Mods, if in any way i violated the rules please let me know as i read them and as far as i can tell i conform to them, if i dont i would like to fix it!
Preface: The fishbowl has finally earned a public review as they have just gone over the top, i try not to judge a place on a few bad experiences and only when there are consistant issues!
The Fish Bowl in general
NOT WELL KEPT. While i am used to seeing dead fish in EVERY fish store i have ever been in, this place takes the cake. more than 50% of the tanks have dead fish not one but multiple (not a HUGE deal i know)
Dead anemones every time i go there fish eating dead fish to the bone etc.
The girls that help you here are not top notch like you can find elsewhere but they are very polite and pretty knowledgeable so no complaint really there.
THE OWNER
Micky is not helpfull and very rude.
my first experience here was when i fist wanted to start off in the reef tank hobby and this was the wrong place to start. My original inquiry was to look for a tank. Mickey helped me out and priced everything out for me (took about 15 minutes) for a friend of mine and myself, twin setups. Obviously we werent going with the first person we spoke with as no one would do and we looked around at a bunch of different tank styles and due to budget and the fact that this was my first reef tank i decided to go with a Marineland 27 Gallon cube. I found this tank on sale at petsmart and purchased it for over $100 less than i could buy it from The Fish Bowl.
No harm no foul i had no grudge at this point so i continued to return to this store as it was convenient and really all i knew about at the time.
I Bought all my Rock, Sand, Salt, and other supplies there including an HOB filter as recommended by the owner because sumps on tanks under 65gallons are "Unnecessary" and i would have "a perfect tank" with the HOB.
mind you i was turning to this store for guidance!
Next i needed a light which the recommendation from the owner was an Aqua UFO. And actually i liked the light for a beginner LED setup. When i returned to purchase the light the girls who worked there told me the light was $300 which was much more than i thought i remembered so i went home to research it. Found the light on sale through the manufacturer for $175 with free shipping so of course i jumped on it!
I retuned back to the Fish Bowl again for some other things and of course to browse and spoke with the owner and apologized and told him i had to save the money it was too much to pass on. He was Furious, told me i didnt save anything after shipping.
I explained that the girl told m it was $300+ and the sale was going to end and he walked off rudely mumbling something under his breath.
The final straw for my doing business there was when someone who had no knowledge of my experiences here confronted me about having him price me out a complete setup and not buying it from him. he then advised me that the owner was talking about it complaining that we wasted his time and what cheap people we were blah blah blah.
Regardless of the fact that i spend over $400 on Rock, salt and other supplies!
After this i have not returned to the store and i wont again but a friend of mine (whom is here) has been in there because i had not advised him of my experience there and only consulted me after having a terrible timegetting his tank set up.
Mind you he has a tight budget and was trying to get some used equipment (which has its risks)
Never mind the fact that he told him a 55G would be a great setup it gets better
He started by going there to look for a light for the 55G tank and the owner told him he had a T5 that would work great and grow him corals when he was ready.
so he sold him a 36" T5 with a broken bulb cover for $100 and when asked about the missing 4" of glass at the end the owner said it would be fine. how that works idk. Because of salt creep he stuck his hand in the tank to move rock and gets zapped by it.
It gets better
After consulting me and getting him into rebuilding the system and abandoning the 55g because of sump space and the super thick glass he went back to the fishbowl to look for a used tank since he just spent a ton on getting the hacked tank up and running which failed miserably due to the advice that he could add as many fish as he wanted after running the tank for two weeks. (Never Ever got a cycle done)
so he told the owner his plans to drill a tank and get a sump set up under the tank the whole nine yards and would this tank work, (actually a very pretty column tank)
Mickey (the owner) said that would be fine for that.
Today he tries to Drill the tank.....BOOM! its a 5 side tempered tank.
He called the fish bowl and of course He tells him he should have checked with the manufacturer before drilling it.
While i agree that may have been a great thing to do the OWNER of a salt water fish store TOLD HIM he would be all set to do it. he didnt say "let me check if its temepered" or a "call the manufacturer before you drill it" he took his $149 and ran!
Please let this be a warning
Preface: The fishbowl has finally earned a public review as they have just gone over the top, i try not to judge a place on a few bad experiences and only when there are consistant issues!
The Fish Bowl in general
NOT WELL KEPT. While i am used to seeing dead fish in EVERY fish store i have ever been in, this place takes the cake. more than 50% of the tanks have dead fish not one but multiple (not a HUGE deal i know)
Dead anemones every time i go there fish eating dead fish to the bone etc.
The girls that help you here are not top notch like you can find elsewhere but they are very polite and pretty knowledgeable so no complaint really there.
THE OWNER
Micky is not helpfull and very rude.
my first experience here was when i fist wanted to start off in the reef tank hobby and this was the wrong place to start. My original inquiry was to look for a tank. Mickey helped me out and priced everything out for me (took about 15 minutes) for a friend of mine and myself, twin setups. Obviously we werent going with the first person we spoke with as no one would do and we looked around at a bunch of different tank styles and due to budget and the fact that this was my first reef tank i decided to go with a Marineland 27 Gallon cube. I found this tank on sale at petsmart and purchased it for over $100 less than i could buy it from The Fish Bowl.
No harm no foul i had no grudge at this point so i continued to return to this store as it was convenient and really all i knew about at the time.
I Bought all my Rock, Sand, Salt, and other supplies there including an HOB filter as recommended by the owner because sumps on tanks under 65gallons are "Unnecessary" and i would have "a perfect tank" with the HOB.
mind you i was turning to this store for guidance!
Next i needed a light which the recommendation from the owner was an Aqua UFO. And actually i liked the light for a beginner LED setup. When i returned to purchase the light the girls who worked there told me the light was $300 which was much more than i thought i remembered so i went home to research it. Found the light on sale through the manufacturer for $175 with free shipping so of course i jumped on it!
I retuned back to the Fish Bowl again for some other things and of course to browse and spoke with the owner and apologized and told him i had to save the money it was too much to pass on. He was Furious, told me i didnt save anything after shipping.
I explained that the girl told m it was $300+ and the sale was going to end and he walked off rudely mumbling something under his breath.
The final straw for my doing business there was when someone who had no knowledge of my experiences here confronted me about having him price me out a complete setup and not buying it from him. he then advised me that the owner was talking about it complaining that we wasted his time and what cheap people we were blah blah blah.
Regardless of the fact that i spend over $400 on Rock, salt and other supplies!
After this i have not returned to the store and i wont again but a friend of mine (whom is here) has been in there because i had not advised him of my experience there and only consulted me after having a terrible timegetting his tank set up.
Mind you he has a tight budget and was trying to get some used equipment (which has its risks)
Never mind the fact that he told him a 55G would be a great setup it gets better
He started by going there to look for a light for the 55G tank and the owner told him he had a T5 that would work great and grow him corals when he was ready.
so he sold him a 36" T5 with a broken bulb cover for $100 and when asked about the missing 4" of glass at the end the owner said it would be fine. how that works idk. Because of salt creep he stuck his hand in the tank to move rock and gets zapped by it.
It gets better
After consulting me and getting him into rebuilding the system and abandoning the 55g because of sump space and the super thick glass he went back to the fishbowl to look for a used tank since he just spent a ton on getting the hacked tank up and running which failed miserably due to the advice that he could add as many fish as he wanted after running the tank for two weeks. (Never Ever got a cycle done)
so he told the owner his plans to drill a tank and get a sump set up under the tank the whole nine yards and would this tank work, (actually a very pretty column tank)
Mickey (the owner) said that would be fine for that.
Today he tries to Drill the tank.....BOOM! its a 5 side tempered tank.
He called the fish bowl and of course He tells him he should have checked with the manufacturer before drilling it.
While i agree that may have been a great thing to do the OWNER of a salt water fish store TOLD HIM he would be all set to do it. he didnt say "let me check if its temepered" or a "call the manufacturer before you drill it" he took his $149 and ran!
Please let this be a warning
