I just wanted to share my experience with Tampa Bay Saltwater. These guys are absolutely outstanding and have the best customer service ever.
A little background, I am a firefighter in Columbus, Ohio and have kept african cichlids for years off an on. Well last month I decided to try a reef tank for the first time ever. I went with a 75 gallon glass tank.
I initially set up the tank with a local shop supplying my sand and the first half of my live rock, before discovering Tampa Bay Saltwater.
Anyways, while doing some research on "live rock" to find out what in the world it was I fortuantely located TBS at the top of the Google search and learned so much. right off the bat what I learned from the euipment list probably saved me a ton of money and frustration.
So after many emails and tons of questions which Richard very patiently answered and always responded in lesss than a couple of hours. And after assuring me we could work around my fire dept schedule I ordered the "Package". I placed the order while on duty Sunday morning and to my great surprise I received an email indicating it would be shipping Monday morning and just a few hours later I was at Port Columbus picking up my packages.
First, unbelievable, I had no idea it would be that fast, and everything was packed very well, all arriving safe and sound. I was like one of my kids on Christmas morning, I couldn't wait to get home, and still not having an idea of the surprises ahead.
The first box I opened was my critters and WOW were they amazing. Not only that but there were a few awesome surprises in there as well. All brittle stars, shrimp, snails were all incredible. I was even more surprised to find a few beautiful sponges, amazing colors. The decorator crab & porcelin crab are so cool looking along with another little creature that kind of resembled an armor plated version of a "sand digger". Not sure what it is.
Now as the bags are all floating I opened the live rock and WOW was I completely amazed. It was absolutely covered with vegatation, sponges, coral. I even found a few snails, hermits and a peppermint shrimp hitching a ride. I couldn't beleive how much different it looked than my first batch of live rock from a local shop. It was truly unbelievable.
Ok, now that everything has been up and running for nearly 24 hours I could really start examining everything. First please excuse my terminology as being so new I still have no idea what a lot of the stuff I'm seeing is. But so far I have a a couple of Christmas tree worms, a large beautiful light blue sponge, another harder looking, light blue prickly looking sponge, some other tube worms, Caulerpa Mexicana, a beautiful Anemone: Condylactis blue, coral cups?, coral tubes, Barnacles, Keyhole Limpet, red sponge, orange sponge, yellow ball sponge, Tunicate I think and a lot of other beautiful things that I have no idea yet.
All I can say is I was blown away by all of this. To anybody considering ordering from Tampa Bay Saltwater, these guys are top notch and I can not recommend them enough. Seriously their customer service and quality is unmatched IMHO. I will definitely continue to order from them in the future and recommend them to anyone. I wll try to post a few pictures once I figure out how. Please let me know if you have any questions. Bottom line these guys are awesome. Thank-you very much.
Joe
A little background, I am a firefighter in Columbus, Ohio and have kept african cichlids for years off an on. Well last month I decided to try a reef tank for the first time ever. I went with a 75 gallon glass tank.
I initially set up the tank with a local shop supplying my sand and the first half of my live rock, before discovering Tampa Bay Saltwater.
Anyways, while doing some research on "live rock" to find out what in the world it was I fortuantely located TBS at the top of the Google search and learned so much. right off the bat what I learned from the euipment list probably saved me a ton of money and frustration.
So after many emails and tons of questions which Richard very patiently answered and always responded in lesss than a couple of hours. And after assuring me we could work around my fire dept schedule I ordered the "Package". I placed the order while on duty Sunday morning and to my great surprise I received an email indicating it would be shipping Monday morning and just a few hours later I was at Port Columbus picking up my packages.
First, unbelievable, I had no idea it would be that fast, and everything was packed very well, all arriving safe and sound. I was like one of my kids on Christmas morning, I couldn't wait to get home, and still not having an idea of the surprises ahead.
The first box I opened was my critters and WOW were they amazing. Not only that but there were a few awesome surprises in there as well. All brittle stars, shrimp, snails were all incredible. I was even more surprised to find a few beautiful sponges, amazing colors. The decorator crab & porcelin crab are so cool looking along with another little creature that kind of resembled an armor plated version of a "sand digger". Not sure what it is.
Now as the bags are all floating I opened the live rock and WOW was I completely amazed. It was absolutely covered with vegatation, sponges, coral. I even found a few snails, hermits and a peppermint shrimp hitching a ride. I couldn't beleive how much different it looked than my first batch of live rock from a local shop. It was truly unbelievable.
Ok, now that everything has been up and running for nearly 24 hours I could really start examining everything. First please excuse my terminology as being so new I still have no idea what a lot of the stuff I'm seeing is. But so far I have a a couple of Christmas tree worms, a large beautiful light blue sponge, another harder looking, light blue prickly looking sponge, some other tube worms, Caulerpa Mexicana, a beautiful Anemone: Condylactis blue, coral cups?, coral tubes, Barnacles, Keyhole Limpet, red sponge, orange sponge, yellow ball sponge, Tunicate I think and a lot of other beautiful things that I have no idea yet.
All I can say is I was blown away by all of this. To anybody considering ordering from Tampa Bay Saltwater, these guys are top notch and I can not recommend them enough. Seriously their customer service and quality is unmatched IMHO. I will definitely continue to order from them in the future and recommend them to anyone. I wll try to post a few pictures once I figure out how. Please let me know if you have any questions. Bottom line these guys are awesome. Thank-you very much.
Joe
