Old Orchard Aquarium

[jdhanover]

Happened to be that way today and stopped in. Prices are not high.....they are exorbitant. Must be a lot of uniformed buyers over there.

 

[jdhanover]

ooops - I mean un-informed (not uniformed! )

 

[PSam]

Old Orchard all right...

Old Orchard all right...

Only 1 guy there really has an attitude, but he has always helped if asked. They score some real nice coral from time to time. One of the employees fragged out something for me no charge (shhhhhh...). Not the best store I've ever been to, and I can understand why some think they have attitude, but overall, I'll continue to shop there. If you need help, just ask, don't stand with your thumb...

 

[mako199]

I wondered what happened to Sea Shell.... used to go there once in awhile to look.....but could not find them listed anymore thought they went out of business. ...name change that's why.

 

[mm949]

you can still find the old owner of sea shell...steve freed has a new store in deerfield....fish planet....

 

[imbuggin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6717360#post6717360 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mm949
you can still find the old owner of sea shell...steve freed has a new store in deerfield....fish planet....

that is not who owed sea shell. He owned another store that was deerfield commons

 

[johj26]

the guy at fish planet steve told me he used to own seashell also

 

[starpolyp]

yeah. he owned both of em at one point. the one in deerfield went out of business, then he sold seashell. now he has opened a new store apparently. i need to check it out. Steve knows whats up. not like the hacks that he sold seashell to.

 

[FISHMAN350]

i went to the super bowl sale and cleaned house.yah it was insane and not much help to be had but i picked up 200lbs of rock at 3.79 a lb.not to bad of a deal.by the way i am probably your newest member!just joined last week and looking forward to
meeting everyone.i finaly have time to enjoy my hobby the way it should be.old orchards prices leave something to be desired but they usually do have a good selection.i dont mind paying a bit more for things that are hard to find.sounds like you guys know the area shops well.i am just getting back in to the whole reef money pit thing and would apreciate a heads up on a couple of good shops.thanks

 

[jdhanover]

Where in Deerfield is Fish Planet?

 

[mm949]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6717648#post6717648 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by imbuggin
that is not who owed sea shell. He owned another store that was deerfield commons

Thats Rick Freed......aka "aquascapes"

 

[johj26]

its on waukegan road about a block north of deerfield rd

 

[garf]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6675900#post6675900 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tvrsir
i spent 150 bucks on saturday over there and that is the last time i will ever go back. the owner is not very customer oriented.

i bought a clownfish there and i wanted to choose a healthy one at least and he told me THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO PICK AND CHOOSE. i was like ***? well i went ahead and let him choose or grab one thinking if it dies i would probably get a replacement. well it dies 10 hours later didn't look good in the bag didn;t look good in the quarantine. when i went back he said there'e no guranteed on sale fish, just regualr price fish *** is the difference. so you saying you sell the sickest fish for suckers i guess i was one since the price was cheapo 10 bucks. freaking *******s i'm so ****ed. also 4 outts 6 peppermint shrim died on me same night. something is wrong there. quality control on the sale sucked on the livestock.

my tank has been running for 2 years and all my inhabitants are great corals and all. so it not my tank it the quality i bought.

i would never go back.

Stopped by at the sale, pulled number 19, they were currently on number 50. I left of course, was a mess in there. So ya, I wouldnt be suprised at the 'no cherry picking comment' from them, I would hate to have been working that floor.

I was in there on thursday before the sale, They had a ton of boxes marked 'Live Fish' stacked, and all the sale tanks covered with newspaper. They were obviously saving the boxes for customers for the sales, and the floor was a mess of water. I am sure they had just finished stocking the tanks, covered them a bit to help 'aclimate' (as well as hide the condition of some fish also).

Necessary when they do such volume of business, but I too am a bit concerned about quality control. I am sure they never quarantine, as my past fish purchases can attest. I have also stopped buying premixed water from them, as I began to question the quality. Now using boxed catalina water from petco in my 6g. Still go in to look and to buy DI water and basic supplies.

Attitude aside, they are helpful, high priced, and generally have a lot of selection, if that is what you are looking for.

 

[mzdragon]

ive been into old orchard recently and have noticed the additude you all speak about, but it is mainly from one guy. The half bald headed dude. As soon as you get in the door, walk over to the tanks and you'll practicly get attacted by him. Asking you if you want to buy a tank it's crazy can't a person dream with out being attacted or pushed into looking at a tank. The fish prices are ok but you get good quality. I hear they are picky on what they get and that is what you are paying for. They don't quarentene there fish but do the drip method on aclimating, Iive seen them do it. They don't rush it like that living other place. And as for that many fish dieing at once that usually a sign somthing is wrong with your tank. it's not ALWAYS the sellers fault. it's not good to buy alot of fish at once. I have learned that the hard way once.

 

[tvrsir]

i bought one fish read my post. it died asap. i have other fish in my tank that doing quite well.

well i reccomend coral paradise in arlington heights he quarantine his fish and the store is immaculate. fish prices are awesome.

 

[tkudlik]

I agree about Fish Planet. Place is a ******* rip off. Blasto Wellsi "brown" colony for $160.00. Get this, I had to ask where the blastos were becuase they looked so s****! Couldn't believe this guys trying to sell crap like this for such a high price. Not much to look at really in this place to buy. Typical NW burb shop that just caters to big money clientelle to rip them off. Peace!

 

[jkim1]

Scam! Sells tap water as ro/di! Don't go here!

Scam! Sells tap water as ro/di! Don't go here!

This place sucks! Absolutely do not buy any ro/di water from them! If you don't mind .135ppm of dissolved substance and a strong stench of chlorine, and stressed out invertabrats and fish, then go here.

The staff are absolutely rude, obnoxious, and they don't have much knowledge. Prices are way over priced and you can get stuff a lot cheaper online. They also have the toughest return policies. Buy anything even if it is unused no money back or even store credit.

 

[jkim1]

Old orchard scam

Old orchard scam

it's a nice store to go and visit but just make sure you ignore the employees and and don't look at the prices. Last time i was there i stopped by after visiting the shedd aquarium and i was talking to the half bald guy with the side burns about the shedd. He said that he's not impressed with the shedd and that the shedd aquarium came to their store asking them how to set up filtration. That is how great they think they are.

they think the shed don't know what they are doing? Old orchard cannot even provide ro/di water as it tested out .135ppm of dissolved substance. I would never buy anything from old orchard. They definitely running a scam by selling tap water for ro/di and they definitely have an attitude along with toughest return policies. Not to mention nobody there really has any real knowledge of anything.

 

[DopeCantWin]

This place sucks! Absolutely do not buy any ro/di water from them! If you don't mind .135ppm of dissolved substance and a strong stench of chlorine, and stressed out invertabrats and fish, then go here.

The staff are absolutely rude, obnoxious, and they don't have much knowledge. Prices are way over priced and you can get stuff a lot cheaper online. They also have the toughest return policies. Buy anything even if it is unused no money back or even store credit.

While I agree they're overpriced, still a little cheaper than Old Orchard. Most of the fish didn't seem terribly stressed out to me. Not much more than most stores anyway. I've walked out of there with some terrible deals and some okay ones. They probably can't do much about the prices either, it's Deerfield, rent is probably through the roof. On the advice front I'd say it's bad.

 

[adam87]

Old orchard is in Skokie. But I don't go their any more too. Prices are to high and like other posts on here, the workers do have an attitude. They are just not nice to you.