Online Coral Retailers

[LovinlifeinGuam]

I’ve been doing a little waste of money exercise where I try out new vendors and see what they send me. Two of the most recent (advertising on here) were completely unsatisfactory with their performance. This may be coincidental but in general ordering from an online shop is a gamble that is best made with long established suppliers.

But these people have employees and what they send you,…….

I recommend getting stuff in fairer weather and support your LFS if you want to know what you are going to get in the box.

Your recommendation is for people to actually SEE what they're buying first?!?! Crazy...

 

[josh57]

On SPS The most accurate on colors to what I have actually gotten has been @Vivid Aquariums Very vibrant and arrived colored up. They also have some great sales through the years. And frequently have some zoes priced well.

Tidal Gardens is solid. Colors in pictures are slightly more vibrant than they are in person. But not a completely different color or anything. Shipping is great. guarantee is great as well if there are any issues.

My best LPS has come from SeaCo Corals. Smaller company. But everything has been very good sized. Very accurate to pictures in color. And opened instantly once added to tank.

The most inaccurate was @AquaSD. I think they just pick random things that are close to what you ordered. All was WYSIWYG but one of the hammers was completely wrong color. And none of the SPS matched and even after getting used to the tank they are nowhere near the right color as ordered. They also will cancel items if it isn't ready to ship and don’t give you the opportunity to swap it for something else.

 

[Featherweight]

Check out SBB during a sale. Everything on website is marked down and we get a coupon code that can be stacked on the sale for an extra 35-45% off

Absolute best customer service policy from any vendor also

When is the next sale?

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

I really like AquaSD, unbelievably good deals during their flash sales and very good customer service in my experience. Shipping is only $30 too. Photos can definitely be exaggerated representations of frag sizes/colors, but I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by what I’ve received from them. They usually include a freebie too which is nice. For the affordability, I don’t think they can be beat

I'm glad you like them. My experience was terrible.
Gaping clam dead 24hrs. They did send a free aiptasia :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

EDIT they also failed to send a clam and they thought they were going to keep my $100 and make me buy something else. That didn't fly.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/really-aqua-sd.1064608/

The most inaccurate was @AquaSD. I think they just pick random things that are close to what you ordered. All was WYSIWYG but one of the hammers was completely wrong color. And none of the SPS matched and even after getting used to the tank they are nowhere near the right color as ordered. They also will cancel items if it isn't ready to ship and don’t give you the opportunity to swap it for something else.

Apparently AquaSD has no problems shipping the wrong coral and than only crediting 20% or so the value of what you actually paid for...pretty sketchy. In my opinion that's borderline fraudulent.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/is-this-wysiwyg.1102742/
They are getting hammered in every thread around here.

 

[josh57]

Apparently AquaSD has no problems shipping the wrong coral and than only crediting 20% or so the value of what you actually paid for...pretty sketchy. In my opinion that's borderline fraudulent.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/is-this-wysiwyg.1102742/
They are getting hammered in every thread around here.

Yup. I gave them a shot because I did see some decent reviews. Because of price and the pieces looked nice. Learned my lesson that all the bad reviews are the accurate ones.

 

[Anemoneguy]

I have had great success with WWC. Just received an order yesterday and it was packaged really well with heat packs. Also had good luck with tidal gardens.

 

[DanP-SD]

One underrated factor in choosing an online vendor for fish or corals is shipping distance. As more time passes, I’m more convinced it’s a big factor. When I order from distant sellers, even the most reputable, the livestock I receive is more distressed and my success rate is lower. So, if you find a reputable seller within a few hundred miles of you, that’s likely to be a better option.

 

[stE26wy14]

the r2r marketplace

 

[dylanb1234]

Make sure you carefully look at reviews on Google, the BBB, Yelp, etc. I learned the hard way from getting scammed by corals anonymous. Having to go through PayPal to hopefully get a refund. Also, I left a review on Facebook and they blocked me. Apparently anyone that leaves them negative feedback on social media is immediately blocked. lol

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

https://coralsanonymous.com/?gad_so...MI_avWk4XBiwMV4i3UAR1C0gDQEAAYASAAEgKIZPD_BwETHEYRE CHEAP

Apparently they are scammers

 

[bubba005]

Apparently AquaSD has no problems shipping the wrong coral and than only crediting 20% or so the value of what you actually paid for...pretty sketchy. In my opinion that's borderline fraudulent.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/is-this-wysiwyg.1102742/
They are getting hammered in every thread around here.

For the record, I completely recant this. My most recent order with them was somewhat of a disaster. Completely forgot to ship a St. Thomas mushroom, other mushrooms are completely incorrect, and the zoas I ordered seemed like a completely random assortment of relatively colorless specimens (several duplicates as well). To top it all off, one of the zoa frags had a zoa spider living right on top of a polyp. Now I'm stuck with credit for the St. Thomas shroom that I have to use in the next six months or lose my money completely. They refused to issue a refund for their mistake (which I am beginning to suspect was intentional in order to "force" me to order from them again). I was lucky with my first two orders from them, but it has become clear to me that they are not an honest vendor.

 

[VintageReefer]

For the record, I completely recant this. My most recent order with them was somewhat of a disaster. Completely forgot to ship a St. Thomas mushroom, other mushrooms are completely incorrect, and the zoas I ordered seemed like a completely random assortment of relatively colorless specimens (several duplicates as well). To top it all off, one of the zoa frags had a zoa spider living right on top of a polyp. Now I'm stuck with credit for the St. Thomas shroom that I have to use in the next six months or lose my money completely. They refused to issue a refund for their mistake (which I am beginning to suspect was intentional in order to "force" me to order from them again). I was lucky with my first two orders from them, but it has become clear to me that they are not an honest vendor.

They bait and switched me on several wysiwyg items. This was after trying to bully me into buying more. I got nowhere with them on the phone, I had to use vendor feedback to post my situation in order to get resolution. They did refund me for the corals minus shipping. Would have rather avoided the situation entirely - the corals I got werent even worth the shipping.

 

[AquaSD Verified Sponsor]

I really like AquaSD, unbelievably good deals during their flash sales and very good customer service in my experience. Shipping is only $30 too. Photos can definitely be exaggerated representations of frag sizes/colors, but I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by what I’ve received from them. They usually include a freebie too which is nice. For the affordability, I don’t think they can be beat

Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm glad we made at least one person on this thread happy! ;) We really look forward to serving you again in the future.

 

[josh57]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm glad we made at least one person on this thread happy! ;) We really look forward to serving you again in the future.

It would be easy to have more good reviews.
Don’t have anti consumer policies for your own mistakes and processes. Give the correct coral that matches the photos. And give actual full refunds when you screw up.

Doesn't matter if you have more customer service agents, if you do nothing to prevent the actual complaints from happening in the first place. Or for not giving fair refunds when people do have issues.

 

[Trent H]

https://www.reef-mart.com/

 

[42962420]

https://coralsanonymous.com/?gad_so...MI_avWk4XBiwMV4i3UAR1C0gDQEAAYASAAEgKIZPD_BwETHEYRE CHEAP

They are cheap! I ordered some macro the frags are small but you get what you pay for their mushrooms selection is nice too