ryanpal
NJRC Member
hey everyone. i have this exact same post on RC but have yet to receive any replies. i didn't want to post on multiple forums, but i guess the more feedback the better. here is the original post, please excuse the length.
I went to post this on manhattan reef forums since it seems it would be most appropriate there. I'm not sure it will be accepted since I do not have any posts on that forum. I would like to hear feedback so hopefully I can get some here. This is a cut and past of the original post:
----Original Post----
Hello members. Being a member of various forums, I understand how users can make a screen name real quick and bad mouth other members/companies. I myself am a business owner, so I also understand the impact a negative post can have. I'm asking that you don't confuse this with an angry post by a disgruntled customer attacking one of the members on this board. I'm posting here because I believe many members on this forum make purchases from this vender and should be aware of the situation I have encountered. I will do my best to present the facts without being biased. I apologize ahead of time if this offends any members, and I do not wish to cause any turmoil. I'm looking for feedback to see if I'm the one at fault here. If I am correct, I hope this has enough impact for the vender to change their business practices for the good of the customers and fish that will no longer have to perish.
My story:
I received made my first order from nyaquatic in November of 2007. I purchased some snails and lionfish. Everything went ok, I still have the lionfish till this day. Dec 28 2007 I received my second order from nyaquatic which consisted of a long nose butterfly and a dwarf flame angel. The LNB showed up with nip marks on the tail. Four days later the dwarf angel died and the lnb showed signs of ich. A few days later the LNB died as well. Mike offered me credit, but I didn't exercise the credit since I did not want to pay shipping and I felt uneasy as to how the fish arrived.
Moving forward, I noticed nyaquatic had a sale on lyretails. I figured I would give it another shot to support the local venders. As a side note...I had a bad experience with coral vender in the past. I recently gave it another shot with them and was very pleased. I figured I would do the same with nyaquatic.
On januray 13 2010 I made another order with nyaquatic of the following fish:
1 Yellow Watchman Goby
1 Niger Trigger (3")
1 Red Angler Fish-4"
1 Copperband Butterfly
1 Cleaner Shrimp-XL
4 Lyretail Anthias-Female
1 Dispar Anthias
1 Dogface Pufferfish 3-4"
1 Naso Tang 3"
2 Firefish
Upon arrival all the fish looked ok except the naso tang which had "stress spots". I immediately emailed Mike and he said he should be fine after acclimating. I didn't want to put him in the same tank as the rest if he had ich. My QT tank setup is as follows:
55 gal tank with a maxijet, airstone, pvc, and sponge that was in the sump of my main tank
2 10 gal tanks with 404 mini jet, airstone, and pvc
The trigger went in one 10 gal
The angler went in the other 10 gal
All other fish went into the 55 gal tank.
The naso died in 3 days. ("store credit was issued")
The copperband did not eat and showed a bruise mark on this same day. He was rubbing up against the pvc scratching similar to ich.
On the 4th day the copperband perished and so did the angler. ("credit was issued for the copperband").
After a few emails back and forth, credit was issued for all three, but Mike wanted to know about my QT setup (understandable). I explained that I wished to receive a refund instead of store credit. I did not want to pay more money just to encounter the same scenario. After debating back and forth about my QT setup (no filtration on the 10gal tanks), we agreed I would make a post on reefcentral and if consensus was that it was my fault, I would not receive the refund (you can see the post here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1778726 ). This is where the problem lies and the reason for this post. (Please bare with me, I know it's a long post).
I wrote my post without trying to sway any members in any particular direction. The first post was by member "mjsfish", which suggested using a HOB filter (ok that's one member that support nyaquatic's position). Further down the page "Bob 1000" makes a post about that supports nyaquatic side. Being semi skeptical I decided to investigate a little bit.
"Bob 1000" location on reef central shows staten island. NYaquatic is in also in NY...so I figured I would search the manhattan reef forums. It seems Bob 1000 is a vender was well and has made posts on the same threads as Michael. (Obviously this isn't enough information to prove any "funny business"). Then another post by mjsfish which seems to stress the use of a filter (our argument for a refund and basis for a post). I decide to search posts made by mjsfish on reefcentral. 6 of the 15 posts were making references to NYaquatic (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/se...earchid=863530). This raised some red flags to me, but I wanted to investigate a little further. As I look at the screen name it seems coincidental that the letter match Michael Stern of nyaquatic. I decide to do a whitpages search on the address of nyaquatic to see if it gives his middle name (http://www.whitepages.com/search/Fin...Rochelle,+NY). Low and behold Michael J Stern is displayed.
It's obvious how unfair this would be for my behalf. I emailed Mike asking him if this was his screen name to which he denied. Enlight of what I've researched, I don't feel this is all too coincidental. From the time I've spent emailing Mike and writing this post, it has outweighed the money lost in fish, however, I feel (provided I'm correct) that these efforts will be for the benefit of others and this hobby. I have stated above that I am also a business owner. I feel that if Michael did in fact act unethically, then information like this should be known to correct these poor business practices. This is beyond the debate of my QT setup. If this is how Michael does business, it is plain wrong, and I don't think any other hobbyists should be subjected to this type of service and treatment.
If this post requires, I will be more than happy to post the exact email conversation between michael and myself to prove there are no false statements above. (I do not want to violate any forum rules so it may be restricted). Furthermore, if I am wrong in my assumptions, and the above seems completely outlandish I will apologize to NYAquatic and admit complete fault.
On that note, I would love to hear some insite from members.
Thank you,
Ryan
---end original post---
I went to post this on manhattan reef forums since it seems it would be most appropriate there. I'm not sure it will be accepted since I do not have any posts on that forum. I would like to hear feedback so hopefully I can get some here. This is a cut and past of the original post:
----Original Post----
Hello members. Being a member of various forums, I understand how users can make a screen name real quick and bad mouth other members/companies. I myself am a business owner, so I also understand the impact a negative post can have. I'm asking that you don't confuse this with an angry post by a disgruntled customer attacking one of the members on this board. I'm posting here because I believe many members on this forum make purchases from this vender and should be aware of the situation I have encountered. I will do my best to present the facts without being biased. I apologize ahead of time if this offends any members, and I do not wish to cause any turmoil. I'm looking for feedback to see if I'm the one at fault here. If I am correct, I hope this has enough impact for the vender to change their business practices for the good of the customers and fish that will no longer have to perish.
My story:
I received made my first order from nyaquatic in November of 2007. I purchased some snails and lionfish. Everything went ok, I still have the lionfish till this day. Dec 28 2007 I received my second order from nyaquatic which consisted of a long nose butterfly and a dwarf flame angel. The LNB showed up with nip marks on the tail. Four days later the dwarf angel died and the lnb showed signs of ich. A few days later the LNB died as well. Mike offered me credit, but I didn't exercise the credit since I did not want to pay shipping and I felt uneasy as to how the fish arrived.
Moving forward, I noticed nyaquatic had a sale on lyretails. I figured I would give it another shot to support the local venders. As a side note...I had a bad experience with coral vender in the past. I recently gave it another shot with them and was very pleased. I figured I would do the same with nyaquatic.
On januray 13 2010 I made another order with nyaquatic of the following fish:
1 Yellow Watchman Goby
1 Niger Trigger (3")
1 Red Angler Fish-4"
1 Copperband Butterfly
1 Cleaner Shrimp-XL
4 Lyretail Anthias-Female
1 Dispar Anthias
1 Dogface Pufferfish 3-4"
1 Naso Tang 3"
2 Firefish
Upon arrival all the fish looked ok except the naso tang which had "stress spots". I immediately emailed Mike and he said he should be fine after acclimating. I didn't want to put him in the same tank as the rest if he had ich. My QT tank setup is as follows:
55 gal tank with a maxijet, airstone, pvc, and sponge that was in the sump of my main tank
2 10 gal tanks with 404 mini jet, airstone, and pvc
The trigger went in one 10 gal
The angler went in the other 10 gal
All other fish went into the 55 gal tank.
The naso died in 3 days. ("store credit was issued")
The copperband did not eat and showed a bruise mark on this same day. He was rubbing up against the pvc scratching similar to ich.
On the 4th day the copperband perished and so did the angler. ("credit was issued for the copperband").
After a few emails back and forth, credit was issued for all three, but Mike wanted to know about my QT setup (understandable). I explained that I wished to receive a refund instead of store credit. I did not want to pay more money just to encounter the same scenario. After debating back and forth about my QT setup (no filtration on the 10gal tanks), we agreed I would make a post on reefcentral and if consensus was that it was my fault, I would not receive the refund (you can see the post here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1778726 ). This is where the problem lies and the reason for this post. (Please bare with me, I know it's a long post).
I wrote my post without trying to sway any members in any particular direction. The first post was by member "mjsfish", which suggested using a HOB filter (ok that's one member that support nyaquatic's position). Further down the page "Bob 1000" makes a post about that supports nyaquatic side. Being semi skeptical I decided to investigate a little bit.
"Bob 1000" location on reef central shows staten island. NYaquatic is in also in NY...so I figured I would search the manhattan reef forums. It seems Bob 1000 is a vender was well and has made posts on the same threads as Michael. (Obviously this isn't enough information to prove any "funny business"). Then another post by mjsfish which seems to stress the use of a filter (our argument for a refund and basis for a post). I decide to search posts made by mjsfish on reefcentral. 6 of the 15 posts were making references to NYaquatic (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/se...earchid=863530). This raised some red flags to me, but I wanted to investigate a little further. As I look at the screen name it seems coincidental that the letter match Michael Stern of nyaquatic. I decide to do a whitpages search on the address of nyaquatic to see if it gives his middle name (http://www.whitepages.com/search/Fin...Rochelle,+NY). Low and behold Michael J Stern is displayed.
It's obvious how unfair this would be for my behalf. I emailed Mike asking him if this was his screen name to which he denied. Enlight of what I've researched, I don't feel this is all too coincidental. From the time I've spent emailing Mike and writing this post, it has outweighed the money lost in fish, however, I feel (provided I'm correct) that these efforts will be for the benefit of others and this hobby. I have stated above that I am also a business owner. I feel that if Michael did in fact act unethically, then information like this should be known to correct these poor business practices. This is beyond the debate of my QT setup. If this is how Michael does business, it is plain wrong, and I don't think any other hobbyists should be subjected to this type of service and treatment.
If this post requires, I will be more than happy to post the exact email conversation between michael and myself to prove there are no false statements above. (I do not want to violate any forum rules so it may be restricted). Furthermore, if I am wrong in my assumptions, and the above seems completely outlandish I will apologize to NYAquatic and admit complete fault.
On that note, I would love to hear some insite from members.
Thank you,
Ryan
---end original post---
