more than what it wa 6 months ago, along with everything else in their lineup. Why would anybody pay $330 for a single peristaltic pump when Neptune gives you TWO of them for only $20 more. If you wanted a hydros AWC system you’d have to pay 88% premium compared to what Neptune already has had for several years. Absolutely crazy.

They can’t even fix their 3D printed slop hydros IV to work properly, which only tests one parameter, but now want to release the maven that tests five??

Biggest slap to the face is boasting on social media about a 10% discount on refurbished controllers with only a 90 day warranty. Who in the right mind would pay that for used equipment? How out of touch is their management team?

CV release the icecap fp pumps and promises to release connectors for the wave engine. How does it take almost a whole year to release a cable to make their FP pumps work on the wave engine.

They’ve become the very thing they claimed to combat. They’re even worse now.

Happy to go over this one by one! At the end of the day, we want you to feel the warm and fuzzies from a company such as us at CoralVue, this is an already niche hobby and now super niche automation systems. We want to do right by everyone, and that is incredibly hard to do so while fighting a strong fight, supporting your favorite local fish stores, not selling as a retail, rather, small discounts on overstock, refurbished items, again, wanting to incentivize you purchasing local and/or from a family owned online retailer.

We know it's tough, but reach out to us as fellow hobbyists working to provide you with products, coming from the USA, manufactured in Slidell, Louisiana, with love, from a family business. This all started from David making metal halide reflectors in the garage, and we've grown all this organically. We LOVE our customers, so we do our best to protect y'all.

Even this for example, you are getting HONEST answers direct from the source. Please tell me what other companies, in what industries, are willing to be so personal...this conversation, any reply after, opens us up for even more questions, so I will do my best to be precise in 1 reply.

@goosemans Thank you for being vocal, competition drives us. I do, however, hope you know you can reach out to me or support for any clarification on HYDROS.

1) SOLE Continuous dosing vs 2-headed other dosers. SOLE is a HIGH-FLOW continuous doser...it can flow up to 300mls/min continuously, compared to 25ml/min for the mentioned doser.

2) You don't have to use SOLE for AWC. In fact, we don't recommend performing VOLUMETRIC water changes. We use Sensors and Time. You CAN use a SOLE...and spend the extra $$$, however, the system is setup to use ANY pump you wish, perhaps a $10 AC pump, maybe a drive port pump. You are simply telling HYDROS where is the DRAIN, FILL, HIGH Sensor, LOW Sensor, Leak Detector, and ATO Pump.

Feel free to spend the $ on two SOLE dosers, but no one said you had to, that is what other automation systems have you trained to do.

Also, they are standalone dosers, so that is a plus to a lot of people.

3) The iV is just a stirrer...nothing to fix on the iV. Water goes in, the iV stirres it, and it exits. The iV is simply just an "isolation vessel." A convenient place to hold a pH probe, an optional Salinity Probe, and the dosing lines. This is the same testing method, acid based alkalinity titration, that has been tried and true in many Alk testing machines. It does sound like you could use a bit of assistance getting everything setup, have you ever reached out to support. There we would make sure your dosing pumps are calibrated, no air in the lines, pH reading accuratetely, and reagent mixed proper if DIY. (It ships with ready2test) Further, we have checks that we can do to see what is going on.

4) Its not just an adaptor, gosh I wish it was just that. This is the side of the business people do not get to see, therefore appreciate. The FP pump is a new addition to the IceCap line, however, a simple connector is not the only thing needed, a total pump profile will need to be built. This is not just another item in a dropdown list on HYDROS, the pump is needed to be tested, how much power to apply to it, how many RPMS is it spinning at, as HYDROS Reports that, what is the min amount of power we can apply to slow it down, what about the max? How does that act when the power is applied like that for a year? .....I wish we could just make a cable and make everyone happy.

 

[cba191]

By the way, with a little savvy online searching, you can still find stuff at their previous pricing (WITH additional discount codes and free shipping.) I won’t mention any site names … Connor might be reading this!

On Saturday, my LFS had the X4 starter pack for $450, so I had to grab it.

 

[rtparty]

So your thinking a company should just loose money instead of raising prices to keep the same level of income?

They should tighten down their money if it’s loose

 

[John Neuzil]

Their stuff is way overpriced for what it is now. They raised their prices again. An XP8 is now 20% more than what it wa 6 months ago, along with everything else in their lineup. Why would anybody pay $330 for a single peristaltic pump when Neptune gives you TWO of them for only $20 more. If you wanted a hydros AWC system you’d have to pay 88% premium compared to what Neptune already has had for several years. Absolutely crazy.

They can’t even fix their 3D printed slop hydros IV to work properly, which only tests one parameter, but now want to release the maven that tests five??

Biggest slap to the face is boasting on social media about a 10% discount on refurbished controllers with only a 90 day warranty. Who in the right mind would pay that for used equipment? How out of touch is their management team?

CV release the icecap fp pumps and promises to release connectors for the wave engine. How does it take almost a whole year to release a cable to make their FP pumps work on the wave engine.

They’ve become the very thing they claimed to combat. They’re even worse now.

Here's a thought, don't buy their stuff.

 

[John Neuzil]

They should tighten down their money if it’s loose

Opps. Thanks.

 

[frydaddy]

I thought the XP8 was way over priced when it first came out, now it's a joke. I loved the hydros stuff when it first came out, but now it's kind of meh. At one point I was looking at anything new to be compatible with hydros, but now i've gone away from that thought and all i really use it for at this point is leak sensors and ato.

 

[rtparty]

Plus, I love supporting the underdog.

Honest question, what happens when a company is no longer the underdog? Do you switch away and pick someone new? Because if not, then you are no longer supporting the underdog

 

[chapter7]

Fair question @rtparty. I guess my answer would be so long as any company stays TRUE to their original mission, I will always support them, no matter how large or successful they become.

As a new reefer, I think Hydros is pretty cool. I feel their ethos is innovation and value. I debated long and hard Neptune or Hydros, watched countless Youtube videos and read dizzying threads, and ultimately, it came down to features first, value second, and ease of scaling third for me.

It's a sign of the times that prices have gone up, and I certainly didn't intend for this thread to devolve into Hydros bashing. Every company has the right to charge whatever they want .... AND every consumer has the right to buy or not to buy. Our wallets do the speaking ..... we don't have to bash good people or good companies in the process. I do hope that Hydros doesn't price out potential new customers though, cause the value proposition then shifts, if it hasn't already. And Connor, that dude ain't too bad either!

 

[BriDroid]

Shop around, I was able to find a stand alone XS from a reputable online vendor (that I've ordered from before) for the old price. I just needed more Sense ports! It should be here tomorrow!

 

[BriDroid]

I'm severely over budget on this build! But it's so fun!!

ME TOO!

 

[chapter7]

Shop around, I was able to find a stand alone XS from a reputable online vendor (that I've ordered from before) for the old price. I just needed more Sense ports! It should be here tomorrow!

Please don’t shut them down @Connor At CoralVue !

 

[reely989]

Their stuff is way overpriced for what it is now. They raised their prices again. An XP8 is now 20% more than what it wa 6 months ago, along with everything else in their lineup. Why would anybody pay $330 for a single peristaltic pump when Neptune gives you TWO of them for only $20 more. If you wanted a hydros AWC system you’d have to pay 88% premium compared to what Neptune already has had for several years. Absolutely crazy.

They can’t even fix their 3D printed slop hydros IV to work properly, which only tests one parameter, but now want to release the maven that tests five??

Biggest slap to the face is boasting on social media about a 10% discount on refurbished controllers with only a 90 day warranty. Who in the right mind would pay that for used equipment? How out of touch is their management team?

CV release the icecap fp pumps and promises to release connectors for the wave engine. How does it take almost a whole year to release a cable to make their FP pumps work on the wave engine.

They’ve become the very thing they claimed to combat. They’re even worse now.

The DOS is about the only thing I missed about apex. Then I just got a reefdose and it seems just as good.

 

[JeffB418]

Anyone else notice HYDROS prices are up 10%?

Good thing I got most of my stuff already, but I still need the WaveEngine and a bunch of cables! :(

Looks like Apex just raised some of their prices today as well. EB832 went up to $359 from $304. Reagents are up across the board as well atleast $10.

 

[chapter7]

Looks like Apex just raised some of their prices today as well. EB832 went up to $359 from $304. Reagents are up across the board as well atleast $10.

Guess that makes the XP8 cheaper again! . Don’t do it Hydros!

 

[Jamie814]

Looks like Apex just raised some of their prices today as well. EB832 went up to $359 from $304. Reagents are up across the board as well atleast $10.

Of course they did, this way they can run HUGE sales for Black Friday and still keep profits up. I do a lot of shipping; USPS plays the same game with "holiday" rate hikes starting Oct 5th then after the holidays they pretty much become the new permanent rate with the next "regular" rate increase.

 

[John Neuzil]

Of course they did, this way they can run HUGE sales for Black Friday and still keep profits up. I do a lot of shipping; USPS plays the same game with "holiday" rate hikes starting Oct 5th then after the holidays they pretty much become the new permanent rate with the next "regular" rate increase.

So is your expectation that a company like Coralvue should keep prices the same when their cost rise and loose money?

 

[Jamie814]

So is your expectation that a company like Coralvue should keep prices the same when their cost rise and loose money?

No that is not what I said, as I commented earlier in this thread, if the cost increase is due to tariffs or other material cost increases/labor I have no problem with companies increasing the consumer's price.

What I do not agree with is marking up product prices only to put them on sale. It's a tactic to trick consumers into thinking there getting a better deal. Sale pricing discontinued or items you can't move to get rid of them is different.

I run a business; we do not mark up prices only to sale price them later. We sell at our best price year-round.