• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

H2OPro Corals (online) (+)

Mark_C

Mark_C

Staff member
Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
Moderator
I've been experimenting with a few on-line shops for ordering higher end zoas without breaking the bank.
I've also been doing some research into a few more vendors for NJRC to get onboard with.
I found a few very bad ones (some requiring credit card or Amazon refunds) and was losing interest.
Last weekend I found H2O Pro while trolling one night and they seemed a bit too good to be true.

I had $100 sitting in my Paypal, so I took a chance and dropped an order of the following...

1 polyp Sub-Zero (arguably the nicest zoa I've personally seen)
IMG_3607_compact_cropped.JPG

3 polyps Ice Princess
FullSizeRender_49_compact_cropped.jpg

4 polyps Infernos
IMG_3612_1a9436d7-b593-4b13-b333-4b3a6aa8476f_compact_cropped.JPG

4 polyps Celtics
IMG_2079_compact_cropped.JPG

10-12 polyps Eye of Rah
IMG_3772_compact_cropped.JPG

3 polyps Gorilla Nipples
IMG_3615_compact_cropped.JPG

They arrived in 2 days, very well packaged. Each in a thick sealed bag with plenty of water. Box was filled with peanuts so no jostling. Heat pack was in a separate area of the box isolated from any contact with bags. Also, this was interesting - he (Carlos) puts a styrofoam peanut on the base of each frag before he puts it in the bag with the water. It seems to hold the frag securely in the bag and prevents the polyps from getting beaten around during shipping. Its a bit of a pain to get off, but it seems to do its job extremely well.

Any order over $100 ships free. In treating myself to the Sub-Zero (as opposed to getting a few other zoas), my total order came to just over $100 for 25-30 high end polyps delivered in 48 hours with no casualties.

All polyps opened within 24 hours, all are nice sizes. I seriously have stopped by my tank at least a dozen times today to look at them in different lighting.
I've been in communication a number of times with Carlos (I believe he runs the show). He's a pleasure to speak with and he responds extremely quickly to any concerns or questions.

He has created/passed on a code for NJRC members to use...
H2oprocoralsVIP

It will NOT apply on holiday specials (as the Easter special now) or flash sales, but can be used any other time. It will apply an additional discount to NJRC members and, of course, shipping over $100 is still free.

Highly recommend a look. I'll be shopping there again soon (maybe tonight if I have another whiskey or two).

H2oprocorals.com
 
Last edited:
Mark_C

Mark_C

Staff member
Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
Moderator
Bah, Just went on and found about $80 worth I was interested in . I'll check in next week to see if he has any new stock to bring it up to over $100 (for free ship) and drop an order then or soon after.

Seriously guys, If you're into blues, that Sub-Zero is amazing, its a single polyp at $30 but it can nicely round out an order.

Also, the Ice Princesses are a bit darker blue in the center/redder than portrayed in body/and greenish-gray on the stalks, may be a lighting issue. I'm running an AI Hydra 26HDs 9" over an IM 25g shallow reef, and running a few different levels, I couldn't replicate the website image. Everything else is spot on.
 
Mark_C

Mark_C

Staff member
Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
Moderator
trio91 said:
Personally I'm not into zoas but those pieces are very nice...should add some nice pop to your tank
Click to expand...
Arg! Barbarian.

toad2169 said:
bluelinecorals.com
Click to expand...
I'll drop a small order and check these guys out. Will also report back in a seperate thread as I'd like to keep this one, atm, for H2O.
I may drop a small order from Blueline as they have some Twizzlers, but I'm trying to scope a bit more of a specific sponser/partner at this point, at least for zoas.
When a zoa is listed as, for example, 184-33, and I'm looking for a Marley, it doesn't usually work.
I'll look nto their pricing, drop a line to the owner, and feel out the situation.

They seem to have a lot of Acans and Palys. Have you bought from them before? What did you think of the experience? Would love to know and we can open another thread specific to them.

I'm going to open a thread now suggesting vendors we should explore. Then we can keep everything compartmentalized and neat, which drive my wife crazy, as she's a domestic hurricane.

Lets keep this thread H2OPro.
 
Chris

Chris

Just got my order from H20 and I'm super excited! Everything was immaculately packed and not only arrived alive but look very healthy! Can't wait for them to open!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Mark_C

Mark_C

Staff member
Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
Moderator
All are open, large, and looking fantastic on my end. Will be cruising site and anytime I'm at $108 I'm on an order tonight.
This is a good one folks.

EDIT
Just jumped there after reading Chris's post hoping to buy a few more corals.
In the short time we've been scoping this has been our best find so far.
I Planned to drop a $108 oder to take advantage of the free shipping on a smaller order. I actually had about $108 set to go, but...
Free shipping now jumped to $125 in past week.

Still a good deal, if you're looking for $125 in coral. I wasn't really and as am being specific with my tank didn't want to purchase a 'filler'.

As said, Carlos is a great guy, great comms, and as Chris confirmed, great packaging and shipping.

Chris, What was your free shipping minimum?
Did you apply the NJRC discount, and if so what was it?

Perhaps the NJRC discount code was free shipping for NJRC members on orders over $100, which I won't know until Chris confirms.
If its percentage off for NJRC is say 10% (for example), and the minimum shipping has jumped from $100 to $125, its not much of deal, just a balance.

Keep checking Carlos's stuff out. I, and Chris (tomorrow I'm sure), can vouch for quality.
I'll drop a line to Chris and report whats up.

Carlos has got great stuff, and should charge properly for it. The free shipping is what caught a few of us. With general and a few high end polyps we were still looking at $6 per polyp on average. $100 is great, $125 is good, even $150 is good. But if the minimum order for free shipping goes up or there's the $40 shipping feee, its sorta what we're trying to get around by building this forum.
 
Last edited:
Chris

Chris

When I purchased the minimum for free shipping was $100. I didn't use the NJRC code because it wouldn't work during the Easter sale (prices were already really low) I'm battling a little Cyanobacteria but the polyps still look healthy and great. Tomorrow morning I plan on doing a thorough cleaning and checking all my levels. The zoa nano is still in its infancy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Mark_C

Mark_C

Staff member
Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
Moderator
Free shipping at H2O back down to $100 with frags as low as $9.
For all I've ordered I've had 3 polyps die out - 2 of them were very small and 1 (of 4) decided to give up.
All others are opened and looking fantastic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top