View Full Version : Where to buy plants online
LimnoMan
10-10-2005, 2:28 PM
I am setting up a 75g planted tank. I have kept plants in other tanks before but have always bought them from local stores where the selection is not great (seems to be getting worse). I am wondering where some good online suppliers are, I've heard bad things about florida driftwood, and have seen some other sites that look fairly good but I want to make sure I go through a good supplier. I am not 100% sure what plants I am going to keep but it will probably include Jungle Val, some kind of moss for attachment such as java moss, crypts, maybe a sword, not sure about a foreground plant, and other plants I might find interesting. Any help would be appreciated.
phanmc
10-10-2005, 2:36 PM
I've had good results ordering from www.aquabotanic.com. Good selection of plants and Robert is beginning to offer some rarer plants.
If you want some really rare plants and are willing to pay for international shipping ($40+ shipping alone), www.greenchapter.com offers some really nice and unique plants. Very good experience with them so far.
www.aquabid.com has some nice bidding oppurtunities too.
newbeestl
10-11-2005, 9:24 AM
Is shipping usually pretty expensive for live plants?
Do any places offer free shipping? :help:
beviking
10-11-2005, 12:37 PM
Not to my knowledge. Most places will offer garaunteed live plants only if you pay for overnight shipping (like $30!). Most plants are fine en route if you opt for priority mail (2-3 days).
Aquabid (buying from other hobbyists etc.) has some awesome oportunities to get many plants for less money. I personally would garauntee live arrival on any plants I send via priority mail.
I've had great results dealing with aquariumplants.com.
HTH
Bill
LimnoMan
10-11-2005, 8:25 PM
thanks for the info phanmc, aquabotanic was actually one of the sites I filled my cart in just to see how much shipping was and save the info for later think I'll probably order there.
guaiac_boy
10-13-2005, 8:44 AM
Don Mitakis works (owns?) a site called freshwateraquariumplants.com that I've found to be great to work with. They have some nice packages for about any size of tank and they customize it based on your substrate, lighting, pH, likes, dislikes, etc.
He regularly includes "extras" and the plants are MUCH nicer than I've seen at any LFS. He will also personally respond to e-mails and phone calls which is a nice touch. Their selection is perhaps limitted compared to some of the sites out there, but they have all the "regulars" and a few exotics.
For me, it basically comes down to service and you can't go wrong with them. Shipping is reasonable - 7 or 8$ for 2/3 day and more for overnight. I've not had any problems with 2/3 day, but wouldn't recommend it during peak summer or winter temperatures.
nursie
10-13-2005, 9:16 AM
I have bought plants off ebay and been happy with the results. If you're interested, I can tell you the user names.
merlin4260
10-13-2005, 8:39 PM
Stay away from floridadriftwood.com I placed my order about 3 and a half weeks ago. They told me 2 weeks in a row that my order would ship. I e-mailed them last week and said if it didn't ship this week I wanted my order canceled. As far as I know it has not shipped, I e-mailed them yesterday and told them to cancel, then sometime last night they charged my credit card. Obviously not a good experience.
phoenix
10-13-2005, 8:56 PM
i second Aqua Botanic (http://www.aquabotanic.com/)
LimnoMan
10-13-2005, 10:51 PM
I have not tried ebay for plants yet nursie. I am curious though if you know of anyone in central Illinois with a good selection of plants, I noticed you were from Peoria and I am living in Springfield so if there are any good shops there I would look there first. Also I was curious if the Tri-county tropical fish society is still active, I used to belong for a couple of years and just kind of slowed down on the hobby for a while.
LimnoMan
10-13-2005, 10:55 PM
Ickkk, thanks fot the info on floridadrifwood merlin. I'm new to the forum and I think it's great that your trying to protect other members from bad retailers. This forum has been very helpful and hopefully we can make sure people have good experiences and cost bad retailers some $$$ and reputation.
beviking
10-14-2005, 8:22 AM
Nursie, do you find "good deals" on ebay? I've only browse a few times and thought most were too pricey compared to aquabid.com. Maybe I just need to look more?
Roan Art
10-20-2005, 5:24 AM
I've bought quite a few plants from LiveAquaria.com (http://LiveAquaria.com ) and never had a problem except with my own ignorance :)
I've bought fish from them, too. And inverts. Only had problems with a Cherry Fire Shrimp that arrived DOA and they credited my account for that.
Roan