best prices for frags,zoas,polyps in town?
 

hi,
which place has the best prices on assorted marine plants and corals...etc?
big als is insane imo so im looking for somewhere more affordable.
thanks

every store has different selections! all have pluses and minuses! go shop around and make your own opinion!! that's the best bet!

+1.

thanks and nice to meet you, checked out aqua giant yesterday and i was pretty impressed with some of their fish and the prices were GREAT but they were severly lacking in the coral department.....whats your opinion on blue world aquatics?

BWA usually has lots of nice zoo frags and Xenias and stuff, Steve at RC has a great selection 99.9% of the time ;)

used to work @ bwa! some of the best staff (i'm biased...it was a lot of fun working there)! redcoral gets some awesome corals in! steves a good guy! AI is good, always had stock in pretty much everything... you can always go in on one of our frag a lot orders for corals as well! there will be another one mid to end of april... (slight plug for that) lol

I found BWA had a decent selection despite Ken saying that their stock was low at the time. When I was there they just so happened to be on sale - score :biggrin:!

thanks for the info, i was at red coral a few months ago and was pretty impressed with the variety. gotta go check it out and will check out BWA as well.

i may be really intrested in joining in on the order, keep me updated when the order is going to be placed. i will deffinitely be checking out BWA and RC next week...sorry what is AI?

where can i go to find out when their next sale will be? who doesn't love a big sale?

AI is Aquarium Illusions, across the street from the Mayfield Inn.

LOL I was wondering where it was

check out marine aquaria

oh i thought they closed down.....they had a location in the north side here that closed down a few months ago, i could be mixing up but i'll deffinitely check it out!!! thanks

thats why i joined a forum, total exchange of info. loving it here

thanks, will do. do you know the address, feels like most good fish stores are in south side

http://www.marineaquaria.ca/contact.php

All pretty solid stores in the City, BWA has best customer services IMO, but YMMV. LOL

honestly though, until i actually got into the hobby {which would be this year when i decided to take it seriously after about 10 years} the only stores i knew of were petsmart and pj's pets....just today i learned about BWA and AI and yesterday i learned about AG and all this stuff lol big als i learned about 6 months ago....my eyes are opening to what this city actually has to offer lol. oh and sorry what does YMMV mean {kinda having a slow day:wink:}......

Your Milage May Very.
I have been to all of those except for AG, and all I can really say is that it's a good thing I don't live in the city. I would be pennyless ..:biggrin:
Red Coral is another interesting place to check out.

i live in the city....and am going pennyless lol. spent about 400 already on sand and salt and lighting upgrades and better test kits...soon to come is skimmer and live rock and fish and etc......big money hole but im totally happy about it and don't regret spending a penny

I agree, no regrets from my last trip south. Wish my 90 was up and running. Would have been even worse.
:biggrin:

idk why but for some reason spending on a salt tank is totally regretless but spending on a freshwater tank has its regrets loool......maybve its the bigger return with the crazy appeal of a salt tank.....can't wait to get my 65 off the ground.....probably going to violently kill my bank account but the huge return is totally worth it:mrgreen::mrgreen:

I've spent the last few months visiting all the stores, and I've gotta say the staff and community at each location has been phenomenal. Everyone had great service. What I found interesting was that costs, in regards to both coral and fish, were pretty equal across the bord. Where MA or AI was higher on some fish, they were cheaper on some coral. Or where BWA has great prices on coral, some types of coral were higher than others. But over-all, whether its RC, BWA, AI--all stores have pretty average prices. At most you'd save a couple of dollars by picking up your Zoas here, your Frogspawn there, your Xenias there... but you'd lose it all in gas anyways.

I've found that when shopping for coral... the reason you shop around is not so much for price, but for selection. Finding that perfect Zoa that fits your tank, or the perfect mushroom to fill that spot in the corner--its all about preference and which LFS's has what you want/need in at the time you need/want it!

TOTALLY agree, you shouldn't shop for price because sure something is really cheap but it could turn out to look like crap so whats the gain...and your pretty right about stores being average on priceing. i was thinking that since i barely knew about half of the stores we have here that their could be this one little hidden store that was great on selection andprices were good. but this hobby is not about pricing so its all good. i i see something i like im takingit regardless of price:mrgreen:

I have my favorite store and buy 90% of my stuff there (BWA).....but I do make the full tour once a week just to see what's new and exciting.

FRAG A LOT!!! lmao!!! i shop everywhere... depends on the shipments!

i gotta check out these stores next week when i get the chance!!! and loool im deffinitely FRAGING A LOT!!!!! LOOOOOOL

Aquarium Illusions has been around for many years by the Mayfeild Inn. It's only ever had the one store. You're probably thinking of Aquagiant they had 3 stores but are down to one now. I personally avoid Aquagiant (pm me if you want details) but have shopped at all the other stores in town. Lots of pros and some cons for each of them. Best to go check for yourself and make up your own mind.

i must be mixing up with another store...WHOOPS lol and i heard the storiesaout aqua giant.....and really apprecate it that someone warned me before i made any big mistakes :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:. i agree with you that every store is special for itsown thing which is something i REALLY like

Interesting thread.

A few of my observations of all the stores. No particular order.

AI, has some nice stuff, over priced, and lots of bugs, every time I am in I see zoa eating nudi's and lots of their corals are marked as popular named things... but having some of these named corals from the original source I know they are not the proper corals. I have to say I only visit once every few months, and it has been a while so I can only hope things have changed.

Red Coral, what can I say, steve is great and has the nicest corals in the city, and consistantly the nicest corals in the city, a little birdie has mentioned a little competition is coming though.

Marine Aquaria, Josh is great too, and nicest fish in the city, they do get some nice corals in, but they move fast and don't come in often enough.

Blue World, Ken is great too, and a year ago he would get some great corals in too, but it has been a long time since much note worthy has come in. Lots of empty tank space, and seldom gets more then the normal plain fish in.

Aqua giant and big als, well I check them out when I drive by, but mostly just to kill time, your mileage my vary.


I know I have missed some great employees that work at these stores, but the list would get long fast.

Don't worry too much about price, just ask yourself if you are ok paying for what you are looking at. Not all fish and corals are equal.

i dont know it. they are a sponsor on this forum. they are south of 34 street west side of calgary trail beside i think its a outback steak house?

i call it my home store lol except mines not BWA

thanks for taking the time to write up the response for me, i really appreciate it. it seems like everyone here pretty much agrees with what your saying. i personally think big als has some pretty good fish but the prices are a little off compared to the rest of the stores here in edmonton....although i haven't checked out RC or BWA or MA or AI yet so i can't say anything about fish quality till then.
thanks