my IM nuvo 20 downsize-upgrade....take 2 (.5)! 05/18 Legendary Corals order (and semi-disappointment..)

[Lizz]

no, i don't think so....more brown and not as "fern like". i never could find a picture that looked like what it was. whatever it was, i hope to never see it again.

 

i'll also not be allowing any algae to take over this time.

[Lizz]

main tank has been re-filled and i'm currently waiting semi-patiently for the filter floss to get rid of all the dry rock and new sand dust. probably would be farther along if i had remembered to turn the MP10 back on before i fell asleep last night. whoops.

[Lizz]

started off cycling with some ammonia drops and dr. tim's last night.

 

here is my new aquascape using unused/cast off rocks left over from previous shipments and....turns out i like it more AND its more stable than before. go figure!

 

 

[Weetabix7]

Pretty!!

 

[Lizz]

quick and boring update. did a fishless cycle w/ a combo of dr. tim's and bio-spira. tested obsessively and levels are good after a longer-than-expected nitrite spike about a week ago. got snails today and did a big water change and added chemical filtration (just doing chemipure blue and phosgaurd this time. i actually had the phosguard in during cycle, but not the chemipure). once the water clears up, i'm going to test again and then transfer my clownfish back over from the 5 gallon holding tank she's been in for a couple of weeks now. 

 

 

[Lizz]

 

i'm so happy to be excited about my tank again!

 

last saturday we brought home a new wyoming white clown as a buddy for or standard orange and they paired right up and seem to be having a grand old time. they seem to bring out the best in each other. very active around the tank, not shy at all and no aggression towards each other once the new one immediately showed it had no problems letting the orange one be dominant.

 

they have been named clementine the friendly fish (the orange one. can you tell a 4-year-old helped with that name??), clem for short, and kiwi (for the WW).

 

also picked up a duncan that isn't as nearly a beautiful pastel pink as the one i had back in NYC, but its been extremely happy in the tank so far.

 

yesterday we went to the CMAS frag swap here in the area and picked up pink-tipped octo-frogspawn, a couple of really pretty zoa frags and a really nice wellso brain. its only been 24 hours, but everything is fully open and seemingly happy. 

 

only bummer is that yesterday when we came home from the swap and i went to float the bags, i noticed the tank seemed off temp-wise. sure enough it was down to 72 degrees. at some point in the morning or overnight, our 34 day old cobalt neotherm decided to $h*t the bed. cool. tossed in a backup eheim 75watt to bring things back up to temp before adding the new corals. fish, snails and the duncan seem unfazed by the temp shift. thankfully it seems like i caught it fairly early after failure seeing as it could have been worse given yesterday's weather was a lot cooler than it had been most of the past week. we will be giving another neotherm a shot but i really hope this was a one time "lemon".

 

anyway, since i know these posts are nothing without pictures, here are a couple of quick snaps of the new wellso. taken with my phone/unedited so sorry they're not so great. had to include the one with photobombing clowns!

 

 

 

i'll take some "real" camera photos next week once i situate the new corals into their permanent homes.

[Weetabix7]

SO exciting, and what pretty new arrivals!!!

I'm looking forward to seeing a pic of the Octospawn when you get a chance, they're one of my favorite corals. 

[Lizz]

man, i just don't know what to think.

 

i placed an order with legendary corals on monday because they've always had a good rep, AND i personally had a good experience with them back when i lived in NYC.

 

first of all, the delivery was delayed by 5 hours...which obviously isn't their fault and 100% do not blame them for, but still sucks. second of all, i chose the items in my order around a specific tiered freebie and requested it, but my box has something different. which...i get that it's 'subject to availability' and all, but the item i requested is still available for sale on the site so i presume its in stock....if it wasn't available for freebie, that's cool...i just wish they had let me know so i could have  offered to pay for it as part of my order or chose something different. instead i was sent something labeled as a "long lash eagle eye zoa" which every google result shows as being a zoa with a neon green skirt and a bright orange center (not anything i would personally choose, but oh well). what i got has a dirt brown skirt and a muddy reddish center that looks like its melting off its frag. yeah, it was free...but still...i don't want ugly garbage zoas they don't even deem fit for sale even if they are free! haha

 

the real issue is that one of the items i ordered was a blueberry merletti blasto (which i have bought from them in the past so i know exactly what they look like in person!) and what i got was LABELED as a blueberry merletti but is very, very obviously a purple-green blasto. which in addition to being a less expensive item, is also..well..not what i actually ordered. i notice now the blueberry merletti is no longer on their page to order, so i cannot help but wonder if they sent me the purple-green instead hoping i would not notice? i REALLY hope this is not the case. i had my order delay-shipped by a couple of days, so i feel like there was plenty of time to discuss issues/changes/substitutions before anything was sent.

 

i've already emailed LC and am waiting for a response....but until then i'm pretty bummed by the experience on all ends. i have faith they'll make this right though and i'll update when i hear back from them!

[braaap]

2 hours ago, Lizz said:

man, i just don't know what to think.

 

i placed an order with legendary corals on monday because they've always had a good rep, AND i personally had a good experience with them back when i lived in NYC.

 

first of all, the delivery was delayed by 5 hours...which obviously isn't their fault and 100% do not blame them for, but still sucks. second of all, i chose the items in my order around a specific tiered freebie and requested it, but my box has something different. which...i get that it's 'subject to availability' and all, but the item i requested is still available for sale on the site so i presume its in stock....if it wasn't available for freebie, that's cool...i just wish they had let me know so i could have  offered to pay for it as part of my order or chose something different. instead i was sent something labeled as a "long lash eagle eye zoa" which every google result shows as being a zoa with a neon green skirt and a bright orange center (not anything i would personally choose, but oh well). what i got has a dirt brown skirt and a muddy reddish center that looks like its melting off its frag. yeah, it was free...but still...i don't want ugly garbage zoas they don't even deem fit for sale even if they are free! haha

 

the real issue is that one of the items i ordered was a blueberry merletti blasto (which i have bought from them in the past so i know exactly what they look like in person!) and what i got was LABELED as a blueberry merletti but is very, very obviously a purple-green blasto. which in addition to being a less expensive item, is also..well..not what i actually ordered. i notice now the blueberry merletti is no longer on their page to order, so i cannot help but wonder if they sent me the purple-green instead hoping i would not notice? i REALLY hope this is not the case. i had my order delay-shipped by a couple of days, so i feel like there was plenty of time to discuss issues/changes/substitutions before anything was sent.

 

i've already emailed LC and am waiting for a response....but until then i'm pretty bummed by the experience on all ends. i have faith they'll make this right though and i'll update when i hear back from them!

 

Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately LC doesn't have a very good reputation here anymore. They ran a few big "flash sales" where a lot of people got burned pretty good on the items they bought. Coral that wasn't as pictured. Coral that was dead. Fresh cuts. MASSIVE amounts of nuisance algae. I've also seen their stuff in person at a few local shows and I was never impressed. Pretty average stuff at best with GREAT photo editing. Hopefully you can get it worked out.

[Lizz]

1 hour ago, braaap said:

 

Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately LC doesn't have a very good reputation here anymore. They ran a few big "flash sales" where a lot of people got burned pretty good on the items they bought. Coral that wasn't as pictured. Coral that was dead. Fresh cuts. MASSIVE amounts of nuisance algae. I've also seen their stuff in person at a few local shows and I was never impressed. Pretty average stuff at best with GREAT photo editing. Hopefully you can get it worked out.

 

that is such a shame to hear. i got a response and they confirmed that the wrong blasto was sent and that the one i ordered isn't actually available. i'll just have to take their word for it that the different/less expensive one being mis-labeled and sent instead was indeed a mistake... i've already received a paypal refund for that item.

 

as for the freebie, they claimed they overlooked the note requesting it (which is weird, because i followed instructions exactly on how to make the request) and that they had plenty in stock would send me the one i wanted 'next time' but....who knows when/IF that will be... 

 

i'm glad they responded and refunded the cost of the merletti, but i'm still bummed because i ordered from them specifically to get the blueberry merletti and the pink stylocoeniella (which i would have willingly paid for if it had not been offered as a free item) as i don't really see either of those things offered from other vendors often let alone from the SAME vendor. the other 4 things i ordered were mostly to make the shipping cost worth it. just can't help but be bummed i didn't get the two things i wanted the most. i don't like to order coral online often/prefer local vendors/reefers so it sucks to not have an ideal outcome. oh well, just another learning experience! 

[ninjamyst]

Their price are ridiculous when they first started.  It's a little lower now but still overpriced compared to what you can get locally.  

[Lula_Mae]

4 hours ago, braaap said:

 

Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately LC doesn't have a very good reputation here anymore. They ran a few big "flash sales" where a lot of people got burned pretty good on the items they bought. Coral that wasn't as pictured. Coral that was dead. Fresh cuts. MASSIVE amounts of nuisance algae. I've also seen their stuff in person at a few local shows and I was never impressed. Pretty average stuff at best with GREAT photo editing. Hopefully you can get it worked out.

I read this while ago and have been looking around ever since...can you point me in the direction of some of the feedback?  Closest I can find so far is about a year ago and was positive.  I've been looking at ordering from them so would like the full story.  Thanks.

 

3 hours ago, Lizz said:

 

that is such a shame to hear. i got a response and they confirmed that the wrong blasto was sent and that the one i ordered isn't actually available. i'll just have to take their word for it that the different/less expensive one being mis-labeled and sent instead was indeed a mistake... i've already received a paypal refund for that item.

 

as for the freebie, they claimed they overlooked the note requesting it (which is weird, because i followed instructions exactly on how to make the request) and that they had plenty in stock would send me the one i wanted 'next time' but....who knows when/IF that will be... 

 

i'm glad they responded and refunded the cost of the merletti, but i'm still bummed because i ordered from them specifically to get the blueberry merletti and the pink stylocoeniella (which i would have willingly paid for if it had not been offered as a free item) as i don't really see either of those things offered from other vendors often let alone from the SAME vendor. the other 4 things i ordered were mostly to make the shipping cost worth it. just can't help but be bummed i didn't get the two things i wanted the most. i don't like to order coral online often/prefer local vendors/reefers so it sucks to not have an ideal outcome. oh well, just another learning experience! 

What a disappointing experience!  Is the purple on what they sent you more actual purple, or a light reddish-purple color?  Glad they refunded you but still...eagle eye zoas?  Yuck! 

 

1 hour ago, ninjamyst said:

Their price are ridiculous when they first started.  It's a little lower now but still overpriced compared to what you can get locally.  

Sadly the prices I see from them and others aren't much different than what I'd pay locally for much uglier corals.  Local stores for me have always had fairly mediocre stuff for ridiculous prices (except for one place that I just left behind when I moved and will miss it...is where I got all my blastos from).