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jackers

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Posts posted by jackers

    Bare Bottom vs Sand vs DSB

    in General Discussion

    I have a bare bottom mixed reef in an 85 gallon that started as a deep (4") sandbed. I couldn't be happier. I have two variable speed Tunze 6095's that do a constant wave with random bursts and flushes to keep the poop and junk in the water colum. I do an 8 gallon water change every weekend. With the sandbed, i used to have to blow the rocks off with a turkey baster to get the junk off of them. With the Tunze's and bare bottom, I only do that every month or so.

    Encrusting Montis

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by jackers

    That growth is after hacking it away on the one side to keep it from growing into the jedi mind trick.  I was blasting it with LED lighting.  Sunset monti LOVES led's.  The original frag was from Epleeds T5 tank.

     

    Agreed. Mine had good growth under T5's but it is exploding under my new LEDs. I like to use my turkey baster to blow water across it to watch it go from green to orange as the polyps retract. It's definitely a cool piece.

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    · Edited by jackers

    Thanks.

     

    It sounds crazy complaining about chromis or damsels, but these aren't the average Petco variety. Each of these were around $30. The first order I placed was around $250.

     

    Just wanting to put that out there. I buy a lot for this reef, from a complete LED setup a few weeks ago, to a jawbreaker and high end favia that was just delievered Friday. I have a ton of high end corals and have bought a bunch from some of our high end local vendors as well as from reefers all around the country.

     

    I don't cut corners in this hobby, and I definitely don't cut corners with the livestock.

     

    I'm just glad the last bunch were fat and happy. Like I mentioned earlier, that is the last batch of fish going in the reef and unfortunately, I am completely out of room for any more corals. So now it's time to just sit back and enjoy it. I'm really hoping our members have good transactions with LA/DD in the future.

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    Sorry for the posting about my last order. I wanted the fish to acclimate first.

     

    This order came in with no problems at all. Each of the Agile Chomis were fat and happy. They added a heat pack this time so the water was still warm to the touch.

     

    I ordered the medium Agile Chromis and they were definitely medium or bigger. If anyone is looking for a friendly, well behaved set of chromis, I would recommend these. They look great, hang out together in the upper band of the water column, and look better in person than on the website. I was worried they were going to look simply rusty, but they have some nice color to them.

     

    I'm hoping it was just a bad run I had and all future orders from WAMAS members all come through like my last order.

    monkiboy's 265g build thread

    in Dedicated Tank (Build) Forum

    yeah...just have my apex do this and that and some of that too...riiiight. i think you and alan are going to be bribed with a 12-pack and dominican cooking to come and program this thing for me.

    LOL, I still pull my hair out every now and again with it, but I wouldn't consider running a reef without it. 

     

    Seriously, let me know when you are ready. Read the guide online and RC has a specific forum that is real helpful. 

    monkiboy's 265g build thread

    in Dedicated Tank (Build) Forum

    Some people run two, but with your APEX, just have it text you when your temp drops. 

     

    I keep a second heater on hand but not plugged in. I'll probably just replace it once a year now that it routinely comes on since I switched from the T5's to the LEDs. I don't ever trust heaters not to short and they can quickly crash a reef. 

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    What's the rationale for only crediting you for 2 of 3 dead? It seems like such a small extra amount to sacrifice to gain the extra customer satisfaction.

     

    I'm not sure. The woman I talked to today seemed a little lost and had me on hold for a while talking with her manager. I just wanted to get this last order placed so I just ate it.

     

    These are the last fish going in my reef. I'm just hoping all three show up healthy. 

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    Ok, I just ordered three new Agile Chromis. They only credited me with two of my three dead damsels ($27 each) but they are giving me another free shipment, so whatever. I am just hoping these guys arrive healthy and happy like the other fish I received from them.

     

    Good point about the local pickup location. Unfortunately, down here in Southern Maryland, our local pickup location is in Waldor, almost an hour away.

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    Jeremy,

    I have been once. They seemed pretty good, I'll have to go back.

     

    As an update, all three of my Tracey's died within the first night. I called and they are giving me credit plus another free shipping discount. Can't complain about that, besides the dead fish of course. 

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    you may be asking for too much there, jack. of course laughing or snickering at a customer's purchase demise is not acceptable. but imagine satisfying these kind of personal requests for thousands of customers all over the world. you can always register for the sneak peek to see what is going to be released from dd that day. but look here even that list is not 100% accurate until the very moment they post up the dd every night because maybe the fish didn't photograph well, is hiding, needs further treatment, being harassed by the others so they split it up, etc. so there is no way for them to know when they have one, or a trio or a harem available until the moment it actually gets posted on dd and at that point, you can either sign up for the list ahead of time or you can check dd yourself.

    Good point. I just figured they would know what they have or what they have coming up the next day. 

     

    It's just hard when you order a matched trio and one doesn't make it. You pay extra for the matching and when they don't make it, you can't just replace that. 

     

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    Remember that the general live aquaria and divers den are two very different places. The general site ships their fish directly from the distributors. The divers den fish come healthy and quarantined from the showroom facility in Wisconsin. Only divers den get the extra care and attention.

     

    The Panama Red Cardinals (trio) came from Divers Den. I got refunded for the loss but they said they wouldn't notify me when any others came available. The next day, a new trio showed up. You would think they would have let me know they had another trio or worked with me on filling my request for three. Instead, I got no help what-so-ever, except for a refund from the one fish. 

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    To clarify, they have always refunded me the money spent. They even shipped out the second order while waiving the shipping.

     

    It's just the fish came in very stressed, water cold, undersized on my last order, and wouldn't work with me on replacing the divers den item.

     

    The money wasn't an issue, it was the condition of the fish. And when the last lady joked about it being life in the reef if my new little guys get pecked apart, it makes me question their overall level of care.

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    FWIW some of our local vendors can get you special order fish, just reach out. Were lucky to have as many quality local fish stores as we do.. Take advantage of there great service..

    Completely understand. Problem is, I'm not local to Northern Virginia. I'm down at the tip of Southern Maryland. It's about a two hour drive to make the meetings.

     

    And normally I do buy from the vendors. I just bought two LED setups and I've done a lot of business with ERC. Always a good point though, but locally when you can!

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    Nothing against the OP, and I feel for him, but dont be discouraged. Ive ordered from and been a part of many LA group buys and NEVER had an issue. Ive had fish arrive that looked better in the bag then they do in a lot of LFS in the tank.

    Again, I am very sorry for the OP's experieince, its unfortunate and hopefully it can get resolved properly..

    No offense taken. I just wanted to put out my two latest experiences to the club. 

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    If this isn't a sign that I shouldn't buy my fish from them, then I don't know what is. I was litterally sitting here at the computer with my credit card thinking of buying a fish off divers den, when I decided to go to Wamas real quick and came across this post.

    Now I'm going to hold off on this fish.

     

    Sorry to hear about your experience. Let us know what else they say in regards to your previous order.

    I know a lot of people had good experiences with them in the past. And I know you pay more for the same fish from them, but I figured it was because of the extra care they give. And I'll say, the other fish that survived the first order are doing great. Very healthy, all eating, good color. 

     

    I have seen some bad reviews on them as well though. I figured it was from people that just can't be made happy. Guess they have their slumps as well.

     

    If you are planning on ordering from the diver's den, just know, those are specialty fish and they won't jump through any hoops making it right. Like when one of my trio of Red Cardinals died, I called and emailed asking if they could let me know when another was available. I really wanted to keep three in my reef but they said they don't do that. They said there was no way of informing the customer, yet two days later, another trio was up for sale on the Den. I got a refund and that was it. 

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    Sorry to hear you had a bad run with Live Aquaria.  I have ordered from them at least 10 times and have never had a problem.  I think in all of the orders I have never had a fish that was DOA and I have only had 2 die after arrival and they credited me for them.  I think this was just a bad run.  I hope things work out.

     

    Bruce

    I hope so too, but now I am nervous about reordering from them. I can't believe they would ship without a $0.99 heater. I'm just really bummed because I hate losing fish. The one I though was dead is still alive, but barely. It is on it's back, flapping it's two front fins. I have him floating in my 79 deg tank, hopefully warming up. Is there anything else I can do for him? 

    LiveAquaria / Diver's Den - Horrible

    in Vendor Experience

    First, I'm not sure this is the right section. Mods, please move it if it isn't. 

     

    A few weeks ago, I placed a double order from LiveAquaria, one to their main site and one to the Diver's Den. I placed this

    order because I really wanted a matched trio of the Panama Red Cardinal fish and a twin spotted soapfish. To fill out the rest of the order, I ordered three blue reef chromis from their main site. 

     

    Upon arrival, one of the red cardinals was already dead and a blue reef chromis was on it's way out. This really sucked because I wanted to keep odd numbers of the chromeis and I paid extra for the matched trio of cardinals. 

     

    So I called and they gave me a credit, as well as free shipping on my next order. So I placed an order for three MEDIUM Tracey's Damselfish since they were out of the blue reef chromis. Now these blue reef chromis and tracey's damselfish aren't your average $5 petshop fillers. The blue reefs were $20+ each and the tracey's damsels were $27 each. Obviously they weren't crazy expensive either, but for damsels/chromis they are. It doesn't seem LiveAquaria did though. 

     

    I just unpackaged the box and the bags were cold to the touch. Real cold. So I floated two of the bags and dumped one right into my acclimation bowl so I could take a temperature reading. It was 64.5 degrees :(

     

    One of my fish is already dead. Two more look very stressed. And the real kicker, they are tiny. I ordered mediums to ensure an easy transition since the other chromis are already in the tank. This is the description:

     

    Approximate Purchase Size: Small: 3/4"-1", Medium: 1"-1-1/2", Large: 1-1/2"-2"

     

    These three damselfish are less than 3/4". They are tiny. 

     

    So I called to tell them that I got another bad shipment. Cold bags, one dead, two stressed, all tiny. I said I am afraid to put them in my tank because they might get eaten. And I was told, after a chuckle, that unfortunately, that is life in the reef. 

     

    I take it serious when I lose a fish. I am upset enough to post this on here in the hopes others don't fall for the LiveAquaria hype. I paid the premium prices from them to ensure I have the best possible fish. What I got were three bad shipments (2 from their main site, 1 from Divers Den). 

    monkiboy's 265g build thread

    in Dedicated Tank (Build) Forum

    Will do. I gotta say, those lights completely changed my reef. It's probably the most rewarding upgrade I've done so far. I was starting to wonder about all that money I spent on these corals but the LEDs really make them pop, way-way more than the T5's I had. I can't wait to get them hard mounted in on Sunday.

     

    You are going to have such a good time stocking that beast! I like your plans for an SPS dominant tank instead of mixed. If I had to do it all again, my current tank would be LPS/Softie only and my future monster build (like your current one) would be an SPS tank with a bunch of wrasses happily swimming around!

    Testing Equipment

    in General Discussion

    I use the following:

    Elos for Ca

    Salifert for Ak

    Salifert for Nitrates

    Salifert for Magnesium

    Hanna for PO4

     

    I just got a good deal on used Hanna Ca and Ak testers. I'm hoping they work well and I can get away from color changing kits.

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