braaap
Valuable Member
So I didn't want to do this and was extremely hopefully of a resolution but I haven't found any. I've been completely ignored after one quick, lazy response. I placed my first order with Tidal Gardens on Monday. Emailed telling them it was my first with them and I was excited and asked if they had another strain of zoa I have been looking for. Ben immediately replied and said they don't but my order would be shipping Tuesday 12/19. I was very excited!
Fast forward to Wednesday 12/20 and I got my order. I ordered Mandarins, a WYSIWYG Clementine, Citrus, Fruit Loops, Booberry Acro, and some astrea snails. Honestly I paid a premium for these corals. $55 for 6 fruit loops is premium. They also advertised a "free gift" in the order. What would you think a free gift from a vendor who doesn't sell dry goods would be? A frag!
I opened my box and was very excited. Heat packs were warm! On top was paper padding it was warm! I pulled out the padding and found a Polyp Lab wash cloth. Cool vendor advertising materials I guess. I'll make use of it. Pulled out the bag with the "Reef Primer" that is included with every order and the small sample of "Reef roids." More marketing material from their supplier. Ok. Pulled out all of my corals. Got them all and the snails. But where is my gift? I mean it was one of the reasons I ordered from them. They made the "gift" some Polyp Lab marketing material they got for free and I can get if I contact Polyp Lab! WHAT?! They sell no dry goods. Who would expect that as the gift?! Whatever. Disappointing but I can get over that.
So I floated all the bags to acclimate. My Acro looked decent. All zoas were closed. Snails were moving. I had my CoralRX mixed up and circulating like I always do. After floating I opened all the zoas and put them in the dip. Waited the 10 minutes and took them out and rinsed them in clean water. What did I find in the bottom of the bowl? Flatworms! AEFW! A reefers nightmare! So I thoroughly inspected the zoas for eggs and other flatworms. I didn't see any other signs of them on the zoanthids. Crappy but ok. So I changed out the dip and put the Acro in. 10 minutes later and into the fresh water rinse. What do I find in the dip bowl? MORE AEFW! I've had AEFW before and they devastated my tank. You can treat but it is an absolute nightmare. I took a picture but of course something so small is hard to focus.
I wrote an email to Ben saying that I just got my order, they had flatworms and I can't put these in my tank. In about 5 minutes I got an email back. His response..... "Thanks for contacting us. I'm sorry you found a flatworm, unfortunately the occasional flat worm is simply part of this hobby, especially when operating at any kind of scale. Fortunately they are easy to deal with and a quick dip in Reef primer(included with your order) will take care of any issues."
I immediately emailed back and said I use CoralRX dip. I asked if their response is really "dip and goodluck" and then asked about the free "gift" that was supposed to be in my box and let them know I felt it was kind of bait and switch for a company who only sells live goods to include dry goods as a "free gift." I also sent a response around noon today asking if they had a response to my email. I have not gotten a response in over 24 hours now.
In 20 years of reefing I have never gotten SPS with acro eating flat worms in a shipment from a vendor. Especially one so well regarded. I have gotten them from another reefer. And it totally devastated my tank. They might be a common thing in the hobby. Sure. But they are NOT a common thing to come on vendors coral. Not in my experience anyways.
Today I tried to access my account on their website. It has been deleted and or blocked. Unless it is a very weird coincidence. I was able to access it last night no problem. I tried a password recovery and it won't give me a new password. I had a friend make one at the same time I was trying to recover mine. He was able to make an account, verify his account, and recover his password. All while it said mine is "disabled temporarily." Seems extremely suspicious.
Long story short. I am not pleased with my $285 order. I paid a premium for 6 frags. The zoas that opened are meh at best. The $55 fruit loop frag is not open and is likely melting. The acro doesn't look bad. But for $90 for 1" I wasn't expecting AEFW. And now they won't respond to my emails, I believe they have disabled my account on their site and they aren't answering my phone calls.
The only positive thing about this is the 4 astrea snails. They are eating like champs!
I can say with near certainty I won't be buying from Tidal Gardens again. I'm VERY disappointed in their lack of response. I know they saw my emails because they immediately replied to my preshipment emails and my first email saying they had flatworms. I also find it EXTREMELY suspicious that I can not log into my account on their site.
This is my fair and honest account with what happened. I am posting it as a warning to other reefers. Tidal Gardens currently has AEFW. Be EXTREMELY cautious. And if your order does have them don't expect a response when you let them know your concerns.
Hopefully they chime in and remedy this situation. I am not holding my breathe. I have since dipped the corals AGAIN and found nothing besides pods. No visible to the eye signs of eggs. But I will be watching very closely.
Fast forward to Wednesday 12/20 and I got my order. I ordered Mandarins, a WYSIWYG Clementine, Citrus, Fruit Loops, Booberry Acro, and some astrea snails. Honestly I paid a premium for these corals. $55 for 6 fruit loops is premium. They also advertised a "free gift" in the order. What would you think a free gift from a vendor who doesn't sell dry goods would be? A frag!
I opened my box and was very excited. Heat packs were warm! On top was paper padding it was warm! I pulled out the padding and found a Polyp Lab wash cloth. Cool vendor advertising materials I guess. I'll make use of it. Pulled out the bag with the "Reef Primer" that is included with every order and the small sample of "Reef roids." More marketing material from their supplier. Ok. Pulled out all of my corals. Got them all and the snails. But where is my gift? I mean it was one of the reasons I ordered from them. They made the "gift" some Polyp Lab marketing material they got for free and I can get if I contact Polyp Lab! WHAT?! They sell no dry goods. Who would expect that as the gift?! Whatever. Disappointing but I can get over that.
So I floated all the bags to acclimate. My Acro looked decent. All zoas were closed. Snails were moving. I had my CoralRX mixed up and circulating like I always do. After floating I opened all the zoas and put them in the dip. Waited the 10 minutes and took them out and rinsed them in clean water. What did I find in the bottom of the bowl? Flatworms! AEFW! A reefers nightmare! So I thoroughly inspected the zoas for eggs and other flatworms. I didn't see any other signs of them on the zoanthids. Crappy but ok. So I changed out the dip and put the Acro in. 10 minutes later and into the fresh water rinse. What do I find in the dip bowl? MORE AEFW! I've had AEFW before and they devastated my tank. You can treat but it is an absolute nightmare. I took a picture but of course something so small is hard to focus.
I wrote an email to Ben saying that I just got my order, they had flatworms and I can't put these in my tank. In about 5 minutes I got an email back. His response..... "Thanks for contacting us. I'm sorry you found a flatworm, unfortunately the occasional flat worm is simply part of this hobby, especially when operating at any kind of scale. Fortunately they are easy to deal with and a quick dip in Reef primer(included with your order) will take care of any issues."
I immediately emailed back and said I use CoralRX dip. I asked if their response is really "dip and goodluck" and then asked about the free "gift" that was supposed to be in my box and let them know I felt it was kind of bait and switch for a company who only sells live goods to include dry goods as a "free gift." I also sent a response around noon today asking if they had a response to my email. I have not gotten a response in over 24 hours now.
In 20 years of reefing I have never gotten SPS with acro eating flat worms in a shipment from a vendor. Especially one so well regarded. I have gotten them from another reefer. And it totally devastated my tank. They might be a common thing in the hobby. Sure. But they are NOT a common thing to come on vendors coral. Not in my experience anyways.
Today I tried to access my account on their website. It has been deleted and or blocked. Unless it is a very weird coincidence. I was able to access it last night no problem. I tried a password recovery and it won't give me a new password. I had a friend make one at the same time I was trying to recover mine. He was able to make an account, verify his account, and recover his password. All while it said mine is "disabled temporarily." Seems extremely suspicious.
Long story short. I am not pleased with my $285 order. I paid a premium for 6 frags. The zoas that opened are meh at best. The $55 fruit loop frag is not open and is likely melting. The acro doesn't look bad. But for $90 for 1" I wasn't expecting AEFW. And now they won't respond to my emails, I believe they have disabled my account on their site and they aren't answering my phone calls.
The only positive thing about this is the 4 astrea snails. They are eating like champs!
I can say with near certainty I won't be buying from Tidal Gardens again. I'm VERY disappointed in their lack of response. I know they saw my emails because they immediately replied to my preshipment emails and my first email saying they had flatworms. I also find it EXTREMELY suspicious that I can not log into my account on their site.
This is my fair and honest account with what happened. I am posting it as a warning to other reefers. Tidal Gardens currently has AEFW. Be EXTREMELY cautious. And if your order does have them don't expect a response when you let them know your concerns.
Hopefully they chime in and remedy this situation. I am not holding my breathe. I have since dipped the corals AGAIN and found nothing besides pods. No visible to the eye signs of eggs. But I will be watching very closely.
