Did you know:
We can cut the pins off of any frag plug that we send if you want- Yeah, I’ve ranted about it before, I’m no fan of them, either, but they are a necessary thing. However, if you request, we can trim those pesky pins right off for you, and you won’t have to deal with them. Aesthetics almost always win out over practicality, at least in my mind, LOL.
Enjoy the ORA coral- without the pin...if you don't want it.
You can and should specify your requested delivery date when you order- We love calling each customer to help with your order, but we still added a field in our checkout area where you can tell us what day you want your corals delivered. Okay, we can’t ALWAYS guarantee that we can ship your order to arrive on the day specified, as weather and other delays can postpone ship-out, but we will do our best!
We’re on Pacific Time- and every once in a while, we get an agitated message or two from an East Coast customer who called at “9:30AM†and no one answered…We’re not blowing you off…we’re just waking up. Enough said…
We have a live chat feature on our web site that’s manned most of the business day- If you have a question, need to clarify something before you order, make a special request, or just want to talk to a reefer, we do our best to man our chat feature throughout the business day. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch Joe or myself in a geeky mood, and we’ll probably engage in a long-winded session about feeding your Goniastrea or placing your Acro frag…Sometimes, I admit, we might be away from the desk or otherwise engaged…but you can leave a message, too!
We try to have one of our cheerful staff always manning the chat feature during regular business hours..
Asking for Fed Ex to hold your corals for you at one of their facilities is always a good option- Especially this time of year, we totally recommend that you request that your package be held for pickup. It generally arrives early, can be held until the facility closes (usually after most reefers are off work), and it’s infinitely preferable to driving around on a cold truck all morning!
For every coral you see on the site, we have like a dozen not up- Yeah, it’s really impossible to photograph every single coral in our facility- we’d be taking pictures all day, every day, without doing anything else! So, feel free to ask if you’re looking for that special Acro, Acan, or whatever, and we’ll do our best to source it for you. Need a special size of a frag on our site? Want something glued to a rock instead of a plug? Looking for that strange Discosoma morph? Need a great recipe for Spaghetti Squash? Just ask!
We have a deep inventory...
Our facility is closed on weekends- Yup. All true. Yeah, the website is 24/7/365, but not the facility. Reefers will tease us about us running “banker’s hours†and such, but it works. We have given our employees a life…we developed UC to be an online business, and we don’t keep regular hours like a fish store. Which is kind of a bummer, I know, ‘cause when you’re visiting L.A. and want to stop in on Sunday morning to check out the Acros, we’re out doing stuff with our families, too. On the other hand, having rested, recharged employees and lower operating expenses as a result of not running a 24/7 walk-in operation has helped us do what we do best- offer awesome corals and great service-at competitive prices. of course, if you’re here in L.A. during weekdays and want to stop by, you’re more than welcome! And of course, those of you who know us understand that there’s always the chance that Joe or I will answer your phone calls, emails, chats- or even be in the facility at some crazy hour, which we hope, makes up for the no weekend thing!
We can't be here all the time....
We are happy to share stuff like our water parameters, types of lighting used, etc. with you- Sure, we probably won’t share our raceway gyre flow velocity configuration calculations, future marketing strategies, pricing computations, passwords, financial statements, and stuff like that with you, but most reef-related stuff is fare game. Ask away. If we can provide you with information that will make your coral acquisitions from us healthier, happier, and more successful, we’re happy to help. We’ve long ago got over the “We’re giving away trade secrets!†paranoia thing. Anyone with the time, money, wherewithal, and passion can attempt to duplicate what we have done, so it’s not a problem to tell you about our dosing regimen or specific gravity readings, ya know?
We probably have a frag- or even a colony- of that crazy uber-ezpensive Acro you’ve been reading about at insanelyexpensivecorals.net- but we don’t have it up on the site, and may not even know that we have it! Crazy, right? Yeah, we try to follow some of what’s going on in the frag market world, but we spend most of our time working on our own business and helping our customers have great experiences. We have lots of material, and I can’t tell you how often we’ve had visiting reefers tell us excitedly, “My God! That’s the ———Corals Hyperspasmodic Purple Freeze Acro! It’s worth $650 for a quarter inch frag!†while pointing to some obscure Acro colony that we’ve had for months. First of all, we probably acquired it as “Acropora ________†from our mariculture guy, and second- we wouldn’t charge that kind of money for a nub- nor would we sell a microchip. We wouldn’t know it’s the hottest thing on eBay or what not. However, it’s nice to know what is hot. Then we know what NOT to work with. That’s not arrogance. That’s a marketing position.
Coming soon..
We are passionate supporters of reef clubs- Yeah, in addition to geeking out on corals all day here in L.A., Joe and I travel all over the world talking about this nonsense at clubs, events, and conferences. Between the two of us, we have made hundreds of speaking appearances at club meetings, MACNA’s, R.A.P.s, and regional conferences. We’re happy to speak at your event if you can book us far enough in advance- and we will often send frags and gift cards too! In fact, even if you’re just looking for a donation for your club raffle- contact us, and we will be happy to support it with a donation. We’re a business- but we are also reefers…that’s what it’s all about.
We can put together a customized frag pack for you, if you ask us for one- We can select among some of our many stock frags, or perhaps there is something else you’re looking for. Give us a call, and we’ll see what we can do!
There’s always a discount code or two floating around out there in cyber land…You have to look for them, though- We’re on a multitude of social media platforms, including (gulp) Twitter, Instagram ( okay, I’m not the guy who mans either one of those, btw), Facebook, our email blasts, etc. They pop up from time to time, even between sales- but you have to check us out on multiple sources to find them. Yep.
We have mobile apps- We developed pretty cool mobile apps for both the Ap Store and for Android platforms. They work really nicely, being optimized for mobile operation, and they’re FREE! Take your obsession with you…wherever you are!
You don’t need to send us pics, dead corals, or a detailed water chemistry analysis in order for us to credit, replace, or refund in the even that you receive a DOA order- Just call us, and tell us what happened. We might ask soem questions so we can all learn from it, but that’s it. We have a very generous and liberal livestock guarantee…We have tried from day one to make ordering from us as worry free as if you walked into our facility, and that includes taking care of you when something goes wrong. No hassles, no accusations, no denials- if something dies during our guarantee period- we will take care of you. Period.
Okay, enough of this self-serving stuff for one day…If I keep this up, someone will accuse me of being biased towards my company or something. This was a sort of mashup of the “I didn’t know that! topics that come up during our day to day dealings with customers…We thought you’d like to know!
If you have any other questions, comments, or suggestions- you know where to find us!
Thanks as always for your support…and-
Stay Wet!
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
We can cut the pins off of any frag plug that we send if you want- Yeah, I’ve ranted about it before, I’m no fan of them, either, but they are a necessary thing. However, if you request, we can trim those pesky pins right off for you, and you won’t have to deal with them. Aesthetics almost always win out over practicality, at least in my mind, LOL.
Enjoy the ORA coral- without the pin...if you don't want it.
You can and should specify your requested delivery date when you order- We love calling each customer to help with your order, but we still added a field in our checkout area where you can tell us what day you want your corals delivered. Okay, we can’t ALWAYS guarantee that we can ship your order to arrive on the day specified, as weather and other delays can postpone ship-out, but we will do our best!
We’re on Pacific Time- and every once in a while, we get an agitated message or two from an East Coast customer who called at “9:30AM†and no one answered…We’re not blowing you off…we’re just waking up. Enough said…
We have a live chat feature on our web site that’s manned most of the business day- If you have a question, need to clarify something before you order, make a special request, or just want to talk to a reefer, we do our best to man our chat feature throughout the business day. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch Joe or myself in a geeky mood, and we’ll probably engage in a long-winded session about feeding your Goniastrea or placing your Acro frag…Sometimes, I admit, we might be away from the desk or otherwise engaged…but you can leave a message, too!
We try to have one of our cheerful staff always manning the chat feature during regular business hours..
Asking for Fed Ex to hold your corals for you at one of their facilities is always a good option- Especially this time of year, we totally recommend that you request that your package be held for pickup. It generally arrives early, can be held until the facility closes (usually after most reefers are off work), and it’s infinitely preferable to driving around on a cold truck all morning!
For every coral you see on the site, we have like a dozen not up- Yeah, it’s really impossible to photograph every single coral in our facility- we’d be taking pictures all day, every day, without doing anything else! So, feel free to ask if you’re looking for that special Acro, Acan, or whatever, and we’ll do our best to source it for you. Need a special size of a frag on our site? Want something glued to a rock instead of a plug? Looking for that strange Discosoma morph? Need a great recipe for Spaghetti Squash? Just ask!
We have a deep inventory...
Our facility is closed on weekends- Yup. All true. Yeah, the website is 24/7/365, but not the facility. Reefers will tease us about us running “banker’s hours†and such, but it works. We have given our employees a life…we developed UC to be an online business, and we don’t keep regular hours like a fish store. Which is kind of a bummer, I know, ‘cause when you’re visiting L.A. and want to stop in on Sunday morning to check out the Acros, we’re out doing stuff with our families, too. On the other hand, having rested, recharged employees and lower operating expenses as a result of not running a 24/7 walk-in operation has helped us do what we do best- offer awesome corals and great service-at competitive prices. of course, if you’re here in L.A. during weekdays and want to stop by, you’re more than welcome! And of course, those of you who know us understand that there’s always the chance that Joe or I will answer your phone calls, emails, chats- or even be in the facility at some crazy hour, which we hope, makes up for the no weekend thing!
We can't be here all the time....
We are happy to share stuff like our water parameters, types of lighting used, etc. with you- Sure, we probably won’t share our raceway gyre flow velocity configuration calculations, future marketing strategies, pricing computations, passwords, financial statements, and stuff like that with you, but most reef-related stuff is fare game. Ask away. If we can provide you with information that will make your coral acquisitions from us healthier, happier, and more successful, we’re happy to help. We’ve long ago got over the “We’re giving away trade secrets!†paranoia thing. Anyone with the time, money, wherewithal, and passion can attempt to duplicate what we have done, so it’s not a problem to tell you about our dosing regimen or specific gravity readings, ya know?
We probably have a frag- or even a colony- of that crazy uber-ezpensive Acro you’ve been reading about at insanelyexpensivecorals.net- but we don’t have it up on the site, and may not even know that we have it! Crazy, right? Yeah, we try to follow some of what’s going on in the frag market world, but we spend most of our time working on our own business and helping our customers have great experiences. We have lots of material, and I can’t tell you how often we’ve had visiting reefers tell us excitedly, “My God! That’s the ———Corals Hyperspasmodic Purple Freeze Acro! It’s worth $650 for a quarter inch frag!†while pointing to some obscure Acro colony that we’ve had for months. First of all, we probably acquired it as “Acropora ________†from our mariculture guy, and second- we wouldn’t charge that kind of money for a nub- nor would we sell a microchip. We wouldn’t know it’s the hottest thing on eBay or what not. However, it’s nice to know what is hot. Then we know what NOT to work with. That’s not arrogance. That’s a marketing position.
Coming soon..
We are passionate supporters of reef clubs- Yeah, in addition to geeking out on corals all day here in L.A., Joe and I travel all over the world talking about this nonsense at clubs, events, and conferences. Between the two of us, we have made hundreds of speaking appearances at club meetings, MACNA’s, R.A.P.s, and regional conferences. We’re happy to speak at your event if you can book us far enough in advance- and we will often send frags and gift cards too! In fact, even if you’re just looking for a donation for your club raffle- contact us, and we will be happy to support it with a donation. We’re a business- but we are also reefers…that’s what it’s all about.
We can put together a customized frag pack for you, if you ask us for one- We can select among some of our many stock frags, or perhaps there is something else you’re looking for. Give us a call, and we’ll see what we can do!
There’s always a discount code or two floating around out there in cyber land…You have to look for them, though- We’re on a multitude of social media platforms, including (gulp) Twitter, Instagram ( okay, I’m not the guy who mans either one of those, btw), Facebook, our email blasts, etc. They pop up from time to time, even between sales- but you have to check us out on multiple sources to find them. Yep.
We have mobile apps- We developed pretty cool mobile apps for both the Ap Store and for Android platforms. They work really nicely, being optimized for mobile operation, and they’re FREE! Take your obsession with you…wherever you are!
You don’t need to send us pics, dead corals, or a detailed water chemistry analysis in order for us to credit, replace, or refund in the even that you receive a DOA order- Just call us, and tell us what happened. We might ask soem questions so we can all learn from it, but that’s it. We have a very generous and liberal livestock guarantee…We have tried from day one to make ordering from us as worry free as if you walked into our facility, and that includes taking care of you when something goes wrong. No hassles, no accusations, no denials- if something dies during our guarantee period- we will take care of you. Period.
Okay, enough of this self-serving stuff for one day…If I keep this up, someone will accuse me of being biased towards my company or something. This was a sort of mashup of the “I didn’t know that! topics that come up during our day to day dealings with customers…We thought you’d like to know!
If you have any other questions, comments, or suggestions- you know where to find us!
Thanks as always for your support…and-
Stay Wet!
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
