WorkingHands
Active Member
Anyone local to Dutchess county looking for a full setup? I am selling the house and dont want to move the setup.
Hey Hudson Valley Reefers, What's Up With Your Tanks in 2023?? Updates here please.
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FitLabb
New Member
Sorry for the late reply on this, just saw your comment in my notifications now.
I've found them to provide excellent customer service (both as a maintenance customer and as someone who sometimes buys livestock from them in their store). They also have a great replacement guarantee for their maintenance customers for any livestock purchased from them, which is a very nice and uncommon thing to find in my experience. I've definitely gotten much more time and attention from them whenever I have questions to ask, and they've gone out of their way to help out as much as possible anytime I've needed it.
As far as the livestock in their store.....While they have freshwater fish, it's just a small section of their store with about 8-10 tanks from what I recall, and many of them are definitely overstocked with fish (I'm sure they do enough water changes to properly care for the fish as they always seem to be doing maintenance on their tanks anytime I'm there). They have a surprisingly decent selection despite the limited size of their freshwater section of the store, however I've also noticed that in the last year or two, they seem to have some sick fish in most of their smaller freshwater tanks (I most frequently noticed ich on some of the fish in a few of the freshwater tanks). For years I've only had freshwater planted tanks, and over the last year or so I've mostly stopped buying freshwater fish from them since the health of their fish has noticeably declined for whatever reason. Their nano tank size fish and larger fish (angels, discus, etc,) almost always seem to be extremely healthy though, so I can definitely recommend buying those freshwater fish from them.
As for their saltwater fish (I recently got our first saltwater reef tank about 2 months ago, which I bought from them), they have a much bigger selection of fish which always look very healthy. They also have a decent amount of corals for sale that are clearly well taken care of. The only issue I have is the price of both the fish and corals, as they're a noticeable amount higher than anywhere else around that I've seen. For example, they had different pairs of clownfish for sale that ranged from $250 to $500 (all very nice specimens), and I ended up finding a beautiful pair of one of those same types for sale at Absolutely Fish (another very high quality LFS in Northern NJ that I highly recommend) that cost us just under $100 compared to the same at HOF that was listed at about $350. Not all the fish at House of Fins are priced so high like that, as there are many that are more reasonably priced and close to prices of other LFS in the area, but in general their prices tend to be at least a bit above other places, or up to multiple times more for certain types of fish. I found the same to be true for their corals for sale, as some other stores I've been to were selling the same or comparable corals for at least half the price as HOF, but the quality of the corals at House of Fins were definitely top notch (which wasn't always true everywhere else).
In summary, to a degree in some cases at House of Fins you definitely get what you pay for in terms of the level of service and the overall health and quality of livestock (at least in the salt water department, and with the larger fish and nano fish in their freshwater systems). But if you know where to look, you can certainly find high quality fish and corals for sale elsewhere too, just not always with that same level of attention or service. There are also several sites online that you can buy top quality fish (freshwater in my experience) and corals for a very reasonable price while still getting absolute top quality if you're willing to take the risk of dealing with a rare shipping issue. Hope that was all helpful, as this is my full and honest experience with them as a customer that has them servicing my tanks once a month for a few years now.
IGROZOAS
Well-Known Member
Hey I think I see an OG Bounce in there are you interested in trading for it? I have a Godzilla Bounce I can trade. Tons of Walt Disney Acro also.Here are all mine as they look today. The big tank suffered through some neglect in 22, but it has recovered quickly. The frag tanks saved me, give or take a few pieces of SPS.
OP
OP
I have a couple OG's available, in my frag setup. They are free floaters, still needing to be mounted on a plug or rubble. Currently in a 3D printed bounce house / cage. I'd be interested in trading one of them for a Godzilla. All set on WD, at the moment. Send me a message and we can figure it out.
OP
OP
Hope all you Hudson Valley reefers tank's are doing well, heading into the Fall season. Let's see some tank updates and new threads posted on the forum. Would love to hear what you are all up to.
OP
OP
If anyone has any nice RED Goniapora available, let me know the price. Interested in pink too. Mine was all wiped out months back and I miss it. Thanks!
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