Aquarium stores in Calgary?

[Animal-Chin]

Ok went to Wai’s today and it’s incredible! His coral selection destroys any store in BC! Wish he did online and shipping...

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by Animal-Chin

Ok went to Wai’s today and it’s incredible! His coral selection destroys any store in BC! Wish he did online and shipping...

Danny has one of the best stores I've been to in North America.

[Animal-Chin]

I was litterally blown away. I could have bought 50 coral there that I've never seen in BC stores. Zoas I've never seen, every tank had a few chalices, sps everywhere. LPS that were just nuts, big brain coral and acans.

I tried to convince him to start going online for sales as he says business is pretty slow. With his selection and prices, he could be selling more online than at the shop but I think he's concerned about the extra work as he already puts in 16 hour days there.

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by Animal-Chin

I was litterally blown away. I could have bought 50 coral there that I've never seen in BC stores. Zoas I've never seen, every tank had a few chalices, sps everywhere. LPS that were just nuts, big brain coral and acans.

I tried to convince him to start going online for sales as he says business is pretty slow. With his selection and prices, he could be selling more online than at the shop but I think he's concerned about the extra work as he already puts in 16 hour days there.

Yah that's not even on a good day. The guy's store is pretty much always amazing.

[Tigweldpro]

+1 for Wai's He always has new stuff and most is very good quality. He can also special order almost anything you want. He does lack macro algae tho, he says he has trouble finding a source.

Animal-Chin Did you have time to go see the frag/flatworm breeding tank at Pisces?

[DKoKoMan]

I will have to check out wai’s next time I drive down to Calgary. Sounds like fun!

[DorySaid]

Danny Wai has a good selection of coral and fish yes. But i dont go there anymore. I know him more than probably most members here and i can assure you that you are better off spending your hard earned cash elsewhere. I have a couple of experiences to share if anyone is interested as to why i got out before i was in too deep.

[Moogled]

Are these experiences based on livestock or social interactions that you've had?

No doubt he's changed alot over the years but no one's perfect.

[DorySaid]

A little bit on livestock but mostly on the social aspect.
I dont see how he would have or could have changed.
Anyone who knows him knows that he is very stubborn and set in his ways. Someone like that doesn't easily change although I've only known him a couple years.
But in any event, regardless of how long, it's about who "he is" now and what is important to him and his business. Doesn't sit well with me

[DorySaid]

Alright I got a couple pm's about this so I will elaborate.
This may not take your breath away and may not even be concerning to you at all but I may as well share my experience / opinion.

I started going to Wai's a couple years ago very regularly. I'm the type of dude that doesn't necessarily spend thousands in one outing but more like a consistent patron. But I have spent a couple thousand bucks there easily. Just more over the course of those couple years.

I used to go in and spend a couple hours just browsing and chatting with Danny there. I would pick up things I needed or wanted sometimes bit by bit.
It's easy to assume that you are a valued customer in which you are confronted by someone who really wants you to get exactly what you are looking for and wants you to truly succeed. This is where I have a problem.
He tells you what you need in conjunction with what he has to get rid of.
I will give you an example. I remember buying something from him, can't recall exactly what it was - it may come back to me. So I bought it as he recommended it. Shortly thereafter, probably a month or two, he was trying to get me to buy something else, because what I had bought before was garbage, or at least not as good as this new or different product.
He has been guilty of doing this to a lot of people. I knew a guy who spent probably ten times what I had there and when I went to his house he expressed the same experience but followed it up with a "Aww well that's Danny, or He has to run his business". "He works so hard so I don't mind supporting him". Something along those lines.
I still didn't agree with that.
I spent so much time in his store many days of the week that he mentioned he wanted to do a couple of things inside the store to maybe make way for new things etc. I told him I would help and maybe work for a couple corals or equipment. It was very sporadic but I did get around to painting some shelving and organizing the shop a bit. Or helping him with coral deliveries or shipments. I remember questioning him about that very specific topic of why he would tell someone something is really good one day, and tell them it's crap the next. He responded by saying that it's part of the business. If someone wanted a specific product such as salt, he would sell them the stuff he wanted to get rid of good or bad first, and then follow up by pushing another the next time they were in claiming that it was my (the customer's) decision and alleging he was trying to talk us out of it.
Now you may be saying well what's wrong with that?...It's simply just business. I disagree. I don't give a rat's ass about his business or anyone's for that matter. I believe that if you do not mislead people to always benefit your self that you will find more people will give their money to you over time. In other words, I would much rather sell someone something that they would really be happy with ( cheaper if need be ) if I knew there was a good chance they would patron my store again because they trusted me. This is just one example of why I stopped going there altogether.
Another issue I had was I bought a gyre pump from him as he had said it was a decent one. It was a Glamorca Gyre and I kinda regret getting it anyways. SO I bought the pump and a month or two went by when I noticed it was making less annoying noise than it normally makes. Upon inspection I noticed it had stopped pump on one side of the unit. I called Danny and he said he would take care of it because it was still obviously under warranty. I told him I hoped so because I didn't want my corals to suffer for any length of time. He said maybe it was just some piece that could be changed out and to bring it to him. When I brought it there after him mucking around with it for a while he said, "OK I will contact the supplier about it and when they approve it then we could switch it out if they say it's ok". This is as I see at least 3 brand new Glamorca units sitting over there on one of his shelves. I said well why can't you just switch the pump for me now. ( This is after spending a lot of dough over the past couple years don't forget ).
He said " Heck no. What if they don't approve of it and I'm stuck with it then I lose on a new unit ". I said What the, it's under warranty of course they replace it will unless you screwed them over before and they don't trust you. He says he doesn't know if they will replace the whole unit and that probably they would just replace a part. I simply laughed and said "They don't replace parts on a unit like that, they'll replace the whole thing." They're not a repair depot anyways they're a supplier.
So after bugging him for a couple days he finally says to me that they "approved" it and he would replace it. So I was relieved and stopped by his store. I was expecting like any other normal place, would just ask for the old one and give me a brand new unit. Instead, he took mine apart asking which part wasn't working as he was going to only switch out the head. He asked me if the controller had any problems and I said no. He gave me only the head and took the rest. So what's the problem, he replaced your bad part didn't he? Well, yes but the problem I have here is I know Danny and he has oodles of parts new and used in the back of his store which he uses for customers like me or his own use in the store. That is where that controller was going and any other parts. You don't do that to someone who bought a new unit. You give them the new complete unit as I know for a fact the supplier would reimburse him a full unit, not break it down into parts for some offshore chinese under 200 dollar item.

As far as him being responsible for his livestock, he's ok although everyday when I was tagging his tanks I would always see a few dead fish in the tanks in which I would tell him that it doesn't look good when people come in and see dead, decaying fish floating around or being eaten by the other tankmates. He just said ahh just leave them as it's food for the other fish.
While this may not be a major issue it would bother me as a shop owner especially since his coral tanks are decent looking. So I fished out the dead ones whenever I was in there. He said he took pride in making the glass clean and presenting his tanks for customers. I thought that worrying about dead floating fish should be included in that theory as well. Again, no big deal, as fish do die in store tanks but hell, even in Petsmart I don't see dead fish. At his store I could see dead ones everyday. It's just an aesthetic thing I guess. I mean I just would feel kind of awkward bringing my child in and saying " Hey sweetie, look at Dory, she's belly up and those shrimp and wrasses are tearing apart her guts and eating them!" :/

So this was a little (big) insight on why I won't ever go there and give him my money. There were other things along the way but generally these couple of things made me think twice. I don't care who you are or what you want out of this hobby. I won't give people my money if they give subpar service or mislead you in any way. He used to talk to me about one guy in particular that spent about 50k at his store over a period. So he must be good at convincing people the image he wants to portray otherwise, he would have been there for 30 years would he....

Moral of the story is do what you want and shop where you want but I'll go where I get what I want or need without the dishonesty and craftiness.