Which Pet Shop do you perfer?
- Thread starter makoshark
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makoshark
Premium Member
dimweb said:
Steve,
Paul Kolenda is the Club's representative for Supporting Dealers.
Here is a thread that he posted to that fact.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=267287
He is the person that you want to speak with.
rallendorph
Premium Member
Hi,
The closest and easiest LFS for you to get to is Living Sea in Park Ridge. As you come out of the airport heading towards downtown Chicago, you will pass Mannheim and River Road exits. The next exit is Cumberland. Take the Cumberland North Exit (it loops around to stop light) and turn right (North) onto Cumberland. Go past the 1st light (Higgins), past the 2nd light, and turn Right (East) onto Devon (3rd Light) Living Sea is immediately to your right 3rd store in from corner of Cumberland and Devon. You will drive ~ 1 Mile on Cumberland from Hwy exit to Devon.
Living Sea is certainly among the top LFS in the Area for browsing, and often has great stock (Corals and Fish). They do ask a premium though.
Depending where in Chicago your heading there are a couple closer into the City as well. Other's can direct you there.
Rob A. :beer:
The closest and easiest LFS for you to get to is Living Sea in Park Ridge. As you come out of the airport heading towards downtown Chicago, you will pass Mannheim and River Road exits. The next exit is Cumberland. Take the Cumberland North Exit (it loops around to stop light) and turn right (North) onto Cumberland. Go past the 1st light (Higgins), past the 2nd light, and turn Right (East) onto Devon (3rd Light) Living Sea is immediately to your right 3rd store in from corner of Cumberland and Devon. You will drive ~ 1 Mile on Cumberland from Hwy exit to Devon.
Living Sea is certainly among the top LFS in the Area for browsing, and often has great stock (Corals and Fish). They do ask a premium though.
Depending where in Chicago your heading there are a couple closer into the City as well. Other's can direct you there.
Rob A. :beer:
firemouth4416
In Memoriam
Beyond the Reef in Schaumburg I have worked reatail for 20 years and have never been treated more poorly. The owner has no concept of how to treat his customers. I will never go back there and advise all people to never enter ther door.
I am not venting and dont have a grudge. I have only been there 3-4 times. If you cant say somthing nice dont say anything. I'll leave it at that....
I am not venting and dont have a grudge. I have only been there 3-4 times. If you cant say somthing nice dont say anything. I'll leave it at that....
m1a1fan
Premium Member
I had noticed some people had been to Sho Tank and said it wasn't that great. Right now, Matt is the only one running the show up there. He used to have somebody else working with him but he's no longer there.
He's not doing a bad job being the only one running the shop day in and day out. He usually gets Coral shipments in on Fridays and you have to right on top of them when they come in as he sells out fast (excellent prices). Sometimes you have to wait awhile to speak with him due to the amount of traffic he gets but it's worth it.
firemouth4416-
I've never had any customer service problems with BTR but their prices on coral and dry goods is fairly high. It's the area that they're in. Schaumburg is not a cheap place to rent.
Has anyone checked out Sea Schor in Buffalo Grove? Steve has some really nice stuff (I found a Yellow Tonga Leather I'd been searching for there). Their address is 400 W. Dundee #16 Check em' out, it's worth the trip.
He's not doing a bad job being the only one running the shop day in and day out. He usually gets Coral shipments in on Fridays and you have to right on top of them when they come in as he sells out fast (excellent prices). Sometimes you have to wait awhile to speak with him due to the amount of traffic he gets but it's worth it.
firemouth4416-
I've never had any customer service problems with BTR but their prices on coral and dry goods is fairly high. It's the area that they're in. Schaumburg is not a cheap place to rent.
Has anyone checked out Sea Schor in Buffalo Grove? Steve has some really nice stuff (I found a Yellow Tonga Leather I'd been searching for there). Their address is 400 W. Dundee #16 Check em' out, it's worth the trip.
Ti_Lavender
Active member
What is Sea Schor located by, like stores? Also when is the best time to stop in?
About shotank, shotank is an awesome place. Matt is really cool, yeah he is running everything by himself and he is doing fine. His prices are the best by far on almost everything.
About shotank, shotank is an awesome place. Matt is really cool, yeah he is running everything by himself and he is doing fine. His prices are the best by far on almost everything.
m1a1fan
Premium Member
lexusboy-
I can't recall off hand what is right across the street from Sea Schor but there is usually one or two of his service vans parked out front. You can't miss em' they are white with a big Purple Tang on the side. The store is next to a pet grooming place called the Fire Hydrant (I think). He's about a mile or so west of Tropical World. His hours are Tues-Fri 11-7 Sat 10-5 and closed on Sun-Mon. Phone # is 847-808-8100
He seems to have quite a bit on hand no matter what time of the week I stop in so I figure he gets shippments on a fairly consistent basis.
Ya, Sho Tank is by far one of the best places I've been to. All of my corals (10 softies and polyps) minus the Yellow Tonga Leather are from Sho Tank.
I can't recall off hand what is right across the street from Sea Schor but there is usually one or two of his service vans parked out front. You can't miss em' they are white with a big Purple Tang on the side. The store is next to a pet grooming place called the Fire Hydrant (I think). He's about a mile or so west of Tropical World. His hours are Tues-Fri 11-7 Sat 10-5 and closed on Sun-Mon. Phone # is 847-808-8100
He seems to have quite a bit on hand no matter what time of the week I stop in so I figure he gets shippments on a fairly consistent basis.
Ya, Sho Tank is by far one of the best places I've been to. All of my corals (10 softies and polyps) minus the Yellow Tonga Leather are from Sho Tank.
gig
New member
Jeff:
When was the last time you were at Sho-tank? I need to get back there in the next couple weeks to get some fish and Matt has the best prices.
I was there during his first few months when he opened (after Chris shut his operation down in Wheeling), but haven't been able to get back. The drive from Mundelein from Skokie is a long one
When was the last time you were at Sho-tank? I need to get back there in the next couple weeks to get some fish and Matt has the best prices.
I was there during his first few months when he opened (after Chris shut his operation down in Wheeling), but haven't been able to get back. The drive from Mundelein from Skokie is a long one
Racenrich
New member
FYI.
Aquatica in Tinley park is spot on! Was there this past weekend, again i might add. (166th oak park ave.)
Rob has his stuff together.
Live stock and corals are coming in 2-3x's a week.
Picked up a wicked tonga-zoo rock with about 100+ pink centers and silver edges. AWESOME!
Also, a nice little rock with YES, 3-bright blue ricordi'a on it. Yes i repeat, BLUE. WICKED!
(he had some Orange ric's too but got to stop somewhere)
Very reasonable on price and great service.
tell him Rich K. sent you.
Cheers.
Aquatica in Tinley park is spot on! Was there this past weekend, again i might add. (166th oak park ave.)
Rob has his stuff together.
Live stock and corals are coming in 2-3x's a week.
Picked up a wicked tonga-zoo rock with about 100+ pink centers and silver edges. AWESOME!
Also, a nice little rock with YES, 3-bright blue ricordi'a on it. Yes i repeat, BLUE. WICKED!
(he had some Orange ric's too but got to stop somewhere)
Very reasonable on price and great service.
tell him Rich K. sent you.
Cheers.
kittykitty
New member
Of all those stores, I've only been to a couple and not really liked any of them too much. Every store has told me information where I come back home to search this site and realize what they've told me is so very wrong. I'm pretty new to the hobby still and am no expert, but these are my opinions of the stores:
Scott's is good price-wise, especially their corals because they're all $40. But too bad, no one ever knows what the corals are in the tank. And if you ask them what to add or what to feed a certain coral, they'll always say "nothing, it's a filter feeder" no matter what it is. It's still my favorite store to go to though. And they're the only store I've been to that keeps fish that need bigger aquariums in big aquariums. The others keep big fish in the same size tanks as the little fish. Their equiptment is over-priced as well, they have a lot more dry goods and equiptment than the other stores I've been to. But supplies (and usually livestock) are always like 1/2 or 2/3 the price of LFS's when you buy online.
Beyond the Reef is over-priced and the staff again knows little. I buy my phytoplankton there still. The main guy isn't very nice to me ever. It seems like the teenage boys who scrape the glass there know more than the others. I get my water here sometimes too. I think their corals are crazily over-priced.
Advanced Aquatics is the friendliest store. Their rock is well-priced. But beware thier corals - if you notice, almost every coral tank has red slime algae all over the subtrate. Two times I brought home some corals and had red slime break-outs badly. I used to be able to get rid of it with Chemi-clean, but it didn't seem to work this last time and I still have red slime in my tank from the tiny Xenia frag I got from them. I should've learned the first time. I buy my water from here usually.
Wet Pets I stopped going to because they always had tons of floating or sunken fish when I went in there and I wasn't about to get anything live there.
Also at Advanced Aquatics and Scott's Pets, when I bought starfish, they exposed them to air. I don't know how bad that is for them, but Dr. Foster and Smith said to never expose starfish and tunicates to air. The starfish lived. And at Advanced Aquatics, I even asked the guy 'aren't you not supposed to expose them to air?' and he's like 'I never heard of that'.
On a different subject (and since you all know this area) I was thinking hiring someone to maintenance my tank. I know it's probably not something most of you do, but I'm still a newbie (after 2 years) and I need some help and maybe someone to even teach me some more. And we just upgraded our lights so it just keeps getting worse. Our fish and corals are very healthy, but I just can't seem to control our green hair algae. I've been trying for months and if it's not too expensive, I wanted to find a trustworthy company to help me and one who knows how to really take care of a reef and doesn't know the wrong way to take care of stuff like the LFS's tell you. I'm in the Schaumburg area. I've checked around a little online, but can't seem to find anywhere local. My friend gave me a brochure for SeaQueast Marine, but I don't know how far they travel.
Oops, I'm sorry I just realized this is for the CMAS... I did a search for 'Schaumburg' and this was the first link. Sorry to respond if I wasn't supposed to, but since I typed this whole thing, I'm gonna submit it anyway! I didn't vote, I just replied. Sorry, but thanks too!
Scott's is good price-wise, especially their corals because they're all $40. But too bad, no one ever knows what the corals are in the tank. And if you ask them what to add or what to feed a certain coral, they'll always say "nothing, it's a filter feeder" no matter what it is. It's still my favorite store to go to though. And they're the only store I've been to that keeps fish that need bigger aquariums in big aquariums. The others keep big fish in the same size tanks as the little fish. Their equiptment is over-priced as well, they have a lot more dry goods and equiptment than the other stores I've been to. But supplies (and usually livestock) are always like 1/2 or 2/3 the price of LFS's when you buy online.
Beyond the Reef is over-priced and the staff again knows little. I buy my phytoplankton there still. The main guy isn't very nice to me ever. It seems like the teenage boys who scrape the glass there know more than the others. I get my water here sometimes too. I think their corals are crazily over-priced.
Advanced Aquatics is the friendliest store. Their rock is well-priced. But beware thier corals - if you notice, almost every coral tank has red slime algae all over the subtrate. Two times I brought home some corals and had red slime break-outs badly. I used to be able to get rid of it with Chemi-clean, but it didn't seem to work this last time and I still have red slime in my tank from the tiny Xenia frag I got from them. I should've learned the first time. I buy my water from here usually.
Wet Pets I stopped going to because they always had tons of floating or sunken fish when I went in there and I wasn't about to get anything live there.
Also at Advanced Aquatics and Scott's Pets, when I bought starfish, they exposed them to air. I don't know how bad that is for them, but Dr. Foster and Smith said to never expose starfish and tunicates to air. The starfish lived. And at Advanced Aquatics, I even asked the guy 'aren't you not supposed to expose them to air?' and he's like 'I never heard of that'.
On a different subject (and since you all know this area) I was thinking hiring someone to maintenance my tank. I know it's probably not something most of you do, but I'm still a newbie (after 2 years) and I need some help and maybe someone to even teach me some more. And we just upgraded our lights so it just keeps getting worse. Our fish and corals are very healthy, but I just can't seem to control our green hair algae. I've been trying for months and if it's not too expensive, I wanted to find a trustworthy company to help me and one who knows how to really take care of a reef and doesn't know the wrong way to take care of stuff like the LFS's tell you. I'm in the Schaumburg area. I've checked around a little online, but can't seem to find anywhere local. My friend gave me a brochure for SeaQueast Marine, but I don't know how far they travel.
Oops, I'm sorry I just realized this is for the CMAS... I did a search for 'Schaumburg' and this was the first link. Sorry to respond if I wasn't supposed to, but since I typed this whole thing, I'm gonna submit it anyway! I didn't vote, I just replied. Sorry, but thanks too!
makoshark
Premium Member
KittyKitty : All feedback is welcome and you do not need to be a CMAS member to post in our forum.
I don't recall reading anywhere that Starfish should not be exposed to air. I know that it holds true for sponges but I've not seen that said about Starfish. I'll have to look that one up.
Do you have a refugium? If you had a place where the alge could grow wild and strip the excess nutrients from the water you would have less of it in the display tank.
Otherwise, you might want to contact Jeff at Ocean Technologies to see about having him maintain the tank. He goes by Marshall Mann here on RC.
I don't recall reading anywhere that Starfish should not be exposed to air. I know that it holds true for sponges but I've not seen that said about Starfish. I'll have to look that one up.
Do you have a refugium? If you had a place where the alge could grow wild and strip the excess nutrients from the water you would have less of it in the display tank.
Otherwise, you might want to contact Jeff at Ocean Technologies to see about having him maintain the tank. He goes by Marshall Mann here on RC.
kittykitty
New member
I don't have a refugium. I'll PM Jeff and/or look at the Ocean Technologies website if there is one. Thanks for the feedback!
there is Something Fishy in fox lake that is worth the drive . he has been remodeling the last few months but he has a nice selection of marine fish and gets nice shipments of sps, lps and softies at good prices. all softies and lps are $35. any piece. its in the same strip mall as the fox lake theater.
gig
New member
Just got back from Sea Schor a couple hours ago, met Steve, Jason and Mike. Jason really knows his stuff and all three were very friendly and helpful.
Needless to say, this is my new store to frequent. I only have a FOWLR tank, but they have great prices from what I saw and friendly customer service. I think I may have met "m1a1fan" there too
Needless to say, this is my new store to frequent. I only have a FOWLR tank, but they have great prices from what I saw and friendly customer service. I think I may have met "m1a1fan" there too
MARSHALL MANN
In Memoriam
mark from tropical world !
are you smoking crack ?
have you ever seen his store , what a joke!
im sorry this is the first time ive ever bashed anyone but
its forthcoming in this case.
anybody has to be better than that guy.
steve from sea schor would be a million times better than mark
and if you look around and ask some reefers in another forum they can probaly come up with 2 or 3 more , closer to your area
just my opinion, no hard feelings pato2
are you smoking crack ?
have you ever seen his store , what a joke!
im sorry this is the first time ive ever bashed anyone but
its forthcoming in this case.
anybody has to be better than that guy.
steve from sea schor would be a million times better than mark
and if you look around and ask some reefers in another forum they can probaly come up with 2 or 3 more , closer to your area
just my opinion, no hard feelings pato2
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