Tropical Aquarium

TROPICAL AQUARIUM

TROPICAL AQUARIUM

I am a regular customer at TA. Hector has all kinds of stuff there, his selection is gettin better all the time. I get all my fish from him and have had no problems at all. He has special ordered hard to find fish for me. He dosent have any sps but I know he will be getting some soon. He even calls me wen theres new good stuff in so I can get first dibs! He has a good selection of LPS and leathers, shrooms... very good prices.:mixed:
 
Hi,

I have to agree with Willie. Every time I have visited his store(twice this year) he has had very little livestock and just a handful of corals. Everything looks healthy but just not much to pick from.

Dave
 
Re: TROPICAL AQUARIUM

Re: TROPICAL AQUARIUM

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11185220#post11185220 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jamylane
I am a regular customer at TA. Hector has all kinds of stuff there, his selection is gettin better all the time. I get all my fish from him and have had no problems at all. He has special ordered hard to find fish for me. He dosent have any sps but I know he will be getting some soon. He even calls me wen theres new good stuff in so I can get first dibs! He has a good selection of LPS and leathers, shrooms... very good prices.:mixed:

Not questioning quality. I have bought a lot from him as well. I am happy with the service as well. However, it seems like his tanks sit empty 75% of the week.
 
If you want to see more items in his store, you have to go in and support him, otherwise he cannot get new stock. He is very helpful, will order just about any kind of fish (or anything) that you want, then he will price match it and hold it for you until it is eating! How many LFS's do you know that will do that? Not many. He is very trustworthy and sometimes his stock is low, but there have been plenty of times that I walked in and was pleasantly surprised at how much he had, including fish and corals. He is still in the process of building business, and he can't do it without us. Whenever I get a new fish, I ask him to order it for me and wait (if he doesn't have it in stock). Then I go see it when it comes in and he holds it for me until it eats. We all talk about how LFS's are ceedy because they don't do these things, so here is a guy who will do that and then some. I think we really should support that kind of ethics with our support as much as we can. Give him a try, I have never been disapointed, help him be one of the few LFS's (VERY FEW) in our area that really does the things we all preach and believe in and eventually we will all have a real gem of a place to go and buy and even hang out. We should talk to him about getting a group together to go up there for a group buy or something. I repeat, VERY GOOD PRICES. Thanks.
 
IT is my understanding that he orders less frequently and people have learned to show up on shipping day. Plus he does a lot of special orders that get picked up quickly. So if you come in on an off day, you won't see much. It's really feast or famine.
 
Hector is a very good guy and I like the fact he wont sell his fish if they look sick or are not eating. He will also order you anything you want. He has gotten me everything I ask for. I agree his stock is low but he is struggling like evryone else out there. I think he would do better if we support him like we do Salty Critter.
 
Thinslis, I think you have a new calling....Open an east side shop.....I thought there was one...I forget what it's called, but it's closed on saturdays
 
Yeah Brian...RW has a point! I think you should talk to Hector and see about opening "Tropical Aquarium II" in Madison! think you could play with the fishies all day... :D
 
LOL, I don't think I have the hobby knowledge to run a store, nor do I have the capital to get one off the ground. However if I had both those things, I probably would have already.
 
Hi,

It's a real catch 22 situation. If you don't have the livestock in your store people don't come. With reduced sales you can't buy more stock to attrack customers. If you go out to Salty Critter he usually has a good selection of livestock so you buy which gives him more $$ to buy more livestock. If he has the livestock people will come to look and buy. My 2c worth............

Dave
 
Hector use to work at RMS (don't hold it against him...lol he is very knowledgable)

he started his own store and has a family, mortage, etc..etc...

I don't know for sure but I imagine he doesn't have a huge ple of money sitting around. so he orders what he can and when its gone he orders more....

can you imagine how much money is sitting on the shelves and in the tanks at salty? Most of us could probably pay off our mortage and go on one heck of a vacation (some of us a VERY long one LOL)

so back to the catch 22.... (side note- my wife uses this term and it drives me crazy)
 
The thing is if there are products that you really NEED at prices that you can't find elsewhere cheaper then people would drop by just to get things they need and end up shopping around. If you need a box of salt and you have a choice to drive to Salty Critter (1 hr each way for me) to buy it for $40 and you can get the Sedra impeller you need and a really cool coral or fish that is in the tanks there OR you drive to Tropical Aquarium (45 minutes for me) for a bag of salt (don't know his price on salt) and you are pretty much guaranteed that there will not be anything coral wise that you want and the fish are priced within 5-10% of what Dan or Greg charges then why wouldn't you go to the one-stop place? I have to drive past Aquatic Tech to get to Tropical Aquarium and I have done it before but there is nothing spectacular to find other than fish at Hector's.

I like Hector as a person, as a businessman he is nice, friendly and WILL order you whatever want or tell you he can't beat that price and just get it there. I appreciate his store being there but the ONLY thing I have seen that I wanted there was low-priced saltwater fish. The dry goods are things that nobody with experience in the hobby will really purchase.
There are no T5 bulbs but he has VHO There are wet/dry sumps and Coralife skimmers. I personally have never owned a VHO bulb. I don't know if Hector has any MH bulbs available. I know it isn't cheap to stock up on some of the items but it also isn't cheap to just drive out and look around.
When I am ready to buy a couple fish at a time I would definitely call Hector to see if he wants to get them for me. I really wish him the best with his business but I can't bring myself to spend more and get less just to hope a guy will improve the store.

It is a great looking setup and if the shelves were stocked with things like Mag pumps, Sequence pumps, Maxi-Jet pumps, Salifert test kits, IceCap ballasts, Tunze pumps, T5 bulbs, MH bulbs, decent skimmers and media reactors then maybe it would get more serious reefers in there more often.

Just my 2 cents take it for what it's worth. :)
 
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Ok, so it's unanimous. Hectors is a great guy. He provides great service. We all agree on that.

Unfortunantly his store is usually empty. You guys say to support his store. Apparently we do. What he gets in on Tuesday is gone by Wednesday. How much support can we give him than that? Like the term or not, this is a catch 22. How can we support him more if we go to a store that is 95% empty.

Should we special order everything from him? I do not know about you guys but a lot of what I do is impulse buying. I go into a store and walk around. if something catchs my eye I buy it. TA's low inventory will not get a lot of impulse buys.

I agree Hector is top notch. I would love to see his store succeed but giving us one day a week doesn't seem real customer freindly. I am a little surprised that it seems like his ordering has not increased. This is why I posted this in the first place. i figured once TA was running for a while, his ordering would improve. I do not know how he can increase his profits if his sales stay the same.
 
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