aburdett85
New member
I realize many people have had nothing but great experiences with this store, but I wanted to share a negative experience in order to keep potential buyers informed.
I went to this store for the first time on Feb. 27th and picked up a blue tang and a bottle of Paraguard as per Mike's suggestion. I told him I was treating fish for what MIGHT be Ich, but I couldn't be 100% sure. He told me I would be better off with Paraguard until I knew for sure. I told him I had just dosed my QT with the first dose of Cupramine that morning. He told me Paraguard has copper in it, but since I had only done half the full dose of Cupramine, I would be ok to do a 50% WC and then add only half the dose of Paraguard and my copper levels wouldn't be too high. Well, I waited until the new blue tang was eating before placing it in my 55 gallon QT (3-4 days I think) with my juvie yellow tang and waited two more days for the blue tang to acclimate to the cupramine. On Mar. 5th, I checked my copper levels after the first dose of Cupramine and 50% WC. It was at (roughly) 0.2ppm, so I added the half dose of Paraguard as per Mike's instructions. One hour later, I went to check on the fish and they were both dead! I called Seachem to find out what could have happened, and they informed me that mixing Paraguard with Cupramine changes the copper in the Cupramine from Cu+2 to Cu+ which is 10x more lethal.
I sent a message to Aquapros via FB and got no response. The next day I called and the manager said Mike would never tell someone to do that, that they don't even do that in their store. He told me he would check with Mike though and get back to me. Two days later (today), I still hadn't received a call back, so I called and asked for Mike. He told me he would never tell someone to do that because it would kill the fish, then he told me they do that all the time (opposite what his manager told me), and that if I followed his instructions (which he JUST denied giving me), I should have been fine. I can't even keep track of how many times he and his manager contradicted themselves. I was pretty upset about them giving me such horrible advice, but I never had an attitude with them, I simply wanted to know what we could do to rectify the situation. Mike said they might be able to give me another blue tang at cost (not a good deal since I lost two tangs to his horrible advice), but then he asked the manager and he said no because the fish was healthy when it left the store.
All-in-all, I am very disappointed with this experience. When I first visited the store, I was pleasantly surprised and saw myself making bi-weekly visits, but now I am so upset with them, I just want others to be warned. They may seem like an honest, top-quality LFS, but underneath it all, they are just like the rest; you are nothing more than dollar signs, not worthy of their respect.
EDIT: Mike has reached out to me to rectify this situation and we have come to a mutual agreement. I chose to update this post rather than delete it because I feel people should know that Mike truly does care about his reputation and will do anything (in his power) to protect it.
I feel Mike and I have learned a valuable lesson and we are both better for it.
I went to this store for the first time on Feb. 27th and picked up a blue tang and a bottle of Paraguard as per Mike's suggestion. I told him I was treating fish for what MIGHT be Ich, but I couldn't be 100% sure. He told me I would be better off with Paraguard until I knew for sure. I told him I had just dosed my QT with the first dose of Cupramine that morning. He told me Paraguard has copper in it, but since I had only done half the full dose of Cupramine, I would be ok to do a 50% WC and then add only half the dose of Paraguard and my copper levels wouldn't be too high. Well, I waited until the new blue tang was eating before placing it in my 55 gallon QT (3-4 days I think) with my juvie yellow tang and waited two more days for the blue tang to acclimate to the cupramine. On Mar. 5th, I checked my copper levels after the first dose of Cupramine and 50% WC. It was at (roughly) 0.2ppm, so I added the half dose of Paraguard as per Mike's instructions. One hour later, I went to check on the fish and they were both dead! I called Seachem to find out what could have happened, and they informed me that mixing Paraguard with Cupramine changes the copper in the Cupramine from Cu+2 to Cu+ which is 10x more lethal.
I sent a message to Aquapros via FB and got no response. The next day I called and the manager said Mike would never tell someone to do that, that they don't even do that in their store. He told me he would check with Mike though and get back to me. Two days later (today), I still hadn't received a call back, so I called and asked for Mike. He told me he would never tell someone to do that because it would kill the fish, then he told me they do that all the time (opposite what his manager told me), and that if I followed his instructions (which he JUST denied giving me), I should have been fine. I can't even keep track of how many times he and his manager contradicted themselves. I was pretty upset about them giving me such horrible advice, but I never had an attitude with them, I simply wanted to know what we could do to rectify the situation. Mike said they might be able to give me another blue tang at cost (not a good deal since I lost two tangs to his horrible advice), but then he asked the manager and he said no because the fish was healthy when it left the store.
All-in-all, I am very disappointed with this experience. When I first visited the store, I was pleasantly surprised and saw myself making bi-weekly visits, but now I am so upset with them, I just want others to be warned. They may seem like an honest, top-quality LFS, but underneath it all, they are just like the rest; you are nothing more than dollar signs, not worthy of their respect.
EDIT: Mike has reached out to me to rectify this situation and we have come to a mutual agreement. I chose to update this post rather than delete it because I feel people should know that Mike truly does care about his reputation and will do anything (in his power) to protect it.
I feel Mike and I have learned a valuable lesson and we are both better for it.
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