New featured LFS: Coral Gazers

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#21
I've been to Coral Gazers quite a few times and I'll agree to disagree with the above statements. All the times I was there, the tanks were up to par with my standards of a clean tank. Is there some algae around? An aptasia here and there? Sure, who doesn't have any? No LFS tank is going to look impeccable.

The center frag tank where most of the LPS frags are were grouped by prices (brownie points from me because I have the short term memory of a mouse when it comes to remembering numbers/prices and buying tons of frags e.g. Mystic Reef). You can't expect somebody to write down every single frag price they have.

The softies tank with the high end zoas in the back was also up to spec and looked clean. The LPS display tank next to the huge SPS tank has always looked good and clean everytime I went and my favorite, the SPS show tank was in good shape. There were a lot of designer clowns the last time I went and they all looked super healthy.

Customer service has always been good. I'm an asocial jerk, so I hate salesmen talking their game and people breathing down my neck to buy stuff. When I need help, I ask them and they help me. No one is chasing me around constantly trying to sell me $5 frags and magical reef salt....and that's the way I like it.

As far as the dry goods section being a little crowded, I think CG could take that as good constructive criticism. It gets a little difficult for a clutz like me to maneuver in tight spaces, but I lived through it.

And I don't know about you, but when I'm under a few 400w halides, I start to break a sweat and start stinkin' a little too. Haha Either that, or Jimmy Hoffa's corpse is burried under CG and is starting to stink up the place...
 
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#22
Man what's up with the CG haters? I can tell you one thing that might help clear up the confusion....

When people rave about Coral Gazers, it's not because they have the cleanest store, or the most organized dry good section...it's all about the CORALS. There are very few LFS that actually have nice high end corals in stock. Like any fish store it can be hit and miss with the fish selection. If you want to go to a fish store because it's clean, organized, and smells good this may not be the hobby for you. I go out of my way to go to coral gazers for awesome coral selection, great customer service, and Chad and John have a TON of knowledge. Im sure CGs have a ton of looky loos that look around for an hour and then buy one $5 test kit. I think it's part of the hobby, so u cant expect them to follow every customer around and tend to them. Im sure if you had a question they would gave gladly helped and answered you. I remember being a noob and I would spend hours at fish stores and walk out with a $10 pack of food. Might have just been a bad day for the store. Give them another chance, Chad is always trying his best to upgrade tanks or make the store look better.

PS. I am in no way affiliated with CG, im just a grateful customer that ows a lot of my success in this hobby to CG.


Sent from my iPhone
 
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#23
Most of my corals have come from coral gazers.

And what's funny is I bet his tanks are alot cleaner then your tank.


Chad knows his stuff. He ain't sweating nothing. He literally has southern california reefers by the balls :) and he knows it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Suckas
 
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#26
To Mike: Although I don't mean to offend, I must point out that your post mostly sympathizes with the state that Coral Gazers is in. The previous poster assessed the store based on how he honestly perceived it. After reading his post, I couldn't help but reminisce about the trip I took with my wife to check out this highly acclaimed store.

We did eventually purchase things, but it was awkward and unpleasant at best. Selection was great, but the frag tanks and fish holding tanks were dirty, and it was difficult to know a price without bothering the employee. Dry goods section was crowded.

There was no lack of "cherry" selections, but it was unappealing to see that the average joe frogspawn was priced quite high as well.

Awkward. Even though we were essentially trying to get them to take our money - the employee helping us would constantly walk away, give us one word responses to open ended general questions, and left us wondering if he was just a genius unwilling to share his knowledge about coral care with us.

This was my second time there.
Probably wasn't an average joe frog spawn. I've gotten three frog spawn frags for 10 bucks each. It just eats me up when people say negative things on the "featured lfs" thread and I've had countless looooong conversations with chad and even rukis when he was there. Tank wouldn't be where it is without them. I've been to every fish store. NONE of them smell good.... maybe its cuz of the 1000s of gallons of saltwater indoors. Could be wrong tho... yeah dry goods is a little cluttered but a lot of people order stuff from chad that flake and don't pick it up or he gets a ton of stuff from people that want store credit. You would be surprised how many people come in and just say "fix it, its broken" and just leave. like I said in my previous post, since Dec 2010 when I started, store is COMPLETELY different. Its difficult to improve a shop when u are the only one there. I will have coral gazers back till the end of time. They ALWAYS take care of me, and from people who actually make conversation with people who work there will say the same thing.
 

pgr11

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#27
Probably wasn't an average joe frog spawn. I've gotten three frog spawn frags for 10 bucks each. It just eats me up when people say negative things on the "featured lfs" thread and I've had countless looooong conversations with chad and even rukis when he was there. Tank wouldn't be where it is without them. I've been to every fish store. NONE of them smell good.... maybe its cuz of the 1000s of gallons of saltwater indoors. Could be wrong tho... yeah dry goods is a little cluttered but a lot of people order stuff from chad that flake and don't pick it up or he gets a ton of stuff from people that want store credit. You would be surprised how many people come in and just say "fix it, its broken" and just leave. like I said in my previous post, since Dec 2010 when I started, store is COMPLETELY different. Its difficult to improve a shop when u are the only one there. I will have coral gazers back till the end of time. They ALWAYS take care of me, and from people who actually make conversation with people who work there will say the same thing.
+10000000000000000)000)00)
 

toomuch420

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#29
Just a cpl observations at coral gazers from a not very observant person.

I can get fish & corals anywhere I go there 4 the incredible patients and intelligence of chad & John and as mentioned above Rukis when there.

The only fairly priced store with "Highend" corals & fish,whatever chad doesn't have he can get 4 me.

To my knowledge it's the ONLY fish store that Carries used dry goods and in this economy can come in handy(were not all oc ballers).
Also only lfs that drills glass & does other aquatic drygood repairs!

The prices the prices the prices!


Idk where I would b in this hobby without these ppl. I am in no way affiliated with coral gazers but i am a customer 4 life.THX CORAL GAZERS


*rAzOr*
 
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#33
There is obviously a few things that I need to clear up.

1. I made the first mistake of posting my thoughts in the Featured Fish Store thread... but too late to take that back as so many responses have been made.

2. I definately wasn't trying to "hate" on CG, just giving my opinions. I thought that part of this forum was to share our experiences and thoughts with each other. (not to share opinions just to be told your wrong and that you obviously don't know what you are talking about.)

3. Apparently I was a little harsh when I wrote my original post. I do realize I must be hard work running a store like that. But really is a little bit of organization too hard to ask from a LFS. I don't think so. Also, like stated by Confuse, most of this should be taken as constructive criticism anyways.

4. I understand that gallons upon gallons of saltwater is going to start to stink up a place. Especially in the summer; however, not ALL fish stores stink. I have been in a quite a few that do not. The stink I was talking about was clearly an employee with B/O. I deal with plenty of people who stink a little and stink a lot. I'm sure I am not the best smelling guy at work, but this was the kind of B/O that you just know has been multiple days without a shower. If I was Chad, which I am clearly not, I would be saying something to my employee about his person hygine, especially if it is keeping customers from staying in my store. (I am not an expert in labor laws/human resources so maybe he can't)

5.) Like I stated originally, they do have a great selection of corals, it just would have been nicer if I could have stayed to look at them longer. (There was even some stuff I wanted to buy)

Again, I wasn't trying to talk trash or cause drama or anything. Just giving my review of the store from the couple times I have been in there
 
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#36
I don't think you're "hating," but instead expressing your opinion and in turn, others are doing the same. Like I said, I think we have to agree to disagree. And really, who doesn't stink after going to their LFS? Hehe
 
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#37
It does seem strange that some of you who have had great experiences with this shop feel the need to guilt those who are posting what they in turn have experienced. For some perspective, please do note that many of us may be visiting this store for the first time, and are doing so in response to reading this page: http://www.socalireefs.com/index.php?pageid=cg

Should there have been aspects of one's experience that didn't quite line up with expectation, it should be on principle that one speaks up, if at the very least for the sake of helping the store do even better.

In my specific case, I had hoped for more interaction. Sales pitch? No. No store I've been to in the past two years has attempted to sales pitch anything of the sort. On the other hand, general reef talk shouldn't be impermissible, now, should it? I welcome any and all opportunity to make new face-to-face contacts in the reefing world, and I thought I'd be able to do the same here. Twice I've tried, twice I've felt estranged.

It doesn't surprise me, however, (and neither should it surprise you all), that I will still visit this store again in spite of my previous experiences. I want to see this store "at its best," and I am not convinced that my previous two experiences were exactly that.


Finally, to those wasting screen space with monkey pictures and trollish implication, please. Like one of you said, this is the featured LFS thread. I think we can do better.
 
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#38
It does seem strange that some of you who have had great experiences with this shop feel the need to guilt those who are posting what they in turn have experienced. For some perspective, please do note that many of us may be visiting this store for the first time, and are doing so in response to reading this page: http://www.socalireefs.com/index.php?pageid=cg

Should there have been aspects of one's experience that didn't quite line up with expectation, it should be on principle that one speaks up, if at the very least for the sake of helping the store do even better.

In my specific case, I had hoped for more interaction. Sales pitch? No. No store I've been to in the past two years has attempted to sales pitch anything of the sort. On the other hand, general reef talk shouldn't be impermissible, now, should it? I welcome any and all opportunity to make new face-to-face contacts in the reefing world, and I thought I'd be able to do the same here. Twice I've tried, twice I've felt estranged.

It doesn't surprise me, however, (and neither should it surprise you all), that I will still visit this store again in spite of my previous experiences. I want to see this store "at its best," and I am not convinced that my previous two experiences were exactly that.


Finally, to those wasting screen space with monkey pictures and trollish implication, please. Like one of you said, this is the featured LFS thread. I think we can do better.
No dude. It sucks that you had bad experiences but us in turn are sharing the positive experiences we had. Here's why... Someone comes on this forum for the first time and they check out the HUGE banner that says Featured local fish store. The first thing they read is "I don't know why people rant and rave over this store. People stink, tanks are dirty. " that's the impression they get from someone who has been in there once or twice. Negative impressions have a wayyyyy bigger impact than positive ones. Everyone knows that. So for those of us that have been there a hundred times and have felt very welcomed, informed and treated very well, we might feel the need to back our local fish store. And who are trolls? Everyone who is backing the store have been around forever and have more posts than you.
 
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