Best Internet Coral Vendors

[Rangens32466]

Hey guys,

Just cycling my Evo 13.5 and wanted to start looking for corals and fish (clowns).

What has been some of the vendors you like dealing with?

Is their pictures accurate?

Shipping cost?

Thanks

RFD

 

[Suohhen]

I haven't shopped online for a while as I am a firm believer that a good lfs is hands down a better option as long as you have access to one.
Unfortunately that is not the case in every area. I can offer some general advice when shopping online, everything seems bigger, frags are small, if it is a single zoa polyp it will be tiny.
Colors can certainly be deceiving but everything will look different under your lighting and will take time to adjust to your lights so temper your expectations and typically online sellers give the common name so you can look up other pictures online of that coral to get a better idea what it looks like.
Lastly I would say shipping has been awful during the pandemic so if you are going to shop online make sure they have some sort of guarantee.

 

[Gtinnel]

I agree that I prefer to be able to buy in person and see what I am getting, but that isn't much of an option for me. I just recently received an order from A Reef Creation and couldn't be happier. The corals I received were what I expected and the shipping was $35. It was actually a live sale that I ordered from so I'm not sure if that is their normal shipping price or not.
I also only hear good things about Aqua SD and WWC although I've never ordered from either.

I now get most of my corals from hobbiests and other members on here, from either Facebook posts or posts on the sale forum on here. It's often a good way to get corals for much cheaper than any lfs or online store.

 

[Suohhen]

I agree that I prefer to be able to buy in person and see what I am getting, but that isn't much of an option for me. I just recently received an order from A Reef Creation and couldn't be happier. The corals I received were what I expected and the shipping was $35. It was actually a live sale that I ordered from so I'm not sure if that is their normal shipping price or not.
I also only hear good things about Aqua SD and WWC although I've never ordered from either.

I now get most of my corals from hobbiests and other members on here, from either Facebook posts or posts on the sale forum on here. It's often a good way to get corals for much cheaper than any lfs or online store.

Ah yeah for sure you can't beat the price and quality and quantity of a friendly hobbiest and wwc is certainly one of the most highly acclaimed however AquaSD has recently had an issue with zoa spiders that they did not handle well as there is no clear indication that they have resolved the issue yet afaik.

 

[Gtinnel]

AquaSD has recently had an issue with zoa spiders

I had not heard that. Well maybe I'll be passing on their live sale that starts tomorrow after all.

 

[Suohhen]

I had not heard that. Well maybe I'll be passing on their live sale that starts tomorrow after all.

EMERGENCY - Zoanthid eating spiders!!

So all of the frags I received from AquaSD.com are infested with zoanthid eating spiders I have pulled 6 off so far and cut off a bunch of shredded polyps, what should I do? How do I make sure my tank is not infested I have had these frags in my tank for a few weeks and it is a zoanthid dominant...

www.reef2reef.com

here's one of the many threads I've seen

 

[mdb_talon]

I been dissapointed in almost all my online orders as of late. Got a couple good orders from hobbyists here though at least. Did get a good order from motor city corals also.

 

[Jekyl]

Hey guys,

Just cycling my Evo 13.5 and wanted to start looking for corals and fish (clowns).

What has been some of the vendors you like dealing with?

Is their pictures accurate?

Shipping cost?

Thanks

RFD

Skip online vendors. Check the livestock forum on here for local reefers. Better price, selection and no middle man

 

[The District Reef]

DropOffCorals.com is my go to for torches, scolies, and all other LPS...and now acros.

 

[RobW]

Had 20 frags show up from WWC today! Whoop! They never disappoint.

 

[Gogol_frag]

Hey guys,

Just cycling my Evo 13.5 and wanted to start looking for corals and fish (clowns).

What has been some of the vendors you like dealing with?

Is their pictures accurate?

Shipping cost?

Thanks

RFD

I would be quite interested in this info as well. I just placed an order from Tidal Gardens (since they had a sale on).

My preference is online shopping- for the sheer convenience of it and ... wait for it ... wait for it ... Covid19!!

I have sort of categorized the sellers that I shortlisted in the following buckets (pun intended):

1. Fish - Dr. Reef is my one and only Fish guy, until he gets out of the business, or I get out of the Hobby.
2. Snails - Live Aquaria
3. Boutique Coral shops (code for pricey, but good/great variety frags) - World Wide Corals, Tidal Gardens, Unique Corals
4. Coral colonies - Extreme Corals and World Wide Coral's West Coast Shop
5. LPS speciality coral-shop - Austin Aquafarms
6. SPS speciality coral shop - Battle Corals

Full disclosure: The above is largely research based on days upon days of obsessing on what with, and how i would stock my tank. I have bought fishes from Dr. Reef, Nassarius Snails from Live Aquaria and corals from Tidal Gardens out of the above list. They all come highly recommended and I have spoken with Mike (Dr. Reef) at length, service reps from Live Aquaria and Tidal Gardens were also extremely friendly and professional. But I have not visually seen products yet from any of these three, yet. The products are in different stages of "in-the-wind".

One other thing - this is my second rodeo in the hobby, and i have been quite surgically clean so far in bringing up my tank. IMO the system is just too new to play Russian Roullete with product/vendors who doesn't have stellar reputation as a live-product vendor. Things will be pricey - but that's the nature of the beast.

 

[Gogol_frag]

I haven't shopped online for a while as I am a firm believer that a good lfs is hands down a better option as long as you have access to one.
Unfortunately that is not the case in every area. I can offer some general advice when shopping online, everything seems bigger, frags are small, if it is a single zoa polyp it will be tiny.
Colors can certainly be deceiving but everything will look different under your lighting and will take time to adjust to your lights so temper your expectations and typically online sellers give the common name so you can look up other pictures online of that coral to get a better idea what it looks like.
Lastly I would say shipping has been awful during the pandemic so if you are going to shop online make sure they have some sort of guarantee.

Great pointers. Thank you SuohHen!

 

[Rangens32466]

Is there a place that combines all the information as far as placement? I.E.- Lighting, flow, care, etc. I noticed a few sights have them

 

[Rangens32466]

Is there a place that combines all the information as far as placement? I.E.- Lighting, flow, care, etc. I noticed a few sights have them

Sites

 

[TangGang]

Local reefers are undefeated. I’ve bought from pretty much every online vendor, and no one can beat local pricing, size, and color for corals. If you are wanting online I’d say ARC (A Reef Creation) has some great prices and very quality corals.

 

[Gogol_frag]

Is there a place that combines all the information as far as placement? I.E.- Lighting, flow, care, etc. I noticed a few sights have them

Tidal Gardens does this, and also complements it with detailed videos on most of their coral species. They are like the BRS for corals. Usually covers lighting, flow, feeding, agression with some stunning Coral videography. I have not seen any other vendor speak so knowledgeably about corals. I am sure that they are all knowledgeable, but no else takes the BRS-route to make detailed videos of the products that they sell - hence I have not seen them. Check videos for "Tidal Gardens" on youtube, and you will know what I mean.

ACI Aquaculture also makes detailed youtube videos on marine live animals products, which are also pretty good - however they are wholesellers.

You can't go wrong with either source for knowledge about what you are going to buy, what's easy, what's slow growing, what is aggressive etc, expected pests etc.

As an example, i love nassarius snails - so i likely have to make a hard choice before getting an Elegance Coral ... that looks an anemone, but unlike an anemone it doesn't eat fishes ... but it does eat snails!!!!!

On the other hand , my fishes are $90 and my snails are $3 - $4. So, if I ever had the anemone-itch, maybe i am better off getting an Elegance Coral instead of anemone, to contain my potential loss.

stuff like that. But understandably more detailed. They don't sugar coat the bad or deadly aspects of the live creatures.

 

[zukihara]

All I can tell you is I refuse to participate in any more Reef2Reef live sales after being screwed by two of the biggest companies around. Everything DOA on one and the other just flat out never shipped a free coral I won after weeks of saying they would.

It's gotten pretty darn scammy with vendors on here in my opinion and I'm smart enough to pull the plug early. I simply will never purchase from WWC or Calikid again, nor take a chance on the other R2R sales due to their bs.

 

[ggNoRe]

I have a had a great experience with Tidal Gardens and Coral Euphoria. Everything came bigger and better than described online.

 

[Rangens32466]

Tidal Gardens does this, and also complements it with detailed videos on most of their coral species. They are like the BRS for corals. Usually covers lighting, flow, feeding, agression with some stunning Coral videography. I have not seen any other vendor speak so knowledgeably about corals. I am sure that they are all knowledgeable, but no else takes the BRS-route to make detailed videos of the products that they sell - hence I have not seen them. Check videos for "Tidal Gardens" on youtube, and you will know what I mean.

ACI Aquaculture also makes detailed youtube videos on marine live animals products, which are also pretty good - however they are wholesellers.

You can't go wrong with either source for knowledge about what you are going to buy, what's easy, what's slow growing, what is aggressive etc, expected pests etc.

As an example, i love nassarius snails - so i likely have to make a hard choice before getting an Elegance Coral ... that looks an anemone, but unlike an anemone it doesn't eat fishes ... but it does eat snails!!!!!

On the other hand , my fishes are $90 and my snails are $3 - $4. So, if I ever had the anemone-itch, maybe i am better off getting an Elegance Coral instead of anemone, to contain my potential loss.

stuff like that. But understandably more detailed. They don't sugar coat the bad or deadly aspects of the live creatures.

Thank you

 

[ReefBeta]

I bought from reefgardener quite a lot. Most of the stuff arrived in good condition. Occasional DoA are promptly replace or refunded. The price is usually cheaper than the big names.