My Online Ordering Experiences, for info

I’ve been setting up a new, freshwater tropical tank and want have it well planted. I thought I would give online ordering a shot.

I carefully chose the types of plants I wanted and found two vendors that had them. I placed BOTH orders at the same time. They BOTH shipped at the same time and BOTH arrived at the same time. I asked for 2 day shipping from both.

Now, bare in mind, it is winter. The day I ordered them it was cold but the temp dropped to below zero between the time I placed the order and when they shipped.

Freshwater Aquarium Plants - http://freshwateraquariumplants.com/

Order arrived packaged in a box lined with Styrofoam sheets. All of the various plants where in separate bags, wrapped in newspaper, then ALL of them were wrapped in newspaper. There was only minor cold damage to the leaves of two of the plants. Overall, I appreciated the service.


Aquarium Plants - http://www.aquariumplants.com/Default.asp

Order arrived in small, thin box. ALL of the plants where in one bad that had about 10 layers of packing tape wrapped around it. It took me quite a while to just OPEN the friggin thing! There was only ONE layer of newspaper wrapped around it. ALL of the plants where frozen and looked like boiled spinach. I managed to save a few of the Sagittaria sublata by trimming off all the dead stuff and I have about a 1/ 3 of them. The rest were a total loss! When emailed about this, they basically said, “Tough, you should have ordered overnight.” (Which was around $50/ doubling the amount I was paying.)

So, do NOT order from Aquarium Plants. They will rip you off and say it’s your fault.
 
how do people feel about ordering fish online? do you think it is better to just find someting at the lfs? i dont drive...and the one good lfs is quite a bit away. what do you think?
 
I would get any live stock from the LFS if they had it. Mine doesn't even have plants.
 
i ordered plants from aquarium plants as well and experienced the same thing, thin box, massive amounts of tape, etc. the plants arrived alive, some though looked a bit shady and my java moss is still trying to turn green. not giving up on it. needless to say, don't order from them, especially during the winter. i have ordered fish and corals from liveaquaria.com a few years ago when my tank was saltwater, and everything came to me alive and healthy except one coral that didn't look so good. i also ordered supplies from drs foster and smith and received my order in two days and packaged well.
 
I've had good luck ordering from Aquariumplants. I paid for overnight shipping though...and ordered in the summer or fall.

If your LFS doesn't have fish you want, I'd try Aquabid.com.
 
Update: I just got a reply from azgardens and got store credit for the DOA otos. I think I'll try it again and post my results here.
 
I've ordered from www.bigalsonline.com, www.petsolutions.com and www.drsfostersmith.com - all have shipped what I ordered and in a timely manner - will order again in a heart beat. www.ahsupply.com - I've never ordered from this company, but when I need lights, they'll be the one. I called ahsupply last friday and asked a few questions. The gentleman spent over ten minutes answering all of my questions and giving helpful suggestions - top quality stuff.
 
www.azgardens.com - ordered six otos, and a LOAD of plants. They have a detailed shipping schedule so they waited a couple weeks to ship but it shipped and arrived according to their plans. The six otos were basically frozen and all upside down and stiff in the bag. The plants were wonderful. Here is how the box was packed:

top of box
-------
very small heat pack
about 8 inches thick of plants in plastic bags
1 bag with all six dead otos in it wrapped in newspaper
-------
bottom of box

I floated the bag to see if they would come back to life from the cold but it was no use. I can't tell if they died from the cold or lack of air from being crammed in one bag.

I sent them an email per their instructions for a DOA fish and a suggestion to wrap three heat packs in the newspaper with the fish instead of on the other side of the box. No reply was sent back, though I expected one since their policy states that store credit is given for DOAs.


Yet another horror story from azgardens. I have heard a lots of bad things about that place.
 
I've only ordered from Big Al's, Drs Foster & Smith, and AH Supply. I was amazed at the thoroughness of AH Supply's lighting kits and instructions. So easy a caveman could do it. I've had nothing but great service from all three of these online stores.

you better hope that the cavemen in that geiko commercial dont browse through this website lol.

I ordered some olive nerite snails and anacharis from http://www.jayscustomcomputers.com/wilma/

everything and more(she threw in an extra snail free) came 2 days after she recieved my money order. great email communication.
 
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