steri
New member
OK, so I had read a lot about Reefwise recently (both good and not no good), so I had to go and check that palce out for myself.
I went there this past weekend. I was not harassed by anyone (as I read about). Both staff were very pleasant, not pushy at all, and willing to answer any questions I had when I had them. Personally, I thought the staff were really nice (especially the owner who I spoke with mostly).
Layout of the Store: Persoanlly I was very very very very very impressed. Tanks were very clean, I loved the bigger tanks for bigger fish, and mostly loved the QT system that they use! They are in the process of starting a new QT system that has bigger tanks for bigger fish (also impressive), but just the QT system in general is very impressive for a LFS. I spoke to the owner about this. I was told fish are QT'ed for about 30 days before being sold. He stated if someone wants to buy a fish that is in QT, they can put half down, and pay the rest when the fish is done being QT'ed. Money is returned if the fish does not make it. I have to say, I have NEVER seen a LFS go through this much to ensure a fish's health prior to selling. I really wanted to buy a Rock Beauty Angel that they had, but he had just gotten slightly injured, so he was put into the QT tank. The character of this store rang through to me in that moment. Most stores I have been in would have sold me that nipped fish. This place woould not do something like that. It left me very impressed. This store will be getting A LOT of attention from me in the future! I was also quite impressed with the variety of fish and the rarity of some of the species that they had. Just an impressive store from a fish lovers perspective.
Corals: It appears that the coral section is being redone. One of the large coral tanks was empty (evidently this was the old softy coral tank). The corals were impressive to me as well, although since I switched to an aggressive tank, I have not been into that as much I must admit. I will say, I asked some prices on some mushroom rocks and felt those prices were quite reasonable. A rock with easily 25-30 mushrooms on it was only $40.
Now, Tropiquatics. I used to love this place (been in there a number of times), but I went in there this weekend and must have said to myself at least 10 times while I was in there, "what happened to this place?" The store smelled. It appeared dirty. I saw 3 tanks that had dead fish in them with other fish eating the dead fish. A number of tanks had fish that just looked as far from healthy as I would ever want to see (thin, laying in the corner, fins having white on them, etc). There was only one tank that was impressive and it was their display tank with those oversized fish (angel, puffer, and lion). A vast majority of their fish that were for sale were just in bad shape. I will admit that their orange shoulder tangs looked really good, but with the rest of the lot looking as poor as it did, I was not risking spending my money there. I left there empty handed and very dissapointed. I used to really like this place. Have I missed something are has this become common here? I hope that this was just a one time thing, but wow, this visit was very disappointing.
I went there this past weekend. I was not harassed by anyone (as I read about). Both staff were very pleasant, not pushy at all, and willing to answer any questions I had when I had them. Personally, I thought the staff were really nice (especially the owner who I spoke with mostly).
Layout of the Store: Persoanlly I was very very very very very impressed. Tanks were very clean, I loved the bigger tanks for bigger fish, and mostly loved the QT system that they use! They are in the process of starting a new QT system that has bigger tanks for bigger fish (also impressive), but just the QT system in general is very impressive for a LFS. I spoke to the owner about this. I was told fish are QT'ed for about 30 days before being sold. He stated if someone wants to buy a fish that is in QT, they can put half down, and pay the rest when the fish is done being QT'ed. Money is returned if the fish does not make it. I have to say, I have NEVER seen a LFS go through this much to ensure a fish's health prior to selling. I really wanted to buy a Rock Beauty Angel that they had, but he had just gotten slightly injured, so he was put into the QT tank. The character of this store rang through to me in that moment. Most stores I have been in would have sold me that nipped fish. This place woould not do something like that. It left me very impressed. This store will be getting A LOT of attention from me in the future! I was also quite impressed with the variety of fish and the rarity of some of the species that they had. Just an impressive store from a fish lovers perspective.
Corals: It appears that the coral section is being redone. One of the large coral tanks was empty (evidently this was the old softy coral tank). The corals were impressive to me as well, although since I switched to an aggressive tank, I have not been into that as much I must admit. I will say, I asked some prices on some mushroom rocks and felt those prices were quite reasonable. A rock with easily 25-30 mushrooms on it was only $40.
Now, Tropiquatics. I used to love this place (been in there a number of times), but I went in there this weekend and must have said to myself at least 10 times while I was in there, "what happened to this place?" The store smelled. It appeared dirty. I saw 3 tanks that had dead fish in them with other fish eating the dead fish. A number of tanks had fish that just looked as far from healthy as I would ever want to see (thin, laying in the corner, fins having white on them, etc). There was only one tank that was impressive and it was their display tank with those oversized fish (angel, puffer, and lion). A vast majority of their fish that were for sale were just in bad shape. I will admit that their orange shoulder tangs looked really good, but with the rest of the lot looking as poor as it did, I was not risking spending my money there. I left there empty handed and very dissapointed. I used to really like this place. Have I missed something are has this become common here? I hope that this was just a one time thing, but wow, this visit was very disappointing.
