Hosed by Saltcritters.com

[Abaddon]

Has anyone else had dealings with these guys before? Op, please let me know if I'm in the wrong place to post this. I just want to see if I'm alone in feeling screwed over by these guys. They send stuff out in bags that are impossible to acclimate corals, the coral frags are too small to even be sold at that stage (including still being rubber banded to the rock because they won't stay on their own!), and the quality is HORRIBLE. I certainly won't be dealing with them again but I want to see if anyone else has had any GOOD experiences with them. Is this common for these guys?

[Ninong]

I don't know anything about them. Where are they located?

I checked their website and they say that they first entered the reefkeeping hobby in 2004 and liked it so much that they created saltcritters.com in 2006.

I searched Reef Central and all I got was your new thread over there and the fact that you and I are the only two people in the entire world who have ever searched for them on Reef Central.

Did you run their name through their local Better Business Bureau? You would be amazed at what you can learn about some of these online vendors just by checking them out with the BBB first.

[Abaddon]

I wish I had. They sent the WORST corals and two of them were obliterated. They offered to give me credit on ONE of them but why would I ever order from someone who can't even mail me the first ones properly? I've never had a single coral die from liveaquaria.com or saltyunderground.com and they have always sent good quality stuff. The saltcritters.com people sent corals that looks like they cut them off the original with a butcher knife and them duct taped them to a frag mount. One of them was still held on with a rubber band! It was one of the ones that was trashed in shipment.

I was wondering if I was the only one disappointed in those guys. Anyone else? Looks like I should have asked around about them before I wasted my money.

[zhenya]

The saltcritters.com people sent corals that looks like they cut them off the original with a butcher knife and them duct taped them to a frag mount. One of them was still held on with a rubber band! It was one of the ones that was trashed in shipment.

I always prefer to receive frags not attached to anything, hence my frags usually freshly cut, well maybe day or two in advance. I prefer it this way because lots of things can hitchhike on those plugs and if you are not careful in examining your shipment you may end up as recipient of something you do not want in your aquarium (nuisance algae,pest anemones, etc.). You can always glue frags either directly to the live rock or to your own reef rubble or clean plugs.

This is not to say that you weren't hosed by these folks. If they sent you something that isn't what they advertised I would demand a full refund.

[Ninong]

SaltCritters.com is located in Reelsville, Indiana, so I ran them through the Central Indiana Better Business Bureau but they have no record on them.

Their "Guarantee" isn't all that much. They guarantee live arrival if UPS did not delay the overnight shipment. If you suspect something is dead on arrival, you must take a clear photo of it in the unopened bag and submit that to them within two hours of delivery. Their refund is limited to the cost of the item only. They do not refund S&H in either direction. Their refund will be in the form of store credit only. You must return the item you think is dead to them for inspection before they will consider giving you a store credit.

Their pricing is hilarious. Some examples:

Farmed Live Rock Rubble, regularly $15.76/lb, now only $6.99/lb.

Farmed Live Sand, regularly $18.99/lb, now only $6.99/lb.

2 oz. Frag Glue, regularly $24.99, now only $9.99.

For comparison, let's see what Premium Aquatics, located in Indianapolis, Indiana, charges for the same items:

Live Rock Rubble, $1.99/lb.

Aquacultured Live Sand, $2.00/lb.

2 oz. Reef Glue, $8.99.

Let's see how their livestock guarantees compare. Here's what Premium Aquatics says:

If you get livestock that you think is dead or close to it, just let us know and go ahead and acclimate the livestock like normal. If your new livestock dies within 12 hours or does not arrive alive we will give you a full instore credit for the animal. You can use the store credit for next livestock or drygood order, you do not have to reorder the same item. We do not put livestock credits back on your charge card, our instore credit does not expire though and we keep track of the balance for you. Shipping cost is not refundable unless it's a shipping company delay. Often bad weather conditions can void guarantees on shipping, we will always attempt to get you a full shipping refund if it's a late package.

Claiming that live rock rubble has a regular selling price of $15.76/lb is ridiculous. I still can't get over their sale price of $6.99/lb for rubble. Premium Aquatics sells excellent live rock rubble for only $1.99/lb. And they sell aquacultured live sand for $2.00/lb.

Caveat emptor!

[Leetch]

Sorry to hear your troubles - one place I've used is www.drsfostersmith.com and they also use www.liveaquaria.com. I've had no troubles with them at all, fantastic service and quality supplies. I haven't tried a frag yet but everything else came as described.

[zhenya]

Sorry to hear your troubles - one place I've used is www.drsfostersmith.com and they also use www.liveaquaria.com. I've had no troubles with them at all, fantastic service and quality supplies. I haven't tried a frag yet but everything else came as described.

Yes, he mentioned them in his last post as very reliable online source. There are really many online vendors that do whatever possible to provide excellent service and product, and then there are few that make hobbyists cringe when you mention ordering livestock online. I've tried many, many online stores and for the most part I was treated fairly and never really had any trouble like what Abbadon experienced.

Like Ninong mentioned, it is worth it to investigate the vendor, including their return and guarantee policy.

[greatreefer]

Has anyone else had dealings with these guys before? Op, please let me know if I'm in the wrong place to post this. I just want to see if I'm alone in feeling screwed over by these guys. They send stuff out in bags that are impossible to acclimate corals, the coral frags are too small to even be sold at that stage (including still being rubber banded to the rock because they won't stay on their own!), and the quality is HORRIBLE. I certainly won't be dealing with them again but I want to see if anyone else has had any GOOD experiences with them. Is this common for these guys?

First off this buyer skimped and chose GROUND 2 Day shipping in the middle of summer. Second i have never heard of trying to acclimate an item in the bag. Don't you usually poor the items in a bucket then acclimate them?? Our bags are big enough to hold water for the item and keep the item secure. Third all the sizes of the items are listed on the site. All frags have been healing for at least a month, most long enough that we have to refrag them. Forth, the rubber band was left on the plug because the item was GROWN to the rubber band.(have you ever tried to attach a soft coral to a frag plug before??) Lastly this buyer never asked for a refund. We offered one but they refused.

[greatreefer]

SaltCritters.com is located in Reelsville, Indiana, so I ran them through the Central Indiana Better Business Bureau but they have no record on them.

Their "Guarantee" isn't all that much. They guarantee live arrival if UPS did not delay the overnight shipment. If you suspect something is dead on arrival, you must take a clear photo of it in the unopened bag and submit that to them within two hours of delivery. Their refund is limited to the cost of the item only. They do not refund S&H in either direction. Their refund will be in the form of store credit only. You must return the item you think is dead to them for inspection before they will consider giving you a store credit.

Their pricing is hilarious. Some examples:

Farmed Live Rock Rubble, regularly $15.76/lb, now only $6.99/lb.

Farmed Live Sand, regularly $18.99/lb, now only $6.99/lb.

2 oz. Frag Glue, regularly $24.99, now only $9.99.

For comparison, let's see what Premium Aquatics, located in Indianapolis, Indiana, charges for the same items:

Live Rock Rubble, $1.99/lb.

Aquacultured Live Sand, $2.00/lb.

2 oz. Reef Glue, $8.99.

Let's see how their livestock guarantees compare. Here's what Premium Aquatics says:

If you get livestock that you think is dead or close to it, just let us know and go ahead and acclimate the livestock like normal. If your new livestock dies within 12 hours or does not arrive alive we will give you a full instore credit for the animal. You can use the store credit for next livestock or drygood order, you do not have to reorder the same item. We do not put livestock credits back on your charge card, our instore credit does not expire though and we keep track of the balance for you. Shipping cost is not refundable unless it's a shipping company delay. Often bad weather conditions can void guarantees on shipping, we will always attempt to get you a full shipping refund if it's a late package.

Claiming that live rock rubble has a regular selling price of $15.76/lb is ridiculous. I still can't get over their sale price of $6.99/lb for rubble. Premium Aquatics sells excellent live rock rubble for only $1.99/lb. And they sell aquacultured live sand for $2.00/lb.

Caveat emptor!

Did you even read the item description??? ALL of our non coral items have FREE SHIPPING!!! Premium aquatics does not! To have one pound of sand shipped to your door from premium aquatics would cost you $20.89 Thats $2 for the sand $7 for the box and $11.89 for shipping. please read the description fully before accusing us of ripping you off.

Also be sure to compare Our prices for coral with others. you will NEVER find a Acan frag for Under $10 elsewhere. Doesn't live aquaria want $200 for 3 frags!?

I have nothing against premium aquatics, as i buy alot of dry goods from them, just stating a point. I have bought from liveaquaria once. I just think there prices are outragious.

[Ninong]

Did you even read the item description??? ALL of our non coral items have FREE SHIPPING!!! Premium aquatics does not! To have one pound of sand shipped to your door from premium aquatics would cost you $20.89 Thats $2 for the sand $7 for the box and $11.89 for shipping. please read the description fully before accusing us of ripping you off.

Also be sure to compare Our prices for coral with others. you will NEVER find a Acan frag for Under $10 elsewhere. Doesn't live aquaria want $200 for 3 frags!?

I have nothing against premium aquatics, as i buy alot of dry goods from them, just stating a point. I have bought from liveaquaria once. I just think there prices are outragious.

Hi greatreefer,



Yes, I did read the description provided with those items. What I didn't do was move further along with the purchasing process by clicking on "Choose Options." I suggest you think about including the FREE SHIPPING part of the selling price right up there under the selling price on the FIRST PAGE of the description of the product you are trying to sell. That way you will avoid possible confusion in the future which could result in lost sales. I don't think everyone is going to go any further once they see the first page with the product photos and descriptions.

Farmed Live Rock Rubble, regularly $15.76/lb, now only $6.99/lb.

Farmed Live Sand, regularly $18.99/lb, now only $6.99/lb.

You might also want to consider putting that information somewhere on your Home Page.

Your Home Page does not create a good impression for your business. My first impression was of some kind of a fly-by-night operation with outrageous pricing claims that only an idiot would believe.

For example:

Utter Chaos Zoanthids
$750.00 $59.99

Farmed Grape Vine Acan Lord Frag
$98.00 $8.99

What you are claiming is that you previously sold those zoanthids for $750.00 but now they are on special for only $59.99, that you previously sold the Acan Lord frag for $98.00 but now it is reduced to $8.99. That's deceptive advertising.

Nowhere in your price description did you say "compare at" or any other such disclaimer. In fact, you struck out the previous price to indicate that those were YOUR previous prices.

If you want to claim that your price on an item is much cheaper than the competition, then what you must do is show your price and then just under your price you put "compare at" with the current selling price of the competition.

If you want to run a first class operation, I suggest you clean up your website. Right now it does not give a good first impression. Many people are going to take one look and then move on after they finish laughing. That's not what you want. What you want is to let people know right away what your prices are and how they compare to the competition. And for your live sand and live rock rubble, you need to make it very clear on the first page of the item's description what the price is, including shipping, for the various sizes. Show the shipped prices for the various sizes on the first page. Not many people are going to "Choose Options" if they think your original price description is laughable.

P.S. -- You may be interested in checking out this Reef Central thread. In that thread one of your potential customers talks about maybe buying 50 rics that you have advertised on eBay but he hesitates because he is put off by your product description and pricing.

Another member who actually did purchase a single ric from you on eBay tells him, "careful their shipping can be confusing."

The original topic starter, your potential customer, posts that he decided against buying your 50 rics for $200 because he was put off by your product description and pricing claims. You just didn't make a good first impression on this potential customer and you lost his business.

Here's how he described it: "Its tempting because its a good deal but I'd rather pay more and make sure I know what I'm getting. I bought from alexmarinelife on ebay($350 for 50 rics) and was very satisfied. But 50 rics for $200 sounds very tempting."

You lost that customer. He paid more nearly twice as much from another vendor because he was put off by your product description. The other vendor seemed more trustworthy to him.

[Ninong]

First off this buyer skimped and chose GROUND 2 Day shipping in the middle of summer.

If I were an online vendor, I would refuse to ship livestock in August using 2-day ground not matter what the customer wanted. Sometimes the customers don't understand that this is impossible. I don't know of any online vendors willing to ship livestock by ground shipping unless the customer lives in the 1-day zone. And even that is risky.

Live Aquaria.com ships livestock by next-day air. That includes all orders for: Fish, Corals, Invertebrates, Algae & Prebuilt Reef Cleaner Packages. That's their "Standard Shipping Method." Their only other option for livestock is Priority Overnight. Their standard shipping method for live rock and live sand is 2-day air with an upgrade to 1-day air available.

Second i have never heard of trying to acclimate an item in the bag.

The most common method for acclimating livestock is "in the bag."

Check out how Live Aquaria describes it on their website. Note that sensitive inverts, such as sea stars and snails, require a slow-drip acclimation.

You should consider including a printed copy of your recommended acclimation process with each shipment. Here's what Live Aquaria says on their website:

All live species orders will include a printed version of our detailed Acclimation Guide. Please follow the steps outlined in this guide carefully to ensure the good health of your new arrivals.

Don't you usually poor the items in a bucket then acclimate them??

That's another method but it is not the one usually recommended by most vendors. I know one large LFS that acclimates incoming shipments in the individual bags and another one that uses buckets, even combining items from more than one bag into the same bucket, which might be risky if the water parameters in the different bags were considerably different.

Acclimating corals is not nearly as tricky as acclimating certain fish. And then sea stars are an entirely different story, requiring extra special care.

Third all the sizes of the items are listed on the site.

If the frag is the size described, or larger, then there should be no complaint. I think 1/2" frags are really too small but you see a lot of them advertised. Frags from 3/4" on up are pretty much standard and as long as the item is properly described there should be no problem.

I have purchased fresh-cut frags and frags that were mounted and aged to the point where they had completely covered the base of the mount. Fresh-cut frags are cheaper and, as zhenya said, you can stick them whereever you want in your tank without having to deal with the mount.

[Ninong]

Has anyone else had dealings with these guys before? Op, please let me know if I'm in the wrong place to post this. I just want to see if I'm alone in feeling screwed over by these guys. They send stuff out in bags that are impossible to acclimate corals, the coral frags are too small to even be sold at that stage (including still being rubber banded to the rock because they won't stay on their own!), and the quality is HORRIBLE. I certainly won't be dealing with them again but I want to see if anyone else has had any GOOD experiences with them. Is this common for these guys?

Abaddon,

Did you read their shipping policies?

Unlimited Livestock items Ship For:

UPS Next Day Air: $49.99 (Guaranteed)
UPS Ground: $19.99 (NO Guarantee)

If you ordered live coral frags using UPS ground, then you have NO Guarantee. That's because the box is handled differently by UPS than boxes that are shipped Next Day Air. You can't expect live corals to arrive in good condition after they have been bouncing around in hot trucks for two days. The vendor even includes the UPS Ground shipping zones chart so that customers can see at a glance how long it will take for their order to arrive. All of Tennessee is in the 2-day delivery zone.

In the future, I suggest that whenever you order livestock from any vendor, you always specify next day air. Even 1-day ground is risky in this kind of weather.

[twisted]

i agree with Ninong...i was one of the potential customers because i saw some nice frags that i wanted but was a little turned off to a site that seemed to "overhype" itself. the prices are just scary to look at in a way, and very misleading. for example, rare zoa #27...honestly, is it truly rare? or the same zoas i have and most stores and sites have...i could go on, but i feel its unnecassary. The point is, be proud of the killer frags you have and sell them for what they are...no more, no less. i like buying small frags and watching them grow out. unfortunately, the wording and somewhat misleading descriptions sent me elsewhere.

[Ninong]

Abaddon,

I have always used Steve Tyree's method for acclimating stony corals. Here's how he describes it:

The newly arrived animal should be observed for any signs of tissue loss or color fading. A coral that is losing tissue should be quarantined and you should assume that heavy stress has occurred. The best way to acclimate a moderately stressed animal is to float its bag or place it in a separate container where it will slowly be acclimated to the captive reefs water temperature and chemistry. Make sure that the temperature of the water does not cool below the captive reefs temperature.

Once the coral is in water that is composed of at least 60 percent of the captive reefs, you can then dip it to kill any disease pathogens that may have proliferated in the shipping container. Many species of bacteria and protozoan can usually be found in small numbers living on the surface slime of these coral. Note - The coral blight problem in 1996 was due to a disease that was inside the coral. There really is no way to safely cure that disease without adding potentially lethal stress to the coral, considering typical transportation conditions. It is best to avoid importing corals with that type of disease which is what Dynamic Ecomorphology does.

The dip procedure to kill surface disease is 20 minutes in 1 liter of 100 percent captive reef water that has 10 drops of 5 percent Lugols solution (or 20 drops of the tincture of iodine found at local drug stores which is typically a 2.2 percent solution). You can then place the coral or fragment into your reef.

If you have any unmounted fragments, it is always better to give them 24 hours in a good reef to recover from transportation stress. This should only be done if you have a safe flat surface where the fragment will not be bumped off by snails or blown off by water current. If you cannot provide safe haven then they should be mounted right after the iodine dip.

I recommend using epoxy putty that comes in stick forms. Some have had good success with super glue. If using epoxy putty, stick the mixed putty to the rock out of water if possible. This makes the putty stick better. I also mount the fragment to the putty out of water, but quickly place it back underwater.

I highly recommend you put the mounted fragment in a seperate container while the epoxy is hardening. Then discard this water when done. It is also a good idea to redip the fragment 48 hours after mounting. Use the iodine dip procedure above. This is to prevent secondary infections which can occur due to the tissue that dies from contact with the attachment epoxy or glue.

When recieving coral colonies or large fragments. It is best to not place the newly arrived organisms into strong water current and strong light. This is because the animal has probably recieved stress and the thin tissue is very weak. Strong current can actually blow this weakened tissue right off the coral animal skeleton. Also strong light can cause photosynthesis to occur at too great a rate for the weakened animal to handle properly.

After the animal has recovered from shipping stress it can be placed into its recommended environment. The length of recovery time depends on how stressed the coral animal was during transportation. This time can vary from 24 hours to a week and a half. With experience you can develop an eye for determining healthy and recovered coral animal tissue.

I have always used 20 drops (1/4 tsp) of regular tincture of iodine in one liter of tankwater. Sometimes I leave the corals in for the full 20 minutes that Steve recommends and other times I chicken out and take them out sooner if there is a lot of sliming going on.

This is very important if you order any of those "maricultured" corals from Indonesia. Remember "maricultured" means grown out in the open ocean on racks and "aquacultured" means grown indoors in frag tanks. Maricultured corals are subject to the exact same risks as wild-collected corals and must be treated with caution. You might even want to consider placing them in quarantine for a few weeks before adding them to your display aquarium.

[greatreefer]

Hi greatreefer,



Yes, I did read the description provided with those items. What I didn't do was move further along with the purchasing process by clicking on "Choose Options." I suggest you think about including the FREE SHIPPING part of the selling price right up there under the selling price on the FIRST PAGE of the description of the product you are trying to sell. That way you will avoid possible confusion in the future which could result in lost sales. I don't think everyone is going to go any further once they see the first page with the product photos and descriptions.

Farmed Live Rock Rubble, regularly $15.76/lb, now only $6.99/lb.

Farmed Live Sand, regularly $18.99/lb, now only $6.99/lb.

You might also want to consider putting that information somewhere on your Home Page.

Your Home Page does not create a good impression for your business. My first impression was of some kind of a fly-by-night operation with outrageous pricing claims that only an idiot would believe.

For example:

Utter Chaos Zoanthids
$750.00 $59.99

Farmed Grape Vine Acan Lord Frag
$98.00 $8.99

What you are claiming is that you previously sold those zoanthids for $750.00 but now they are on special for only $59.99, that you previously sold the Acan Lord frag for $98.00 but now it is reduced to $8.99. That's deceptive advertising.

Nowhere in your price description did you say "compare at" or any other such disclaimer. In fact, you struck out the previous price to indicate that those were YOUR previous prices.

If you want to claim that your price on an item is much cheaper than the competition, then what you must do is show your price and then just under your price you put "compare at" with the current selling price of the competition.

If you want to run a first class operation, I suggest you clean up your website. Right now it does not give a good first impression. Many people are going to take one look and then move on after they finish laughing. That's not what you want. What you want is to let people know right away what your prices are and how they compare to the competition. And for your live sand and live rock rubble, you need to make it very clear on the first page of the item's description what the price is, including shipping, for the various sizes. Show the shipped prices for the various sizes on the first page. Not many people are going to "Choose Options" if they think your original price description is laughable.

P.S. -- You may be interested in checking out this Reef Central thread. In that thread one of your potential customers talks about maybe buying 50 rics that you have advertised on eBay but he hesitates because he is put off by your product description and pricing.

Another member who actually did purchase a single ric from you on eBay tells him, "careful their shipping can be confusing."

The original topic starter, your potential customer, posts that he decided against buying your 50 rics for $200 because he was put off by your product description and pricing claims. You just didn't make a good first impression on this potential customer and you lost his business.

Here's how he described it: "Its tempting because its a good deal but I'd rather pay more and make sure I know what I'm getting. I bought from alexmarinelife on ebay($350 for 50 rics) and was very satisfied. But 50 rics for $200 sounds very tempting."

You lost that customer. He paid more nearly twice as much from another vendor because he was put off by your product description. The other vendor seemed more trustworthy to him.

Some valid points on the rock. It stated on the shipping page that dry goods have free shipping. i might have to change the title on those. The striked out pricing is the suggested retail price or prices i have seen them sold at. I know in most of the items i put what i have seen them sold for. I don't believe in gouging the prices up. Some prices that people charge are nuts! like $700 for a tiny chalice. come on. i saw the Utter Chaos Zoanthids on wetthumbfrags.com for $150 a polyp it states that in the description.

I haven't sold on ebay for about 9 months now. Im not sure how $19.99 for ground and $49.99 for overnight is confusing though. All they have to do is ask questions if they have them.

[greatreefer]

If I were an online vendor, I would refuse to ship livestock in August using 2-day ground not matter what the customer wanted. Sometimes the customers don't understand that this is impossible. I don't know of any online vendors willing to ship livestock by ground shipping unless the customer lives in the 1-day zone. And even that is risky.

Live Aquaria.com ships livestock by next-day air. That includes all orders for: Fish, Corals, Invertebrates, Algae & Prebuilt Reef Cleaner Packages. That's their "Standard Shipping Method." Their only other option for livestock is Priority Overnight. Their standard shipping method for live rock and live sand is 2-day air with an upgrade to 1-day air available.


The most common method for acclimating livestock is "in the bag."

Check out how Live Aquaria describes it on their website. Note that sensitive inverts, such as sea stars and snails, require a slow-drip acclimation.

You should consider including a printed copy of your recommended acclimation process with each shipment. Here's what Live Aquaria says on their website:

All live species orders will include a printed version of our detailed Acclimation Guide. Please follow the steps outlined in this guide carefully to ensure the good health of your new arrivals.

That's another method but it is not the one usually recommended by most vendors. I know one large LFS that acclimates incoming shipments in the individual bags and another one that uses buckets, even combining items from more than one bag into the same bucket, which might be risky if the water parameters in the different bags were considerably different.

Acclimating corals is not nearly as tricky as acclimating certain fish. And then sea stars are an entirely different story, requiring extra special care.


If the frag is the size described, or larger, then there should be no complaint. I think 1/2" frags are really too small but you see a lot of them advertised. Frags from 3/4" on up are pretty much standard and as long as the item is properly described there should be no problem.

I have purchased fresh-cut frags and frags that were mounted and aged to the point where they had completely covered the base of the mount. Fresh-cut frags are cheaper and, as zhenya said, you can stick them whereever you want in your tank without having to deal with the mount.

We did just offer overnight shipping but had ALOT of people complaining. Especially the ones in the one day area. They wanted ground back.

I still have never heard of acclimating items in the bag. Saltwaterfish.com even suggest to put the items in the shipping cooler. Even if the bag was big enough how the heck are you supposed to keep it from falling over and holding all that water? I guess you could put it in a bucket but that would defeat the whole bag idea. Buckets are so much easier.

We put the frag size of the smallest frag we have. For example our acans, we have most of them described as 1+ head because there are still a few that only have one head. We always send the biggest frag we have though.

The kenya the buyer said came was held on by a rubber band was held on by a rubber band in the beginning. It was grown onto the rubberband and plug by the time we sold it. We would have removed the rubber band but risked detaching it from the plug so we just left it.

[Ninong]

The striked out pricing is the suggested retail price or prices i have seen them sold at.

Except that you can't do that. It's actually illegal in most states. I know what the law is in California and Louisiana but that's about it. For starters, if you want to advertise a reduced price, you must have previously had that same item for sale at the regular price for a certain period of time. In your case, there are no MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail prices) prices for your livestock items, so you wouldn't be forced to show discounts from MSRP but if you're trying to claim a discount from what you have seen the same items sold for on other sites, then you have to say "Compare at $...," not use a stike out of the high price.

That's why Macy's keeps offering their stuff for the regular price for a month, or whatever, before putting it back on sale. No one in their right mind would buy anything from Macy's at the regular price.

Just remember, it's not what you think looks good, it's what your potential customers think looks good. So far the only comments I have seen about your business on Reefland and Reef Central are negative, except for that one guy who said he bought a single ric from you on eBay but warned others that he found your shipping confusing. Do you remember how you described shipping in your eBay ads back in June 2009? That's when that other dude paid $350 for 50 rics from some other vendor instead of $200 for 50 ricks from you because your ad scared him off.

[Ninong]

We did just offer overnight shipping but had ALOT of people complaining. Especially the ones in the one day area. They wanted ground back.

Notice what Dr. Mac offers. He's based in Maryland. Priority Overnight is his standard shipping method (that's even quicker than 1-day air) but he will agree to ship livestock via USP Ground only for customers who live in the one-day UPS delivery zone and only if they pick up their package at the UPS office before noon. In other words, if they let it get delivered by truck, then there is no guarantee. His shipping is a flat rate of $36.99 for Priority Overnight or $15.99 for Zone 1 UPS Ground. If the customer chooses UPS Ground and he lives in Zone 1, he must pick up his package between 9 a.m. and 12 noon or there is no guarantee.

Notice that Dr. Mac's guarantee is that livestock will remain alive in your tank for at least 48 hours. You have to call them within 48 hours if there is a problem.

Live Aquaria.com guarantees that livestock will remain alive for at least 14 days in your tank, except that the guarantee on their certified captive-grown corals is 30 days.

I still have never heard of acclimating items in the bag.

Sure you have, I just posted the link to Live Aquaria.com's acclimation instructions for you in my previous post. Go back and click on the link and read what they have to say. Here, I'll post it for you again: Acclimation Guide. They explain the "in the bag" method for acclimating livestock. They also discuss the slow-drip method using a dedicated bucket for sensitive livestock, such as certain inverts or wrasses. They are by far the largest online livestock vendor in the U.S.

Here's another one for you: Dr. Mac's acclimation instructions on how he wants you to acclimate livestock in the bag.

Personally I prefer the slow-drip method in a separate container, such as a clean bucket, instead of the original bag for fairy wrasses. Large male fairy wrasses can get extremely stressed during overnight shipping and I have found that a slow-drip method over several hours in a clean bucket works best for them. I have acclimated everything else in the bag without problems, although you do have to be creative to keep the bags floating upright. It can be done because I've done it lots of times.

For starters, you have to turn off the metal halides. Then what I did was connect the bags together and attach "weights" suspended from 2' lengths of heavy string to the bags to keep them all up against the inside front glass of the tank so that they wouldn't be blown all over the place by my Sea-Swirls. You dangle the cord with the "anchors" over the side of the tank. I used 3/4" PVC elbows as anchors.

Also, if you have a lot of stuff to acclimate all at once, then what you can do is set up a large separate Rubbermaid tub, or whatever, with saltwater that you removed from your aquarium the day before, or morning before, during a regular water change. You stick a heater in that tub to keep the water at the correct temperature (if necessary). Then when you receive your order, you open it up right away and start floating the bags in this tub of saltwater that you previously removed from your aquarium. You can even scoop the tankwater from this tub to add to the bags. The water that you remove from the bags should be discarded. When you are done, you throw away the tankwater from the tub. I only do this if I have a large order of inverts that I am worried about. I wouldn't do this with fish. I usually float bags with fish in the display tank and acclimate them for an hour, except for fairy wrasses.

[greatreefer]

Notice what Dr. Mac offers. He's based in Maryland. Priority Overnight is his standard shipping method (that's even quicker than 1-day air) but he will agree to ship livestock via USP Ground only for customers who live in the one-day UPS delivery zone and only if they pick up their package at the UPS office before noon. In other words, if they let it get delivered by truck, then there is no guarantee. His shipping is a flat rate of $36.99 for Priority Overnight or $15.99 for Zone 1 UPS Ground. If the customer chooses UPS Ground and he lives in Zone 1, he must pick up his package between 9 a.m. and 12 noon or there is no guarantee.

Notice that Dr. Mac's guarantee is that livestock will remain alive in your tank for at least 48 hours. You have to call them within 48 hours if there is a problem.

Live Aquaria.com guarantees that livestock will remain alive for at least 14 days in your tank, except that the guarantee on their certified captive-grown corals is 30 days.


Sure you have, I just posted the link to Live Aquaria.com's acclimation instructions for you in my previous post. Go back and click on the link and read what they have to say. Here, I'll post it for you again: Acclimation Guide. They explain the "in the bag" method for acclimating livestock. They also discuss the slow-drip method using a dedicated bucket for sensitive livestock, such as certain inverts or wrasses. They are by far the largest online livestock vendor in the U.S.

Here's another one for you: Dr. Mac's acclimation instructions on how he wants you to acclimate livestock in the bag.

Personally I prefer the slow-drip method in a separate container, such as a clean bucket, instead of the original bag for fairy wrasses. Large male fairy wrasses can get extremely stressed during overnight shipping and I have found that a slow-drip method over several hours in a clean bucket works best for them.

We will never offer a gaurantee longer than a few hours. Due to the fact i have had maybe 5 customers Complain there item died after putting it in there FRESHWATER tank. Once it leaves our bags the gaurantee is done. For all we know your putting it in a cylcing reef tank or a gold fish tank, ect.

On the acclimating, let me reword that. I have never seen anyone personaly do it in the bags. Bigger bags would also require bigger boxes and more exspensive shipping or higher livestock prices.

[greatreefer]

Except that you can't do that. It's actually illegal in most states. I know what the law is in California and Louisiana but that's about it. For starters, if you want to advertise a reduced price, you must have previously had that same item for sale at the regular price for a certain period of time. In your case, there are no MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail prices) prices for your livestock items, so you wouldn't be forced to show discounts from MSRP but if you're trying to claim a discount from what you have seen the same items sold for on other sites, then you have to say "Compare at $...," not use a stike out of the high price.

That's why Macy's keeps offering their stuff for the regular price for a month, or whatever, before putting it back on sale. No one in their right mind would buy anything from Macy's at the regular price.

Just remember, it's not what you think looks good, it's what your potential customers think looks good. So far the only comments I have seen about your business on Reefland and Reef Central are negative, except for that one guy who said he bought a single ric from you on eBay but warned others that he found your shipping confusing. Do you remember how you described shipping in your eBay ads back in June 2009? That's when that other dude paid $350 for 50 rics from some other vendor instead of $200 for 50 ricks from you because your ad scared him off.

Iv never heard of it being illegal. I see it all over the place.