|
If you are considering
placing an order online, starting a reef tank or are having problems with an existing
one, you've come to the right place. Check out the
many AquaCorals customer remarks & successful reef tanks
below. They should give you confidence
that if you order online from AquaCorals you will receive
exactly what you want & in beautiful condition. Also,
for those of you who follow my recommendations for setup &
maintenance,
you too will have a tank of beauty!
If you are already a customer,
I'd
love to hear from you. I love receiving pictures of your tank(s) &
"Customer Testimonials" from you.
E-mail me describing your
tank & your experience with AquaCorals.
I'll post it here!
|
"... I also want to say thanks again for taking care of me
on this situation, I consider it above and beyond in the
range of customer service, I truly appreciate it. I cant
wait to come down again to see what else you've gotten in
since my last visit.
Thanks,
Erick
Bangor, ME
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
I really want to thank you for
taking the time to give me all that helpful information and
point me in the right direction starting in this awesome
hobby. The trip was totally worth the drive!!
Eric
New Hampshire
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
Hi Penny,
I wanted to let everyone in
on my experience and the great outcome from finding your
store on line. I have a 75 gal tank, have had it for
around three years and started to notice things finally
growing out of my live rock I was so excited until they
were everywhere in the sand, all over my rock, and three
of them were huge! I e-mailed Penny and very quickly
she responded to tell me they were aiptasia and they
were very bad.
Penny suggested I purchase a
Lemon peel Angel. I brought one home thinking no way
would this one fish take care of my HUGE problem.
Within 2 weeks all the aiptasia are gone except the 3
big ones that I have thought about injecting but the
angel seems to be picking away at them, so I might wait
and see what happens. Thank you so much for the great
advice Penny! I am a new comer to Aqua Corals and have
really enjoyed talking with you and just looking at your
beautiful tanks.
Thanks again
Leaslie
Wiscasset, ME
|
|
Subject:
Lemon Peel and Aiptasia
Hi Penny,
Just wanted to say, thank
you for your advise on the Lemon peel Angel. Like Leaslie, I
too had a problem with aiptasia. After the first couple of
weeks I didn't see any difference, and didn't think it was
going to work. However, today when I was cleaning the
tank, they were almost gone. It seems that Mr. Lemon
Peel has munched most of the pesky aiptasia away. I
still have a couple of large ones in the tank, but the
smaller ones are gone and I am confident that he will clean
up the rest of the problem. Thanks for all you do!
Kelly
Burnham, ME
|
|
4/08: Happy 1 Year
Birthday! Customer Tank: Tom & Dawn's 90
Gallon!
I am proud to
feature this tank. Setup using the AquaCorals
"recipe" Tom & Dawn's tank has blossomed & "grown"
in just a few months. Click on any of the
pictures to see a larger, more detailed version.
|
3/07 - Newly set up. Only 2 coralline "seed"
rocks.
|
6/07 - In just 3 months!! |
 |
4/08 & what a beautiful transformation & gorgeous
reef tank! Tom & Dawn's tank is a true
testament to the success of this system as well as
to their personal commitment to it.
Congratulations Tom & Dawn &
Happy Birthday! :c) |
|
|
Subject:
Thank You
Penny,
I just wanted to send you a quick email to say thank you.
My wife and I were very impressed by you and your store. It
is nice to see a store owner care for their live stock as
much as the people purchasing it does. Unfortunately that
is not always the case in your profession. The Xenia is
doing great. Opened immediately once in the tank, and has
since attached itself to the rock is was placed on, and the
snails... Their never ending appetite is amazing. They
will have the tank spotless in no time. Again thanks and we
are looking forward to seeing you again. You and your store
are well worth the trip.
Aaron & Rachel
Berwick, ME
|
|
Subject: Xenia Split
Hi Penny,
I came back to Bangor today after visiting my parents &
stopped into the office and my Xenia is now two Xenia's!
It's amazing how quickly this Canary Coral has grown.
Everything's looking really nice. ... I was in Portland this
weekend and checked out another reef/saltwater store. The
corals were bleaching or bleached, some of the fish were not
healthy (or reef safe), one tank had two huge Aptasia's
growing in it, and the way the water was circulated was
leaving bubbles all over the coral, many of the corals were
dying, they had a what would have been a beautiful pink
hammer coral that was down for the count. There were so many
customers in the store buying things left and right. This
experience made me aware of the knowledge I have gained
since being introduced into this hobby, following your
advice and learning from your experience has made me a more
knowledgeable consumer, and a more competent reefer. I want
to express my thanks for the help and wisdom you've shared
with me as my mentor.
Have a great week,
Scott M.
Old Town, ME
|
|
Thank you for the opportunity to share my
experience regarding starting and maintaining a saltwater
aquarium. I have been in this hobby for almost five years
and I'm hooked. Initially, I went the unconventional route
of reading, gathering information on-line, and purchasing
corals/fish at Pet Shops along with on-line not knowing
Penny was available to assist me. My first meeting with Penny was
information, reassuring, and comforting to know I could turn
my failures into success. She was so knowledgeable and so
accessible to me. I have been working with Penny for well
almost four years and have been extremely successful with my
current corals and fish tank. Television is a thing of
the past. I love sitting in front of my fish tank for hours
enjoying the fish and admiring how beautiful the aquascape
is.
Penny is more than an expert at saltwater aquariums. She's a
friend. Thank you for helping me be confident and successful
in this fun hobby.
Sincerely,
Johnna Bowen
Benton, ME
|
Title: Fish Color vs. Food Quality
Hi Penny,
I’ve always fed my tank the foods
that you’ve recommended. I used to
feed them a mixture of Mysis shrimp,
cyclopeeze, and formula two flake.
After my last visit to you, I
replaced the mysis with PE Mysis.
Until recently I always bought my
fish in groups and I’ve only bought
fish from three different sources.
The fish I’ve bought from you have
always been beautifully colored in
your tanks and they continue to
maintain their colors months after
I’ve brought them home. Some time
ago, I purchased a pair of
oscellaris clowns from another
location. They looked great,
healthy, they acclimated well, and
they were eating well. The smaller
one never really adjusted to it’s
new surroundings and after a month
of increasingly timid behavior, it
died. A few months ago I bought my
remaining clown a new buddy from the
same store that the pair originally
came from. When I was in the store,
this new little guy looked great.
His color was good, fins, behavior,
eating, so I brought him home.
After he acclimated and I released
him, he headed straight down for
the frogspawn that my established
clown is hosting and guess who came
out to greet him. Aside from the
fact that it was one of the cutest
moments I’ve seen in my tank when
the established clown came swimming
up and did a body twist like I never
saw before to say “Hey buddy”, it
was then that I noticed that the new
clown was such a pale orange in
comparison to my established one
that I was almost worried. To make
a long story a little shorter….Today
they are both a beautiful deep
orange. They look today like they
came from the mother instead of
looking like different species when
they first met up.
Thank you for recommending high
quality food, but even more
important than that.. Thank you for
feeding your fish the same high
quality food you recommend even
though it’s more costly instead of
cutting corners.
Thanks as always,
Paul
|
|
Hi Penny,
Can you
believe that almost a year has passed
since I first walked into your shop? It
was Labor Day weekend that I had set up
a saltwater tank with no knowledge of
how to do so. I had visited your shop
many months prior to that, but hadn't
convinced myself to take the plunge yet.
It was on my mind though, that's why I
got it going on Labor Day. Then I
decided to take a little trip to see
your place. That was the beginning of my
reef addiction for sure! !!!! I remember
clearly when I told you how I had my
sand placed in it, you said I had it
backwards. I had coarse on bottom and
fine on top You said fine goes on
bottom-coarse on top. I was so ticked
that I hadn't come to you sooner. I had
worked all day getting it set up wrong.
haha. So, reluctantly, I went home,
drained it, took out what seemed to be a
ton of sand, removed all of the rocks,
put it all back correctly. got the sump
set up, hooked up the overflow box
(another one of your suggestions when I
was there) and away we went again! Only
this time, it was right. It worked and I
have a beautiful tank to show for it. I
may have ignored someone else, but the
appearance of your shop with its beauty
and comfy atmosphere made me feel so
good that I wanted to have a tank of my
own that made me feel that way.
And now I do. My husband was sold on
your ideas from the beginning. He said
that your shop was so beautiful that it
was apparent that you knew what you were
doing and that we should listen to
you. Since then I've had some beautiful
corals from your shop and many I've
split, many have grown so much that I
had to set up a new tank. Ya right! Had
too?? This hobby has truly consumed me.
Its the best hobby I've ever had in my
life. I enjoy it every day and never get
tired of looking at it or taking care of
it. I faithfully do 10% water changes
every week .My tank perimeters are
always perfect and the water is always
crystal clear. I wouldn't have this
beautiful tank if it wasn't for
you, your advice, helpful hints, know
how and most of all your patience.
You taught me how to set a tank up that
would remain stable and beautiful for
years to come. I now have one
beautiful tank and another heading in
that direction.
See you
soon!
Thank you so much.
Glenda Knowlan
Wayne, ME
|
|
I really appreciate your
attentiveness and care to your product
and service.....it is unfortunately a
rarity these days. It sounds like you
love this hobby as much as I do and can
relate to how important it is for me to
succeed.... I
will speak to you soon.....thanks again
Penny.
Brian, New Jersey
|
|
Subject: Kent RO filter
Hi Penny,
When I was setting up my reef, I went
with all of the equipment you
recommended with one exception. I
decided that I could save some money if
I bought an RO/DI filter on EBay instead
of getting the Kent Ro filter that you
recommended.
As my reef settled
down from all the cycling and expected
initial algae blooms etc, I seemed to be
contending with much more algae,
planaria, and cyano than I should have.
I wasn’t overfeeding, lighting was
appropriate, I added an additional
powerhead to eliminate flow as a
potential cause, and finally I had my
water tested for TDS. The output of my
DI was reading 33 TDS. DI should be at
zero and RO should be far below 33
itself.
I finally listened to
you and bought a Kent RO filter. I
haven’t tested the TDS of the new RO,
but I don’t have to. The difference has
been more apparent with every weekly
water change I’ve done since. Algae
growth has slowed to the point now that
it’s not growing back where I remove it
from. I have not had any cyano trying
to take hold since the first new Ro
water change. The top of my sand is
staying much cleaner with each change.
The coloring of the sand bed against the
glass is becoming much less pronounced
again with each change. The growth of
green on the inside of my glass has
slowed considerably as well.
In short, as you said,
the Kent Ro filter made a huge
difference. Trying to save that money
up front was certainly not worth it with
all the additional work and aggravation
over the past months. Thank you for
recommending top quality products like
this!
Thanks
Paul - NH
|
|
Hi Penny,
The corals arrived
yesterday and after acclimating they
are loving their new home. They are
absolutely gorgeous!! We'll be
ordering from you again and many
many thanks for sending us the
largest you had. We'll be talking
with you again soon.
Take care and have
a wonderful weekend yourself.
Mr & Mrs White, MO
|
|
Hi Penny,
Everything arrived in tact. The brown
polyps have opened up and can't tell
they have been shipped..."
Drew,
Greensboro, NC
|
|
Thanks for the follow up Penny!
Everything arrived in perfect condition!
Thank you so much….Hopefully will be
adding to my tank soon so I’ll
definitely be in touch.
Jason,
Bradenton, Fl
|
To: 'Penny - AquaCorals'
Hi Penny,
I just wanted to share a quick update
with you regarding my reef.
I’ve crossed the 5 month mark and things
are going quite well, really. My buddies
in the reef have survived a few power
outages over the winter and everyone is
looking happy and healthy. I have to
thank you for the confidence to overcome
my latest two challenges. The first was
Cyano bacteria. Hopefully anyone with a
new reef will believe you when you tell
them that they can expect many forms of
algae and bacteria outbreaks within the
first year of their reef. Cyano may be
the most trying between visible patches
and required maintenance.
As you told me, low flow is a major
contributing factor to cyano. In
addition to your recommended
scrapings/siphons/nettings of the cyano,
I added an extra powerhead and again at
your recommendation left the lights off
completely for two days and I have not
seen cyano since then. As I read forums
etc about the hobby, that is a huge
victory and I only did what you
recommended. Thank you.
The next scourge is red flatworms. I
have to admit that I panicked when I
first saw them. I wanted to pull the
rock I saw them on, get natural
‘feeders’, quite frankly the day I first
saw them, I may have done anything,
whether it was the right thing to do or
not….
The advice I got from you was to relax.
Go figure!
You told me that these little guys
aren’t really the scourge they are made
out to be. You told me to maintain my
10% weekly water changes, siphon any of
these critters I could see, and stay the
course. Ha! Imagine that I’m the
skeptic, but wetwebmedia completely
agreed with you. They mentioned
potential natural predators but they may
have also threatened my existing reef
population, so even though they were all
included in my initial email to you,
they were all excluded from the fix.
Patience became the mantra.
This wasn’t new. The months it took me
to build my system proved that nothing
worthwhile would come quickly. You told
me to stay on course with my weekly 10%
water changes, siphoning of the red
flatworms as possible, and run carbon
and phosphate remover hard.
The next step, I think makes a huge leap
of faith that starts at the beginning of
the reef.
What do I know? The answer to that is
Nothing.
One of the huge reasons that I built a
reef according to Penny’s specifications
is that Penny is right. I don’t know
better than her, If I want to start a
reef that builds it’s success on what
Penny has seen, Then when Penny says be
patient, I’m patient!.
My red flatworm population recently
reduced by 2/3 with no action on my part
but regular water changes and siphoning
and attention to water parameters. I was
doing just this and overnight the
flatworms reduced by 2/3 easily. They
are still there, but what Penny told me,
that my patience would be rewarded, is
true.
As always , I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks
Paul, NH
PS...Methods
are just methods, methods and in a
science of opinions, one is as good as
another. I’ve yet to find a true mentor
besides you. Every lfs has their
prescribed ideal system, but do any of
them give the bottom line like you do in
your “Tips for beginners”? Of all the
‘stuff’ I read online before I started
building anything, nothing made more
sense than that. That set the hook.
=)
|
To: Penny - AquaCorals
Subject: Re: Another Newcomer--Another
Question
Hi Penny,
Thank you for the great experience at
your store yesterday. What a place and
wow you must work around the clock to
keep everything going. I'll definitely
be back with styrofoam and some choices
next week.
"...Thanks for everything,
Julie
|
To: penny@aquacorals.com
Subject: Thanks!
Hi. I got the green star polyps on
Friday. I started seeing one or 2 polyps
opening up right before I went
to bed. Now 11 or more have opened up :)
They were shipped great and are really
showing off that metallic
green. I put them in a spot of medium
indirect flow and they love it! The
snails are doing well. too.
"...Thanks for the extras!
|
Vinson's 300 Gallon
- Soft & Stony Mix
System Details:
8 ft tank - 4/250watt 10K HQI
Halides & 4/39watt T5 actinic -
400 Lbs live rock,
over 150 corals - setup 1 year
from 180 gal transfer
 |
 |
|
|
|
To: penny@aquacorals.com
Subject: Shipment arrived!
Hello Penny,...from Tennessee. I had
talked to you today about not being able
to track a shipment. Don't know if you
remember or not, but you said if I
hadn't gotten it by the time I got home
from work, then I should forward the
email you had sent of it being shipped.
I just wanted to let you know that the
shipment had arrived by the time I got
home and everything made it fine. Thank
you for all your help and patience.
I'll be looking for you guys/gals in the
future. Thanks again!!
Richard, Tennessee
|
|
Subject: My Tank
Hi Penny,
Just letting you know how much you have
helped me with my tank. when I started
with saltwater the LFS told me
I
would need 2 inches of sand. I had
problems with nitrates always running
around 20 ppm. After talking with you
and putting in a deep sandbed my
nitrates are at 0 :). This past week my
tank leaked
I
put everything into totes and 5 gal
buckets. After trying to repair the leak
and having to buy a new tank 3 days
passed. I did not loose anything. My
Zoanthids, clove polyps, cabbage corals
opened right up, my xenia took 2 days to
start opening up :). Think you for all
the help. I enjoy talking with you and
looking at all the corals. I learned a
lot from you.
Carl Creamer |
|
|
Ryan & Tracy's 29 Gal -
First Reef |
|
|
Ryan & Tracy's 75 Gal - 2nd
Reef |
Ryan & Tracy's Aged 75 Gal -
2nd Reef |
|
Subject: testimonial
Hi Penny
I'll tell ya what. If
there's any hobby that can
suck you in, this would have
to be it. In under a year
I've upgraded my tank three
times, from a baron 29
gallon to a 75 gallon reef
that became over crowded up
to my new 150 gallon reef.
It wouldn't have been this
easy without your help and
knowledge. When I started
with my first corals I
certainly never imagined
that I would be growing my
own frags and using them to
buy more corals. This is
definitely a very expensive
hobby but the amount of
enjoyment that Tracy and I
get out of watching our
tanks far outweighs the cost
and maintenance. Thanks for
all your help and you can
expect about 20-30 more pink
anthelia and green star
polyp frags from me in the
near future.
Thanks for all your help.
Ryan Sweatt & Tracy Wheeler |
Ryan & Tracy's New 150 Gal
Reef!! |
|
|
Subject:
Proof sand bed works
Hi Penny:
As I was telling you in your store the
other day, I am now a firm believer in a
deep sand bed.
We set up our 90 Gallon tank in 2000 and
have spent the past 6 years battling
Nitrates. We had mechanical "over the
back" filtration and not even an inch of
crushed coral for our bottom. Even with
water changes, we have battled with
losses greatly over the past 6 years.
About a little over a month ago, we
bought the supplies for a six inch deep
sand bed from Penny, and that in
addition with the live rock we did
already have, along with taking the top
off......... we dropped our Nitrate
levels greatly over the past
month!!!!!!!! It truly is the way to
go!!!
Kristina and Mark
|
 |
Laurie & Levi's 75
gallon
New set up in August 2006!
Picture
taken 11/20/06 - only 3
months old! |
|
|
To:
penny@aquacorals.com
Hi Penny,
I must say you were right
about those little green pest anemones
being a potential problem, like I said
to you today in your store, they
definitely stung my neon green BTA to
death. I've decided to get rid of them
and try my luck with another green BTA.
Either way, so far in my tank I've got a
four different types of sinularia, one
very large toadstool, nothing like yours
but it will be in time, I've got four
bunches of green star polyps all about 3
inches across. some blue striped and
mint green striped mushrooms that are
spreading like crazy, also some neon
orange, solid neon green and some
orange/green zoanthids. I have a bunch
of dark green/brown zoanthids that I
believe are called button polyps that
are growing a lot too.
Some of my
pink anthelia has survived the recent
salinity spike and seems to be growing
back quite rapidly. I must say your
suggestion to use coral vital has
definitely improved the health of my
corals by a lot. As far as fish go, I
have a nice fat blue hippo tang along
with a nice yellow tang. A true Percula
from your store and a larger clown that
have formed a pair, hopefully to lay
eggs in the future. A mated pair of
scooter dragonets that flirt every night
as soon as the lights go off. also I
have one baby ocellaris clownfish, and 4
inch lawnmower blenny and a six inch
engineer goby. Its a fun setup and I
find myself glued to it every night not
to mention I have to go over and look at
it ever time I go downstairs. I've
definitely learned a lot about this
hobby and have become greatly addicted
to it in a short time much thanks to you
and my time spent oogling over
everything you stock in your store and
talking to you. In time I hope to have a
tank as beautiful as your 220.
Thanks again
for your help so far
Ryan Sweatt
|
|
Subject: ..I GOT ' EM
....last night, after Dan went to bed, I
got brave. I took out the base rock
(put in a temporary to hold up the rest
of the structure). I was going to leave
it in the sink overnight to see if the
crab would come out on it's own, and
hopefully kill "the hand"-- the other
creature. I decided to scrub it first-
(carpets of tiny bubble algae, then
decided try to extricate "the hand" with
a skewer, and of course it pulled into
it's hole. So I cooked him. I let the
hot tap water run right into the hole.
After a few minutes, I was able to get
the beast out with the skewer. Just to
be safe I ran the hot water for a few
minutes longer. I felt something
tickling my fingers underneath...guess
who? He is in the glass!!!! YEAH!
Have a great day,
Leisa
Note From Penny:
For some time I suspected Leisa had a
bad crab & possibly a hydroid in her
tank. She lost many new fish for
no apparent reason. Many times
there was no body left behind for
inspection. The fish would just
disappear. Sound familiar?
|
TOP |
