Best online retailer? Who do you order your equipment from online?

[OrchidMiss]

@SaltwaterAq & @premiumaquatics are my 2.
BRS is backup if I can't find it anywhere else.

 

[polyppal]

1) Premium Aquatics. The website sucks but they have free shipping and no tax (at least for me), generally saves me 10+$ over BRS

2) BRS, esp for hard to find plumbing fittings and parts, or when they send me coupon mailers. They ship extremely fast so if im in a rush ill usually go with them. BRS for media (Rox Caron/gfo/etc) and RODI/Reactors

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Capatilism. Lol.
D

 

[Tamberav]

Getting back into the hobby requires much research and of course a many purchases to do things right. I do not have many local shops so I need to do the majority of my purchasing online … who do you use? There are many retailers out there and the web can be a wormhole for sure so I’m hoping to see who reefers here have good experiences with online ordering. Thanks so much!

premium aquatics and saltwateraquarium.com

Support the little guys! They are super helpful and responsive.

 

[Willhersh34]

I research what I want on BRS. Then go check if I can get it on Amazon (prime member, 2 day free shipping) then go back to BRS if I can’t. Some things are straight up BRS - e.g. ROX Carbon, reactors, RODI unit - but they sell at reasonable prices, ship for free and their videos on just about any reef topic are excellent.

 

[FishyFishFish]

What practices would those be?

• Advertising that they are giving out free $10 coupons but not telling you they only have 2 weeks until they expire, thus making them effectively useless.
• Advertising that they are giving out free $10 coupons but not being told they weren't valid against MAP products, thus making them effectively useless.

When I raised the above with them their excuse was that they did tell the customers as they think it was briefly mentioned on one of their many YouTube videos (there was nothing on the website). They think that this is acceptable.

• Running giveaways (sweepstakes?) but not publishing any terms and conditions and then making it up as they went along so, people who had already placed orders based on their videos, had effectively placed them under false pretences.
• Giving out loads of free stuff at the expense of other retailers (although this is more of a complaint at those manufacturers that jumped on the bandwagon rather than BRS).

• Giving people who tried to take advantage of a website pricing error 10% discount coupons, but ignoring the other customers who saw that error but didn't try to rip them off.

• Advertising expensive Open Box items as 'Grade A', that have supposedly been inspected, and then when you receive them, they have just been thrown in loose in a huge box.

I don't expect anyone to agree with my concerns, but they are just some of the reasons that I, personally, prefer to shop elsewhere. Some people just happy that they are giving out loads of free stuff and I get that. But to me they have changed from a small retailer to a big corporation, but they still appear to act like they are little league and ignore the responsibilities that they have now that they are much bigger.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

That's weird. I just checked their pricves on a handful of things and they were over 20% higher.

Depends on what YOU are looking for.

My last online aquarium shopping spree in the past few weeks comprised of black silicone hose, gate valves, PVC pipe brackets, black vinyl hose, citric acid, bulkheads & check valves. Also picked up a EB4 & Hanna ULR phosphate checker. All were higher price at BRS versus the non BRS sources. Yeah the convenience is there, one stop shop and all that jazz but your paying more for the 'BRS premium' versus one with a non BRS label.

 

[GuppyHJD]

Interesting timing. I needed to order a bunch of chemicals and testing supplies. I put together a spreadsheet with what I wanted and then a) who had the items b) the price.
I put my LFS, Amazon, BRS, SaltwaterAquarium, Premium Aquatics, Chewy, Petco, PetSmart and ThatFishPlace in the columns.
Sadly, nobody carried all what I wanted, and pricing was all over the place. I contacted Saltwater Aquarium about the price matching, but placed an order with them anyway. Amazon was often high price but had a few things - lots of two packs. BRS was out of stock of many things.

I didn't realize how much I used to use Marine Depot.
The state of the industry is not good.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I more than miss Marine Depot. I used them to order off and on myself for 20 years until their demise. The returns were great since I lived near the Garden Grove, CA office. I'd just bring it in by hand.

 

[DopamineKata]

• Advertising that they are giving out free $10 coupons but not telling you they only have 2 weeks until they expire, thus making them effectively useless.

The coupon thing did annoy me. I had made several purchases through their Black Friday sales. Only to find they had a short deadline and were limited to one per order.

 

[Waynerock]

Getting back into the hobby requires much research and of course a many purchases to do things right. I do not have many local shops so I need to do the majority of my purchasing online … who do you use? There are many retailers out there and the web can be a wormhole for sure so I’m hoping to see who reefers here have good experiences with online ordering. Thanks so much!

For corals Lazy’s coral house all day. There are others for sure but Lazy has really healthy corals. Here are a couple I got from him. 2nd place ASD