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zos · 10-03-2006, 11:50 PM

Over the last couple of weeks i've ventured out to Aquarium Adventure in Hoffman Estates and Deep Reef Aquatics in Downers Grove.

Aquarium Adventure: This place is amazingly good. I'd recommend everyone in the region to check this place out. Every tank looked clean and their selection was second to none. They had more plants and varieties of plants than any store I've seen. Their show tanks were awe inspiring. I purchased a Bristlenose Pleco for one of my tanks and was pleased that when I asked for one with as few bristles as possible that the woman netting the fish said "oh! you want a girl!" It's a small thing, I know, but compared to the ignorant employees of other stores I was pleased that she displayed some knowledge about the fish. The only downside of this store? They are fairly limited in their equipment (not counting tanks and stands).

Deep Reef Aquatics: This place looks fairly awful, inside and out. They have a lot of fish, no doubt about it, but their fish are in filthy tanks that are not kept up much at all. Every tank had been labeled with the fish that were supposedly in there, but only a fraction of what was labeled was what was actually in there. When asked if they had any freshwater shrimp (I saw a label for Amano's on one tank, but saw none) an employee said that they didn't have any in, not even Ghosts. After looking through tanks for anything interesting I also noticed that there were a fair amount of dying or sick fish as well. They have some extremely hard to find marine fish, which would be cool if that was what I was looking for. A lot of the marine fish looked injured or sick though. I saw some large, beautiful Congo Tetras, which was probably the high point of what I saw. But there was nothing beautiful about their plant selection, which was ridden with algae and was a meager selection. I don't know if they were in the process of changing things around or what, but their equipment selection was extremely small and there was a lot of open space on the racks and floor space that was unfilled. I don't plan to ever go back to this store.

I've been getting back into the hobby this year and I plan to check out some of the other stores mentioned here and some others I haven't seen mentioned. I'll be sure to give my impressions here.

10-03-2006, 11:50 PM	#38 (permalink)
zos Algae Grower (View User Tanks) PTrader: (1) Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Illinois Posts: 13	Over the last couple of weeks i've ventured out to Aquarium Adventure in Hoffman Estates and Deep Reef Aquatics in Downers Grove. Aquarium Adventure: This place is amazingly good. I'd recommend everyone in the region to check this place out. Every tank looked clean and their selection was second to none. They had more plants and varieties of plants than any store I've seen. Their show tanks were awe inspiring. I purchased a Bristlenose Pleco for one of my tanks and was pleased that when I asked for one with as few bristles as possible that the woman netting the fish said "oh! you want a girl!" It's a small thing, I know, but compared to the ignorant employees of other stores I was pleased that she displayed some knowledge about the fish. The only downside of this store? They are fairly limited in their equipment (not counting tanks and stands). Deep Reef Aquatics: This place looks fairly awful, inside and out. They have a lot of fish, no doubt about it, but their fish are in filthy tanks that are not kept up much at all. Every tank had been labeled with the fish that were supposedly in there, but only a fraction of what was labeled was what was actually in there. When asked if they had any freshwater shrimp (I saw a label for Amano's on one tank, but saw none) an employee said that they didn't have any in, not even Ghosts. After looking through tanks for anything interesting I also noticed that there were a fair amount of dying or sick fish as well. They have some extremely hard to find marine fish, which would be cool if that was what I was looking for. A lot of the marine fish looked injured or sick though. I saw some large, beautiful Congo Tetras, which was probably the high point of what I saw. But there was nothing beautiful about their plant selection, which was ridden with algae and was a meager selection. I don't know if they were in the process of changing things around or what, but their equipment selection was extremely small and there was a lot of open space on the racks and floor space that was unfilled. I don't plan to ever go back to this store. I've been getting back into the hobby this year and I plan to check out some of the other stores mentioned here and some others I haven't seen mentioned. I'll be sure to give my impressions here.